Help Hubble Makes Its Next Discovery

By Nancy Atkinson - January 28, 2009 at 6:59 AM UTC | Observing
ngc_5172_.jpg

[/caption] The folks who run the

Hubble Space Telescope

have decided to ask for some help in choosing where to next point the world's most famous telescope. People from around the planet can vote to select the next object the Hubble Space Telescope will view. The choices are six objects Hubble has never observed before. You can also enter a drawing to win one of 100 new Hubble pictures of the object that is chosen. The winning image will be released between April 2 and 5, during the

IYA's 100 Hours of Astronomy,

a global astronomy event geared toward encouraging as many people as possible to experience the night sky. You need to vote by March 1 to swing Hubble toward your favorite target. So get over to the HubbleSite and vote!

The choices are two planetary nebulae (NGC 40 and NGC 6072), an emission nebula (NGC 6634), an edge-on spiral (NGC 4289), a spiral galaxy (NGC 5172 – seen above from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) and interacting galaxies (Arp 274).
[caption id="attachment_24234" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The choices (image stolen from the Bad Astronomer)"]

[/caption]

Here's a screen shot of the HubbleSite page where the voting is taking place, with the rankings blurred out. (This image was stolen from

Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy site

--thanks Phil!) But get over to the HubbleSite already and vote! If you need some more info to help you decide, there is a video with Dr. Frank Summers, a very fun astronomer-type guy who will explain each of the target objects. This event is part of the

International Year of Astronomy (IYA),

the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's astronomical observations with his telescope.

Sources: HubbleSite,

Bad Astronomy

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com