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Our Deepest View Of The Universe Just Got Deeper!

This image of a tiny patch of sky reveals the oldest galaxies ever seen. Their light has traveled...

Hubble Shows Off Images From New Camera

NASA's 19-year-old Hubble Space Telescope still has a few tricks up its sleeve!  New images were...

Wildfires near NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was closed Monday as wildfires came within two miles of the facility...

Spacecakewalk!

Astronauts blazed through their third of five spacewalks Saturday as they continued servicing the...

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Dan CoeRSS Feed of this column.

We all may be made of star stuff, but we find that the universe is mostly made of something very different: dark matter. By analyzing an effect called "gravitational lensing", I along with other... Read More »

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Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel successfully installed the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Thursday during the first of five scheduled EVAs, or spacewalks, to rejuvenate the Hubble Space Telescope.

Hubble was "full of surprises" for the astronauts, and EVA 1 took an hour longer than planned, but the veteran space and ground crews overcame all obstacles and Servicing Mission 4 (SM4) remains right on schedule.  (See the full scheduled timeline in my previous post.)


They did a great job describing the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, but an awful job showing a picture of it.  "They" will remain nameless, as they otherwise put together a really great exhibit of images from the Hubble Space Telescope.  But in a panel where they talk about the Ultra Deep Field, they show pictures of something completely different: two galaxy clusters named Abell 1689 and CL0024.  They are beautiful examples of gravitational lensing which enables us to almost "see" dark matter, but not they are not the UDF.


Monday afternoon the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off into the Florida sky carrying with it the hopes and dreams of astronomers like me and people around the world.  Seven NASA astronauts have set out to repair the aging Hubble Space Telescope and upgrade it with new instruments.

The launch was picture-perfect from our vantage point at Space View Park in Titusville, Florida.  This may be the second shuttle launch I have seen in person, but it is the first I am old enough to remember.  (photo courtesy of David Radburn-Smith)