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
Prelaunch Primary Mirror Inspection
Hubble has been orbiting Earth for 19 years; its 2.4-meter mirror, write DeVorkin and Smith, can “examine fine details of astronomical objects far better than any optical mirror from the ground in that day. Its resolving power would be equivalent to being able to distinguish the left and right headlights of a car in California seen from New York, or features less than 1/30,000th the size of the full moon.”
“Surprising as it may seem today, no early images were released when the telescope was launched in 1990. NASA managers, who were concerned about the response if the HST should malfunction, as well as some astronomers, who wanted to ensure they would be first to use this remarkable new instrument for science on particular targets, argued against immediately showing pictures to the public. Over the telescope’s lifetime their attitudes would change, and most would come to recognize the popular value of the Hubble’s glorious images.”
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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