Tag

Hubble

All articles tagged with #hubble

science6 days ago•2 min saved

Tiny Galaxy Sends Ionizing Light, Illuminating the Early Universe's Fog

Astronomers using Hubble, with confirmation from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope, detected ultraviolet light escaping from MXDFz4.4, a tiny but intensely star-forming galaxy about 250 million years after the end of the Epoch of Reionization. The escaping light suggests the galaxy carved channels in its gas, allowing ionizing photons to travel into intergalactic space and helping clear the hydrogen fog that blanketed the early universe. This is one of the clearest glimpses yet of a galaxy from that era contributing to reionization, and it hints that more such galaxies may lie hidden in the deepest space images.

via The Times of India|

#epoch-of-reionization #hubble #ionizing-radiation

space6 days ago•14 min saved

Hubble’s Dark Patch Reveals a Crowded Cosmos: 3,000 Galaxies in a Tiny Sky

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope fixed its gaze on a seemingly empty patch of sky for ten days, assembling hundreds of exposures into the Hubble Deep Field and turning a void into a crowded image of roughly 3,000 distant galaxies—each billions of years old—demonstrating that the universe is full of structure even in directions that appear empty and paving the way for deeper surveys with Hubble and Webb.

via Space Daily|

#astronomy #deep-field #galaxies

space19 days ago•4 min saved

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope lands at Cape for final launch prep

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrived at Kennedy Space Center aboard the Pegasus barge for a ~70‑day prelaunch campaign at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility ahead of an Aug. 30 launch from Launch Complex 39A on a Falcon Heavy. The 43‑foot observatory, designed to operate at L2 about 1.5 million km from Earth with a 300‑megapixel Wide Field Instrument and a chronograph for exoplanets, will survey the universe far faster and wider than Hubble and is expected to last 5–10+ years with propellant after a cooling hiccup en route.

via Spaceflight Now|

#hubble #lagrange-point-2 #nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope

space1 month ago•3 min saved

NASA eyes cheaper Hubble reboost after Swift servicing success

NASA says it could reboost the Hubble Space Telescope if operating costs can be reduced, using lessons from the ongoing Link servicing mission to the Swift Observatory. A successful, lower-cost reboost could extend Hubble’s life beyond the current decay window and signal ROI for future on-orbit servicing, though Hubble’s operating costs are currently high and the project remains high risk.

via SpaceNews|

#hubble #nasa #on-orbit-servicing

science1 month ago•11 min saved

Harvard’s human computer unlocked the universe’s scale

Henrietta Leavitt, a Harvard College Observatory 'human computer' paid a pittance, discovered the period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variables, enabling the cosmic distance ladder used to measure faraway galaxies. By linking a Cepheid’s pulsation period to its true brightness, Leavitt laid the groundwork for determining distances, anchoring the scale of the universe and underpinning Hubble’s finding that Andromeda is a separate galaxy. Modern analyses continue to refine and reassess her method, keeping Leavitt’s contribution central to cosmology.

via Space Daily|

#andromeda-galaxy #cepheid-variables #distance-ladder

space1 month ago•11 min saved

Hubble's Blank-Sky Gamble Unveils a Cosmic Forest of Galaxies

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope stared for ten days at a deliberately empty patch of sky in Ursa Major, assembling 342 exposures and over 100 hours of data to produce the Deep Field image. Despite initial resistance and Hubble’s repair history, the image revealed roughly 3,000 faint, distant galaxies, supporting a picture of galaxy formation through mergers and growth. The data were released openly, catalyzing a standard approach and leading to even deeper fields with Hubble and, later, the James Webb Space Telescope.

via Space Daily|

#astronomy #deep-field #galaxies

science3 months ago•5 min saved

Hubble Spotlights Star Birth and a Giant Black Hole in IC 486

A new Hubble image of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486, about 380 million light-years away, shows vivid regions of new star formation around the central bar and the bright active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole, highlighting how barred structures influence galactic growth; citizen scientists via Galaxy Zoo contributed to the study under ESA/Hubble.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#astronomy #barred-spiral #hubble

space3 months ago•4 min saved

Webb and Hubble Map Saturn’s Atmosphere Layer by Layer

NASA/ESA/Hubble and the Webb Space Telescope release infrared and visible images of Saturn, revealing layered clouds, storms, and the bright icy rings. By comparing wavelengths, scientists can probe Saturn’s atmosphere at multiple depths and track seasonal changes as the planet moves toward the 2025 equinox.

via European Space Agency|

#astronomy #hubble #saturn

science3 months ago•18 min saved

Hubble at 36: How a blurry launch reshaped our view of the cosmos

The Hubble Space Telescope marks 36 years in orbit, overcoming an early blurry image issue with five servicing missions, and accumulating nearly 1.7 million observations that spurred more than 22,000 papers and 1.3 million citations. Its Deep Field images helped redefine cosmic age, expansion, dark energy, exoplanet atmospheres, and the presence of supermassive black holes, while inspiring a generation and guiding future observatories like the Habitable Worlds Observatory. Hubble’s enduring, serviceable design and public imagery have made it a lasting scientific and cultural icon, with a legacy that continues as it works alongside the James Webb Space Telescope and beyond.

via Earth.com|

#astronomy #deep-field #hubble

science4 months ago•4 min saved

Private Backers Fund 3-Meter Lazuli Telescope Aiming to Surpass Hubble

Eric Schmidt and family back the Lazuli Space Telescope, a privately funded 3-meter optical/infrared observatory with a $500 million price tag that could launch in 3–5 years; operating from a lunar-resonant orbit to enable rapid target responses, it includes a coronagraph for exoplanet discovery and will release science-ready data quickly to the global community, potentially outpacing traditional government missions.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#exoplanets #hubble #private-funding

science4 months ago•2 min saved

Hubble and Euclid Team Up to Unveil the Cat’s Eye Nebula

Using a combined Hubble and Euclid view, the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is shown in new detail: Hubble reveals the intricate core with concentric shells and jets from episodic mass loss of the dying star, while Euclid’s wide-field imaging places it among distant galaxies about 4,300 light-years away in Draco.

via European Space Agency|

#astronomy #cats-eye-nebula #euclid

astronomy5 months ago•8 min saved

Hubble Spots Giant, Turbulent Planet-Forming Disk 40 Times Wider Than Our Solar System

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured the largest known protoplanetary disk around the young star IRAS 23077+6707 (nicknamed Dracula’s Chivito), extending about 400 billion miles—roughly 40 times the Solar System’s diameter. Seen nearly edge-on in visible light, the disk is unusually turbulent and asymmetric, with filament-like features on one side and a sharp edge on the other, hinting at dynamic infall of material and environmental interactions. With an estimated mass 10–30 times Jupiter’s, the system may host a large planetary system and provides a valuable laboratory for understanding planet formation in extreme conditions.

via SciTechDaily|

#astronomy #hubble #planet-formation

space5 months ago•54 min saved

Hubble Spotlights Newborn Stars in Lupus 3’s Quiet Stellar Nursery

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures Lupus 3, a nearby star-forming molecular cloud in Scorpius, bustling with newborn stars. The multi-wavelength image reveals blue reflection nebulosity and dark dust lanes as T Tauri stars (under 10 million years old) emerge from collapsing gas, illustrating the early stages of stellar birth in this nearby stellar nursery.

via Live Science|

#hubble #lupus-3 #scorpius

science5 months ago•5 min saved

AI Uncovers Hundreds of Hidden Cosmic Anomalies in Hubble Data

A neural network named AnomalyMatch scanned nearly 100 million image cutouts from the Hubble Legacy Archive in about 2.5 days, flagging roughly 1,400 candidate anomalies. Human researchers reviewed the top results and confirmed more than 1,300 as true anomalies, including over 800 objects not previously documented, such as merging galaxies, gravitational lenses, jellyfish galaxies, and distant edge-on disks, showcasing AI's power to accelerate discovery in massive astronomical datasets.

via ESA/Hubble|

#ai #anomalies #astronomy

space5 months ago•5 min saved

Webb Reveals the Helix Nebula’s Eye and Its Cometary Knots

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope delivers a sharper infrared view of the Helix Nebula, the nearby planetary nebula nicknamed the Eye of Sauron, revealing about 40,000 cometary knots as the dying star sheds its outer layers. The image, updating Hubble's famed portrait, shows how the gas glows under the nebula’s radiation and how the knots persist against the expanding wind. The Helix lies ~650 light-years away and will fade over the next 10,000–20,000 years as the gas disperses, offering a glimpse of the Sun's eventual fate as a red giant that becomes a white dwarf.

via ScienceAlert|

#cometary-knots #helix-nebula #hubble