Posted on 09/09/2009 4:13:32 PM PDT by FreedomOfExpression
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, ready to uncover new worlds, peer ever deeper into space, and even map the invisible backbone of the universe.
The first snapshots from the refurbished Hubble showcase the 19-year-old telescope's new vision. Topping the list of exciting new views are colorful multi-wavelength pictures of far-flung galaxies, a densely packed star cluster, an eerie "pillar of creation," and a "butterfly" nebula.
With its new imaging camera, Hubble can view galaxies, star clusters, and other objects across a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light. A new spectrograph slices across billions of light-years to map the filamentary structure of the universe and trace the distribution of elements that are fundamental to life.
The telescope's new instruments also are more sensitive to light and can observe in ways that are significantly more efficient and require less observing time than previous generations of Hubble instruments.
(Excerpt) Read more at hubblesite.org ...
You can download the images from this page: http://www.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/a/
A "combined" photo like the one above can be downloaded from near the top of the page, and you can download the individual images near the bottom of the page.
Hubble ping
It’s all smoke and mirrors.
Okay, and a little electronic wizardry thrown in for good measure.
The wizardry stops as soon as the smoke is let out of the circuit. At least my electronics teacher said something like that many moons ago.
Thank you. The pictures are overwhelming.
Can you say,”12-21-12?”
The pictures are amazingly sharp and so colorful.
I d/l the very large jpg of the Butterfly Nebula (NGC6302), turned it sideways, and have it set as my computer's background picture.
Ol' HST just keeps getting better and better -- as does the HST website.
Try going to the zoomable Flash image of Stephan's Quintet (at upper right in your quad group) at
http://www.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/c/format/zoom/
After you check out the marvelous detail in the five (including two that are deep into collision) main galaxies, zoom in to the max and examine all the distant, red-shifted galaxies in the surrounding "background" space... Three words:
"Un" Be" "Lievable!" '-)
Lots of new desktop "wallpaper" there...
Thanks again!
Psalm 19:1, indeed!
Smoke and mirrors? Electronic wizardry?
I took this image below from my home built, small backyard observatory. Not Hubble...but mine, with no smoke, mirrors or wizardry. Well...There is a mirror on the optical tube assembly but did not alter the the nebula, only magnified it.
Obtained on 8/24/2009 below is the Eagle Nebula, M16, at about 7000 light years distance from earth.
The was also the nebula where the Hubble took the famous shot of the "Pillars of Creation", which can be seen at the center of this image.
The dark pillar-like structures (center) are actually columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust where new stars are forming. Although you can see the pillars in this image, you're seeing the nebula as it looked approximately 7,000 years ago.
The height of the tallest pillar is approximately 24 trillion miles high (4 light years).
This was 44-95 second exposures at ISO-800, aligned, calibrated and combined in DSS.
Slightly enlarged version
When processing these images, only the existing data within the image was revealed, or extracted and multiple images were obtained and then stacked and combined together.
Nice smoke!
Thank you so much for the ping, dear brother in Christ!
Thank...lol
The digital technology has really opened up astronomical optical imaging. It's really amazing stuff.
What is being done with the images is really not much different than what was done in the film dark room a couple of decades ago, where the images were being enhanced so all the data would be revealed or slightly enhanced.
However, there was very little post processing done to the above image of the Eagle Nebula that was obtained in raw format.
To be honest even before any processing was done, such as curves and levels, I was very much impressed with what I was seeing and the nebula appeared almost exactly as what you see above.
Good post, and there’s more to see at
http://www.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/
On that website, click the “Watch the video” button to see amazing astronomical scenes behind scenes.
Hubble is providing documentation of Reality at its finest; and incidentally providing more proof of Darwin’s theory.
It's true!
Electronics are ALL little devices with compressed smoke inside them. If it leaks out, they quit working.
I've thought about patenting a smoke compressor to put it all back in. Just re-compress the smoke and seal it back up, you're good to go!
There HAS to be a market for repaired components, right?
As a lay person I gave a sermon (one and only time!) and had a Hubble photo put on a a 4’ x 8’ poster. Talking about the awesomeness and power of God. One would think that compared to the ancients looking into the sky and seeing the awesome site of so many stars we would be much less in awe. Well, I for one am even MORE in awe as we grow and learn. (And - in awe of our own minds too that can develop technology like this!)
More ‘proof of Darwin’s theory’? I think not
Big Bang Broken And Can’t Be Fixed
One more problem for the Big Bang: Recently-discovered galaxy clusters reveal too much complex structure to be as “young” as Big Bang speculations would require.
The small inset in the photo above shows a recently discovered cluster of galaxies that can only add to the accumulated difficulties facing proponents of the Big Bang.
According to conventional theory, which determines the distance of a galaxy by its redshift, the cluster is 9 billion light years away. That means the light we see today was emitted 9 billion years ago, or only 5 billion years after the Big Bang, in which all matter and energy supposedly was created. Gravitational forces could not have generated such a cluster of galaxies in such an astronomically short time.
The ESO news release commented:
“The discovery of such a complex and mature structure so early in the history of the Universe is highly surprising. Indeed, until recently it would even have been deemed impossible.”
Translation: This observation falsified the theory. To save the theory (upon which grants and reputations are established) an ad hoc patch must be found.
Quasar in Front of a Galaxy: A single, undisputed quasar falsifies the first pillar of Big Bang ideology.
Quasar in Front of Galaxy
October 3, 2003: the big bang was proved wrong. Again. And here is the proof (image above). The galaxy, NGC 7319, is a Seyfert 2, which means it is a galaxy shrouded with such heavy dust clouds that they obscure most of the bright, active nucleus that defines a normal Seyfert galaxy. This galaxy has a redshift of 0.0225. The tiny white spot is a quasar either silhouetted in front of the opaque gas clouds or embedded in the topmost layers of the dust. The redshift of the quasar is 2.114.
Why does this prove the big bang wrong? One of the two major foundations of the big bang is that redshift is proportional to distance. That means the larger the redshift of an object, the farther away it must be. The other major foundation of the big bang is that all redshift is a measure of velocity. Again, the larger the redshift of an object, the faster it is moving away from us. Combined, these two foundations become the expanding universe, which can be traced backwards to the big bang.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041001quasar-galaxy.htm
Big Bang a Big Loser in 2005: The Big Bang has lost its theoretical foundation, which was the Doppler interpretation of redshift (linking redshift to the stretching of light wavelengths as objects move away from us).
Prediction #1: Big Bang a Big Loser in 2005
You’d never know it from official news releases, but the Big Bang is broken and can’t be fixed.
A concession speech may be unlikely in 2005, but the progressive decline of one of the twentieth century’s most popular theories now seems inescapable. The Big Bang has lost its theoretical foundation, which was the Doppler interpretation of redshift (linking redshift to the stretching of light wavelengths as objects move away from us). It is now known that, while almost all observed galaxies are redshifted, the Doppler interpretation of this shift does not provide a reliable measure of velocity or (indirectly) of distance. Quasars and galaxies of different redshift stand in physical proximity to each other and are observed to be connected by filaments of matter. Quasars, whose high redshift would place them at the outer edges of the visible universe, are in fact physically and energetically linked to nearby low-redshift active galaxies.
The Big Bang was dismantled by direct observation—including a highly redshifted quasar in front of a nearby galaxy!
In the rise and fall of the Big Bang hypothesis no name looms with greater distinction than that of Halton Arp, the leading authority on peculiar galaxies. Over decades, Arp amassed meticulous observations challenging the standard use of redshift to prove an expanding universe. But astronomers ignored or dismissed Arp’s work, insisting that his conclusions were either erroneous or impossible. Arp lost his teaching position. Then he lost his telescope time and had to move to Germany to carry on his work at the Max Planck Institute.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041227prediction-bigbang.htm
The Big Bang Theory Under Fire
by William C. Mitchell
In one of its several variations the big bang cosmological theory is almost universally accepted as the most reasonable theory for the origin and evolution of the universe. In fact, it is so well accepted that virtually every media article, story or program that touches on the subjects of astronomy or cosmology presents the big bang (Big Bang) as a virtual proven fact. As a result, the great majority of the literate populace of the world, including most of the scientists of the world, accepts big bang theory (Big Bang Theory) as scientific fact.
Education establishments involved in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, theoretical physics and cosmology are dominated by those who have accepted Big Bang as the theory to be pursued. Scientists who seriously question the Big Bang are generally considered disruptive, ridiculed and derogatorily referred to as big bang bashers.
Due to the efforts of those and other fighters for even-handed cosmological investigation and, despite the powerful influence of mainstream Big Bang cosmologists, evidence against the Big Bang has been building to the point where the world may soon start to doubt it. Some of that evidence is briefly reviewed in this paper.
A critical look at the very old big bang problems (of the singularity, smoothness, horizon, and flatness) and the failed solutions of inflation theory; newer Big Bang problems relating to missing mass (as required for a flat inflationary universe), the age of the universe, radiation from the “decoupling” (”smearing” of black body spectrum), a contrived Big Bang chronology, the abundance of light elements, and red shift anomalies; and problems, newer yet, regarding inconsistencies of red shift interpretation, curved space, inflation theory, the decelerating expansion of a Big Bang universe, and some additional logical inconsistencies of Big Bang theory are presented.
Contents
1. IS A SINGULARITY ACCEPTABLE?
2. IS THE UNIVERSE SMOOTH?
3. ORIGINAL SMOOTHNESS OR SMOOTHING?
4. IS THE UNIVERSE FLAT?
5. IS DENSITY TOO LOW?
6. UNIVERSE TOO OLD?
7. SOURCE OF RADIATION?
8. CONTRIVED CHRONOLOGY?
9. SOURCE OF LIGHT ELEMENTS?
10. DOPPLER RED SHIFT?
11. WHAT SPACE CURVATURE?
12. DOES INFLATION FIX THE BIG BANG?
13. WHAT IS DECELERATING?
14. DOES LOGIC PREVAIL?
15. WHAT TO DO?
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/cosmology/mitchell-big-bang-theory-under-fire.htm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.