In 1610, Galileo Galilei rocked Europe with his published account of four heavenly objects that appeared to orbit the planet Jupiter. We know them today as Jupiter’s largest moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto — but at the time, his observations flew in the face of the long-held belief that all heavenly bodies orbited the Earth. By turning his telescope toward the heavens, Galileo ushered in a new era of cosmological discovery by observation.
In the centuries that followed, advances in optics and instrument design led to ever more powerful visible light telescopes, but they all faced the same limitation of having to peer through the distortions of Earth’s atmosphere.
Fast forward to 1990, and the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). First proposed in the 1920s but beset by technical and budgetary delays, Hubble finally began fulfilling its promise in 1993. Since then, Hubble has done for modern astronomy what Galileo’s observations did in his day, opening our eyes to new discoveries and the wonders of the universe that have always been, but of which we were simply unaware.
This past month, the 18 year-old HST is back in the news, having suffered a failure in the channel that transmits imaging data back to Earth. NASA’s final service mission, originally scheduled for October 14, has been delayed until February 2009, at which time the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis will attempt to restore communications by replacing the failed units — in addition to installing the previously scheduled upgrades.
This week’s installment of Friday Night at the Movies features Chapter 5 of a 10-part history of the Hubble Space Telescope and some of the many of the discoveries it’s made possible, as documented in 2005 by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Should you wish to view other chapters in the series, a linked list is provided below the video. Clicking a link will take you to the corresponding episode located in our Ecology TV section, where you’ll find all 10 episodes available
In the meantime, sit back, relax and prepare yourself for a journey to the edges of time and space, courtesy of the HST. For a real treat, click the full-frame button (to the right of the volume control) in the YouTube toolbar.
– Bob
Hubble: 15 Years of Discovery
Chapter 5: Cosmic Collisions
Watch the Entire Series Right Here on Ecology TV!
Chapter 1: The Hubble Story (10:28)
Chapter 2: Hubble Up Close (5:04)
Chapter 3: Planetary Tales (8:34)
Chapter 4: The Lives of Stars (10:01)
Chapter 5: Cosmic Collisions (7:58)
Chapter 6: Monsters in Space (9:51)
Chapter 7: Gravitational Illusions (6:10)
Chapter 8: Birth & Death of the Universe (6:06)
Chapter 9.1: Looking to the End of Time (6:49)
Chapter 9.2: Looking to the End of Time (8:08)
