Hubble images Jupiter's comet-splat (and yes! WE - ARE - BACK!!!!)

[shireen]

JULY 24, 2009: NASA scientists have interrupted the checkout and calibration of the Hubble Space Telescope to aim the recently refurbished observatory at a new expanding spot on the giant planet Jupiter. The spot, caused by the impact of a comet or an asteroid, is changing day to day in the planet's cloud tops. The Hubble picture, taken on July 23, is the sharpest visible-light photo taken of the feature and is Hubble's first science observation following its repair and upgrade in May. Observations were taken with Hubble's new camera, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). WFC3 is not yet fully calibrated, and while it is possible to obtain celestial images, the camera's full power cannot yet be realized for most observations. The WFC3 can still return meaningful science images that will complement the Jupiter pictures being taken with ground-based telescopes.

More at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/23/








:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
:fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump:
:toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:

[Ian David]

1. My god... it's full of stars!

[Aramchek]

2. exactly.

happened 2 days before the Eclipse

Will 2010 be the Year We Make Contact?

[shireen]

4. LOL! And here i thought that some comet had gone splat into Jupiter ...

:hi:

[Ian David]

6. Comet Colbert. n/t

[eqfan592]

7. lol, I thought of the very same thing when I spotted the picture! (nt)

[zbdent]

8. and I thought that giant sucking sound was from the Clear Channel stations ...

Noon to 3pm EST ...

[damntexdem]

3. Give Hubble a hug-gle!

Hubba, hubba, Hubble!

[shireen]

5. hubble-hugger! LOL!

I'm SO excited about this ... we've been bursting with excitement this week ... astronauts who fixed Hubble came to visit us at work last Tuesday, which was just totally incredibly awesome. Some video at this link:
http://wjz.com/video/?id=[e-mail]

One of my co-workers appears at the end, thanking the astronaut.

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Duppers]

9. W00T ! & CONGRATS!

Congrats to you great folks.

(My family and I were on JHU campus a few weeks and ago and came by the very impressive Space Institute.)