Hubble Flash
Just a quick post to point out that brand new “Early Release” images have just appeared following the recent refurbishment of the Hubble Space Telescope.
You can read the accompanying press release here, so I’ll just post this brief description:
These four images are among the first observations made by the new Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the upgraded NASA Hubble Space Telescope.
The image at top left shows NGC 6302, a butterfly-shaped nebula surrounding a dying star. At top right is a picture of a clash among members of a galactic grouping called Stephan’s Quintet. The image at bottom left gives viewers a panoramic portrait of a colorful assortment of 100,000 stars residing in the crowded core of Omega Centauri, a giant globular cluster. At bottom right, an eerie pillar of star birth in the Carina Nebula rises from a sea of greenish-colored clouds.
My own favourite has to be Stephan’s Quintet, but they all look pretty fantastic.
In the Dark 
September 10, 2009 at 4:00 pm
My goodness! It used to be just a plain blue sky from my end. Now I can see beyond! Amazing! Whoever painted these wonderful things you see up there must have known perfection! Awesome! It is sooooooooo beautiful!
Thank you for making me feel good by seeing all these.
September 14, 2009 at 5:08 pm
[…] As a very quick postscript to my previous post about the amazing performance of Hubble’s spanking new camera, let me just draw attention to a […]
September 14, 2009 at 10:03 pm
The refurbishment of the Hubble Space Telescope indeed appears to have been a great success. This is a triumph for NASA and for science.
Of course, the HST has been a magnificent success over most of the 19 years since its launch. This is down to a number of factors. One of most important has been the refurbishment missions, which have seen the telescope repaired and upgraded, and instruments replaced. The telescope has therefore operated in a manner rather similar to conventional ground-based observatories, rather than the having the short lives of most space observatories. The scientific results have been magnificient and in research fields ranging from planets within our Solar System to observational cosmology.
I have been rather sceptical of the benefits of manned space activities. The International Space Station – the main objective of human spaceflight for the past decade – has been extremely expensive to build and maintain, while the science carried out onboard does not strike me as of being of critical importance. In contrast, the HST refurbishment missions by the space shuttle have had profoundly important research results: they have been by far the most significant accomplishments of manned spaceflight over the past twenty years. They were magnificent triumphs in science, engineering and technology. Science was the primary motivation behind the refurbishment missions, not adventure or political considerations, and the consequences were, and will be, profound.
June 16, 2012 at 6:21 am
Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion, and He is over all things competent.
(He) who created death and life to test you (as to) which of you is best in deed – and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving –
And who created seven heavens in layers (one covering or fitting over the other). You do not see in the creation of the Merciful any inconsistency. So return (your) vision (to the sky) do you see any breaks?
Then return your vision twice again (repeayedly). Your vision will return to you humbled while it is fatigued.
And We have certainly beautified the nearest heavens with lamps (i.e., stars) and have made from them what is thrown at the devils (driving them from the heavens and preventing them eavesdrooping). and have prevented them the punishment from the Blaze.
Quran 67:15