Sunset Glow in Orion (Big Hubble Space pic)

[n2doc]

The magnificent reflection nebula NGC 2023 lies nearly 1500 light-years from Earth. It is located within the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), in a prestigious area of the sky close to the well-known Flame and Horsehead Nebulae. The entire structure of NGC 2023 is vast, at four light-years across. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope picture just takes in the southern part, with the subtle shades of colour closely resembling those of a sunset on Earth.

NGC 2023 surrounds a massive young B-type star. These stars are large, bright and blue-white in colour, and have a high surface temperature, being several times hotter than the Sun. The energy emitted from NGC2023’s B-type star illuminates the nebula, resulting in its high surface brightness: good news for astronomers who wish to study it. The star itself lies outside the field of view, at the upper left, and its brilliant light is scattered by Hubble’s optical system, creating the bright flare across the left side of the picture, which is not a real feature of the nebula.

Stars are forming from the material comprising NGC 2023. This Hubble image captures the billowing waves of gas, 5000 times denser than the interstellar medium. The unusual greenish clumps are thought to be Herbig–Haro objects. These peculiar features of star-forming regions are created when gas ejected at hundreds of kilometres per second from newly formed stars impacts the surrounding material. These shockwaves cause the gas to glow and result in the strange shapes seen here. Herbig–Haro objects typically only last for a few thousand years, which is the blink of eye in astronomical terms.

This picture was created from multiple images taken with the Wide Field Camera of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Exposures through a blue filter (F475W) are coloured blue, exposures through a yellow filter (F625W) are coloured green and images through a near-infrared filter (F850LP) are shown as red. The total exposure times per filter are 800 s, 800 s and 1200 s, respectively, and the field of view spans 3.2 arcminutes.


Credit:

ESA/Hubble & NASA

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1130a/

[RoccoR5955]

1. It's a shame that they put the Shuttle to bed, and can't service Hubble any more.

I, for one, will miss these photos from the once, near-sighted space telescope that changed History!

[jaysunb]

2. "near-sighted space telescope "

:rofl: can't wait to share this w/ friends at Cal Tech that built the Hubbel.

[RoccoR5955]

4. my point being, is this.

WITH the Shuttle, they could correct the metric/english error in the Hubble.
WITHOUT the Shuttle, Hubble would just be space junk.

Though I am glad that you find it amusing, it was meant as both a comment to those who built it (measure twice, cut once), and a compliment to those who fixed it (the people at Cal Tech, Perkin Elmer, and NASA) and not the least, the Shuttle crew, and everyone involved, who could find a way to fix Hubble.

I already miss the Shuttle. I went to KSC to see the last launch, because I am afraid that it will be the last manned space flight that I will see in my life. I am 56, and followed the space program since the beginning, and NASA since the X-15. I will keep following NASA, and just hope that we can get a heavy lift rocket soon. The Shuttle was a workhorse, even with its problems. Without it, there would have been a hell of a lot less exploration of space.

[jaysunb]

6. +1

:hi:

[Tesha]

8. The error in the Hubble wasn't "metric to English".

That's what doomed one of Mars explorer's.

The error in the Hubble was that one of the two contractors
for the primary mirror ground a small reference mirror incor-
rectly and that causes them to grind the primary mirror equally
incorrectly. The irony of the situation was that the other vendor
of the primary mirror, the mirror that didn't end up flying, had
ground their mirror absolutely correctly.

IIRC, the erring vendor was Perkin-Elmer and the correct vendor
was Kodak, but don't trust me on that without checking.

Tesha

[RoccoR5955]

10. I also recall that Perkin-Elmer was the vendor at fault in that situation

Sorry for the metric/english thing. You are correct. It was one of the Mars explorers, and the mirror problems were, in fact on Hubble.

[laconicsax]

12. The problem with the Hubble wasn't a metric/english error.

The primary mirror had a slight figuring error. This had nothing to do with conversion between metric and English.

Without relying on the shuttle one of the two backup mirrors could have been installed in a new device and launched conventionally to replace Hubble wholesale.

Hell, without relying on the shuttle, Hubble could have been bigger to start with--a full 3 meter primary rather than the 2.4 meter primary it has.

[Tesha]

3. You only think that's cool because you haven't seen C-beams glittering off the Tanhauser Gate! (NT)

[RoccoR5955]

5. What happened Roy, you get re-replicated?? n/t

[Tesha]

9. 'zat you, Pris? Zhora? Anybody? (NT)

[Kablooie]

7. Looks like the rapture to me.

[paparush]

11. Orion is simply amazing.