Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in Living Color

by teejay 12 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  teejay

  
  NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has peered at a small area within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to provide the deepest color picture ever obtained in that satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way.

  Over 10,000 stars can be seen in the photo, covering a region in the LMC about 130 light-years wide. The faintest stars in the picture are some 100 million times dimmer than the human eye's limit of visibility. Our Sun, if located in the LMC, would be one of the faintest stars in the photograph, indistinguishable from the swarm of other similar stars.

  Also visible in the image are sheets of glowing gas, and dark patches of interstellar dust silhouetted against the stars and gas behind them.

  The LMC is a small companion galaxy of our own Milky Way, visible only from Earth's southern hemisphere. It is named after Ferdinand Magellan, one of the first Europeans to explore the world's southern regions. The LMC attracts the attention of modern-day astronomers because, at a distance of only 168,000 light-years, it is one of the nearest galaxies.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  (For a truly impressive image of the same Hubble photo, click on go tohttp://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/1999/44/content/9944.jpg. Be advised that it's a huge photo -- with a 56K modem it takes about six minutes to load -- but OH... MY... GOD!!!!)
• 

  freeman

  Wonderful images from the Hubble Space Telescope! Thank you so much for sharing some of them with us. What a marvelous instrument the Hubble has turned out to be! I remember when the flaws in the mirror were all anyone talked about. Do you remember this time? I sure do.

  The heat from this error was just so intense on anyone connected with the program. I removed any connection with the Hubble from my resume because of all the negative comments I received in connection with it. As it turns out, my connection with Hubble had nothing to do with the mirror. My job was to insure the security of the remote command and control. I was the so-called computer security expert NASA hired to try and hack into the operations control center, to find and correct any security flaws before hackers could exploit them.

  I really miss my NASA days so much now, and at times I feel a bit guilty that I ever removed mention of the Hubble from my resume. Seeing these images brings a wonderful sense of satisfaction knowing my work back then played even a small roll in its success. I was really feeling kind of blue today and this picked my spirits up. Thank You!

  Freeman
• 

  teejay

  Hello, Freeman,

  Yes I remember the problems Hubble had when it first went up. I saw a PBS documentary on it's repair. The first photos taken by the telescope were compared to those taken after the successful repairs were made and they were quite breathtaking... just unbelievable. The best one, imo, is of the Deep Field.

  You have every reason to be proud of your connection with the project, Freeman. Those photos are nothing short of inspirational as far as I'm concerned. For one, they tell us that life is way bigger than the ups and downs we experience here on this small planet. The photos also suggest that the awesome possibilities that the future holds is limited only by mankind's imagination, vision, and will.

  Peace,
  tj

  p.s. Not all NASA programs been shut down, have they? I mean, they're still sending up satellites and the shuttle, right? Any possibility of you returning to work there?