Latest News: New images obtained on May 16, 2016, by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope confirm the presence of a dark vortex in the atmosphere of Neptune.

Though similar features were seen during the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune in 1989 and by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994, this vortex is the first one observed on Neptune in the 21st century.

Neptune's dark vortices are high-pressure systems and are usually accompanied by bright "companion clouds," which are also now visible on the distant planet.

The bright clouds form when the flow of ambient air is perturbed and diverted upward over the dark vortex, causing gases to likely freeze into methane ice crystals.

Neptune's dark vortices have exhibited surprising diversity over the years, in terms of size, shape, and stability (they meander in latitude, and sometimes speed up or slow down). They also come and go on much shorter timescales compared to similar anticyclones seen on Jupiter; large storms on Jupiter evolve over decades.

Planetary astronomers hope to better understand how dark vortices originate, what controls their drifts and oscillations, how they interact with the environment, and how they eventually dissipate.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/22/

In the DC area? Join us from 6-11 p.m. June 10 as we participate in Astronomy Night on the National Mall. The Space Telescope Science Institute -- that's us -- will have hands-on activities about light and color, as well as telescopes for sky observations.

The free event takes place from 6-11 p.m. on the National Mall (north of the Washington Monument; 15th Street NW and Constitution Ave). It features day/night close-up views of the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars with 20 optical and radio telescopes; planetarium shows under a 25-foot dome; astronomical image exhibits, and interactive hands-on activities presented by science and educational organizations. Rain date is June 11 at The Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Avenue Northeast.

Since the discovery of the first exoplanets 20 years ago,
the field has expanded rapidly. More than 3,000 confirmed
planets are now known outside of our solar system. This is
the start of a new era in exoplanet science, where we go
beyond measuring planetary mass and radius and begin to
probe their atmospheres. Such observations provide a
critical step in our understanding of planet formation and
are key to assessing the potential habitability of
exoplanets. We currently utilize a variety of methods to
detect and characterize exoplanets, and upcoming missions
will have the potential to detect signatures of life on
distant worlds.

Join astronomer Nikole Lewis of the Space Telescope Science Institute, either online or in-person for June's Public Lecture Series. Visit http://hubblesite.org/about_us/public_talks/ for links to both live and previous lectures, or join us in the Space Telescope Science Institute auditorium, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, Md., 21218. The Public Lecture Series occurs on the first Tuesday of every month. Admission is free and free parking is available in the lot across the street.

Watch live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YkTu48Hj_w

Latest News: Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the universe is expanding 5 percent to 9 percent faster than expected.

"This surprising finding may be an important clue to understanding those mysterious parts of the universe that make up 95 percent of everything and don't emit light, such as dark energy, dark matter, and dark radiation," said study leader and Nobel Laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute and The Johns Hopkins University, both in Baltimore, Maryland.

There are a few possible explanations for the universe's excessive speed. One possibility is that dark energy, already known to be accelerating the universe, may be shoving galaxies away from each other with even greater — or growing — strength.

Another idea is that the cosmos contained a new subatomic particle in its early history that traveled close to the speed of light. Such speedy particles are collectively referred to as "dark radiation" and include previously known particles like neutrinos. More energy from additional dark radiation could be throwing off the best efforts to predict today's expansion rate from its post-big bang trajectory.

The boost in acceleration could also mean that dark matter possesses some weird, unknown characteristics. Dark matter is the backbone of the universe upon which galaxies built themselves up into the large-scale structures seen today.

And finally, the speedier universe may be telling astronomers that Einstein's theory of gravity is incomplete.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/17/

Coming up Friday ...

How will we discover life in the universe? What are the cosmos’ biggest unknowns? How do scientific discoveries inspire and transform the stories we tell? Join sci-fi authors Larry Niven, Kim Stanley Robinson, Connie Willis, Allen Steele, Charlie Stross, Joe Haldeman and Harry Turtledove and a panel of the scientists and engineers of the Hubble and Webb space telescopes as they explore the places where their worlds collide. Get insight into the scientific and creative processes as they discuss topics ranging from why we can’t seem to find evidence of intelligent aliens to the ways that science happens in real life. The panel will be livestreamed at 11:15 a.m. ET May 27 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-YSailh2po , and archived for viewing later on our HubbleSite YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/hubblespacetelescope.

Latest News: Bright, frosty polar caps, and clouds above a vivid, rust-colored landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic seasonal planet in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope view taken on May 12, 2016, when Mars was 50 million miles from Earth. The Hubble image reveals details as small as 20 to 30 miles across. This observation was made just a few days before Mars opposition on May 22, when the Sun and Mars will be on exact opposite sides of Earth. Mars also will be 47.4 million miles from Earth. On May 30, Mars will be the closest it has been to Earth in 11 years, at a distance of 46.8 million miles. Mars is especially photogenic during opposition because it can be seen fully illuminated by the Sun as viewed from Earth.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/15

A new Hubble's Universe Unfiltered from Dr. +Frank Summers  showcases the 25th Anniversary image of the nebula Gum 29 with the brilliant star cluster Westerlund 2 at its core. It also reveals some of the computer graphics secrets behind the fly-through scientific visualization. That visualization is one of the most popular ever on our YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dy0CyUCaPs

Latest News: New findings suggest that clouds or haze layers could be preventing a substantial amount of atmospheric water from being detected by space telescopes.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/20

Since the discovery of the first exoplanets 20 years ago, the field has expanded rapidly. More than 3,000 confirmed planets are now known outside of our solar system. This is the start of a new era in exoplanet science, where we go beyond measuring planetary mass and radius and begin to probe their atmospheres. Such observations provide a critical step in our understanding of planet formation and are key to assessing the potential habitability of exoplanets. We currently utilize a variety of methods to detect and characterize exoplanets, and upcoming missions will have the potential to detect signatures of life on distant worlds.

Host: Dr. Frank Summers

For more information: http://hubblesite.org/about_us/public_talks/

#HubblePublicLecture #Astronomy

See for yourself how a familiar galaxy would look through the lens of a Frontier Fields galaxy cluster. https://frontierfields.org/2016/05/26/the-whirlpool-galaxy-seen-through-a-cosmic-lens/

Latest News: Using data from three of NASA's Great Observatories (the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope), scientists have found the best evidence to date that supermassive black holes in the early universe were produced by the direct collapse of a gas cloud. If confirmed, this result could lead to new insight into how black holes were formed and grew billions of years ago.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/19/

Latest News: Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured images of Comet 252P/LINEAR just after it swept by Earth on March 21. The visit was one of the closest encounters between a comet and our planet. The comet traveled within 3.3 million miles of Earth, or about 14 times the distance between our planet and the moon. The images reveal a narrow, well-defined jet of dust ejected by the comet's icy, fragile nucleus. These observations also represent the closest celestial object Hubble has observed, other than the moon. The comet will return to the inner solar system again in 2021.