A refurbished Hubble space telescope is taking amazing pictures from space. We can thank NASA for there billion dollar repair that took place last May. NASA funded the project, but the people we need to thank are those brave astronauts with their daring spacewalks for this image. There work included two new cameras, which are ten times better and its digital film. They were build by a British company, e2v Technologies of Chelmsford, Essex. They also installed other space instruments and replaced broken parts.
“Hubble is back in action. Together, NASA and Hubble are opening new vistas on the universe,” astronomer and frequent Hubble user Heidi Hammel said.
10 images were taken. The nebula, a cloud of stellar gas and dust, is sharper than any other photo that was taken in the same place of space. Some have brilliant glows of light that give them halos and one of those resembles an eerie cosmic butterfly. Its really a stellar nursery or nebula not too far away.
“The butterfly photo shows details, such as gassy folds in what looks like a butterfly wings, that Hubble previously could not see,” said Hubble senior scientist Dave Leckrone.
“The glow in that photo and others is hot gas and dust pushed out from the stars,” Leckrone said. “In a way, it’s like a light bulb, with the star as the filament but the overall glow from the gas,” he said.
“The images, especially the butterfly, don’t just show science, but can evoke a sense of spirituality,” Leckrone said.
“What I see is the grandeur of creation, however it got there,” Leckrone told The Associated Press.