| Atlantis launched at 2:01 p.m. EDT on one last | | | | of blast waves shocking clouds of dust that escape |
| maintenance mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, | | | | from stars on the edge of eruption. |
| the 19-year-old orbiting observatory that floats at an | | | | Black holes have been a great enhancement to our |
| altitude littered with space debris. The seven-member | | | | knowledge of the universe. Hubble has observed the |
| crew of space shuttle Atlantis lifted off Monday for | | | | stars orbiting near suspected super-massive black |
| one of the riskiest shuttle flights yet — so risky, | | | | holes, from which nothing — not even light — |
| in fact, that another space shuttle is ready to launch | | | | can escape, such as the Sagittarius A* at the center |
| in case they need to be rescued. Maybe a new | | | | of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Hubble has also |
| movie in the makings? | | | | detected previously unsuspected middle-size black |
| Cosmologist, Mario Livio of the Space Telescope | | | | holes (merely 10,000 times more massive than the |
| Science Institute in Baltimore says that we're going | | | | sun) in nearby galaxies. |
| to get more great science. Just in time science for | | | | "Deep field" images from Hubble first surprised |
| 2012 maybe? :-) | | | | astronomers by showing that the most distant, and |
| Hubble will go from a VW SuperBeetle to a | | | | earliest, galaxies don't resemble the spiral and |
| high-powered race car," says astronomer Julianne | | | | football-shaped galaxies of the modern universe, but |
| Dalcanton of the University of Washington in Seattle. | | | | look more like "insects spattered on a windshield." |
| Hubble will peer at stars and galaxies formed 500 | | | | The age of the universe has been honed by the |
| million years after the Big Bang, armed with a new | | | | precision of the "Hubble constant," (also named for |
| camera 30 times more sensitive to light and a | | | | the astronomer Edwin Hubble) the measure of the |
| chemical spectrometer 10 times more effective. "We | | | | universe's expansion rate. Hubble measurements of |
| will be able to plan observations we never could | | | | exploding stars led to the 1998 discovery of "dark |
| before simply because the telescope will be more | | | | energy," the unexplained observation that galaxies |
| efficient," Livio said in an April interview. | | | | across the cosmos are moving apart at an |
| Hubble has delivered many astronomical findings such | | | | accelerating rate. |
| as: | | | | Remarkably, the space telescope doesn't represent a |
| Cepheids, which are pulsating stars thousands of | | | | very advanced observatory compared to massive |
| times brighter than our sun, serve as ready-made | | | | telescopes on Earth, such as the 33-foot-wide mirror |
| distance markers in space. Measuring Cepheids in | | | | of Hawaii's Keck telescopes. But its location in orbit |
| galaxies such as the Spiral Galaxy M100 allows | | | | frees it from clouds, atmospheric distortion and city |
| astronomers to create a framework by which they | | | | lights on Earth, making it invaluable to astronomers. |
| can precisely gauge distances throughout the sky. | | | | If you're a cosmologist, It's hard to conceive of a |
| Star blasts which means that after stars consume | | | | world without Hubble! And, with 2012 around the |
| their hydrogen fuel, an explosion can't be far behind. | | | | corner who knows what we'll find? |
| Images of nearby explosions reveal the "light echoes" | | | | |