Save the Hubble

In case you missed it, this week the Hubble telescope gave us the deepest view of the universe yet recorded.:

The snapshot of the universe, called the Ultra Deep Field, captured
light that streaked through space for more than 13 billion years,
starting its journey when the universe was only 5 percent of its
13.7-billion-year age. The view has about 10,000 galaxies, some mixed
in a chaos that one astronomer said "looked like a train wreck."
Capturing such faint and distant light, officials at the Space
Telescope Science Institute said Tuesday, was like photographing a
firefly hovering above the moon. "For the first time we're looking back
at stars that are forming out of the depths of the big bang," said
Steven V. W. Beckwith, director of the institute. "We're seeing the
youngest stars within a stone's throw of the beginning of the
universe." [...]
The portion in the sky photographed by two Hubble instruments is very
small. Astronomers compared the field of view it to looking at the sky
through an 8-foot-long soda straw. They said capturing the images is
akin to reading the mint date on a 25-cent coin from a mile away. What
the view lacks in width, however, it makes up for in depth. Beckwith
said that never before has a telescope captured such detail from such a
distance. "These images will be in astronomy textbooks for years," he
said.

Of course, no mention of the Hubble telescope's achievements should go
without pointing out that the human race's most spectular telescope is
in danger of being cancelled by the Bush Administration. Due to the "Send Halliburton to Mars" program, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has been forced to let the Hubble Observatory die prematurely:

O'Keefe [has decided] not to conduct Servicing Mission 4,
which in 2006 would have extended Hubble's life to the end of the
decade and even improved its capabilities. Instead, with batteries
dwindling and gyroscopes failing, Hubble could be rendered useless as
early as this year or, more likely, sometime in 2007.

Luckily, a bipartisan group of Senators have taken this on and are currently demanding reviews of NASA's decision. To add your name to a petition asking Congress and NASA not allow the Hubble to be retired go to:

(thanks to Mel for the link)

Posted by flow Frazao on March 11, 2004 at 12:43 PM | Permalink