The Camera That Took the Most Important Image in the History of the World Died
As has been widely reported, the camera that took the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, which in my opinion was the most important image ever taken by humanity, has finally died.
Now, while this is sad news, it’s important to keep in mind that the Hubble is not dead, there are still a great many instruments still operating on board.
Still, that camera has been responsible for some pretty amazing pictures, the loss is truly a big one.
The Ultra Deep field was a remarkable picture in just about every way. It was taken by exposing the CCD for a total of over 13 days, collecting light from a region of space high above the galactic plane and in a region where no stars could be seen. It was looking into nothingness, or so everyone thought. No one knew what the Hubble would see after the exposure. Many expected a dark image.
After those 13 days, the image revealed over 13,000 galaxies, many dating back to 700 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was just a baby. Looking at that picture was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I will never forget it.
We still have the James Webb Space Telescope to look forward to and many other instruments are still going strong on Hubble, with a planned repair mission in 2008. This baby’s not done by a long shot.
Technorati Tags: hubble space telescope, space pictures, telescopes
….and still there are people that believe that we are alone in the Universe, and that it was only created about 12.000 years ago.
Well, when one finds out how really small we are, it is not impossible to understand why we can not think in a bigger scale….
Fribby.