telescopes

AUSTIN, Texas--Deep, deep in the reaches of outerspace, there is a star factory. Astronomers have theorized about its appearance, though they've never had a realistic view of it.

Until now.

Last year, the space shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida en route to a very special mission: NASA'S last-ditch attempt to repair the Hubble Space Telescope before it was too late to salvage humankind's greatest tool for peering at the mysteries in the farthest parts of the sky.

In the new film, "IMAX: Hubble 3D," viewers are treated to the riches … Read more

According to Wired, this 570-megapixel camera is possibly the largest digicam ever built. But I wonder how it compares with the 1.4-gigapixel shooter conceived last year by the Institute for Astronomy in the University of Hawaii that we wrote about last year?

That aside, this gigantic beast of a snapper is rigged together by a team of particle physicists and astronomers at Fermilab. Its main purpose is to look deep into space for evidence of dark energy, which is supposedly causing the universe to expand at an increased speed.

This camera costs $35 million to build and, once completed, … Read more

NASA scientists showed off spectacular new pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope Wednesday, a stunning gallery of remote galaxies, a stellar nursery, an enormous globular cluster packed with countless pinpoint stars, and a dying sun blowing off its outer atmosphere in butterfly-like wings of debris.

The pictures clearly show the fabled telescope is back in action, ready to resume its role as one of the most productive observatories on or off the planet, thanks to a dramatic five-spacewalk shuttle repair mission last May.

"Every field of astrophysics, whether it's our local neighborhood of planets, nearby stars and their … Read more

The Hubble Space Telescope, still undergoing tests and checkout after a May shuttle servicing mission, snapped a dramatic photo of Jupiter this week showing the atmospheric disturbance left behind after a presumed comet or icy asteroid crashed into the giant planet.

The photograph, taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3, is the first science observation released from Hubble since the telescope was upgraded and repaired.

"The details seen in the Hubble view shows lumpiness in the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere," NASA said in a statement. "The impactor is estimated to be … Read more

Delayed two days by stormy Florida weather, the shuttle Atlantis glided to a smooth California landing Sunday, closing out a successful mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope with a picture-perfect Mojave Desert touchdown.

With commander Scott Altman and pilot Gregory C. Johnson at the controls, Atlantis crossed the coast of California northwest of Los Angeles on a steep descent to Edwards Air Force Base, rattling the countryside with twin sonic booms.

Taking over manual control at an altitude of about 50,000 feet, Altman guided the shuttle through a sweeping 200-degree left-overhead turn to line up on runway 22 … Read more

The repaired Hubble Space Telescope was relaunched Tuesday from the shuttle Atlantis after a historic fifth and final in-orbit overhaul.

Astronaut Megan McArthur, operating the shuttle's 50-foot-long robot arm, released the 24,500-pound observatory at 8:57 a.m. EDT as the shuttle sailed 350 miles above the west coast of Africa. The repaired telescope now boasts two new instruments, new gyros, fresh batteries, a new science computer, a refurbished star sensor, and two instruments brought back to life by spacewalking astronauts.

"The release of the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed," mission control commentator Kyle Herring said. "… Read more

Astronomer-astronaut John Grunsfeld, veteran of eight Hubble Space Telescope spacewalks and a self-described "Hubble hugger," inadvertently bumped into one of the observatory's two low-gain antennas toward the end of an otherwise smooth spacewalk Monday, knocking off a small end piece. Groaning with disbelief, Grunsfeld said, "Oh, I feel terrible."

But engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center quickly reported the antenna was still working normally. Grunsfeld and fellow spacewalker Andrew Feustel were asked to put a protective cover over the cone-shaped device for added insulation before ending the Atlantis crew's fifth and final spacewalk.… Read more

Held up by a stripped screw, spacewalker Michael Massimino applied brute force to an otherwise delicate operation Sunday, breaking off an offending handrail inside the Hubble Space Telescope and then carefully unscrewing more than 100 small fasteners to get inside a dead science instrument.

After pulling out a blown power supply circuit board, Massimino and crewmate Michael "Bueno" Good carefully installed a replacement card, closed the instrument up and began collecting tools and equipment while engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center sent commands to verify electrical connectivity in a quick-look "aliveness" test.

Somewhere along the … Read more

In what amounted to electronic brain surgery, a space-suited astronaut cut through shielding on a broken camera deep inside the Hubble Space Telescope on Saturday, removed a cover plate that wasn't designed to be taken off in orbit, used a custom tool to pull out four blown circuit boards, and then installed a fresh set.

Running up to an hour ahead of schedule at one point, astronomer-astronaut John Grunsfeld, a self-described "Hubble hugger" making his third visit to the telescope, then spliced in an electrical cable and connected it to a new low-voltage power supply that replaced … Read more