Showing posts with label Dark Matter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dark Matter. Show all posts

You Won't Believe What the Hubble Space Telescope Discovered!

The Most Amazing Hubble Space Telescope Discoveries






Dark Matter

Dark matter, which is invisible however displays its existence by way of gravity, makes up roughly 23 percentage of the universe. By examining the distortions brought about via dark matter's gravity on light from far away galaxies, Hubble helped assemble the greatest scale 3-d maps scientists have of where dark matter is dispensed in the universe. These helped exhibit the clumpiness of dark matter has curiously elevated over time, displaying it exhibits ordinary gravity, as opposed to something else. Better perception how dark matter behaves should assist scientists determine out what it truly is.






Pluto and its kin

Hubble observed two new moons of Pluto, dubbed Nix and Hydra, and currently mapped seasonal adjustments to its surface. Also, through assisting to find out the mass of Eris, which is 27 percentage extra large than Pluto, the attention that comparable bodies would possibly lurk in the Kuiper Belt and beyond helped demote Pluto and comparable objects to dwarf planet status. Future observations of such far away bodies should assist scientists higher recognize how the solar system evolved.






Dark Energy

By figuring out the rate at which the universe is expanding, Hubble might also have helped resolve the mystery of how historical the universe is, however it all of sudden grew to become up an even extra profound one — the reality that the charge of the universe's growth is no longer slowing down or even constant, however is inexplicably accelerating. The perpetrator in the back of this, dubbed dark energy, is now concept to make up seventy four percentage of the blended mass-energy in the whole universe, and it stays an utter enigma. Solving this mystery may want to revolutionize physics as we recognize it.





Black Holes

Hubble determined that super-massive Black holes likely lurk in each and every galaxy that has a bulge of stars at its center. The very tight hyperlink between the size of these central black holes and the size of their galaxies Hubble noticed additionally confirmed that each evolve in concert, shedding light on how the universe has evolved over time.






Age of the Universe  →

Before Hubble, it was once enormously unsure as to when the universe was born, which ought to lead to insufferable paradoxes, such as the laughable opportunity that stars astronomers detected had been older than our universe. By substantially narrowing down the rate at which the universe is expanding, Hubble helped refine estimates of the universe's age down to roughly 13.75 billion years, a end result that no longer solely performs a position in modeling how our universe has advanced over time, however additionally in our appreciation different apparently unrelated cosmic parameters, such as the mass of neutrinos. Stars that are billions of light years away naturally took billions of years to get here.





Extrasolar Organic Matter

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in the surroundings of a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting some other star. This step forward is an necessary step in finally figuring out signs and symptoms of existence on a planet outside our solar system. The molecule discovered via Hubble is methane, which beneath the proper occasions can play a key function in prebiotic chemistry - the chemical reactions viewed crucial to structure existence as we recognize it. This illustration depicts the extrasolar planet HD 189733b with its parent star peeking above its top edge.


Gamma ray bursts

Gamma ray bursts, which frequently release more energy in a few of seconds than the sun would in a billion years, are the largest explosions known to occur in space. The origin of these explosions remained a mystery for many years. These bursts are often found in galaxies that were low in metallicity, or low in elements heavier than helium, and were actively generating stars, a finding made possible in part by Hubble. This showed that huge stars crashed to produce black holes, which is how gamma ray bursts originated. Low-metallicity stars are more likely to maintain their mass and form black holes, and active star-forming galaxies are frequently rich in big stars that collapse swiftly.The basis of life on Earth is dust, which is also essential to the universe's operation.

The beginning of time

Before Hubble, the age of the universe was mostly unknown, which might result in absurd paradoxes like the absurd notion that stars that astronomers had found were older than the cosmos itself. Hubble contributed significantly to the reduction of the universe's expansion rate, which allowed for the reworking of universe age estimates to approximately 13.75 billion years. This result is important for understanding the mass of neutrinos and other seemingly unrelated cosmic parameters, as well as for modeling the evolution of our universe over time.

Planets, planets everywhere

In July 1994, just seven months after the first shuttle servicing mission, fragments of a comet torn apart by Jupiter's gravity slammed into the giant planet's atmosphere, blasting world-size blemishes in the cloud tops that were easily visible to amateur and professional astronomers alike.

However, the Hubble Space Telescope produced the sharpest, most breathtaking photos, offering a compelling example of the observatory's capacity to offer flyby-class views of other planets in the solar system in addition to Earth.


Hubble has been used to track Venusian clouds and dust storms on Mars, to study the churning atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, to monitor Saturn's rings and auroral displays on both planets and to keep tabs on Uranus and Neptune and their many moons. More recently, Hubble has been extensively used to map the moons of Pluto and help find post-flyby targets in the remote Kuiper Belt for NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft.

Getting spectacular images of Earth's neighbors was not a surprise. But actually imaging a planet orbiting another star -- a feat Hubble achieved in November 2008 -- and spectroscopically examining the atmospheres of several other extra-solar planets, are considered major achievements.

"When Hubble was launched, we didn't even have evidence there were planets around other stars," Riess said. "Not only have those been found, Hubble has helped characterize those. It's truly remarkable."

James Webb Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope


NASA's much awaited James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which replaced the Hubble Space Telescope, was launched on December 25, 2021. The project incurred substantial cost overruns; the original $0.5 billion budget was later expanded to almost $10 billion. Work on the project started in 1996.

JWST reached a major mission milestone on January 8, 2022, when it achieved complete deployment. 

 The telescope reached its designated destination on January 24, positioning itself to commence its groundbreaking observations of the universe. The deployment and arrival at its destination are critical steps in ensuring the functionality and success of the mission, allowing JWST to contribute to our understanding of the cosmos. it arrived at its destination.On March 16, 2022, it focused all its mirrors on a single star for the first time.

On July 12, 2022, NASA released JWST's initial set of full-resolution science images, featuring the Carina Nebula, the Eight-Burst Nebula, Stephan’s Quintet (a group of galaxies), and a galaxy cluster. Additionally, NASA presented an analysis of the composition of the exoplanet WASP-96b and discreetly unveiled an image of Jupiter.

Shortly after, researchers identified the oldest galaxy ever discovered in JWST data. This galaxy dates back to just 300 million years after the big bang, making it 100 million years older than the previously identified oldest galaxy, GN-z11.


How does the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) work?

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) operates similarly to traditional telescopes by capturing and focusing light to extend our view of the cosmos. However, it diverges by observing in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, detecting heat instead of visible light like our eyes. This capability, similar to a night vision camera, allows JWST to study cooler and more distant celestial objects. Its significant size enhances light collection, aiding in the observation of fainter and smaller entities. Being in space eliminates atmospheric interference, providing clearer and more detailed data, making JWST a powerful tool for exploring the universe.



How far can the James Webb Space Telescope "see"?

Why is it that galaxies in the early universe are visible to the JWST because of this far-off view? Something is moving away from us faster the further distant it is in the universe. Redshift, which is experienced by fast objects, causes the item to appear redder. Something that is extremely far away eventually turns redder than red and enters the infrared spectrum. JWST's ability to view farther than previous telescopes is due to this. The oldest items are those that are farthest away since light takes time to reach us. Time travel is possible with telescopes like Hubble and JWST. Because JWST operates in the infrared, it can see farther than Hubble and almost all the way back to 13.7 billion years ago, when the cosmos first began.



The James Webb Space Telescope is currently where?

The L2 Lagrange point is the location around which the JWST revolves. This is 1.5 million kilometers beyond Earth so that Earth's heat will not obstruct its view. Because L2 is a gravity well, we don't need as much fuel to maintain it there as we would if it were floating aimlessly in space. The fact that L2 circles the sun with us is also helpful because it means we can always talk to each other and download pictures from the telescope.