Hubble at 25: the cosmos at its most breathtaking – in pictures

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/28/hubble-at-25-the-cosmos-at-its-most-breathtaking-in-pictures

[hifiguy]

1. The universe is an awe-inspiring and astonishing place.

No doubt about it. I am currently reading Brian Greene's "The Hidden Reality," a fascinating book about the possibility of multiple universes that has been opened up by string theory. I wish I'd received the math gene. I'd have become a theoretical physicist or cosmologist instead of going to law school.

[malaise]

2. Yes the universe is magnificent

The more I see it the more I wonder why people on our planet are so fugged up.

[SheilaT]

10. I have the wonderful good fortune to have a son who is getting a degree in physics,

and wants to go on with some sort of astrophysics. Right now he's doing research on galaxies that are colliding. Every single time I talk to him I learn bunches of new things. He's quite good at putting things in language I can understand.

So if possible, make friends with an astrophysicist. If that doesn't seem possible, see if you can go to the adult astronomy camp they do at the University of Arizona. Next one's in May. Here's a link: http://www.astronomycamp.org/pages/adultcamp.html

[HappyMe]

3. Your girl is lovely, Hubbell.

Wait......okay, wrong Hubbell.





Amazing photos.

[malaise]

4. Ha

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. kick

[awoke_in_2003]

6. I wonder if we ever plan...

to replace Hubble. It can't last forever, and congress is chock full of anti-science idiots.

[cpwm17]

7. The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch in October 2018.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope

The telescope has an expected mass about half of Hubble's, but its primary mirror (a 6.5 meter diameter gold-coated beryllium reflector) will have a collecting area about five times larger (25 m2 vs. 4.5 m2). The JWST is oriented towards near-infrared astronomy, but can also see orange and red visible light, as well as the mid-infrared region, depending on the instrument. The telescope will focus on the near to mid-infrared for three main reasons: high-redshift objects have their visible emissions shifted into the infrared, cold objects such as debris disks and planets emit most strongly in the infrared, and this band is very hard to study from the ground or by existing space telescopes such as Hubble....

The JWST's primary scientific mission has four main components: to search for light from the first stars and galaxies that formed in the Universe after the Big Bang, to study the formation and evolution of galaxies, to understand the formation of stars and planetary systems and to study planetary systems and the origins of life.[27] These goals can be accomplished more effectively by observation in near-infrared light rather than light in the visible part of the spectrum. For this reason the JWST's instruments will not measure visible or ultraviolet light like the Hubble Telescope, but will have a much greater capacity to perform infrared astronomy. The JWST will be sensitive to a range of wavelengths from 0.6 (orange light) to 28 micrometers (deep infrared radiation at about 100 K (?170 °C; ?280 °F)).

[awoke_in_2003]

8. Thank you very much...

I can't wait to see its pictures. Technology has advanced rapidly since Hubble.

[hifiguy]

9. Wow. The pics from that will boggle the brain.

[malaise]

11. Thanks for that link

JWST should deliver some spectacular photos

[cpwm17]

13. Thanks for the OP

It'll be interesting to see what NASA produces. The pictures may not be as pretty as Hubble's pictures since not all of the visible light will be present, but NASA still should create some nice images. The science should be great since it should see all of the way back to the very early Universe.

[malaise]

12. Down memory lane when we thought astronomy mattered

The New Telescope for the Chicago Observatory,
Published: February 26, 1865
The great Clarke Telescope is shortly to be set up in the Dearborn Tower at the University of Chicago.

This instrument was manufactured by Mr. ALVIN CLARKE, of Cambridge, Mass. It was ordered for the Mississippi College by Dr. BARNARD, who was then at the head of that institution, but is now President of Columbia College. The object glass was nearly completed in 1861, but the instrument could not, of course, reach its destination. The friends of Harvard College immediately began a subscription to secure it to that institution, designing to put it up in place of their own famous Fraunhofer; but the subscription lagged for a while, and the University of Chicago stepped in and carried off the prize

http://www.nytimes.com/1865/02/26/news/the-new-telescope-for-the-chicago-observatory.html
--------------------------
Remember the outrage in Chicago a few years ago

[IDemo]

14. An oldie but goodie about one of Hubble's images:

[Hekate]

15. That almost brought me to tears. I want to go... to see... This is awe

To think that we no longer have a Shuttle fleet to service the Hubble Telescope literally makes me sick.