Hubble, Bubble, Toil & Trouble

Did you see the remarkable images taken by the newly refurbished Hubble telescope?  According to NASA, they prove the mission carried out by astronauts in May to service the observatory was an outstanding success. 

According to me they look just a little bit abstract.  A bit like those pictures created by a chimp in 5 minutes – or snapped up for millions by Jackson Pollack enthusiasts. 

The latest pictures include trademark Hubble visions – from colliding galaxies to dying stars. Nasa says the orbiting telescope, regarded as one of the most important scientific tools ever built, should keep working until at least 2014.

That’s just a well because the Hubble has taken a bit of fixing. The Atlantis shuttle mission in May was the fifth and final Hubble makeover.  This might explain why the US space agency and its international partners plan now to concentrate their efforts on preparing a bigger and more capable observatory known as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

However, we are told that wednesday’s release of pictures was the usual tour de force that astronomers have come to expect following a Hubble servicing.

It included dazzling pictures of galaxies headed for a pile-up, a star throwing off its outer layers, dense clouds of gas and dust, and a new pin-sharp look at the planet Jupiter.

One of the photos looked for all the world like a moth in the dark… and another one looked a bit like a dust cloud.  But they were undoubtedly quite colourful.

 ”Hubble is back in action,” declared Dr Heidi Hammel, a senior research scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, from where Hubble’s mission is overseen.

“Together, Nasa and Hubble are opening new vistas on the Universe,” she told a reporters.

The British astronomer Dr Paul Murdin, from the University of Cambridge, said the new images were breathtaking.

“My first reaction is ‘my god, it all worked, it’s fantastic’,” he told BBC News.

No wonder the yanks are thinking of building another one, if our boffins are thrilled the damn thing works after a none-too-cheap five shuttle re-fit.