The Eye of Our Universe

The Whirlpool Galaxy, starburst type. NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute. 2005. unitedstreaming. 2 November 2005

<http://www.unitedstreaming.com/>

Marianne ScottCalloway County Middle School

Video Clip

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Hubble Space Telescope Video

Key Terms

• Astronomy- the study of all physical objects beyond Earth

• Galaxy- a large grouping of stars in space

• Constellation- a section of the sky that contains a recognizable star pattern

• Nebula- a large cloud of dust and gas in interstellar space; the location of star formation

More Key Terms….

• Telescope- an instrument that collects electromagnetic radiation from the sky and concentrates it for better observation.

• Astronomical Unit- the average distance between the Earth and the sun.

• Light year- a unit of length equal to the distance light travels in space in 1 year

• Satellite- a natural or artificial body that revolves around a planet

Hubble Telescope Facts

• The Hubble Space Telescope was named after Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), an astronomer whose contributions to astronomy include a classification system for galaxies.

• The Hubble Telescope orbits the Earth 370 miles above the Earth’s rippling atmosphere at 5 miles a second. It orbits the globe every 97 minutes.

• Hubble is roughly the size of a large school bus.

• It was launched into orbit on the space shuttle, Discovery, on April 1990

More Hubble Facts

• Scientists decided to put the Hubble in space to eliminate distortions to images caused by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere.

• Hubble pictures require no film. The telescope takes digital images, which are transmitted to scientists on Earth.

Hubble finds many bright clouds on Uranus

• A Hubble telescope infrared view of Uranus reveals that the planet is surrounded by its four major rings and by 10 of its 17 known satellites.

• Hubble recently found about 20 clouds — nearly as many clouds on Uranus as the previous total in the history of modern observations. The orange-colored clouds near the prominent bright band circle the planet at more than 300 mph (500 km/h). One of the clouds on the right-hand side is brighter than any other cloud ever seen on Uranus.

• Credit: Erich Karkoschka (University of Arizona) and NASA

Saturn

• Object Description:Planet• Distance:The semi-major axis

of Saturn's orbit about the sun is 9.5 Astronomical Units (A.U.) or roughly 1.4 billion km.

• Dimensions:The planet (without rings) has a diameter of roughly 75,000 miles (120,000 km) at the equator.

• Exposure Dates:Oct 1996, Oct 1997, Oct 1998, Nov 1999, Nov 2000

Cat’s Eye Nebula

• As if the Cat's Eye itself isn't spectacular enough, this new image taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) reveals the full beauty of a bull's eye pattern of eleven or even more concentric rings, or shells, around the Cat's Eye. Each 'ring' is actually the edge of a spherical bubble seen projected onto the sky -- that's why it appears bright along its outer edge

• http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html

Edge-On Galaxy

• Object Name:NGC 4013• Object Description:Edge-on

Spiral Galaxy• Constellation:Ursa Major• Distance:About 17 Mpc (55

million light-years)  • Dimensions:The visible

portion of the galaxy is 10.7 kpc (35,000 light-years) along its length.

• http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html

What do you think?

• Scientists used to think that our Milky Way galaxy was the entire universe. Hubble made a significant jump in our understanding the solar system and beyond.

• Defend this position. Describe what impact Hubble’s discoveries have made for modern astronomy.

The End