OrbitalHub

Wikipedia dicit:

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but two-and-a-half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter is one of the brightest objects visible to the naked eye in the night sky, and has been known to ancient civilizations since before recorded history. It is named after the Roman god Jupiter. When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can be bright enough for its reflected light to cast shadows, and is on average the third-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.

Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen with a quarter of its mass being helium, though helium comprises only about a tenth of the number of molecules. It may also have a rocky core of heavier elements, but like the other giant planets, Jupiter lacks a well-defined solid surface. Because of its rapid rotation, the planet’s shape is that of an oblate spheroid (it has a slight but noticeable bulge around the equator). The outer atmosphere is visibly segregated into several bands at different latitudes, resulting in turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries. A prominent result is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm that is known to have existed since at least the 17th century when it was first seen by telescope. Surrounding Jupiter is a faint planetary ring system and a powerful magnetosphere. Jupiter has 79 known moons, including the four large Galilean moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Ganymede, the largest of these, has a diameter greater than that of the planet Mercury.

Video credit: NASA Goddard

Wikipedia dicit:

2I/Borisov, originally designated C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), is the first observed interstellar comet and the second observed interstellar interloper after ʻOumuamua. 2I/Borisov has a heliocentric orbital eccentricity of 3.36 and is not bound to the Sun. The comet passed through the ecliptic of the Solar System at the end of October 2019, and made its closest approach to the Sun at just over 2 AU on 8 December 2019. In November 2019, astronomers from Yale University said that the comet (including coma and tail), was 14 times the size of Earth, and stated, “It’s humbling to realize how small Earth is next to this visitor from another solar system.” In the middle of March, 2020, the comet was observed to fragment; and later, in April, even more evidence of fragmentation was reported.

Video credit: NASA

NASA dicit:

This Hubble time-lapse movie shows the orbits of some of Saturn’s icy moons as they circle the planet over an 18-hour period. The video is composed of 33 Hubble snapshots of the planet, taken June 19 to 20, 2019, by the Wide Field Camera 3.

Saturn’s signature rings are still as stunning as ever. The image reveals that the ring system is tilted toward Earth, giving viewers a magnificent look at the bright, icy structure. Hubble resolves numerous ringlets and the fainter inner rings.

This image reveals an unprecedented clarity only seen previously in snapshots taken by NASA spacecraft visiting the distant planet. Astronomers will continue their yearly monitoring of the planet to track shifting weather patterns and identify other changes. The second in the yearly series, this image is part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of our solar system’s gas giant planets.

Video Credit: NASA

Wikipedia dixit:

“The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, and remains in operation. Although not the first space telescope, Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble, and is one of NASA’s Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

With a 2.4-meter (7.9 ft) mirror, Hubble’s four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra. Hubble’s orbit outside the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere allows it to take extremely high-resolution images, with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes. Hubble has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images ever, allowing a deep view into space and time. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as accurately determining the rate of expansion of the universe.

The HST was built by the United States space agency NASA, with contributions from the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) selects Hubble’s targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center controls the spacecraft.

Space telescopes were proposed as early as 1923. Hubble was funded in the 1970s, with a proposed launch in 1983, but the project was beset by technical delays, budget problems, and the Challenger disaster (1986). When finally launched in 1990, Hubble’s main mirror was found to have been ground incorrectly, compromising the telescope’s capabilities. The optics were corrected to their intended quality by a servicing mission in 1993.

Hubble is the only telescope designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. After launch by Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, four subsequent Space Shuttle missions repaired, upgraded, and replaced systems on the telescope, including all five of the main instruments. A fifth mission was canceled on safety grounds following the Columbia disaster (2003). However, after spirited public discussion, NASA administrator Mike Griffin approved one final servicing mission, completed in 2009. The telescope is operating as of 2016, and could last until 2030–2040. Its scientific successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is scheduled for launch in 2018.”

Video credit: NASA Goddard

NASA dixit:

“New imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is revealing details never before seen on Jupiter. High-resolution maps and spinning globes (rendered in the 4k Ultra HD format) are the first products to come from a program to study the solar system’s outer planets each year using Hubble. The observations are designed to capture a broad range of features, including winds, clouds, storms and atmospheric chemistry. These annual studies will help current and future scientists see how such giant worlds change over time.”

Video credit: NASA Goddard

Credits: NASA/ESA

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a joint creation of NASA, ESA, hundreds of industrial companies, government and university groups, and thousands of engineers and scientists. Since April 1990, when it was released into orbit from Discovery’s payload bay, Hubble has returned scientific data and stunning images of stars, nebulae, and distant galaxies.

The construction of the space telescope began in the 1980s, when the optics company Perkin-Elmer initiated the work on Hubble’s primary light-collecting mirror. The Hubble Space Telescope was completed in 1985, but was not deployed in Earth’s orbit for another five years.

In 1983, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) was founded and it assumed from NASA the science management of the Hubble Space Telescope. STScI is located at Johns Hopkins University.

In its initial configuration, Hubble carried the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC), the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS), the Faint Object Camera (FOC), and the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS). It was soon to be discovered that the primary mirror had a flaw, and that the space telescope suffered from blurry vision.

The Hubble Servicing Mission 1 installed a corrective optics package, COSTAR, and replaced the original WF/PC with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Hubble Servicing Mission 2 replaced the GHRS and FOS with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). Servicing Mission 3A replaced all six gyroscopes, a Fine Guidance Sensor, and the onboard computer. Servicing Mission 3B saw the installation of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which replaced the FOC, and the revival of NICMOS through the installation of a new cooling system.

All this, and the history of astronomic discoveries beginning with Galileo Galilei in 1609 and continued by William Herschel, William Huggins, George Ellery Hale, and Edwin Hubble, are presented in Hubble – Imaging Space And Time, a book authored by David DeVorkin and Robert W. Smith. The book is replete with spectacular images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Images of Carina Nebula, Eagle Nebula, Orion Nebula, and Swan Nebula, just to name a few, are a celebration of color and convey the majestic beauty of the Cosmos.

David DeVorkin is curator of the history of astronomy and the space sciences at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Among other books he has authored are Beyond Earth: Mapping the Universe and The Hubble Space Telescope: Imaging the Universe.

Robert W. Smith is a professor of history and Director of the Science, Technology and Society Program at the University of Alberta. He is also the author of The Space Telescope: A Study of NASA, Science, Technology and Politics, The Hubble Space Telescope: Imaging the Universe, and The Expanding Universe.