GOOGLE SKY PARA QUE VEAN LAS ESTRELLAS DE CERCA DESDE LA COMODIDAD DE SU CASA.

El 10° aniversario del Heritage Project del Telescopio Espacial Hubble es un acontecimiento que merece ser celebrado. Esta vez, NASA hace mención a los diez años de este tan famoso proyecto sin precedentes con una imagen del paisaje desde el cosmos. Tomando un atajo por las cercanías de una región de formación de estrellas, se encuentran las "colinas y valles" de gas y polvo dispuestos en detalle.

El Hubble Heritage Project, que comenzó en Octubre de 1998, ha sacado la luz cerca de 130 imágenes extraídas desde los archivos del Hubble. Estrenando una imagen nunca antes vista del Hubble cada mes, la intención del equipo fue de exhibir algunas de las más atractivas imágenes tomadas por el telescopio, y compartirlas con una gran audiencia. El equipo Heritage continúa creando imágenes que presentan el Universo desde una perspectiva artística.

La imagen del Hubble de este mes muestra la cima de una gigante cavidad gaseosa con la región de formación de estrellas, llamada NGC 3324. La nebulosa brillante ha sido forjada por intensa radiación ultravioleta y vientos estelares provenientes de estrellas jóvenes y calientes. El cúmulo de estrellas extremadamente masivas, ubicado en el centro de la nebulosa, es el responsable de la ionización de la nebulosa y excavación de la cavidad.

Esta imagen además revela grandes torres oscuras de gas frío y polvo que se elevan por encima del incandescente muro de gas. Este denso gas en la punta resiste la devastadora radiación ultravioleta desde las estrellas centrales, y crea una torre que apunta en dirección del flujo de energía. La radiación de alta energía emanando de las estrellas jóvenes y calientes en NGC 3324, está esculpiendo el muro de la nebulosa debido a la lenta erosión.

Ubicada en el Hemisferio Sur, NGC 3324 está en la esquina noroeste de la Nebulosa Carina (NGC 3372), hogar de la Nebulosa Keyhole y la activa estrella Eta Carinae. La Nebulosa Carina está a una distancia de aproximadamente 7.200 años luz, y yace en la constelación Carina.

Esta imagen es una composición de datos tomados por dos instrumentos científicos del Hubble: the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) en 2006 y datos más recientes, tomados en 2008 con la Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Para crear una composición de colores, los datos de sulfuro están representados en rojo, los de oxígeno en azul, y los de hidrógeno en color verde.

Fuente: Traducción de MARÍA SOL GONZÁLEZ del artículo de NASA.GOV, "A Celestial Landscape in Celebration of 10 Years of Stunning Hubble Heritage Images".

physicists assume that for 14 billion years conditions will remain the same for the entire universe.

This is not quite right. In fact today we can observe how the universe was 14 billion years ago, just by looking at very distant objects. I see that you didn’t get the essence of cosmological observations. By building big telescopes we see farther out in space and collect information about the past. The farther we look into space the farther back we go in time. Did you get that now?

Spyros, I want to understand this clearly. So let's look at this example. Maybe you can help.

The article starts like this:

Astronomers have glimpsed what may be the farthest galaxy we've ever seen, providing a picture of a baby galaxy born soon after the beginning of the universe.

So, Hubble have "revealed a galaxy at almost 13 billion light-years away making it the strongest candidate for the most distant galaxy ever seen . . ."

Fine.

1. The most distant galaxy ever. This is possible. Since Hubble is the telescope with the greatest precision it will show the most distant galaxies we can see at this point with this technology.

2. The beginning of the universe. Not true. Astronomers are not satisfied with just looking at the currently most distant galaxy visible, they say that this galaxy is being observed as "a picture of a baby galaxy born soon after the beginning of the universe."

3. 13 billion years ago. Then the writer says, "since the galaxy is so far away, its light took ages to reach us, so what we see now is a snapshot of how this galaxy looked 13 billion years ago." Fine.

4. Local or cosmological. So astronomers here, as usual, conflate two things to support their ideology. Indeed, if we are rational and scientific investigators, we accept that when we are looking at a galaxy 13 billion light years away we see it as it looked 13 billion light years ago. This makes sense because the image or the light that reaches the photographic plate of the telescope took 13 billion years to come to the telescope.

5. 13 billion years ago does not mean absolute origin of the universe. But there is nothing that says we are seeing "a picture of a baby galaxy born soon after the beginning of the universe." The "beginning of the universe" staff is invented by physicists from their absurd assumptions to define the Big Bang mythology. Big bang is mythology. It is not an observational fact.

So do I understand this correctly?

I also find it very interesting that NASA astronomers market this "artist's rendition of an embryonic galaxy brimming with star birth in the early universe" to support their mythological ideology with simulation while it is not supported by observations.

What they see is not the birth of a galaxy at the origin of the universe but simply this

October 14th is a special day for me, it's my wedding anniversary, so when I hear it mentioned my attention is naturally drawn. Twice in recent days I have read that date and it's got me joining some odd and disperate dots....

Firstly, there are reports and videos doing the rounds in cyberworld regarding Australian actress and author Blossom Goodchild's claim that a 2,000  mile wide UFO will appear in the southern hemisphere, on October 14th, for a period of 72 hours.

Make of it what you will, but let's play the 'What if?' game...what if it were true....why now...what happened recently that would necessitate such a bold move from a galactic neighbour?

There's a line in Jurassic Park  when Jeff Goldblum's character states;

'Your scientists were so occupied with whether or not they could  they didn't stop to think if they should:

There is a group of scientists in Switzerland who should have paid more attention to Mr Goldbum's words; those trying to find the God Particle  using the LHC at CERN.

Thanks to the media and it's facetious 'will the world end tomorrow morning'coverage, most people believe that this experiment began on the 10th of September; the world didn't end and all is well with the universe. But all that happened on that date was the start of the process not the process itself..all may not be well with the universe....

If you were an advanced race of beings from a galaxy far, far away, wouldn't you be a little worried about what your knuckle-dragging pygmy neighbours were doing in their attempt at playing God?

We should be able to see this huge ship coming via the Hubble telescope..but hang on...Hubble has unexpectedly died !  It has died two weeks before it's scheduled repair mission on..you've guessed it..October 14th. The repair mission has been put back to February 2009...mmm..curiouser and curiouser...

Speaking of knuckle-dragging pygmies....the bankers and the elite seem to be really, really desperate to get their hands on a whole lot of our money all of a sudden don't you think?  Did anyone else hear that Paulson was on his hands and knees begging congressmen to grant him the $700 billion dollars for his buddies? It's almost as if they are trying to raid the public piggy bank before...before what...what is coming that merits such an urgent need for money?....Could it be October 14th?

TheBrookings Report of 1961, conducted on behalf of NASA, and titled 'Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities For Human Affairs, had a section on The Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life'.

The possible impact of evidence of a 'superior' alien race on Earth society was discussed and it was proposed that such an event could possibly lead to the disintegration of civilised society in all its forms- religious, political, economic and scientific....so it would be best to keep such knowledge from the public to avoid the inevitable panic...I mean, if that gigantic ship did appear on the 14th of October would you be worried about paying your mortgage or gas bill? Would you be worred about putting your recyclables into the correct bin?

And panic is what we are seeing in the upper echelons of our governments at the moment, leading to economic chaos and the apparent unravelling of our institutions...admit it, it all feels a little surreal at the moment, doesn't it?...What if?

Update: I received an email last night directing me to an event I had missed that may fit into this scenario....

United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) announced plans for Operation Vigilant Shield 08, an anti-terrorism exercise of which will prepare the government for implementation of martial law. The exercises will take place from October 15th to October 20th in conjunction with partner nations including Australia, Canada, Britain, and the Territory of Guam. Furthermore, the Operation will be conducted based on lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, in which unwilling civilians in New Orleans were forced to relocate and faced confiscation of firearms.

The article also reminds us that on September 11th, 2001, NORAD conducted a series of drills, tragically resulting in no military response to the airline hijackings. Vigilant Shield was one of those drills.

Ok...so what started out as a light-hearted joining of the dots has suddenly become more sinister

Die NASA-Sonde Phoenix hat Schneefall registriert. Eine Sensation, so fiel doch kurz vorher das alte Schrottteleskop Hubble aus.
warum die Milch beim aufmachen der Verpackung spritzt und wie eine Rentnerin 10.000 Euro verlor - HIER lesen!

La razón de este aplazamiento se debe a que durante la pasada noche del sábado al domingo, uno de los componentes críticos del Hubble que se encarga de almacenar y transmitir a la Tierra los datos recogidos por los diversos componentes del Hubble, dicha fallo hizo que las computadoras de a bordo pusieran al telescopio en modo seguro.

Después de varios intentos fallidos para reiniciar el componente y realizar un volcado de memoria que pudiera dar pistas sobre la posible causa del problema, se decidió pasar al lado B de la tarjeta para tratar de recuperar el funcionamiento del telescopio. Dicho lado B no es otra cosa mas que un sistema que funciona de manera independiente al lado A usado normalmente para proveer de cierta redunancia a la elecrónica del Hubble, pero para que el lado B de la tarjeta que falló pueda ser usado, también se debe de pasar al lado B toda la electrónica de otros cinco módulos del telescopio, sin contar que las únicas veces que se realizaron dichas maniobras fueron en Tierra en forma de pruebas previas al lanzamiento.

Si todo sale bien el Hubble podría estar en funcionamiento nuevamente a finales de esta semana o un poco más tarde. Sin embargo, el fallo de esta tarjeta ha hecho que la NASA decida aplazar el lanzamiento de la STS-125 hasta el próximo año ya que planean incluir en la carga del Atlantis una nueva tarjeta para reemplazar la dañada, sin embargo, esta nueva tarjeta no se encontrará probada y lista para volar hasta los primeros días de enero de 2009.

Mientras tanto el Endevour, que se encontraba listo para realizar la misión de rescate STS-400 en caso de que hubiera sido necesaria, será preparado para la misión STS-126 a la estación espacial internacional.

Visto en: Microsiervos.
Más información: Hubble Space Telescope Problem Delays STS-125 Launch.

¿Qué fue lo que vio el Hubble en febrero de 2006?

La clave está en el hecho de que el papel técnico relativo al asunto haya esperado hasta este año para ser publicado. Todo ese tiempo, el equipo del proyecto de búsqueda de supernovas que utiliza al Hubble como caballito de batalla, no pudo encontrar una causa plausible para explicar el fenómeno. Ahora bien, ¿Cuál es el fenómeno?

Resulta que el Hubble durante un lapso de 200 días observó el aumento y posterior disminución en el brillo de un objeto ubicado en el vecindario de la constelación de Bootes. El fenómeno fue casi perfectamente simétrico con un pico a los 100 días de una magnitud de 26 aproximadamente.

Ningún objeto conocido por la ciencia astronómica se comporta como lo hizo este objeto. Una supernova, por ejemplo presenta un incremento rapidísimo de brillo (y por ende de luminosidad), seguido por una disminución paulatina de la misma. Los cuasares los conocemos con brillos sorprendentes para su distancia, pero más o menos constante.

Si no es nada de esto, entonces ¿qué puede ser? Esta pregunta nos lleva en realidad al meollo del problema y ese es simplemente que no sabemos la distancia a la que este objeto está. La distancia escrítica porque, a diferencia de lo que Jaime Maussán les quiera hacer creer para juzgar el tamaño de algo es necesario saber a qué distancia está. En este caso, la distancia nos indicaría que tan brillante es el fenómeno en cuestión.

En tanto no sepamos este crítico valor, estamos condenados a especular en tanto a la naturaleza de este bicho. Claro que no faltó quien dice que probablemente se trate de un objeto producto de alguna inteligencia extraterrestre.... Stay Tuned.

Astronomers around the world are quite concerned today following NASA's announcement yesterday of a serious problem with the Hubble Space Telescope that has forced them to delay the all-important 4th servicing mission to next year. The fault, which occurred last weekend in the telescope's command and data handling system, is preventing data from being sent down from the telescope. The telescope itself, they stressed, is absolutely fine - but this is a pretty serious fault nonetheless.

Luckily redundancy was built into the telescope, as is done as much as possible with space missions, and the operations team has begun preparing the transition to the redundant channel. This is a complex operation and the channel has not been used since ground testing before Hubble was launched - the switch should be a real test for the telescope engineering and I imagine  it's a pretty stressful time over at NASA.

But it could all have been much much worse. A redundant channel is available, and the final servicing mission is yet to take place. NASA are looking into carrying out some additional hardware repairs during the upcoming servicing mission, which will now hopefully take place next January or February. The mission is crucial for continuing Hubble's operations until the launch of its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, around 2013.

After the demise of space shuttle Columbia, astronomers had to fight hard to make SM4 happen - so get well soon Hubble!

The NASA press release is here.

A good new story from AP is here.

Various bloggers have also commented, look here, here and here.

Technikmacken hatte das Teleskop ja von Anfang an, aber die konnten alle behoben werden und wir verdanken Hubble tolle Aufnahmen aus den Tiefen des Weltalls.

Nun hat die NASA vorsorglich den anstehenden Reperaturflug zum Teleskop gestoppt um erstmal die Ursachen für die aktuelle Störung zu ermitteln. Dann sollen die Astronauten, entsprechend mit Ersatzteilen ausgerüstet, Anfang 2009 starten.

This means that the planned Hubble Servicing Mission, which was scheduled to launch on October 14th, is going to be postponed until sometime early next year, in order for a new SICDHS unit to be carried up and installed.

Dr. Phil Plait has more details on his Bad Astronomy blog.

The quality and importance of the voluminous numbers of Hubble telescope images beamed to Earth by the Hubble telescope has changed the way that the universe is perceived and helped astronomers to a great extent in understanding how the universe was formed and how long ago. Read further  Hubble Telescope Image

The Hubble space telescope has to date been in operation for seventeen years and though initial costs were estimated to be no more than five hundred million dollars; its actual cost has been about five billion dollars. Of course, such high costs have led many to criticize this instrument and matters have not been helped much when the initial Hubble telescope picture Read further  Hubble Telescope Picture

Telescopes are instruments that are used to view objects that are at a considerable distance and one major use for such instruments is to be able to view the skies above us. The Hubble telescope is a name that is well recognized throughout the world and the reason for its popularity is that it Read further Hubble Telescope

El Telescopio Espacial Hubble ha capturado una imagen de una extraña alineación entre dos galaxias espirales. El borde externo de la galaxia más pequeña marca su silueta en frente de una galaxia mayor. Los tentáculos de polvo pueden verse extendidos más allá del disco luminoso de la galaxia pequeña.

Desde los telescopios asentados en la Tierra, ambas galaxias sólo se parecen a una burbuja. Sin embargo, el "ojo" de la Cámara Avanzada del Hubble distinguió la burbuja como dos galaxias, catalogadas como 2MASX J00482185-2507365.

Fuente: Traducción de MARÍA SOL GONZÁLEZ del sitio de HUBBLESITE.ORG, "Galaxy Silhouettes".

1610: Galileo discovers that its not only the earth that has a moon but that Jupiter has more than what earth has

1664: Robert Hooke discovers the Fifth star of theTrapezium

1781: William Herschel discovers Uranus

1845: William Parsons tells out the shape of the Whirlpool galaxy

1846: Johann Galle discovers the planet Neptune

1925: The Hooker Telescope finds out that we are not the only galaxy existing

1949: Halle telescope discovers the crux behind the stellar evolution

Only after the 60's the full potential use of the telescopes were realised and scientists built huge observatories setting up these gargantuan behemoths forever strutting into space. 80's saw few of the most ground-breaking ideas being revealed thanks to these telescopes and the whole world owes to the Hubble Telescope which is an eye candy to every astronomical scientist.In picture one of the umpteen of the most amazing images captured by the legendary Hubble space telescope.

By far one of the greatest discoveries that indirectly contributed to the area to which it wasn't thought to be contributing.

La fecha programada para el despegue de la misión STS-125 del transbordador espacial Atlantis y quinta misión de servicio al Telescopio Espacial Hubble ha sido reprogramada para el 14 de Octubre a las 23:19 hora argentina. Una conferencia de prensa está agendada para el viernes 3 de Octubre en el Centro Espacial Kennedy en Florida para anunciar la fecha oficial del despegue. Dicha conferencia podrá verse en vivo desde el sitio web de NASATV.

Con el retraso del despegue del Atlantis del 10 de Octubre al 14 de Octubre, la misión a la Estación Espacial Internacional a cargo del transbordador Endeavour STS-126, también se correrá del 12 de Noviembre al 16 de Noviembre a las 20:07 hora argentina.

Los ajustes de la fecha del despegue fueron realizados el miércoles 24 de Septiembre.

Fuente: Traducción de MARÍA SOL GONZÁLEZ de un fragmento de la noticia publicada en NASA.GOV, "NASA Announces New Target Launch Dates, Status News Conference".

Hosted by Damon Talley of NASA's Digital Learning Network and Rebecca Sprague of NASA Public Affairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the L-1 webcast features interviews with the crew, a Hubble astronomer and up-close looks at all the work going into this exciting mission.

For more information about this event, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts125/launch/sts125_webcast.html

The site celebrates Hubble as a unique tool of exploration and as a catalyst of inspiration to wonder -- to ponder new questions and to seek expressive responses to the magnificent visual imagery it enables people to "see." This site will continue to follow the Hubble journey into 2010, Hubble's 20th anniversary year.

Join NASA as preparations progress toward a fall 2008 launch of the space shuttle Atlantis for the mission to service Hubble. When the mission concludes, Hubble will be like a new telescope. New gyroscopes and batteries will extend its operational lifetime. New, more powerful and sensitive scientific instruments will increase Hubble's capacity to "see" deeper into space than ever before.

The Hubble educational resource site offers activities and resources for three primary themes: Hubble Careers, From Galileo to the Great Observatories, and the Hubble Walk: Spacesuits and Spacewalks. Revisit this Web site often throughout the next year for updates and added activities, resources, links to complementary sites, and notices of special events.

Visit the new Hubble website at http://www.nasa.gov/education/hubble

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