Hubble’s images sometimes appear to be
missing part of the picture. That’s because one of
its instruments
- the Wide Field and Planetary
Camera 2
- records images with
four cameras. One of those four cameras (the planetary camera) magnifies what
it sees, while the other three (the wide field cameras) do not.
When a
picture is created (by assembling the four sections from the four cameras), scientists reduce the magnified (detailed) area so it matches the other three sections. It’s rather like zooming-in on one area of an object - so we can better study it - and then zooming-out if we want to produce a synchronized image. But when we zoom-out, we use less space and -
for Hubble
- that unused space has a stair-step appearance in the
stitched-together picture.
When Hubble’s first images were analyzed, scientists
realized that the telescope had
blurred vision. A shuttle mission, sent to repair
the problem a few years later, was
successful. Since then, Hubble has been sending incredible images backs to Earth. Its
first ten years (be patient while loading this Quick Time video clip) were amazing, but images from recent years have been no less sensational.
Let’s examine some of the space telescopes’ most
beautiful images. (This is a RealVideo link.)