Never to be Seen Again

The last time I wrote, we were talking about the amazing things that the Hubble telescope had seen in its time in space. Often referred to as the people's telescope, the Space Shuttle not only successfully grabbed the telescope in space - with all kinds of really dangerous space junk floating around - but repaired it. When they were done, they simply released it. It will never be seen by humans again.

Here are the pictures of that mission.

A Fresh Look at Deep Space

This past week, the last space shuttle mission visited one of the most exciting accomplishments in modern science, the Hubble Telescope. Unlike the ground based telescope you use, this look into space does not have all of the interference of light (remember how I explained that light from the city takes some of what you are looking at and makes it harder to see) and the stuff floating around the upper atmosphere (the layers of air and gases that protect our planet from harmful rays from the sun). The views without these problems are simply awesome.

The mission these astronauts were given was basically a repair and replace job. There were several systems that had broken down over the years and need to be fixed. But even more importantly was the job of replacing the 16 year old camera.

Among the new camera’s features is the ability to record images in the normally invisible ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelength bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as in visible light. The infrared capability extends Hubble’s reach into the past because the expansion of the universe stretches the wavelengths of light from distant galaxies to longer, redder wavelengths.

Light comes in waves, some you can see and others you cannot. This new camera can see what your eyes would not. Ultraviolet (UV) light has shorter wavelengths than visible light. Though these waves are invisible to the human eye, some insects, like bumblebees, can see them! So can Hubble. This is a look at how this telescope sees things in space differently than the human eye.

Scientists have divided the ultraviolet part of the spectrum into three regions: the near ultraviolet, the far ultraviolet, and the extreme ultraviolet. The three regions are distinguished by how energetic the ultraviolet radiation is, and by the "wavelength" of the ultraviolet light, which is related to energy.

The near ultraviolet, abbreviated NUV, is the light closest to optical or visible light. The extreme ultraviolet, abbreviated EUV, is the ultraviolet light closest to X-rays, and is the most energetic of the three types. The far ultraviolet, abbreviated FUV, lies between the near and extreme ultraviolet regions. It is the least explored of the three regions. FUV is what Hubble, with its new camera will be able to see.

Our Sun emits light at all the different wavelengths in electromagnetic spectrum, but it is ultraviolet waves that are responsible for causing our sunburns.

The telescope was named after Edwin Hubble, who took many photographs through 100 inch reflecting Hooker telescope, proving they was lots of stuff beyond our own galaxy, and determining the existence of several other galaxies such as our own milky way, which had until then been believed to be the universe.

Hubble had also devised a classification system for the various galaxies he observed, sorting them by content, distance, shape, and brightness; it was then he noticed redshifts in the emission of light from the galaxies. What he saw was that these galaxies were moving away from each other at a steady rate equal to the distance between them. From these observation, he was able to formulate Hubble's Law in 1929, helping astronomers determine the age of the universe, and proving that the universe was expanding.

Hubble once said: "Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science."


Below are pictures taken by this telescope.