The New Hottest Spot in the Milky Way - io9

17 Jul 2008 at 2:48pm 

io9	The New Hottest Spot in the Milky Way io9, CA - Jul 17, 2008 Two days ago, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope revealed an image of what could be the brightest star in our galaxy: Wolf-Rayet star WR 102ka or, more fondly, ...

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IYA2009 Trailer

9 Jun 2008 at 2:56am IYA2009 Trailer

3 min - 2008-06-09

This is the official trailer for the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Download it in several different formats from <a class="link" rel="nofollow" href="
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Feux d'artifice célestes 2

21 May 2008 at 9:40pm Feux d'artifice célestes 2

5 min - 2008-05-22

Today, in celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope's 18th launch anniversary, 59 views of colliding galaxies constitute the largest collection of Hubble images ever released to the public. This new Hubble atlas dramatically illustrates how galaxy collisions produce a remarkable variety of intricate structures in never-before-seen detail. <br /><br />Astronomers observe only one out of a million galaxies in the nearby universe in the act of colliding. However, galaxy mergers were much more common long ago when they were closer together, because the expanding universe was smaller. Astronomers study how gravity choreographs their motions in the game of celestial bumper cars and try to observe them in action. <br /><br />For all their violence, galactic smash-ups take place at a glacial rate by human standards - timescales on the order of several hundred million years. The images in the Hubble atlas capture snapshots of the various merging galaxies at various stages in their collision. <br /><br />Most of the 59 new Hubble images are part of a large investigation of luminous and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies called the GOALS project (Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey). This survey combines observations from Hubble, NASA?s Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA?s Chandra X-ray Observatory, and NASA?s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The majority of the Hubble observations are led by Aaron S. Evans of Caltech. <br /><br />The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency and is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The Space Telescope Science Institute conducts Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington, D.C. <br /><br />View more information and images on the discovery at the following Web sites: <br /><br />HubbleSite.org <br />
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Hubble flies over Himalaya - WWW.OLOSCIENCE.COM

27 Mar 2008 at 1:02am Hubble flies over Himalaya - WWW.OLOSCIENCE.COM

15 sec - 2008-03-27

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST; also known colloquially as "the Hubble" or just "Hubble") is a space telescope that was carried into orbit around the Earth by the Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1990. It is named for the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Hubble's position outside the Earth's atmosphere allows it to take extremely sharp images and, although not the first space telescope to be deployed, Hubble has become one of the most important instruments in the history of astronomy. Hubble's Ultra Deep Field image, for instance, is the most detailed visible-light image of the universe's most distant objects ever made. Many observations made using the telescope have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics. The construction and launch of the Hubble was beset by delays and budget problems. Then, soon after its 1990 launch, it was found that the main mirror suffered from spherical aberration due to faulty quality control during its manufacturing, severely compromising the telescope's capabilities. However, after a servicing mission in 1993, the telescope was restored to its intended quality and became a vital research tool as well as a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST is part of NASA's Great Observatories series, with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.[3] Hubble is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency. The Hubble is the only telescope ever designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. To date, there have been four servicing missions, with a fifth and final mission planned for September 2008. Servicing Mission 1 took place in December 1993 when Hubble's imaging flaw was corrected. Servicing Mission 2 occurred in February 1997 when two new instruments were installed. Servicing Mission 3 was split into two distinct missions: SM3A occurred in December 1999 when urgently needed repairs were made to Hubble; and then SM3B followed in March 2002 when the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) was installed. Since SM3B, the Hubble has lost use of two major science instruments and is operating with viewing restrictions because of rate-sensing gyroscope failures. There are six gyroscopes onboard Hubble and three are normally used for observing. However, after further failures, and in order to conserve lifetime, a decision was taken in August 2005 to switch off one of the functioning gyroscopes and operate Hubble using only 2 gyros in combination with the Fine Guidance Sensors. This mode retains the excellent image quality of Hubble, and provides a redundancy should it be needed. Further redundancy is available now that an operational mode requiring only one gyro has been developed and tested. Six new gyroscopes are planned to be installed in SM4. The two instruments that have failed are the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) which stopped working in August 2004 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) which ceased operations in January 2007 (operations were later restored for its little used far-ultraviolet mode). Currently (mid-2007) Hubble observations are being taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). Astrometry is being carried out with the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS). Without a reboost to increase the diameter of its orbit, drag will cause Hubble to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime after 2010. Following the 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, the fifth servicing mission (SM4), initially planned for 2004, was canceled on safety grounds. NASA determined that a manned mission would be too dangerous, due to a lack of access to the International Space Station (ISS), which can serve as a safe haven for an astronaut crew. The Shuttle cannot travel between the Hubble and ISS orbits. The organization later reconsidered this position, and, on October 31, 2006, NASA administrator Mike Griffin gave the green light for a final Hubble servicing mission to be flown by Atlantis. The mission is now planned for August 2008.[4][5] As a safety precaution, NASA will have the orbiter Endeavour standing by at Launch Complex 39B to provide rescue in the event of an emergency. The planned repairs to the Hubble will allow the telescope to function until at least 2013, when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is due to be launched. The JWST will be far superior to Hubble for many astronomical research programs, but will only observe in infrared, so it will not replace Hubble's ability to observe in the visible and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum.
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Talk Jock Silences Chemtrails

29 Feb 2008 at 2:48pm Talk Jock Silences Chemtrails
kissthisguy88
2 min - 2008-02-29

The media black out continues on the chemtrail issue. Since most media is owned by a very few, it is easy to forbid talk about the aerosol spray operations taking place in our skies. Silence is not an option.
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Spitzer Space Telescope, Gamma Rays, Astronomy & more...

16 Feb 2008 at 9:03pm Spitzer Space Telescope, Gamma Rays, Astronomy & more...
LearnMediaOfAmerica
2 min - 2008-02-17

Spitzer Space Telescope, Gamma Rays, Astronomy & more...
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Hubble cast 06: A battle of giants

12 Dec 2007 at 12:05am Hubble cast 06: A battle of giants

6 min - 2007-12-12

Hubble cast 06: A battle of giants - telescopes in space and on the ground Have you ever wondered why some telescopes are launched into space while others are built on remote mountain tops? What is actually the best for astronomy? Here we provide a ringside view of the fight for the elusive photons from deep space - is it a battle of the telescope giants? Credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen), Luis Calçada, ESO, Spitzer Space Telescope, Keck Observatory, Subaru Observatory Narration: Dr. Robert Fosbury Design: Martin Kornmesser Web Technical Support: Lars Holm Nielsen Raquel Yumi Shida Cinematographer: Peter Rixner (www.perix.de) Script: Lars Lindberg Christensen Ana Margarida Lopes Director: Lars Lindberg Christensen
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