Category Archives: hubble space telescope

astronomy, astronomy news, astronomy research, galaxies, galaxy interactions, hubble space telescope

I Can’t Get Enough of Them!

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Those Colliding Galaxies

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I know, I know. I showed you one of these a few entries ago. But, I can’t help it. I’m stuck on ’em. Just look at this picture and tell me you aren’t taken with the beauty of two galaxies colliding. And look at all the galaxies in the background!  They’re in all shapes and sizes.

In case you didn’t figure this out already, it’s another gorgeous view from Hubble Space Telescope. It’s of NGC 3256, an object that looks like one galaxy but is actually the aftermath of a collision of two spearate galaxies. There’s a double nucleus here and the two “footlike” smears extending out from either side of the central action are tidal tails chock-full of hot young stars and gas clouds.

hst news, hubble space telescope, saturn

Lord of the Rings

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I spent last weekend in Middle Earth. More correctly, I spent the weekend watching the extended DVD editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, something I’ve been wanting to do since I got the set for Christmas. Great movies, lots of action and beautiful scenery and incredible CG work on the battle scenes. I was in hog heaven.

Saturn, courtesy Hubble Space Telescope and Space Telescope Science Institute.
Saturn, courtesy Hubble Space Telescope and Space Telescope Science Institute.

Today I got to check out another Lord of the Rings—the great and beauteous planet Saturn. Thanks to Hubble Space Telescope, it’s now a movie star. Today the Space Telescope Science Institute released its own set of movies about Saturn, all based on images taken by HST over the past few years. They show ring plane crossing, some of the Moons, and some atmospheric features as the planet spins on its axis.

Astronomers took dozens of images of Saturn over the years, using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. These images were strung together and animated to give us these three wonderful videos.

The best part about this ongoing survey of Saturn is that it shows us the planet changing over time, at least in the atmosphere. It gives us all a chance to see Saturn’s rings in different orientations as it (and we) orbit the Sun and our changing positions change our point of view. Go check ’em out and collect the set!