Presentation On Hubble Space Telescope

SCAN THE HEAVENS WITH HUBBLE

Presented by Nayan Raj J (1MJ05TE03

Introduction  Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is located in space.  Cooperative program of ESA & NASA.  Takes amazing pictures of our universe which are not seen from ground based telescope

Destination of the Mission Image of Hubble in space.

Gather information for teams of scientists studying virtually all the constituents of our universe, including planets, stars, starforming regions of the Milky Way galaxy, distant galaxies and quasars, and the tenuous hydrogen gas lying between the galaxies.

Time Line of Mission

National Academy of Sciences gave its approval for the Large Space Telescop e (LST) project 1969

Congress approves funding for The HST. NASA names its largest, most complex, and capable orbiting telescope in honor of Edwin Hubble.

Operatio ns begin in Baltimor e Maryland

April 24th HST Deploy ed

Servic e Missio n1 COST AR correc tive optics install ed, replaci ng HSP

1977

1981

1990

1993

Service Mission 2 Space Telesco pe Imaging Spectro graph

Service Mission 3A Replace ment of RSU (Rate Sensing Units containi ng gyrosco pes). HST Orbita Installa tion of l Syste new ms compute r. Test

1997

1998

1999

Servi ce Missi on 3B Instal led Advan ced Came ra for Surve ys 2002

Configuration of HST

What does HST see??

How image gets to Earth?  HST receives the starlight  This data is transferred to TDRS  TDRS sends the data to its companion ground station at White Sands, NM

How image gets to Earth?  GSFC formats the data for delivery to STScI  STScI is responsible for calibrating the data and providing them to the astronomer who requested the observations

(cont..)

Hubble takes amazing images...

Current and planned science instruments  Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.  Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.  Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer.  Advanced Camera for Surveys  Fine Guidance Sensors.  Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.  Wide Field Camera 3

Wide Field Planetary camera 2 (WFPC2)  WFPC2 is basically 4 cameras  Consists of L-shaped wide field sensors  Most of pic available today is taken by this camera  WFPC2 will be replaced by WFC3 in 2009

Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)  SITS used to spread the lights  Spreading allows to determine properties of celestial objects  Uses 3 detectors  Capability for 2 dimensional spectroscopy

Near Infrared camera & Multiobject spectrometer (NICMOS)  Mainly used for infrared imaging  Infrared detectors are HgCdTe arrays  NICMOS must operate at very cold temp, hence it is kept inside dewar

Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)  Provides deep, wide- field survey capability in visible, IR & UV regions  Designed to achieve a factor of 10 in DE improvement compared to WFPC2  Detectors used in ACS is Charged Coupled Devices (CCD)  Most heavily used Hubble instrument

Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS)  It is a integral part of HST’s Pointing control System (PCS)  Has 2 observing mode v. Position mode vi. Transfer mode

Cosmic Origin Spectrograph (COS)  To be installed on HST during 2009 servicing mission  Used for observing faint source ultraviolet light  Has far & near UV channel

Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)  Will be installed in HST during 2009 service mission  WFC3 has 2 camera channels v. UVIS channel vi. IR channel

Previously Flown Instruments  Faint Object Spectrograph.  Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph.  Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement.  Faint Object Camera.  High Speed Photometer.

Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) 

Replaced by NICMOS in 1997

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Uses 512 element Digicon sensors

There are 2 mode of operation: vii. Low resolution. viii. High resolution. 

Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) 

Replaced by STIS.

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Uses 521 element Digicon sensors

Has 3 modes of operation: vii. Low resolution. viii. Medium resolution. ix. High resolution. 

Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR)  Costar is not a science instrument  Designed to optically correct the effects of primary mirror’s aberration on FOC, HRS,& FOS  It is no longer needed

Faint Object Camera (FOC)  Developed by ESA  Uses 2 detectors  FOC offered 3 diff focal ratios: f/48, f/96, f/288.

The Science of Hubble

It is not even remotely possible to cover all the science that Hubble has done in a single presentation. Tens of thousands of papers and hundreds of books have been written based on HST data, and every day generates 20 GB of data. Astronomers will be mining this resource for generations to come.

Hubble’s greatest achievements

Beginning with Dark Energy

 Dark Energy  Age of the Universe  Baby galaxies  Chemical makeup of extra-solar planets  Black holes in galaxies

 Powerful stellar explosions  Source of quasar light  Forming Planets  Comet impact on Jupiter  Deaths of stars

What is the Universe made of? Ordinary matter is only part of the story…

96% of the Universe is something else

The Universe is speeding up! The universe is expanding faster today than it did in early times This expansion cannot be caused by ordinary or dark matter, which slows expansion. The acceleration suggests a new repulsive force (anti-gravity) acting on very large scales

The New Force Is Called “Dark Energy”  Dark energy accounts for 73% of the content of the universe  Dark matter accounts for 23%  The content we’re familiar with is only 4%

What is Dark Energy?

We don’t know Identifying what dark energy is requires bigger telescopes and new techniques

Planets around other stars  Ground-based telescopes find planets  Hubble can measure their chemical makeup

 sodium, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-sized planet

 Does life exist on extra-solar planets?  Hubble also measured the masses of two distant worlds  One is the oldest known planet - 13 billion years

Monster Black Holes  The centers of galaxies contain black holes with masses millions to billions times that of our Sun.  Big galaxies contain big black holes, small galaxies have small black holes.  Black holes may grow with their galaxies, feasting on gas and stars swirling around the hearts of those galaxies.

Biggest Booms Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe

 Hubble showed that these brief, bright flashes come from distant galaxies forming stars at enormously high rates  The "bursts“ are the collapse of massive stars  A nearby gamma ray burst would burn away the ozone in Earth's atmosphere

The Age of the Universe  One of Hubble's key observations  Age is found using 2 independent methods  Hubble narrowed the age to 13 - 14 billion years

Quasar Light Quasars are no larger than our solar system but outshine galaxies of hundreds of billions of stars.

 Hubble tracked down the "homes" of quasars, proving that these dynamos reside in the centers of galaxies  Quasars are massive black holes swallowing stars and has from their host galaxies

Planetary Nebulae: A Sun-like star's death is a colorful event. Such stars die gracefully by ejecting their outer gaseous layers into space. The outer layers glow in vibrant colors of red, blue, and green. Hubble revealed the details of this process, showing that the shapes of planetary nebulae are quite complex.

Stellar Deaths Supernovae: Massive stars end in glorious explosions. Hubble found three mysterious rings of material encircling a doomed star that exploded as a supernova in 1987. During the years since the eruption, Hubble spied brightened spots on the middle ring caused by material ejected from the explosion slamming into it.

Estimated Cost of the Mission  Initially Hubble cost $1.5 billion to build and put into orbit.  Hubble's total budget in one year is in the range $230-250 million. That money does more than simply keep Hubble operating on a daily basis. In addition to operational costs, the total dollar figure includes funds for scientific data analysis, as well as for the development of future hardware and its associated software.  The concept of servicing Hubble to upgrade its instruments rather than launching a whole new telescope has saved billions of dollars.

Conclusion  Hubble is one of NASA's most successful and long-lasting science missions. It has beamed hundreds of thousands of images back to Earth, shedding light on many of the great mysteries of astronomy. Its gaze has helped determine the age of the universe, the identity of quasars, and the existence of dark energy.  Eventually, Hubble's time will end. In the years after servicing mission, Hubble's components will slowly degrade to the point at which the telescope stops working.  When that happens, Hubble will continue to orbit the Earth until its orbit decays, allowing it to spiral toward Earth. Astronauts or a robotic mission could either bring Hubble back to Earth or crash it safely into the ocean.  But Hubble's legacy — its discoveries, its trailblazing design, its success in showing us the universe in unparalleled detail — will live on. Scientists will rely on Hubble's revelations for years as they continue in their quest to understand the cosmos — a quest that has attained clarity, focus, and triumph through Hubble's rich existence.

Thank You