A colorful image resembling a cosmic version of an undersea world teeming with stars commemorates the Hubble Space Telescope's 30 years of viewing the wonders of space. In the Hubble portrait, the giant red nebula (NGC 2014) and its smaller blue neighbor (NGC 2020) are part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located 163,000 light-years away. (NASA, ESA and STScI)
‘Never bet against Hubble’
The Hubble Space Telescope just turned 30, but some of its biggest discoveries could still lie ahead, says Ken Sembach, the director of the institute that manages the venerable observatory. He shares recollections of some of Hubble’s breakthroughs, including measuring the expansion of the Universe three times more precisely than it was originally designed to do. Scientists are now working on tripling that precision yet again, as well as conducting studies that none of its planned successors could do, because they will lack the capability to sense ultraviolet rays. The institute hopes the telescope might last another five years, possibly more. “I would never bet against Hubble,” Sembach says.
Scientific American | 8 min read
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