Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the Universe

Overview

Course No. 1884

Marvel at landmark images from the Hubble Space Telescope and better understand astronomy’s latest and greatest discoveries in this visual feast of a course. For two decades, the Hubble Space Telescope has been amassing discoveries that rival those of history’s greatest scientists and explorers, making it the most important and productive scientific instrument ever built.

These 12 spectacular lectures offer a fascinating overview of Hubble’s accomplishments, drawing on one noted astronomer’s Top 10 list to take you on a dazzling voyage of discovery that will feed the imagination and unlock new secrets of the universe. Professor David Meyer, who directs the Dearborn Observatory and has collaborated in 20 research projects with Hubble, has selected 10 iconic Hubble images based on their visual beauty, scientific impact, and breadth of subject matter.

Each image is the focus of its own lecture, which uses the iconic picture as a jumping-off point for exploring different aspects of the cosmos that Hubble has revealed in startling new detail. As you venture from the realm of the solar system to the farthest reaches of the universe, you get a wide-ranging education in such subjects as comets and asteroids, the life cycles of stars, the evolution of galaxies, dark matter, and the evidence for the big bang. You’ll enjoy an unrivaled vantage point for investigating phenomena throughout the cosmos, including a series of comet strikes on Jupiter, which produced Earth-sized plumes of vaporized debris in the giant planet’s atmosphere; a dramatic hotbed of new star creation in the Eagle Nebula; and the deepest optical view ever made of the early universe.

Course Outline

01: The Rationale for a Space Telescope

Begin your exploration of the scientific stories behind 10 of the most fascinating images made by the Hubble Space Telescope. In this lecture, learn about Hubble’s design and how its operations were almost cut short by a flaw in its mirror, a problem corrected during a space shuttle servicing mission.

Duration: 32 min

02: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Jupiter

Shortly after its optics were repaired, Hubble had the opportunity to observe the solar system event of the century: the collision of a string of comets with Jupiter in 1994. Examine Hubble’s stunning image of the aftermath of this crash.

Duration: 30 min

03: The Sagittarius Star Cloud

Hubble’s view of a tiny region of the Sagittarius Star Cloud has an astonishing 12,000 stars. Study this dazzling image and learn how its unprecedented resolution is helping to chart the stellar history and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy.

Duration: 30 min

04: The Star Factory inside the Eagle Nebula

Explore the most iconic Hubble photo of all: the glowing pillars of gas and dust at the core of the Eagle Nebula. Resembling a fantasy landscape, this view shows young stars emerging from their cocoons of gas and dust in an interstellar molecular cloud.

Duration: 30 min

05: The Cat’s Eye Nebula-A Stellar Demise

Turning from star birth to star death, get a preview of the sun’s distant future by examining the Cat’s Eye Nebula. Such planetary nebulae (which have nothing to do with planets) are the exposed debris of dying stars and are among the most beautiful objects in the Hubble gallery.

Duration: 31 min

06: The Crab Nebula-A Supernova’s Aftermath

Stars more than eight times as massive as the sun take a radically different path at the end of their lives, disintegrating in a colossal explosion known as a supernova. Hubble’s image of the famous Crab Nebula shows the expanding cloud of material from a supernova that was witnessed on Earth in the year 1054.

Duration: 31 min

07: The Sombrero Galaxy-An Island Universe

In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered the true nature of galaxies as “island universes.” Some 80 years later, the telescope named in his honor has made thousands of breathtaking pictures of galaxies. Focus on one in particular—an edge-on view of the striking Sombrero galaxy.

Duration: 30 min

08: Hubble’s View of Galaxies Near and Far

Hubble’s image of the nearby galaxy NGC 3370 includes many faint galaxies in the background, exemplifying the telescope’s mission to establish an accurate distance scale to galaxies near and far—along with the related expansion rate of the universe. Discover how Hubble’s success has led to the concept of dark energy.

Duration: 31 min

09: The Antennae Galaxies-A Cosmic Collision

A pair of interacting galaxies called the Antennae represent Hubble’s most dramatic snapshot of a galactic collision. Learn how such events unfold over the course of millions of years and how the nearby Andromeda galaxy will have a similar encounter with our own Milky Way in the far distant future.

Duration: 31 min

10: Abell 2218-A Massive Gravitational Lens

One of the consequences of Einstein’s general theory of relativity is evident in Hubble’s picture of the galaxy cluster Abell 2218. Investigate the physics of this phenomenon, called gravitational lensing, and discover how Hubble has used it to study extremely distant galaxies as well as dark matter.

Duration: 31 min

11: The Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Completing your tour of 10 remarkable Hubble images, plunge into the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the deepest optical image of the cosmos made to date. This extraordinary view shows 10,000 galaxies extending far beyond the Milky Way and back to the epoch of galaxy formation.

Duration: 30 min

12: Hubble’s Legacy and Beyond

Finish the course by looking at the future of Hubble and the next generation of space telescopes. Focus in particular on the search for extrasolar planets, how they are found, and the role Hubble and other telescopes play in extending our knowledge of possibly Earth-like worlds.

Duration: 33 min