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The Hubble Space Telescope one of the greatest NASA/ESA missions has "caught" the Boomerang Nebula in these new images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys. This reflecting cloud of dust and gas has two nearly symmetric lobes (or cones) of matter that are being ejected from a central star. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope entered a new era of science operations this week, when engineers shut down one of the three operational gyroscopes aboard the observatory. The two-gyro mode is expected to preserve the operating life of the third gyro and extend Hubble's science observations through mid-2008, an eight-month extension, in that sense Hubble doesn't have any successor, which is very bad thing. Hubble is also an UV telescope, and no Earth-based telescope can replace it.
However we are now seeing new ideas for great ground based scopes in the visible spectrum and perhaps space-based IR scopes looking at infrared, things like Euro50, improved-VLT, CELT, JWST, OWL may replace Hubble
http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercur … imate.html
http://www.eso.org/projects/owl/Gallery.html
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large population of galaxies
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 … 03979.html
more info on the 100-metre Overwhelmingly Large [OWL] telescope.
http://www.pparc.ac.uk/nw/press/accession.asp
possible OWL
http://www.gemini.edu/science/maxat/future/future.html
watch out for others the improved-VLT, CELT, JWST, OWL, Euro50 - however JWST is not in the visible
Astronomers from ESA's Member States are taking part in a French led mission to be the first to search for rocky planets around other stars. The mission, COROT, is an important stepping stone in the European effort to find habitable, Earth-like planets around other stars.
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMO6C1A6BD_index_0.html
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=31709
Corot will be the first mission capable of detecting rocky planets, several times larger than Earth, around nearby stars (planets outside our Solar System are referred to as ‘exoplanets’). It consists of a 30-centimetre space telescope. It will be launched in early 2006. Corot will use its telescope to monitor closely the changes in a star’s brightness that comes from a planet crossing in front of it. While it is looking at a star, Corot will also be able to detect ‘starquakes’ that send ripples across a star’s surface, altering its brightness. The exact nature of the ripples allows astronomers to calculate the star's precise mass, age and chemical composition.
'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )
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The VLT consists of a cluster of four large (8.2 meter diameter) telescopes, and an interferometer (VLTI) which will be used to resolve fine features. The interferometer will include a set of 1.8 meter diameter telescopes dedicated to interferometric observations. The 8.2 meter telescopes have been named after the names of some astronomical objects in the local Mapuche language: Antu (The Sun), Kueyen (The Moon), Melipal (The Southern Cross), and Yepun (Venus)
Searching for planets with life
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMBVPWLDMD_FeatureWeek_0.html
Darwin will use a flotilla of three space telescopes, each at least 3 metres in diameter, and a fourth spacecraft to server as communications hub. The telescopes will operate together to scan the nearby Universe, looking for signs of life on Earth-like planets. This is a daunting challenge and will require a number of technological innovations before the mission launches in the middle of the next decade.
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=31241
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Colossal Cosmic Eye
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/p … 31-05.html
ESO's VLT Captures Image of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1350
'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
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Pluto Has 2 "New" Moons
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4011
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has spotted two possible new moons orbiting Pluto, the ninth planet in our solar system.
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=38198
If confirmed, the candidate moons could provide new insight into the nature and evolution of the Pluto system and the early Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is a vast region of icy, rocky bodies beyond Neptune's orbit.
"If, as our new Hubble images indicate, Pluto has not one, but two or three moons, it will become the first body in the Kuiper Belt known to have more than one satellite," said Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. He is co-leader of the team that made the discovery.
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope view shows one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space, located 210 000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMHUTJBWFE_index_0.html
At the centre of the region is a brilliant star cluster called NGC 346, a dramatic structure of arched, ragged filaments with a distinct ridge surrounding the cluster.
Hawaii (November 7, 2005) The W. M. Keck Observatory received a grant of $75,000 from the M. R. and Evelyn Hudson Foundation to improve astronomy research and technology. The grant will support three programs at Keck Observatory: $28,000 for a summit employee breakfast program, $25,000 for a supplemental oxygen program for summit employees, and $22,000 to assist the start-up of the Keck advancement office, including funding a new astronomy lecture series.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=18217
Star on the Run
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/p … 27-05.html
Speeding Star Observed with VLT Hints at Massive Black Hole
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There were some plans to add to the Keck observatiry but that looks like that will not happen at this time. Judge reverses permit for new Hawaiian telescopes
After eight years of planning and courtroom battles, a judge in Hawaii has overruled a permit for up to six smaller telescopes that were to surround the twin Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea.
NASA had already pulled funding for the Outrigger Telescope Project in February 2006, but the ruling may still have follow-on effects for other telescopes planned for Hawaiian peaks. These include the planned Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), which would hunt for near-Earth asteroids and comets.
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Today's Googling produced the following further justification for the Hubble repair mission in 2008:
The Hubble is the sole telescope that can pursue supernova explosions deeply enough to chart the early days of dark energy. The recent announcement that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will send astronauts to maintain and refurbish the Hubble once again, enabling it to keep performing well into the next decade, is a lift for Dr. Riess' project. A new camera could extend observations to 11 billion or 12 billion years back.
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... And now, with the advent of combined visible superimposed infrared space telescope imagery disclosures, there is even more justification for refurbishing and updating the Hubble.
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There were some plans to add to the Keck observatiry but that looks like that will not happen at this time. Judge reverses permit for new Hawaiian telescopes
After eight years of planning and courtroom battles, a judge in Hawaii has overruled a permit for up to six smaller telescopes that were to surround the twin Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea.
NASA had already pulled funding for the Outrigger Telescope Project in February 2006, but the ruling may still have follow-on effects for other telescopes planned for Hawaiian peaks. These include the planned Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), which would hunt for near-Earth asteroids and comets. It is too bad all the people that made a fuss about the Hubble wouldn’t pay more attention to this because this technology is the future.
From the story it sounds like it is quite a blow to astronomy. The first optical interferometry telescope being held back. As a consequence the technology is delayed on earth and in space. It is too bad all the people that made a fuss about the Hubble wouldn’t pay more attention to this because this technology is the future.
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