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| Image credit: Hubble |
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| Triple Eclipse on Jupiter |
| Nov 4, 2004 - The Hubble Space Telescope took this rare picture of a triple eclipse on Jupiter, an event that only happens once or twice a decade. Io is near the middle, Ganymede on the planet's left edge, and Callisto is near the right edge. Astronomers tested a new technique with Hubble when taking this picture. They sped up Hubble's tracking system so that Jupiter passed through its field of view more quickly than normal. This allowed them to take rapid-fire snapshots of the planet and its moons to build into a single image that shows more detail than one single image. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: PPARC |
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| First Gamma Ray Image |
| Nov 4, 2004 - European astronomers have produced the first image of an object using high energy gamma rays - the most penetrating form of radiation known. The image is of a supernova remnant called RX J1713.7-3946, which exploded 1,000 years ago. Over time, a ring of material has expanded to twice the diameter of the Moon in the sky. If you had gamma ray eyes, you would be able to see a large ring in the sky every night. This also helps solve a 100 year mystery about the origin of cosmic rays; the remnant seems to be acting as a particle accelerator. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: ESA |
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| Earth Will Be Watching When Huygens Arrives |
| Nov 4, 2004 - As the ESA's Huygens probe makes its descent into Titan's thick atmosphere in January, telescopes here on Earth will be watching carefully to help understand the global condition of the moon's atmosphere. Cassini's job will be to communicate with Huygens, so it won't actually be able to take pictures of the moon while it's performing this vital task, so it's up to the Earth-based telescopes. There's a remote possibility that Hubble or the giant 10-metre Keck observatory will see a tiny fireball as Huygens enters Titan's atmosphere. (Full Story) |
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