Slashdot Mirror

KentuckyFC writes: "One of the main goals of the space program is to spot an Earth-like planet orbiting another star. And by Earth-like, astronomers mean a planet with liquid water, gaseous oxygen and even chlorophyll, or a light-harvesting molecule like it. The biosignatures of these molecules were all observed during the first Earth fly-by in 1990 when the Galileo spacecraft measured the light reflected off Earth as it flew past on its way to Jupiter. But if these biosignatures exist on more distant exoplanets, could we spot them today? Now astronomers have calculated how good the next generation of space telescopes will have to be to pick up these biosignatures of life. They say that gaseous water should be relatively straightforward to pick out and that oxygen will be more challenging. But the spectral signature of chlorophyll-like molecules will be much harder to spot, requiring significantly more sensitivity than is possible today (either that or a great deal of luck). That suggests a plan, they say. The next generation of space telescopes should look for water and oxygen on exoplanets orbiting nearby stars and only then begin the time-consuming and expensive task of looking for chlorophyll on the most promising targets. One spacecraft that might do this is the Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope or ATLAST that is currently scheduled for launch in the 2025-2035 time frame."

An anonymous reader writes "Last summer, NASA announced that the Kepler space telescope had identified more than 700 exoplanet 'candidates' from the first few months of observations in 2009. Only 312 of the candidates were initially made public, while 400 others (click the green search button) were sequestered until February 2011. The team is soon expected to announce that a large number of these candidates have been confirmed as exoplanets. A non-profit organization in Boulder, Colorado supports scientific research on the Kepler data through $10 adopt-a-star donations. The price is $100 for confirmed exoplanets, so hurry while these 700+ stars are still 'candidates'!"

An anonymous reader writes "Last summer, NASA announced that the Kepler space telescope had identified more than 700 exoplanet 'candidates' from the first few months of observations in 2009. Only 312 of the candidates were initially made public, while 400 others (click the green search button) were sequestered until February 2011. The team is soon expected to announce that a large number of these candidates have been confirmed as exoplanets. A non-profit organization in Boulder, Colorado supports scientific research on the Kepler data through $10 adopt-a-star donations. The price is $100 for confirmed exoplanets, so hurry while these 700+ stars are still 'candidates'!"

Hynee writes "As tweeted, NASA has released 10 new images, all from the new WFC3 instrument and others, including the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Images include NGC 6302, Carina Nebula, Stephan's Quintet, Markarian 817, Abell 370, and a few others. Great looking stuff, the WFC3 has twice the resolution of the WF/PC2, on the CCD at least, if memory serves correctly. Eta Carina is a fascinating object, and there are at least two releases in this 'Early Release Observations' set." Here is a video about the new images at Hubblesite.org, and a full HubbleSite.org release page with 56 images.

StupendousMan writes "One of the two big cameras aboard the Hubble Space Telescope is the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, or WFPC2 for short. As the most recent HST status report indicates, the camera was recently powered up again and sent commands to take some test images. Today (Sunday, Oct 26), I received E-mail from a colleague at STScI indicating that the calibration images were 'nominal.' That's NASA-speak for 'fine and dandy.' The E-mail goes on to say 'The data look nominal, indicating that Hubble optical imaging capabilities are in fine shape. (We can expect more glorious Hubble images in the near future.) ... Science with WFPC2 has resumed, and plans are underway to restore ACS/SBC to service this coming week.' Let's hope that the other big instrument, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), also comes back to life successfully. We should find out in just a week or so."

Several readers wrote in to tell us, following up on the recent story of the shutting down of Hubble's main camera, that program engineers are now saying that the camera is probably gone for good. The trouble resulted from a short circuit on Saturday in Hubble's most popular instrument, the Advanced Camera for Surveys. NASA engineers reported Monday that most of the camera's capabilities, including the ability to take the sort of deep cosmic postcards that have inspired the public, had probably been lost. We'll be pining for more of those amazing images until the James Webb launches in 2013.
Update: 01/30 23:28 GMT by KD : Reader Involved astronomer wrote in with an addendum / clarification to this story: "I'm a grant-funded astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (www.stsci.edu) in Baltimore. I am very concerned that the article conveys the wrong idea about HST. While HST's science capacity is diminished with the loss of ACS, HST lives on and will continue to produce world-class science, even before its servicing mission in Sept. 2008, which will upgrade the instrument suite with the most sophisticated imagers in history." Read on for the rest of his note. I'd like to point out these facts:

1. A fuse blew on ACS side two electronics — This will LIKELY (we're not 100% sure yet) render the Wide-field channel and the High-resolution channel (e.g. 2/3rds of the camera) inoperable. The solar blind channel will likely be returned to operation.
2. While we have lost (2/3rds) of ACS, NICMOS and WFPC2, two fantastic imagers, are still operational. WFPC2 is responsible for many of the gorgeous images that grace many of your desktop wallpapers.
3. ACS had an expected lifetime of 5 years. It met that lifetime. The loss of ACS, while of course disappointing, is not necessarily a shock.
4. Servicing mission 4 is currently scheduled for Sept. 2008. It will upgrade HST to never-before-seen scientific capability and productivity. The Wide-Field Camera 3, which will be installed then, will essentially be an even more sophisticated successor to ACS.

In short, the reports of Hubble's demise are GREATLY exaggerated. She will continue to produce world-class science and incredible images. While we are disappointed with the (apparent) loss of ACS, HST will live on well into the next decade.

You can view one of our press releases on this here: http://hubblesite.org/acs/.

Fraser Cain writes "Universe Today is reporting on a proposal under consideration by NASA from Dr. Robert Angel at the University of Arizona. He wants to build a 100-meter liquid mirror telescope into a crater on the Moon. It would only be able to look at a specific spot in the sky, but the view would bury Hubble's Deep Field Survey." The challenges of off-Earth construction are left as an exercise for the reader.

MattHaffner writes "Yesterday, a status report from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) operations center reports that the satellite is in 'safe mode' after losing (another) reaction wheel--the mechanisms used to point the spacecraft. FUSE had been operating with only two of three original wheels for about two years using a creative solution utilizing the earth's magnetic field. Losing a second wheel for good may mean a serious reduction in science, however. For those keeping track, this is the third major blow to UV astronomy in less than a year. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) was due to be installed on the canceled SM4, and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), a major instrument on HST, failed in 2004 Aug. The infrared is well covered by current and upcoming NASA missions including the Spitzer Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and SOFIA, but ultraviolet astronomy may have a serious dearth of instruments in the near future. While IR is useful for studying dusty environments, star formation, planetary system formation, and red-shifted galaxies, the UV is the best place to study the chemical composition and evolution of interstellar gas, stars, and galaxies since many of the more abundant elements have strong spectral signatures in that region of the spectrum."

MattHaffner writes "Yesterday, a status report from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) operations center reports that the satellite is in 'safe mode' after losing (another) reaction wheel--the mechanisms used to point the spacecraft. FUSE had been operating with only two of three original wheels for about two years using a creative solution utilizing the earth's magnetic field. Losing a second wheel for good may mean a serious reduction in science, however. For those keeping track, this is the third major blow to UV astronomy in less than a year. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) was due to be installed on the canceled SM4, and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), a major instrument on HST, failed in 2004 Aug. The infrared is well covered by current and upcoming NASA missions including the Spitzer Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and SOFIA, but ultraviolet astronomy may have a serious dearth of instruments in the near future. While IR is useful for studying dusty environments, star formation, planetary system formation, and red-shifted galaxies, the UV is the best place to study the chemical composition and evolution of interstellar gas, stars, and galaxies since many of the more abundant elements have strong spectral signatures in that region of the spectrum."

LMCBoy writes "SpaceRef is reporting that the STIS Instrument on board HST has failed. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph was HST's only spectrometer, and was responsible for several important discoveries, including the first detection of an exoplanet's atmosphere. The loss is believed to have been caused by a failure in the instrument's main electronics box, which led to a rapid increase in the input current of about 1 ampere, which caused the instrument to enter a "suspend" state. It is believed that this failure is not recoverable." No_Weak_Heart writes "Perhaps the world's most renowned submersible, Alvin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is slated for retirement. Alvin has helped scientists explore deep sea, find a lost Hydrogen bomb(oops!) and discover more than 300 new animal species, will be replaced by a newer version in 2008. Also available this audio clip from NPR." (Here's a glance at Alvin's replacement.) Update: 08/07 17:29 GMT by T : Note: "HST"="Hubble Space Telescope." Thanks to Chris Johansen for pointing out the overloaded acryonym.

LMCBoy writes "Space.com reports today that the National Academies of Science has released its recommendation to NASA on the future of the Hubble Space Telescope. They conclude that 'NASA should take no actions that would preclude a space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.' They also say that none of the safety requirements of the CAIB report preclude a manned servicing mission to HST." Read on for more.

"The NAS recommendation would reverse NASA's previous position that a shuttle repair mission is ruled out for safety reasons. In the wake of strong criticisms of this decision, NASA has also been considering a robotic repair mission. The robotic mission would not risk human lives, but it relies on a number of bleeding-edge technologies that would have to be deployed on a very short timescale. HST's remaining gyroscopes are not expected to last beyond 2007."

MrBook2 writes "NASA have just released the Ultra Deep Field (UDF). This image took 800 exposures and clocked in at 11.3 days (!) of exposure time. This image is deeper than the Hubble Deep Field which has yielded a vast amount of knowledge. So, why exactly was it that NASA wanted to scrap the Hubble?"

Roland Piquepaille writes "On this Fourth of July, it's usual -- at least in the U.S. -- to watch fireworks. But I want to invite you to see very special ones, celestial fireworks discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomy Magazine has the story. "In a newly released image, the Hubble Space Telescope peers into a neighboring galaxy to capture a gorgeous view of a supernova remnant called LMC N 49. Also known as DEM L 190, the nebula lies within the Large Magellanic Cloud approximately 160,000 light-years away." Read this summary for more details and a nice illustration from the Hubble Heritage Team. You can find additional tons of information at this Hubble Heritage Project page."

Overcoat writes "NASA scientists have used a technique called 'astrometry' to determine the size of a planet orbiting Gliese 876, a star 15 light years away from our solar system. By measuring tiny changes in the 'tilt' of light emitted from the star, changes which were caused by the force exterted by the orbiting planet known as Gliese 876b, the scientists were able to determine that the planet is the size of a golfball. Just kidding: the planet's a whopper, coming in at between 1.89 and 2.4 times the size of Jupiter. This marks the first time astrometry, usually used to measure the distance between stars, has been used to measure a planet."

RobertFisher writes "NASA has just released a press release about an important new family of black holes. From the release, "The previously undiscovered black holes provide an important link that sheds light on the way black holes grow. Even more odd, these new black holes were found in the cores of glittering, 'beehive' swarms of stars -- called globular star clusters -- that orbit our Milky Way and other galaxies." Amazingly, these black holes have a mass proportional to their host cluster, a trend also observed in supermassive black holes ten thousand times more massive. Nature is giving us some big clues here."

An anonymous submitter cut-and-pasted yet another beautiful Hubble picture, of a planetary nebula around a dying star. Wow.

blamanj writes "Hubble's newly repaired Infrared Camera, has produced some interesting new pics, including a "golden band" at the galactic center that is 'churning out stars at a torrid pace.' NASA press release and images here."

blamanj writes "Hubble's newly repaired Infrared Camera, has produced some interesting new pics, including a "golden band" at the galactic center that is 'churning out stars at a torrid pace.' NASA press release and images here."

addie writes "The Ottawa Citizen among others is running a story about how NASA determines what colors to paint their latest Hubble pictures. I'm personally happier looking at a dramatic doctored image, especially when the B&W originals are available."

EReidJ writes "The Hubble Space Telescope has come out with astonishing new pictures, our "deepest glimpse[s] into the depths of space and time". An article on the photos is here. These are striking in their beauty, and are sure to become commonplace desktop images in the next month. The official site to view all of the photos is here, but the site's already going pretty slow. washingtonpost.com has the four photos in series on its home page." There are also stories on space.com and MSNBC.

no reason to be here writes "New data from the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the age of the universe is approximately 14 billion years old. Read this press release for more info."

no reason to be here writes "New data from the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the age of the universe is approximately 14 billion years old. Read this press release for more info."

edo-01 writes: "The article says it best: "In the most distant observations yet by the Hubble Space Telescope, some astronomers think they are seeing evidence that the universe emerged from its initial darkness in a dawn of light that came up like thunder across the cosmos" Here is the press release, and here is an artist's rendition of what the vast stellar nurseries might have looked like. I must say I thought at first it was an actual image of the creation and almost swallowed my tongue..."

edo-01 writes: "The article says it best: "In the most distant observations yet by the Hubble Space Telescope, some astronomers think they are seeing evidence that the universe emerged from its initial darkness in a dawn of light that came up like thunder across the cosmos" Here is the press release, and here is an artist's rendition of what the vast stellar nurseries might have looked like. I must say I thought at first it was an actual image of the creation and almost swallowed my tongue..."

GTM writes: "The surface of the Red Planet is currently hidden by the most impressive dust storm seen in decades. Mars Global Surveyor and Hubble provide us with pictures, see the press release here."

GTM writes: "The surface of the Red Planet is currently hidden by the most impressive dust storm seen in decades. Mars Global Surveyor and Hubble provide us with pictures, see the press release here."

Rabenwolf writes: "Since we are closing in on Mars, Hubble is able to get better and better pictures of the planet, the newest one with a resolution of 10 miles! There is a story on CNN.com as well."

Canuckanuck writes: "The Space Telescope Institute which operates the Hubble Telecope has this story about the discovery of an unexpected hereto unknown population of wandering, planet-sized objects in the outer Milky Way that could be 80 times less massive than our beloved Earth. The viewing took place in M22 (a globular cluster) by way of microlensing. These things could be the smallest bodies ever seen beyond our solar system, which don't orbit a star. More information can be seen at JPL's website."

Canuckanuck writes: "The Space Telescope Institute which operates the Hubble Telecope has this story about the discovery of an unexpected hereto unknown population of wandering, planet-sized objects in the outer Milky Way that could be 80 times less massive than our beloved Earth. The viewing took place in M22 (a globular cluster) by way of microlensing. These things could be the smallest bodies ever seen beyond our solar system, which don't orbit a star. More information can be seen at JPL's website."

NeoCode writes: "It's been 11 years already and the stats are mind boggling. Hubble is celebrating its 11th birthday and it sent another beautiful image. Stories here (CNN) and here (Space). A lot of these images have been called "space-art". The image bank can be found here."

pillageplunder writes: "A story in today's (13 Apr 01) Washington Post provides a link to the Hubble telescope repository for images taken through the Hubble. In a word, BREATHTAKING! Story link here. Link to actual Website here." Oddly enough, looking through our story archive we've posted a number of stories with Hubble photos that came from here, but never just said, hey, here's the whole archive. Well, here it is.

Porfiry writes "NASA's Hubble Space Telescope may have, for the first time, provided direct evidence for the existence of black holes by observing the disappearance of matter as it falls beyond the "event horizon." An event horizon is the mysterious region surrounding a black hole that forever traps light and matter straying nearby. By definition, no astronomical object other than a black hole can possess an event horizon. The discovery comes from a detailed statistical analysis of a 1992 observation of one of the first black holes ever discovered, Cygnus XR-1, which lies 6,000 light-years from Earth in the summer constellation Cygnus the Swan."

And Tackhead sends in this related information: "The folks at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory appear to have detected event horizons by comparing the X-ray luminosity of the accretion discs surrounding black-hole-based X-ray novae versus neutron-star-based X-ray novae during their phases of dormancy. X-ray novae are caused by ignition of fusion in the accretion discs of hot gas drawn from companion stars near black holes or neutron stars. While the novae were dormant, the discs surrounding black hole companions were observed and found to be 100 to 1000 times fainter than those surrounding neutron star companions. The conclusion: 'something' must be consuming the energy that would otherwise be expected from the disc; the most likely candidate being an event horizon."

Tei'ehm Teuw writes: "In an article from NASA@Today.gov, astronomers are concluding that monstrous black holes weren't simply born big but instead grew on a measured diet of gas and stars controlled by their host galaxies in the early formative years of the universe. These results, gleaned from a NASA Hubble Space Telescope census of more than 30 galaxies, are painting a broad picture of a galaxy's evolution and its long and intimate relationship with its central giant black hole. Though much more analysis remains, an initial look at Hubble evidence favors the idea that titanic black holes co-evolved with the galaxy by trapping a surprisingly exact percentage of the mass of the central hub of stars and gas in a galaxy." This seems an affront to my simplistic understanding of black hole behavior, but heck, we're not even sure black holes exist, anyhow.

Tei'ehm Teuw writes: "In an article from NASA@Today.gov, astronomers are concluding that monstrous black holes weren't simply born big but instead grew on a measured diet of gas and stars controlled by their host galaxies in the early formative years of the universe. These results, gleaned from a NASA Hubble Space Telescope census of more than 30 galaxies, are painting a broad picture of a galaxy's evolution and its long and intimate relationship with its central giant black hole. Though much more analysis remains, an initial look at Hubble evidence favors the idea that titanic black holes co-evolved with the galaxy by trapping a surprisingly exact percentage of the mass of the central hub of stars and gas in a galaxy." This seems an affront to my simplistic understanding of black hole behavior, but heck, we're not even sure black holes exist, anyhow.

SlashParadox writes "The Hubble Heritage Project is allowing internet voters to decide where the Hubble Space Telescope points until June 6. Restrictions and a link to the proposal page are here. "

frinsore writes "Hubble turns 10! Seems like just yesterday that there was a flaw in the mirror, and it couldn't see. Now it's seen black holes, birth of stars, shoemaker-levy and the surface of Pluto. NASA can come back from mistakes." Not only that, but it survived a crash with the Satellite of Love in Mystery Science Theater 3000 : The Movie. Update: 04/25 01:30 by E : Hey, check out HubbleSite, too.

An anonymous reader wrote it to say " This is not your average `we went out there, we repaired it, oh, we are so good' article, but just a happy note after the continous `HST remains in ZGSP... No activity' messages on sci.astro.hubble: finally, after SM3A, new data has been collected. Peharps a little tidbit regarding a new 486 running up there is more interesting for this community... and if you are interesting in those pretty pictures that make good desktop backgrounds, there's always the Space Telescope Science Institute. "M/I>

bcrafts writes "The ecological conditions in which microbes were found by researchers near the Antarctic underground freshwater Lake Vostok, have sparked more discussion inside of NASA, on a CNN report, other scientific groups,as well as other online sites about possible life on Jupiter's moon, Europa. "

Generic Specialist writes "There is an article on the BBC web-site reporting that the Hubble Space Telescope has finally shut itself down due to the failure of a fourth gyroscope. For some time it has been running on the minimum three out of its six gyroscopes, and on Saturday the failure of another one sent the telesope into its safe mode. We'll have to wait until after the next servicing mission, due next month, before any more science can be done. "

Dan B. writes "The Chandra X-Ray telescope, launched 60 days ago, has had its first pictures released by Nasa. These are as stunning as the millions already produce by the Hubble space telescope. "