Hubble Sees Stars As They're Born

Artful Yankee writes "Space.com is reporting that the Hubble telescope revealed stars as they were being born. The article explains, 'The stars have yet to condense into small enough packages to trigger thermonuclear fusion, which is what powers stars, but they appear to be on the verge, astronomers said today.' All these amazing discoveries from Hubble and people still talk about abandoning it."

Comments

cost

[IconBasedIdea]

The talk of abandoning the satellite often is because it is less expensive to send up better, newer satellites than maintain this one.

Re:Old news

[Short Circuit]

Eh? It's only 210,000 light-years away. If it were to be born the very moment the light we currently see was generated, it would only be 210,000 years old right now. Even the fastest-burning stars last millions of years.

Meh.... Sometimes people don't make sense

[technoextreme]

When politicians talk about funding for the Hubble, or for the ISS, or any other project, it's typically because the funding would directly profit their constituents. In the rare case, they believe in the science of the project, but if it doesn't garner them votes, there's no point in voicing their opinion. Basically, if something doesn't have military signifigance, there's little interest in the government for funding it. If something doesn't have commercial value, there's little interest in the commercial sector for funding it. It all comes down to dollars, and pure science typically comes last.

Personally, I would tend to disagree with you because I lived right next door to a science project that cost a billion dollars to build and is based purely on theoretical physics. Unfortunately, they are cutting the budget. http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom /press_releases/2005/PR41617.RHIC.042005.pf.html