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Hubble returns. Nasa: 8 new images since servicing mission in May 2009

25 points by yu 17y ago

coderdude 17y ago
Stunning pictures! http://internal.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/a/ http://internal.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2... I found a better page for viewing the images, not quite as painful as the Wired method (Next... Next...).
asdlfj2sd33 17y ago
Few things make me feel palpable joy like this.
KevinMS 17y ago
Pictures like these bother me because I don't know which have been manipulated (brightness, contrast, color, etc), for public consumption or to highlight certain features for study. Anybody know if there are unaltered images from Hubble? I'm talking about the true visible light spectrum ones (if there are any).
- lutorm 17y ago
  There are no images that mimic the color response of the human eye, though you could approximate such an image by combining many images in filters covering the visible colors. But they would still not be "unaltered". Astronomical objects have an extremely large dynamic range in terms of brightness. If you've ever looked at a galaxy through a telescope, you'll see what I mean. You just see a blob that's the bright central bulge. The brightness distribution in a galaxy falls off exponentially with radius. If you amplify the signal to see the faint outer parts, the central part would hurt your eyes (or, practically speaking, saturate). We made a movie of a simulated galaxy merger for a competition last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqLEbOFT2A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqLEbOFT2A In this rendering, the colors are approximately realistic, but the brightness is not. For my own education, I made an alternative rendering with just a fixed linear stretch that should more realistically (barring monitor gamma) mimic what the eye would see. In that movie (I've been meaning to upload it), you basically only see the centers of the two galaxies, nothing else. So the bottom line is, to see any detail you must "manipulate" these images. It's reminiscent of High-Dynamic Range photography [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging], where you compress the range of brightnesses to be able to convey a scene in one image.
  - rbanffy 17y ago
    "For my own education, I made an alternative rendering" Please upload it. A side-by-side comparison does have an educational value on itself.
- andrewf 17y ago
  Head backwards to the source and you start to get more information. For instance: http://internal.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/f/ http://internal.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2... Scroll down to "About this image"
  - KevinMS 17y ago
    Thank you lutorm and andrewf for the great replies. lutorm, I appreciate your example of the brightness of galaxies needing to be altered, pretty much just compressing the dynamic range (borrowed from audio, sorry). I will never picture galaxies in my mind the same way. Thanks to andrewf I got this from the website: The image is a composite of separate exposures made by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Six filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: I hope this has some scientific value but I'm suspicious that it has much more of a public relations value. This strikes me as completely dishonest. Pretty up Hubble images so the public will throw as much money as possible at it. Compressing the brightness of objects like galaxies seems reasonable, and I know I've seen accurate images of planets, but combining filtered images, each with a different "pretty" color, is just whoring up deep space.
rbanffy 17y ago
Images like these always bring up that Brother Cavil's (from BSG - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407362/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407362/quotes) line: "I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! (...) And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me!" I don't know about you, but it's deeply moving for me.
fishercs 17y ago
the pictures with the hundreds of galaxies shown is the real kicker, you talk about sizing one's self up instantly. amazing, i'm glad we have programs like this. I can say being in my 20's i'm actually pretty sad too have missed the excitement of the apollo program's in the 60's and 70's. i can only hope i get to witness similar events in my lifetime.
- eru 17y ago
  I guess we will put live on Mars within our lifetime. Not necessarily human live. Perhaps microbes or advanced robots.

25 points by yu 17y ago

Stunning pictures! http://internal.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/a/ http://internal.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2... I found a better page for viewing the images, not quite as painful as the Wired method (Next... Next...).

asdlfj2sd33 17y ago

Few things make me feel palpable joy like this.

KevinMS 17y ago

Pictures like these bother me because I don't know which have been manipulated (brightness, contrast, color, etc), for public consumption or to highlight certain features for study. Anybody know if there are unaltered images from Hubble? I'm talking about the true visible light spectrum ones (if there are any).

lutorm 17y ago
There are no images that mimic the color response of the human eye, though you could approximate such an image by combining many images in filters covering the visible colors. But they would still not be "unaltered". Astronomical objects have an extremely large dynamic range in terms of brightness. If you've ever looked at a galaxy through a telescope, you'll see what I mean. You just see a blob that's the bright central bulge. The brightness distribution in a galaxy falls off exponentially with radius. If you amplify the signal to see the faint outer parts, the central part would hurt your eyes (or, practically speaking, saturate). We made a movie of a simulated galaxy merger for a competition last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqLEbOFT2A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqLEbOFT2A In this rendering, the colors are approximately realistic, but the brightness is not. For my own education, I made an alternative rendering with just a fixed linear stretch that should more realistically (barring monitor gamma) mimic what the eye would see. In that movie (I've been meaning to upload it), you basically only see the centers of the two galaxies, nothing else. So the bottom line is, to see any detail you must "manipulate" these images. It's reminiscent of High-Dynamic Range photography [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging], where you compress the range of brightnesses to be able to convey a scene in one image.
- rbanffy 17y ago
  "For my own education, I made an alternative rendering" Please upload it. A side-by-side comparison does have an educational value on itself.
andrewf 17y ago
Head backwards to the source and you start to get more information. For instance: http://internal.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/f/ http://internal.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2... Scroll down to "About this image"
- KevinMS 17y ago
  Thank you lutorm and andrewf for the great replies. lutorm, I appreciate your example of the brightness of galaxies needing to be altered, pretty much just compressing the dynamic range (borrowed from audio, sorry). I will never picture galaxies in my mind the same way. Thanks to andrewf I got this from the website: The image is a composite of separate exposures made by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Six filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: I hope this has some scientific value but I'm suspicious that it has much more of a public relations value. This strikes me as completely dishonest. Pretty up Hubble images so the public will throw as much money as possible at it. Compressing the brightness of objects like galaxies seems reasonable, and I know I've seen accurate images of planets, but combining filtered images, each with a different "pretty" color, is just whoring up deep space.

rbanffy 17y ago

Images like these always bring up that Brother Cavil's (from BSG - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407362/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407362/quotes) line: "I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! (...) And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me!" I don't know about you, but it's deeply moving for me.

fishercs 17y ago

the pictures with the hundreds of galaxies shown is the real kicker, you talk about sizing one's self up instantly. amazing, i'm glad we have programs like this. I can say being in my 20's i'm actually pretty sad too have missed the excitement of the apollo program's in the 60's and 70's. i can only hope i get to witness similar events in my lifetime.

eru 17y ago
I guess we will put live on Mars within our lifetime. Not necessarily human live. Perhaps microbes or advanced robots.