Hubble Favorites
A National Air and Space Museum astronomer picks some of his favorite images from the storied telescope.
- By Rebecca Maksel
- AirSpaceMag.com, May 22, 2009
NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScl/AURA)
After a seven-year hiatus, astronauts headed once again to the Hubble Space Telescope this month to install new hardware and make repairs; these upgrades are expected to keep Hubble in working order until 2014.
In recognition of this last, historic mission, we asked astronomer David DeVorkin, a curator in the Space History division of the National Air and Space Museum, to select a few of his favorite—and most scientifically important—images taken by Hubble. DeVorkin is the co-author, with Robert W. Smith, of Hubble: Imaging Space and Time.
“The enormous range of things that the Hubble studies is an element that I think will be important in the eventual history of this object,” says DeVorkin. “Unlike many telescopes of the past that are designed to do one thing, the Hubble does all sorts of things, and is extremely versatile. [The two instruments that the astronauts just changed out] did totally different things, but with the same telescope. It’s kind of like the difference between a telescope and an observatory. An observatory is a collection of capabilities, and the Hubble is definitely an observatory in that regard.
“The photograph [above] shows a small part of the Carina Nebula. It’s so chaotic. Carina is a huge nebula where there are stars being formed, but it’s also a nebula that’s being driven by a very massive star that is in the stage of destroying itself.”
For more of DeVorkin's picks, see the photo gallery at right.
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Comments (3)
AWESOME- keep em coming !!!!!!!
Posted by Peter Ballo on June 19,2009 | 05:25 PM
This is a marvel of technology in optics would be a shame to become obsolete.
Posted by Clemente Ruiz Gordillo on July 2,2009 | 04:46 AM
This truly is mind boggling and wondrous. But I am not quite sure what Dr DeVorkin means when he says that the astronomers are translating what they think they are seeing. Is this like an electron microscope where actual images are seen as they are. Or is this "drawing" a translation say much like a translator will translate a poem? The actual words are not necessarily being translated because poems are especially idiomatic where the vernacular just cannot be written word for word- in some cases it would even be unintelligible. So, just exactly what is the astronomer imaging- spectroscopic, radio wave or some other medium ? DAVID DeVORKIN REPLIES:
Astronomers receive data from Hubble’s cameras in single color bands (spectral bands) that they have chosen from an available menu of some 48 programmable color and polarizing filters in the camera. The bands are chosen mainly to reveal chemical and physical processes active in those bands. If they then choose, they can mix and match, and in effect, “colorize” any of those bands to bring out specific behaviors of the elements in the bodies they are studying that are of scientific value in their work. They can also choose colorized bands that produce aesthetically pleasing or provocative spacescapes. So astronomers do not “see” these objects “as they are” or as if one were observing at some vantage point in space (in which case typically the objects would be very low contrast). Astronomers construct these images to reveal the dynamical processes that are at play in the object.
Posted by Charles McHaley on August 5,2009 | 08:40 PM