Hubble has a major extra solar finding

Originally posted by ADVISOR
Well I'll tell you, since you mention the ISS, personally if NASA decides to do any thing with Hubble, they should attach it to the ISS.

That would probably be impossible or at the very least, extremely unlikely to happen. It would probably be chearper just to build a new one specifically designed to attach to the Station. It would be too risky and too costly to bring it back down to Earth, modify it and re-launch it again. Plus the Shuttle will be retired before Hubble anyway. So there won't be anything to bring it back down with.

Hubble is the oldest and most reliable peice of equipment NASA still has in service, as far as I know.

I think the Voyager probes have it beat by a little over a decade. I think there's even some stuff from the 60's that's still going.

I just don't get all that excited anymore at NASA's 'big' announcements. Although I don't think it will be an annoucement that is totally insignificant, this method of their announcements usually only creates real excitment in the world of astronomers, not the general population. But I will follow up to see what it is.

They both photograph a perfect 10? Something like that =). Hard to answer this in two lines lol.

External Link

External Link

[edit on 8-11-2008 by Xeven]

Originally posted by mattguy404
So this is the Hubble telescope that made this discovery, the same piece of scientific equipment that NASA were thinking wasn't worth fixing?

Maybe discoveries like this will lead them to do real science instead of building useless white elephants like the International Space Station.

You nailed it on the head....

Nasa has to say they found something good before there funding get's yanked by obama.
or else no more nasa..or way less funding.

Well I'll tell you, since you mention the ISS, personally if NASA decides to do any thing with Hubble, they should attach it to the ISS.

That is impossible. The HST is in an orbit inclined 28.5 degrees to the equator (the latitude of the KSC), but ISS is in an orbit inclined 51 degrees to the equator. It is also orbiting Earth over 200kms higher than ISS. The Shuttle does not have the necessary thrust capability to perform a job of that magnitude.


[edit on 10-11-2008 by Mogget]

[edit on 10-11-2008 by Mogget]

What does Hubble have in common with Bo Derek?

reply to post by Xeven


Sorry, I was offline a couple of days, but yes that's right.

www.nasa.gov...

en.wikipedia.org...(film)

You have applauded Xeven.

As far as the eventual fate of Hubble, I think when it reaches the end of it's useful life, I think they should try to either bring it back, or maybe attach it the ISS, as a piece of history. It does not have to work after they attach it. It would only be for posterity. Unfortunately, one day the ISS will also have to come down, so I would rather bring it back somehow. Maybe send up an unmanned reentry vehicle with a parachute, that they can recover in the ocean or something. Just a thought.

[edit on 11/10/2008 by Hal9000]

reply to post by jra


Actually there is one piece of hardware that even has the Voyager probes beat.

Remember the USA's first sattelite? Yep, that little basketball sized satellite is still up there orbiting the planet and still active.

And who knows about the early deep space probes, the Mariner series. Even tho communication is lost with those probes, they very well could still be operating, just drifting away forever with no path or enough power to send a signal home.

Cheers!!!!

reply to post by Hal9000


oh my, the hubble and iss are at different altitude and orientation and to change the iss or hubbles orientation by one degree itself will consume tonnes of fuel and how can hubble be docked to the station.

Originally posted by Hal9000
As far as the eventual fate of Hubble, I think when it reaches the end of it's useful life, I think they should try to either bring it back, or maybe attach it the ISS, as a piece of history. It does not have to work after they attach it. It would only be for posterity. Unfortunately, one day the ISS will also have to come down, so I would rather bring it back somehow. Maybe send up an unmanned reentry vehicle with a parachute, that they can recover in the ocean or something. Just a thought.

As peacejet and I have already mentioned. That would be pretty much impossible, due to the completely different orbits, and the extensive modification required to attach it to the ISS. It would also be a complete waste of money to even do such a thing.

And there is currently no vehicle that could bring the HST back down to Earth. Except the Shuttle, but that would be rather risky, if even possible. Plus the Shuttle will be retired before Hubble anyway, so it's not even an option.

Just a little heads up,cos the announcement is now going to be today,not tomorow.

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a Science Update to report on a significant discovery about planets orbiting other stars at 2:30 p.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 13, in NASA's James E. Webb auditorium. This unique discovery, made by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advance Camera for Surveys instrument, also will be featured in the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Science.

Can someone post a link to the live broadcast? Thanks! Looking forward to more of the same old same old from NASA though.

Originally posted by Aggie Man
Can someone post a link to the live broadcast? Thanks! Looking forward to more of the same old same old from NASA though.

I reckon this link will have it

www.nasa.gov...

at the side,there's a link to the schedule

only half an hour to go....

[edit on 13/11/2008 by Acidtastic]

For those that did not get to watch the broadcast here is a link to the NASA article discussing the content of the press conference.

www.nasa.gov...

so the discovery was simply "Hubble Directly Observes a Planet Orbiting Another Star"

woopdeedoo

This is big news...?!

My god, just how complacent does NASA think we are...?!

Oops, never mind...

Originally posted by chapter29
This is big news...?!

It most certainly is. In the astronomy world anyway. It's extremely rare to visually spot a planet orbiting another star. Generally they are only detected indirectly by the wobble of the star.

Some of you are hard to please. This announcement is the first direct observation of an exosolar planet and it is a big deal. Read the article that zombiemann posted. It took them four years to confirm this discovery.

I say kudos to NASA.

yeah come on,this is a massive step forward. At the beginging of the interview,the guy said that when the reporter asked him,just before they launched hubble,what were some of the things they will look for. One of the last things he said(and he said it was more wishfull thinking than anything else,as other planets hadn't even been proved to exist at the time.)was "I'd like to get a picture of a planet around another star" That's 1 step in the right direction of finding a planet with life on it. This IS big news scientificly speaking.