Fourteen Years of Great Science

A ring of brilliant blue star clusters wraps around the yellowish nucleus of what was once a normal spiral galaxy in this new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The galaxy, catalogued as AM 0644-741, lies 300 million light-years away in the direction of the southern constellation Dorado. A larger view is available here.

On April 24th NASA and Hubble enthusiasts everywhere will celebrate the 14th anniversary of the launch of what has become one of the best-known orbiting telescopes of our time. The Space Telescope Science Institute released the picture above to commemorate the occasion. Of course there were times when it didn’t seem like the scope would ever do anything as lovely as this image, but the scientists and technicians have more than overcome the problems and we see these kinds of sights routinely.

For me this anniversary is also another milestone. This week Mark and I are releasing our latest Hubble planetarium show, and although the release wasn’t really timed to take advantage of the anniversary, I guess it’s pretty apropos. I’ve talked in these pages before about how the HST has been part of my life since that fateful day — I’ve written a master’s thesis, three shows (one of them also a video), two books, and bunches of articles on the telescope, its science, and public perceptions of the project. It’s a fascinating topic, combining not just the purity of lovely images and data, but also the very human traits of curiosity, intelligence, and of course, hubris.

If you’ve never browsed through the tremendous archive of images over at Hubblesite.org, go take a visit and see what HST has accomplished over 14 years, encompassing observations of thousands and thousands of objects by teams of thousands and thousands of scientists. Celebrate HST!

Serendipitous Stargazing

We’ve had an unexpected (but welcome) warm spell here in the Northeast U.S. today. That means later on I can go out and do a little warm-night skygazing at the spring stars overhead. It’s not often we can do that in April around here. And, actually, there’s a good chance that it’ll cloud up and rain sometime soon, so I don’t want to lose the opportunity! In this stargazing business, you have to grab your chances when you can!

A few years ago I remember going out in downtown Boston (I lived in the North End for a short time) and being amazed to find Comet Hale-Bopp! It was bright enough we could see it from the middle of all the city lights. In fact, Mark and I grabbed the wait staff at the restaurant where we’d just had dinner and showed them the comet. Of course, it wasn’t all that warm (being late March at the time), but the generous impulse was appreciated. People respond to nifty cool things like being able to see a comet from a spot where, by all rights, they shouldn’t have a chance. A friend of mine who lives in New York City has regaled me with tales of taking her little scope out to a park near her place and showing people Mars and Saturn and Jupiter and the Moon. So, you never know when you might get a chance to see a celestial sight — and maybe share it with somebody!

Ship’s Keel

The Carina Nebula

In 2001 we went on a cruise around South America and I was the ship’s astronomy lecturer. My job was to help the paying passengers do some stargazing and give them some fun lectures about the stars. It was great fun, and I had a marvelous time getting to know the Southern Hemisphere skies along with my shipmates. One of our favorite areas to look was the constellation Carina, which harbors the great luminous blue variable Eta Carinae. This (probable) double star system is on the verge of tearing itself apart, and when it does the view should be spectacular.

The Nebula itself is made up of cast-off material from the star system, and there is evidence of star-forming activity inside the clouds. So, the whole area is being watched with great interest by those who want to understand the mechanics of starbirth and stardeath.

Of course we couldn’t see any of this from the ship — our view was “limited” to the gaspingly beautiful southern Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds and all the other sights we don’t get much chance to see from the Northern Hemisphere. The sky is just full of great stuff to study, and if you travel a lot, it enhances your visits to other lands.