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National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationTHESTARWITNESSA P U B L I C A T I O N O F N A S A ’ S “A M A Z I N G S P A C E ” E D U C A T I O N P R O G R A MSpecial FeatureBirthday Wishes for HubbleBy NASA’s Amazing Space reportersApril 2007Astronomers areplacing another candle onHubble’s birthday cake. TheEarth-orbiting telescope is celebratingits 17th birthday, making it a mereteenager. This teenager, however, hasproduced some breathtaking imagesof celestial objects and has helpedastronomers answer many importantquestions about our universe.A great observatoryNASA launched the Earth-orbitingtelescope on April 24, 1990, whenGeorge W. Bush’s father was presidentand the World Wide Web was still adream. In its 17 years of exploring theheavens, the telescope has snappednearly 500,000 images of more than25,000 celestial objects. It has madenearly 100,000 trips around Earth.Those trips have racked up lots offrequent-flier-miles — more than 2.4billion, the equivalent of a round tripto Saturn.Hubble’s 17 years of observations haveproduced more than 30 terabytes ofIMAGE: NASAThe Hubble Space Telescope sporting its new solar panels, installed during aservicing mission in 2002. The telescope orbits 380 miles above Earth. Launchedon April 24, 1990, the observatory has been observing the cosmos for 17 years.data, equal to about 25 percent ofthe information stored in the Libraryof Congress. Each day the orbitingobservatory generates about 10gigabytes of data, enough informationto fill the hard drive of a typical homecomputer in two weeks.Continued, page …

Hubble’s birthday gift to the public: The Carina NebulaIMAGE: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)The Carina Nebula contains several stars that are among the hottest and most massive known. Each star is about 10 timesas hot and 100 times as massive as our Sun. The energy produced by these stars is sculpting the nearby gas and setting offthe formation of a new generation of stars.Continued from page …The Hubble archive sends about66 gigabytes of information eachday to astronomers throughoutthe world. Astronomers usingHubble data have published nearly7,000 scientific papers, makingit one of the most productivescientific instruments ever built.Hubble’s birthday giftto the publicTo celebrate Hubble’s 17th birthday,NASA and the Space Telescope ScienceInstitute are releasing an image of theCarina Nebula, a 3-million-year-oldgigantic cloud of gas. The gaseouscloud is a busy star-making factorythat is churning out tens of thousandsof stars. Peeking inside the star-makingfactory, the Hubble Space Telescopeoffers a dramatic glimpse of a fairytalelandscape of dust and gas that is beingsculpted by energetic young stars.Looking near and farThis jaw-dropping image is justthe latest of Hubble’s manyaccomplishments. During its 17years in space, Hubble lookedclose to home at our solar systemplanets, gazed far across space to seegalaxies in their infancy, provideddecisive evidence for the existenceof giant black holes, and detectedan invisible force that makes up thebulk of the energy in our universe.Planets, planets everywhereIn our solar system neighborhood,the telescope witnessed pieces ofa broken-up comet smash intoJupiter, giving the planet several“black eyes.” Hubble also spiedtwo new moons orbiting Pluto.Peering at stars near the center of ourMilky Way Galaxy, Hubble conducteda census of Jupiter-sized planets. Thetelescope found 16 alien worlds,suggesting that there may be billions ofJupiter-sized planets in our galaxy.Witnessing stellar deathTurning its gaze to aging stars, Hubbletook snapshots of the “last hurrahs” ofSun-like stars. As ordinary stars beginto die, they shed their outer layers ofgas and glow as planetary nebulae. Thetelescope also watched the aftermathof a supernova, the explosive deathof a massive star (see images, page 3).The Hubble observations of Supernova1987A helped astronomers rewrite thetextbooks on exploding stars.Continued, page …

Continued from page …Galaxies give up their secretsHubble helped astronomers calculatea precise age for the universe bymeasuring the distances to manygalaxies. Astronomers now think thecosmos is about 13.7 billion years old.Galaxies are everywhere in space,but Hubble looked far acrossour cosmos to see their buildingblocks. The Hubble observationsprovided solid evidence thatgalaxies grew over time to becomethe giant galaxies we see today.Peering into the hearts of galaxies,Hubble provided decisive evidencethat supermassive black holes residein many of them. These “eatingmachines” gobble up any material thatventures near them. Black holes cannotbe seen directly because no material,including light, escapes their grasp.Shedding light on dark energyBy witnessing bursts of light fromfaraway exploding stars, Hubblehelped astronomers discover thata mysterious, invisible force calleddark energy exists. The observationsshow that dark energy is making theuniverse expand at an ever-faster pace.Physicist Albert Einstein predictedits existence early last century, but helater said that his prediction was thebiggest mistake of his career. Now,astronomers are proving that Einsteinmay have been right.Although teenage Hubble hasaccomplished so much during its17 years in space, its best scientificdiscoveries are yet to come. NASA isplanning another servicing missionto keep Hubble operating for afew more years. Servicing missionastronauts will install two brandnew science instruments that willallow Hubble to probe even fartherinto space. Who knows what secretsthe telescope may uncover.Hubble monitors a supernova light show1994 1998 2001The Hubble telescope has taken manypictures over its lifetime of thetattered remains of an exploded star,called Supernova 1987A.Astronomers first spotted the stellarblast 20 years ago, in 1987. Thesesix Hubble snapshots, taken overseveral years, show a growing numberof bright spots on a ring of materialaround the exploded star. Debris fromthe supernova is slamming into thering and lighting it up.2003 2004 2006IMAGES: NASA, ESA, P. Challis and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Hubble’s Top Science (PDF)READ MORE and see thepictures that accompanyHubble’s top scientific findingsafter 17 years in orbit.Download the PDF fromamazing-space.stsci.edu/news/archive/2007/02/extra-03.php.SEE MORE Hubble images and read moreStar Witness news stories at Amazing Space,NASA’s award-winning educational Web site forK-12 students and teachers.amazing-space.stsci.eduwww.nasa.gov