Hubble

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Hubble Telescope Gives Itself 'Stunning' Anniversary Gift

To celebrate 30 years in space, a jaw-dropping photo of 'Cosmic Reef' nebulae

(Newser) - On April 24, 1990, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, with a very special item on board: the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched into Earth's orbit a day later. Now, to celebrate the telescope's 30th anniversary observing the cosmos, NASA has...

Hubble Spots 'Butterfly' 2K Light-Years Away

It's also known as the Twin Jet Nebula, and it's pretty

(Newser) - It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a space butterfly? That's essentially what the Hubble Space Telescope has captured in a new image of the Twin Jet Nebula, a shimmering planetary nebula that strongly resembles a winged insect, reports CNET . What you're actually seeing in...

Hubble 'Travels' Back 13.2B Years

'Time-tunnel' composite bares space 'just' after Big Bang

(Newser) - An out-of-this-world composite photo of Hubble Space Telescope shots peers back to a time a "mere" 450 million years after the Big Bang. Dubbed the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photograph—made up of 2,000 snaps taken by the Hubble over 10 years—reveals nearly 5,500...

Hubble Spots Mysterious 'Flying X'

The lead investigators thinks it's the result of an asteroid collision

(Newser) - An object captured on film by the Hubble telescope has astronomers scratching their heads. The body, named P/2010 A2 after it was discovered in early January, shares comet-like traits, but the head is x-shaped and seems to be disconnected from its tail, reports the New York Daily News .

New Hubble Images Dazzle
 New Hubble Images Dazzle 
Slideshow
Sep 9, 2009 1:46 PM CDT

New Hubble Images Dazzle

Refurbished telescope can see further, with more color

(Newser) - NASA released the first shots from the recently upgraded Hubble Space Telescope today, and the results are spectacular. Thanks to the new imagers installed in May, Hubble can now see farther, with greater clarity and a wider color spectrum, reports NPR. Officially, NASA calls it a new beginning for the...

Hubble's Back in Action
 Hubble's Back in Action 
Oct 30, 2008 7:15 PM CDT

Hubble's Back in Action

(Newser) - The Hubble has perfect vision again. NASA today released the first photos taken by the space telescope since an instrumental glitch put it out of commission last month, Space.com reports. Engineers fixed the problem this week, then got photos of a pair of galaxies about 400 million light-years from...

Hubble Glitch Delays NASA Repair Mission

Telescope malfunction will require retraining of crew, delay launch

(Newser) - A repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope has been delayed after the apparatus stopped transmitting data Friday, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Shuttle crews will be retrained to deal with the new problem, and the launch rescheduled so NASA can have a second shuttle ready in case a rescue mission...

Upgrade Will Boost Hubble Vision

Upgrade will create spectacular images

(Newser) - Spectacular images from the Hubble telescope are about to get even more awe-inspiring, thanks to a $900-million upgrade during an upcoming space shuttle mission—the fifth and last mission to the orbiting observatory. Two new high-tech instruments and a series of repairs will make Hubble able to probe even deeper...

Methane Found on Far-off Planet
 Methane Found on Far-off Planet
Mar 19, 2008 4:59 PM CDT

Methane Found on Far-off Planet

Compound, crucial ingredient in early-life chemistry, detected 63 light years away

(Newser) - Methane, one of the simplest compounds known to play a role in the chemical genesis of life, was discovered for the first time to exist on a planet outside Earth’s solar system, the BBC reports. The planet, designated HD 189733b, is 63 light years away and also contains water,...

NASA Plans Daring Hubble Fix
NASA Plans Daring Hubble Fix
Jan 9, 2008 12:42 PM CST

NASA Plans Daring Hubble Fix

Unprecedented spacewalk will make for spiffier 'scope

(Newser) - Astronauts will save—and drastically upgrade—the Hubble Space Telescope in an unprecedented mission this year, NewScientist Space reports. The mission will make the Hubble 90 times more powerful than it originally was, but will require spacewalkers to complete a delicate electronics repair job in zero gravity while wearing bulky...

NASA Finds 'Death Star' Galaxy
NASA Finds 'Death Star' Galaxy
Dec 18, 2007 4:02 AM CST

NASA Finds 'Death Star' Galaxy

Phenomenon blasts neighboring galaxy

(Newser) - NASA astronomers have discovered a "death star galaxy" with a super massive black hole that is blasting a neighboring galaxy with deadly radiation. It's the first time scientists have witnessed such a phenomenon. The hungry black hole has been zapping a galaxy 20,000 light years away for about...

New 'Lucky' System Takes Clearest-Ever Space Pics

Images are twice as sharp as Hubble's

(Newser) - A ground-based optics system has been developed that can take pictures of space twice as sharp as those from the Hubble Telescope. The system uses advanced light detection chips and calculates when the atmosphere is least distorting, the BBC reports. The system gathers together the clear pictures and eliminates distortions...

Google Takes Map Program to the Stars
Google Takes Map Program
to the Stars
Aug 22, 2007 12:28 PM CDT

Google Takes Map Program to the Stars

Google Sky will boot up computer-chair space exploration

(Newser) - Launching off of the success of Google Earth, Google launched a new program today allowing armchair astronomers to chuck the telescope and gaze at the heavens from their monitors. Google Sky will harness Hubble photos along with a database of information, and feature more than one million stars and 200...

25 Biggest Scientific Discoveries
25 Biggest Scientific Discoveries
Aug 21, 2007 1:10 PM CDT

25 Biggest Scientific Discoveries

From the unfathomably small to the mind-blowingly huge, the most significant breakthroughs

(Newser) - The invention of the wheel was pretty good. Fire, even better. But what has science done for us lately? USA Today lists the top 25 scientific discoveries; here are the top 10:
  1. Accelerating universe
  2. Human genome
  3. Climate accord

Most Massive Star Ever Weighs In
Most Massive Star Ever Weighs In
Jun 8, 2007 6:43 AM CDT

Most Massive Star Ever Weighs In

Astronomers say hefty gas giant is 100 times heavier than the sun

(Newser) - The most massive star yet discovered has been "weighed," astronomers say, and it tips the scales at a whopping 114 times the mass of the sun. The enormous star forms the bigger half of a rapidly orbiting binary system and it far outstrips both its companion star and...

Hubble Finds Dark Matter
Hubble Finds Dark Matter
May 15, 2007 8:00 AM CDT

Hubble Finds Dark Matter

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered a ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster about 5 billion light years away. The Hubble Telescope turned up an anomaly in the way stars in the area appear, which researchers think is a distortion caused by the intense gravity of the galactic "glue" holding...

NASA Reveals Superpowered Telescope
NASA Reveals Superpowered Telescope
May 11, 2007 4:38 PM CDT

NASA Reveals Superpowered Telescope

Giant camera will replace Hubble, see across universe

(Newser) - NASA has uncovered a prototype for a new telescope that will outmagnify the dominant Hubble. The James Webb Space Telescope will cost $4.5 billion and float nearly a million miles from Earth when it launches in six years; its supercharged hexagonal mirror will transmit images of the farthest and...

17 Stories