NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is
back in action after its most recent upgrade, with a spectacular array of new
images showing off the telescope's new capabilities.
Among the first images – a closely
guarded secret until today – is one of galaxy
NGC 6217. The picture was taken with NASA's newly refurbished Advanced
Camera for Surveys (ACS).
This is "the day many of us
have all been waiting for to celebrate Hubble's new beginning," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington,
D.C.
Hubble also snapped pictures of a group
of five galaxies, a densely packed star cluster, an eerie "pillar of
creation," and a
"butterfly" nebula.
Scientists also released
spectroscopic observations that slice across billions of light-years to probe
the cosmic-web structure of the universe and map the distribution of elements
that are fundamental to life as we know it.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., who has provided key support for Hubble and NASA in
Congress, unveiled the images at NASA Headquarters. She was given the honorary
title "Godmother of Hubble." Mikulski's district includes the Space
Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore,
where Hubble images are processed.
"I fought for the Hubble repair
mission because Hubble is the people's telescope," said Mikulski,
chairwoman of the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee
that funds NASA.
Hubble's new instruments, including
the Wide Field Camera 3, a new super-sensitive spectrograph, were installed on
the 19-year-old telescope by shuttle astronauts during a 13-day
service mission in May. The mission, which was initially cancelled in 2004 due
to safety concerns after the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster, also revived
two instruments — Hubble's main ACS and a versatile imaging spectrograph —
that were never designed to be fixed in space.
The new instruments are more
sensitive to light and, therefore, will improve Hubble's observing efficiency
significantly. It is able to complete observations in a fraction of the time
that was needed with prior generations of Hubble instruments.
The WFC3 was actually used to take a
picture of Jupiter's
new black spot — thought to have been caused by a comet collision — back in
July, but the camera wasn't yet fully calibrated then. WFC3 also took new images of
the Omega Centauri star cluster in our galaxy, in which the contrast between
hot and cool stars can vividly be seen, and the Butterfly Nebula, for which
astronomers used the new filters on the camera to see the envelope of gas
expanding away from this planetary nebula.
"We couldn't be happier about
the way things have gone," Bob O'Connell, chair of the science oversight
committee for the Wide Field Camera 3 at the University of Virginia.
"We're fully confident the camera is working as it was intended to work."
Images taken with the new Cosmic
Origins Spectrograph were taken in one-tenth of the time of Hubble's older spectrograph,
which will allow scientists to view 10 times as many targets or look at targets
one-tenth as bright, said James Green, the COS principal investigator at the
University of Colorado. Scientists hope to build a catalogue of hundreds or
thousands of targets and map the distribution of matter throughout the
universe.
Hubble will also be able to continue
observations of Eta Carinae,
one of the most massive stars in the galaxy (and actually a pair of stars), that
were suspended by instrument failure in 2004, said David Leckrone,
senior project scientist for Hubble at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md. Eta Carinae
has erupted before and is expected to do so again.
Despite a few bumps in the
three-month checkout, Hubble's systems and instruments are all up and running
now.
NASA's new administrator Charlie
Bolden was also on hand to congratulate the scientists and astronauts on
Hubble's new lease on life. Bolden was one of the astronauts on the shuttle
mission that deployed Hubble in 1990.
"Hubble has a special place in
my heart," Bolden said. Through Hubble's past and future observations,
"our view of the universe and our place within it will never be the
same," he added.
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