National Aeronautics and Space Administration Coming Attractions Taken from: Produced by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Space Telescope Science Institute. The full contents of this book include more Hubble science articles, an overview of the telescope, and more. The complete volume and its component sections are available for download online at: www.hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/science_year_in_review
Hubble captures the starburst galaxy Messier 82, located in the constellation Ursa Major (The Big Dipper), and a favorite of amateur astronomers. The galaxy is remarkable for its bright blue disk, webs of shredded clouds, and fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out of its central regions.
Coming Attractions
Coming Attractions The discoveries of tomorrow are incubating today in the minds of astronomers, as they analyze newly received data and plan Hubble s next observations. Although the past 17 years have firmly established it as the single greatest facility for scientific research ever, the Hubble Space Telescope maintains its reputation by continually producing outstanding new results. While we must wait for announcements to learn the specifics, some likely areas of progress are suggested by how astronomers are actually using Hubble s unique capabilities today. Astronomers are using a Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) to track stars, looking for wobbles induced by the gravity of orbiting planets. While two FGSs are used to point Hubble, the third can be used as the most accurate instrument ever created for measuring stellar positions. We can anticipate that Hubble will soon contribute to the public s interest in other planetary systems and the general question of life in the universe. Before the visible channels of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) went offline early in 2007, astronomers were using it for stellar archaeology investigating histories of star formation in galaxies and globular clusters of stars; these are thought to be the least modified and most ancient stellar systems. Such studies of stellar populations demand high spatial resolution and superb photometric accuracy over a wide field of view a Hubble forte. We expect surprising results soon from older ACS pictures, with other important findings to follow the 2008 servicing mission, which will renew Hubble s imaging capabilities. The far-ultraviolet channel of ACS is still working well, and astronomers are using it to detect the hottest and brightest stars in distant galaxies. Because such stars live only briefly, they are tracers of ongoing star formation. Bursts of star formation often result from collisions and mergers of galaxies. Because of the vast amounts of ultraviolet light produced, star formation can also move and modify the gas in and between galaxies. From such observations, we can look forward to new insights into cosmic evolution. An artist s view of a planetary companion of a faint, red, low-mass star. Hubble s sensititve and accurate tracking of such nearby stars, along with ground-based measurements of their oscillating line-of-sight velocities, give astronomers direct evidence for the gravitational effect of unseen planets on their parent stars. 139
Astronomers are using Hubble s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to study the most massive and luminous galaxies in the universe. Usually, such galaxies are heavily shrouded in dust, which is more transparent at longer wavelengths. Coordinated observations are underway between NICMOS and the Spitzer Space Telescope, which operates in the mid- and far infrared. The results should clarify the role of mergers in creating the largest galaxies, and expose the relative roles of central black holes and star formation in galactic evolution. Other coordinated observations between Hubble and Spitzer are targeting the earliest galaxies yet, observed at a time when the universe was only about 1 billion years old. Because of ionization by the intense radiation of the earliest generations of stars, astronomers believe the universe first became transparent in this critical period. Proving the galaxies are actually located at such a great distance is an enormous challenge. Only the high resolution and sensitivity of NICMOS can provide information about their morphology and the physical processes that shape them. Freewheeling galaxies collide in a blaze of star birth (NGC 1275). 140
Hubble and Spitzer views of a massive, and amazingly mature, galaxy in the early universe (blue circle). Hubble is unsurpassed for spatial resolution, sensitivity, and photometric precision in the ultraviolet, visible, and nearinfrared wavelength ranges. This was true when Hubble was launched in 1990 when many investigators in the current observing cycle did not imagine they would become astronomers and it is still true today. Each year, the endless curiosity of a fresh wave of astronomical explorers renews the Hubble program and extends the frontiers of knowledge and our understanding of the cosmos. 141