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Hubble's 'Pillars of Non-Creation'

Posted by michael on from the cosmic-warfare dept.

mdahlman writes "According to BBC News, Hubble's 'Pillars of Creation' are really 'Pillars of Death'. Well, at least 'Pillars of Non-Creation'." I have to get a poster of this.

2 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WAG by LightForce3 · · Score: 2, Informative

    AFAIK, all "raw" Hubble images have that characteristic missing corner, such as this image of the Large Magellanic Cloud taken in November 1996.

    I imagine that most of the Hubble images we've seen are composites of several individual pictures, compensating for the missing piece in each individual picture.

    As for the cause of the missing corner, I imagine it could be due to the flaw in the telescope's optics and the subsequent fix. Alternately, it could simply be the way the telescope was designed.

    Of course, your explanation is much more interesting. :)

    --LF

  2. WFPC by mgarraha · · Score: 2, Informative

    The dark corner of many HST images is an artifact of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC). Here's an illustrated explanation. The recent service mission replaced it with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which is bigger, more sensitive, and makes nice square images.