2000 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| HUBBLE'S LEGACY | G00-034 | 04/10/00 | 00:21:30 | On April 25, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) began its voyage into space after it was deployed from the Space Shuttle Discovery. In the last decade of operation, HST's rapid-fire rate of unprecedented discoveries has invigorated astronomy. As HST looks into the hidden mysteries of space, new details about planets, stars and galaxies come into crystal view. The telescope has produced a steady stream of images that have astounded the world's scientific communities, in some cases confirming astronomical theories and sometimes challenging others.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Shoemaker-Levy Slams into Jupiter - In 1992, the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet passed close enough to Jupiter to split it apart into 21 fragments that slammed into the planet in July 1994. After the optics were corrected in 1994, the Hubble telescope witnessed this unique event in human history. This was the first collision of two solar system bodies ever to be observed.
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| ITEM (2): Hubble Sees a Clear View - In hundreds of images the Hubble has given the world both discoveries and a Universe of beautiful pictures. Some of the most popular images are stunning new views of known objects. Hubble's eyes provide greater understanding of objects that have long tantalized astronomers.
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| ITEM (3): Eagle Nebula and Other Hubble Greats - Starbirth in the Orion Nebula; Eagle Nebula; Eta Carinae; NGC 7009; NGC 6826; Twinjet Nebula.
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| ITEM (4): Discovery of a Supermassive Black Hole - Exploiting the unique capabilities of Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), astronomers were able to discover a black hole in the center of a galaxy by mapping the motions of gas in the grip of the black hole's powerful gravitational pull. Evidence for the black hole comes from measurement of the rapid rotation of a disk of gas at the very center of the galaxy. Animation of artist's concepts show what it may actually look like.
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| ITEM (5): Hubble Looks Back in Time - The Hubble Deep Field Team took the deepest look ever of the sky. The team pointed the telescope at one tiny spot in the sky for a 10-day long exposure. By counting the number of galaxies and looking back in time, the astronomers discovered that they could see the number of galaxies increasing. Some of the galaxies may have formed less than one billion years after the Big Bang.
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| ITEM (6): Measuring the Universe - To measure the expansion rate and estimate the age of the universe astronomers observed a class of stars called a Cepheid Variable and used other distance indicators. Though rare, these stars are reliable distance indicators to galaxies. Based on the Hubble observation, the distance to M100 has been measured accurately as 56 million light-years (+/- 6 million light-years), making it the farthest object where intergalactic distances have been determined precisely.
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| ITEM (7): STS-31 Hubble Goes into Orbit - Launched on April 24, 1990, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was designed to be the most powerful astronomical observatory ever built. The keys to Hubble's power are its operation in space, far above the interference of the Earth's atmosphere, and to the unique instruments it carries as it orbits the planet. In addition, HST was the first observatory designed for extensive on-orbit maintenance and refurbishment.
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| ITEM (8): Excerpt - HST Status Briefing (6/27/90) - Douglas Broome, former HST Program Manager, announces that there is a problem with the Hubble Space Telescope.
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| ITEM (9): HST First Servicing Mission (STS-61) - In June, 1990 scientists and engineers discovered that the HST's primary mirror was flawed. In December 1993, astronauts successfully installed a new camera called the Wide Field/Planetary Camera II (WF/PC-II) which had its corrective optics built right in, and a special instrument, called the COSTAR (Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement) that would properly refocus light from the flawed main mirror to the other instruments.
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| ITEM (10): Excerpt - HST First Corrected Images Press Conference (1/13/94) - Sen. Barbara Mikulski, (D) Maryland, announces the successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope.
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| ITEM (11): HST Second Servicing Mission (STS-82) - Every few years, the telescope is visited by a Space Shuttle to allow astronauts to switch old instruments for new. In February 1997, during HST's second servicing mission, astronauts removed the Goddard High Resolution Spectrometer and the Faint Object Spectrograph and replaced them with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS).
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| ITEM (12): HST Third Servicing Mission (STS-103) - On December 19, 2000, the Space Shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts blasted off on the last human space flight of the 20th century to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope. Although no new scientific instruments were installed, over the course of three space walks, astronauts installed six new gyroscopes, six Voltage/Temperature Improvement Kits, a new more efficient computer, and a refurbished Fine Guidance Sensor.
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| ITEM (13): Hubble Space Telescope Animation - "Glamour" shots of the telescope in space.
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| ITEM (14): The Electromagnetic Spectrum - Animation of the electromagnetic spectrum.
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| ITEM (15): Activity in the STOCC - Ground controllers work around the clock in the Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Here, commands are sent to the Telescope to direct the observation of astronomical targets all across the sky, operators monitor the Telescope's health, safety, control flight operations and science activities.
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