Sawse - Stir it Up!

The Hubble Telescope is responsible for some of the “most amazing” photographs of the space and the universe that man kind has ever seen. The telescope is one of the most expensive missions that have been taken up by us humans. No wonder, we have tried to do everything to ensure that this beauty did what it was made to do – reveal the untold secrets of a deep dark space where explosions are beautiful!

“Most amazing” these are the two words that are used most often to describe the photographs that were taken by the orbital observatory; and why not; the photographs are nothing less than awesome. Who would have thought that the telescope would be able to produce photographs that explain everything from the evolution in the cosmic world to the cosmic renaissance?

After all of this, NASA says that it was planning to kill Hubble. Kill! Hubble was never alive; well, that’s what most of us would say, but, doesn’t it seem like Hubble is an ingenious photographer. Anyways, that’s a matter of individualistic perspective and opinion.

The technological marvel has been responsible for some awe inspiring pictures of a space that is sometimes described as vast emptiness. The telescope revealed such different shades of the vast emptiness. This revelation comes as a mystic food for thought and inquisitiveness of scholars at NASA.

This particular picture was taken by the Hubble Telescope way back in 1996. Back then the scene that was captured by the telescope was 5,000 light years away from the earth. This would mean that the light had been given out from the source, which was located in the heart of the Nebula Lagoon 5,000 years before Hubble could capture it; and this is just the beginning.

For all those who wonder how it would be when a comet strikes the earth; here is a picture that was captured back in 1994 – 95, by the marvelous telescope. The picture sees the impact of a comet by the name of Shoemaker – Levy 9, after it struck the surface of the largest planet in our solar system – Jupiter.

Then there are images that left astrophysicists stunned. The images featured a stellar formation that is one of the most unusual of its kinds. This stellar formation, by the name of Eta Carinae was observed by the telescope. This image not only left us stunned but also challenged several theories that have been devised by us.

Besides, this is the most popular picture and is often regarded as the best image to have been captured by the Hubble telescope – the Spiral Galaxy.

Then there is the popular picture that was dubbed as the God’s eye, and circulated through out the world. Many of us have seen it before in those e-mails. Again individualistic opinion is what will determine you reaction to this picture.

All these pictures were sure observed and captured by the Hubble telescope. However, what seems to be more inspiring is the fact that we humans are the ones who made this marvelous and ingenious photographer. Obviously “we” here, refers to the scholars at NASA.

They have had to deal with disappointment, triumphs, blunders, and frustrating times, to taste the sweet nectar of success; and they still continue to toil hard so that the telescope can capture what we only dreamt of. Right from when it was set free in the Earth’s orbit up to today, several numbers of repairs and renovations that have been performed on the massive telescope.

Imagine floating men floating high in the sky trying to fix things right so that we can enjoy the beautiful explosions that occur far off some where in the vast emptiness. Well, these men also work hard to figure out if there are more of us out there.

Imagine unscrewing screws that were never meant to be unscrewed so that the telescope would not produce any blur images; and the tougher part here is not unscrewing the screws but ensuring that the unscrewed screws do not float away somewhere. Funny! It isn’t.

So much hard work! Well let’s just kill it! No ways, how could we let the Hubble Telescope just die as it orbited the Earth; and well if it were not for our outrage at the slightest thought of killing it, the scholars at NASA would have never made efforts to save it. Well, yes the telescope needs to do some more work before it can die a peaceful death.

How do we make this possible? Well all we do is change the old parts in the telescope and replace them with newer more sophisticated ones. That’s it! It is not really very difficult as we have done this whole refurbishing exercise so many times with the Hubble that now it is just a matter of moving your hands when you float in space with an oxygen mask on.

After all this refurbishing and renovation and repair we can be assured of the fact that the telescope would keep capturing several more of those marvelous pictures at least till some time after the year 2013. In fact, efforts are being made in order to at least extend the life of the photographer till around the year 2024 – at least rumor says so!

However, there are several scholars who do not really want to tamper with the whole motive of trying to understand our universe in a better manner. After all, it is not really fair that we forget the whole aim of spending over US $ billion and being all emotional about it. We could always spend another US $ billion to create something that we can call Hubble II and that will capture pictures that are several times sharper. Besides, then, we would enjoy the whole experience of explaining those weird shapes and vibrant colors in our own ways; and off course how could we forget the scholars who would then be able to understand the cosmic world better; and for the better!

Tags: Amazing photos, astronomy, Science, space