Questions tagged [hubble-telescope]

Questions regarding the Hubble Space Telescope, a visible light telescope orbiting Earth.

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V838 Monocerotis "light-echo" images morphed into nice video, but why so few original images?

This NYTimes video shows what I think is a series of real Hubble images which have been "morphed" artistically to appear to be continuously expanding. (also see The V838 Monocerotis Star Still Has ...
uhoh's user avatar
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17 votes
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Which are stars and which are noise in this comet photo?

The Forbes news article NASA's Hubble Telescope Snaps Best Images Yet Of Our First Interstellar Comet shows the image below (which I have since annotated) of comet 2I/Borisov (C/2019 Q4) and links to ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Why weren't the Hubble light-echo images of V838 Monocerotis supplemented by ground telescopes?

Drawing from this answer to V838 Monocerotis “light-echo” images morphed into nice video, but why so few original images? The V838 Monocerotis expansion (not a supernova) and the observation of the ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Where exactly is the modification that first corrected the spherical aberration in Hubble's primary mirror?

The April 2015 CBS News article How NASA fixed Hubble's flawed vision - and reputation describes the modification taken to the Hubble Space Telescopes by the Space Shuttle that was used to correct for ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Has Hubble ever been used to try to image a near Earth asteroid?

This answer to How big will Apophis appear? points out that the near Earth asteroid Apophis will likely be close to 2 arcseconds in diameter as seen from Earth during its close approach in 2029. I ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Is there a better explanation of this picture showing the very distant star "Earendel"?

"Close-up of the tiny region where Earendel happened to fall right on top of the narrow line where the magnification increases by (tens of) thousands of times. A cluster of many stars is seen ...
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Does the recent news of "ten times more galaxies" imply that there is correspondingly less dark matter?

Nature: Universe has ten times more galaxies than researchers thought NASA feature: Hubble Reveals Observable Universe Contains 10 Times More Galaxies Than Previously Thought Headlines sometimes ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Is this object an asteroid or comet, and how can it produce so many tails?

The NASA Hubble Space Telescope Science Release HEIC 1320 - When is a Comet not a Comet? - Hubble astronomers observe bizarre six-tailed asteroid is self-explanatory, but it doesn't explain what ...
uhoh's user avatar
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9 votes
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Why is Ganymede's aurora only visible in ultraviolet while Earth's is bright green and red?

GANYMEDE AURORAE NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observed a pair of auroral belts encircling the Jovian moon Ganymede. The belts were observed in ultraviolet light by the Space Telescope Imaging ...
Bob516's user avatar
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2 votes
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Did Hubble see a pair of UFOs? (Identify this artifact)

The image below is this one, found in this group of Hubble space telescope images of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov (C/2019 Q4). Can anyone recognize this pair of artifacts in the upper right ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Has Hubble photographed Venus in near IR? If so how does it compare to the new and exciting Parker Solar Probe image?

Phys.org's Parker Solar Probe offers stunning view of Venus includes the image below taken by the Parker Solar Probe during it's most recent gravitational assist flyby of Venus as it continues to rid ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Is it possible to use Hubble Telescope to observe Earth in the past?

We can observe many astronomical objects and structures beyond our solar system, however our observations are as the objects appeared in the past due to the speed of light. My question: "Is it ...
hki's user avatar
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How does V838 Monocerotis look today? Any subsequent light echo images, or is the party over?

This answer to the question V838 Monocerotis “light-echo” images morphed into nice video, but why so few original images? contains the following information below. There are other answers and more ...
uhoh's user avatar
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6 votes
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What (if any) capabilities of Hubble are unique and irreplaceable? What can it do that can't be done by any other ground or space-based telescope?

It's impossible to summarize in an SE post the depth and breadth of the contributions to science made using the Hubble Space Telescope. Above the atmosphere it has access to an extremely dark and ...
uhoh's user avatar
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4 votes
3 answers
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What causes these asteroid trails to be so strangely shaped and repeated?

The Phys.org news item Hubble is the ultimate multitasker: Discovering asteroids while it's doing other observations includes the image below. What causes these asteroid trails to be so strangely ...
uhoh's user avatar
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3 votes
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Why are distant objects observed in the near infrared?

I was reading an article that explains why JWST is a successor to Hubble and not a replacement for Hubble. They explained that Hubble's science pushed astronomers to look at longer wavelength. And ...
aloha's user avatar
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Questions about Hubble's brand new view of an interstellar comet (video)

This GIF is made (via giphy.com) from the new NASA Goddard video Hubble's New Image of Interstellar Object and if I understand correctly many (if not all) of these frames are from https://archive....
uhoh's user avatar
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What is the cause of all of these sharp, concentric rings around bright stars in this HST image?

ESA's HST page heic1819 — Photo Release; Hubble reveals cosmic Bat Shadow in the Serpent’s Tail is of course beautiful and stunning, but my eyes are drawn to the diffraction artifacts of the bright ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Are the dispersion directions of the prism and the grating in Hubble WFC3 UVIS G280 perpendicular? Can we call this a "grism"? With cross-disparsion?

Prologue From Into the UV: A precise transmission spectrum of HAT-P-41b using Hubble's WFC3/UVIS G280 grism: The UVIS grism, however, comes with several quirks that make it difficult to observe with ...
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2 votes
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Do point spread functions from large single telescopes using adaptive optics still look like Airy functions for narrow-band filters?

this answer to Claim that 30-m class telescopes will have resolution far superior to Hubble: true? mentions ...the possibility of attaining near diffraction-limited images using adaptive optics. The ...
uhoh's user avatar
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15 votes
1 answer
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What are the large round dark "holes" in this NASA Hubble image of the Crab Nebula?

I came across this image of the Crab Nebula taken from NASA Hubble telescope. What are the large round "holes" and how are they formed?
Martin's user avatar
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Instrument aperture sizes on Hubble Telescope

When looking at the diagram of the focal plane of the Hubble Space Telescope I noticed that the aperture sizes of most of the scientific instruments are very small. They occupy a very tiny fraction of ...
mpv's user avatar
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6 votes
4 answers
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Why can we still see 10 billion year old galaxies?

I've never fully understood why we can still see galaxies that are 10 billion light years away. The age of the universe is calculated to be 13.9 billion years old and we live on a planet that it is ...
MattCowen's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
401 views

If we had the right technology could we see a distant star in detail?

If, for instance, Hubble's camera was a $10^{300}$ times better, could it see a distant star in details, or is there a limit to the amount of light that reaches the Earth's orbit or perhaps does the ...
Guy's user avatar
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1 answer
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How often and for what reasons does Hubble use two different instruments at the same time?

A comment under this answer to ** links to Hubblesite.org's Hubble Shoots the Moon The image, its description and credits are shown below. As explained, the purpose of the observation was to record a ...
uhoh's user avatar
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5 votes
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Claim that 30-m class telescopes will have resolution far superior to Hubble: true?

This article makes the claim that the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT, number 4 in the list) will have resolution 10 times better than that of Hubble, while the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT, number 3 in ...
NeutronStar's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
309 views

What are the dark spots in this Hubble image of the Crab Nebula?

I recently ran into this NASA Hubble image of the Crab Nebula in this article talking about its core. What I am interested to know though is: what are these round dark spots appearing in the image (...
Martin's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
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Could Ganymede's aurora be seen with the naked eye?

If one was orbiting in the Jovian system, as depicted in this artist conception, could the aurora be seen unassisted? Hubblesite-Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
Bob516's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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How are "parallel fields" implemented on the Hubble Space Telescope?

The Phys.org news item Hubble is the ultimate multitasker: Discovering asteroids while it's doing other observations mentions the Hubble Space Telescope's use of parallel fields: A couple years ago, ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
266 views

How does the Hubble Space Telescope "Drift and Shift"?

The Phys.org article Mystery of the universe's expansion rate widens with new Hubble data says: Astronomers have been using Cepheid variables as cosmic yardsticks to gauge nearby intergalactic ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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How many science instruments can be used in parallel with the Hubble Space Telescope?

The Hubble Space Telescope offers a parallel obervation mode. Observing programmes such as CANDELS and CLASH use WFC3 and ACS in parallel fields. These are also the only instruments of which I have ...
Alex's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
151 views

How close to Earth were the asteroids moving through this Hubble composite image?

Recently Hubble saw several asteroids traveling erratically through a deep field perspective. What region of the sky is this, and how near were these asteroids to the Earth? The photo is composed ...
bandybabboon's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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What star was the asteroid 2014 MU69 predicted to occult on 2018-08-04?

From a search, I found a list of some preparatory HST observations made for the August 4, 2018 occultation of a star by the asteroid 2014 MU69 We propose observations in support of the upcoming New ...
uhoh's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
291 views

Why do space telescopes have GRISMS? Why a grating AND a prism for cross-dispersion in slitless spectroscopy?

https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/wfc3ihb lists the page 8.2 Slitless Spectroscopy with the UVIS G280 Grism which contains details of one of the GRISMs of the Hubble Space Telescope (GRISM = Grating + Prism)....
uhoh's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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Will JWST have fewer observing sessions of much longer duration compared to Hubble?

In The Observatory @Donald.McLean linked to Scientists will peer at first galaxies with James Webb telescope which says in part: Many of the proposed tasks for the Webb telescope were planned and ...
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