Hubble (the telescope)

[Joe G]

I'm looking at the latest Nat'l Geographic, and they have some recent pictures from Hubble. Back in March of 2002, astronauts installed a new camera, called ACS (Advanced Camera for Surveys, kind of lame ) which has roughly ten times the discovery power of the previous camera, according to the article. These new pictures are just stunningly beautiful and mind blowing. Here's a link to the NG site where there are a few of the shots. Be sure to check out the animations.

A caption above a photo of a globular cluster (dense concentrations of stars) says that "in another ancient globular cluster, M4, Hubble recently suprised scientists by revealing a planet that may have formed 12.7 billion years ago-the oldest known to date." Now that's old. I wonder if a planet within a g.c. ever sees nightfall...

I don't know about anyone else, but I find this stuff just endlessly fascinating. I look at those images and almost can't believe that such incredible events and structures are actually happening out there. B)

Edited December 3, 2003 by Joe G

[John B]

I look at those images and almost can't believe that such incredible events and structures are actually happening out there. B)

or that we are able to take such amazingly detailed photos like these. Thanks for sharing this link!

[Claude]

Sun Ra must be somewhere in Keyhole Nebula.

[BruceH]

I know what you mean, Joe. Those pictures are so good that I actually bought that issue off the stands (and I almost never buy NG). Check out the APOD site, too (Astronomy Picture of the Day)---some good ones on there!