What is "true color"? Is it what our eyes see, or is it something else entirely?
What Color Is Mars?
The Fading Stingray: A Case Study in Science and Aesthetics
We often make the case here that astronomical imagery created to support the dissemination of Hubble’s scientific results to the general public relies on a delicate balance of aesthetics and science. The image above provides a great study in how these two aspects of the image come together in the publication of a press release.... Continue Reading →
What’s Up with Jupiter and Saturn?
Jupiter and Saturn made a big splash last month due to the historic conjunction of our solar system’s two largest planets. From our vantage point here on Earth, looking out onto the flat plane of the sky, a conjunction occurs when two or more celestial bodies seem to slide right past each other in the... Continue Reading →
Surfing the Cosmic Reef
This blog post is one in a series marking the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. For more information and resources regarding Hubble’s 30th anniversary, please visit hubblesite. Thirty years is a long time. In fact, thirty years is roughly the span of a generation. Thus, it is no exaggeration to say that an... Continue Reading →
Two Tales of an Asteroid
The Hubble Space Telescope recently observed an asteroid in the process of falling apart. Known as 6478 Gault, located in the main asteroid belt of our solar system between Mars and Jupiter, and roughly 2.5 miles wide, this asteroid is rotating so fast—about once every 2 hours—that it is literally flinging itself apart. The observations... Continue Reading →
Peering through the Dust
You may have noticed that our favorite red planet, Mars, has been a popular feature in the news recently. Not that we need any special reasons to take a closer look at Mars, but a number of coincident events have brought this about: [1] Mars has just passed through opposition, or the point in its... Continue Reading →
The Day the Universe Shook
August 17, 2017 was a watershed moment in the nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy. On this date, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected a ripple in space-time, hereafter known as GW170817, originating near the constellation Hydra. A short while later, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor detected a faint pulse of gamma rays in this... Continue Reading →
Deep Dive into the Lagoon
The Hubble Space Telescope has been zipping around our planet for over 28 years providing us with unparalleled views of the farthest reaches of the universe. In celebration of this milestone, and in keeping with past tradition, we have prepared a visual feast showcasing a rich and vibrant region of the Milky Way galaxy known... Continue Reading →
The Kaleidoscopic Crab
This image of the Crab Nebula from a recent Hubble press release packs a lot of information into a single picture. Five different wavelengths spanning nearly the entire breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum are present here. In this post, I'll deconstruct the image and look at how it was put together... but first, a little history... Continue Reading →