1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:05,000 The NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 17th birthday 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:09,000 with one of the largest panoramic images ever taken: 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:11,200 the violent stellar fireworks of the Carina Nebula. 4 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:36,500 This is the Hubblecast. 5 00:00:36,500 --> 00:00:39,500 News and images from the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope 6 00:00:40,500 --> 00:00:43,500 Travelling through time and space with our host, Dr J 7 00:00:43,500 --> 00:00:45,500 EPISODE 3: Celebrating Hubble's 17th birthday with violent stellar fireworks. a.k.a. Dr. Joe Liske. 8 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:48,500 Welcome to the Hubblecast. 9 00:00:49,500 --> 00:00:54,500 On the 24th of April we celebrated Hubble's 17th anniversary in space. 10 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,500 In these 17 years of exploring the universe, 11 00:00:57,500 --> 00:01:01,000 Hubble has made nearly 800,000 observations 12 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,500 of more than 25,000 different celestial objects. 13 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,000 It takes pictures of the universe as it ??? through space 14 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:13,000 orbiting Earth at a breaking speed of 28,000 kilometres an hour. 15 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:19,000 And in 17 years that makes nearly 100,000 trips around our planet 16 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:22,000 or a total of 4 billion kilometres. 17 00:01:22,500 --> 00:01:25,000 That's one round trip to Saturn. 18 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,000 Today we are celebrating Hubble's 17th birthday 19 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:31,500 by releasing a stunning 50 light year wide image 20 00:01:31,500 --> 00:01:34,500 of the tumultuous central region of the Carina Nebula, 21 00:01:34,500 --> 00:01:38,500 where maelstrom of star birth and death is taking place. 22 00:01:43,500 --> 00:01:46,500 In the southern sky, not far from the southern cross, 23 00:01:46,500 --> 00:01:49,500 we find the constellation Carina, the Keel. 24 00:01:49,500 --> 00:01:55,500 Here, 8,000 light years away, the immense Carina Nebula is located. 25 00:01:55,500 --> 00:01:59,500 Hubble's new view of the Carina Nebula shows the process of star birth 26 00:01:59,500 --> 00:02:01,500 at a new level of detail. 27 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,000 The bizarre landscape of the nebula is sculpted by the action 28 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,500 of outflowing winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation 29 00:02:10,500 --> 00:02:14,000 from the monster stars that inhabit this inferno. 30 00:02:14,500 --> 00:02:18,000 In the center of the nebula we find Eta Carinae, 31 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:22,000 which is estimated to be 100 times more massive than our Sun. 32 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:26,000 It is in the final stages of its brief eruptive lifespan, 33 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,500 as shown by two billowing lobes of gas and dust 34 00:02:29,500 --> 00:02:33,500 that presage its forthcoming explosion as a titanic supernova. 35 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:40,000 Eta Carinae was the site of a giant outburst about 150 years ago, 36 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:45,000 when it temporarily became one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. 37 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:48,500 The star remains one of the great mysteries of stellar astronomy. 38 00:02:50,500 --> 00:02:54,500 Looking closer the nebula we find a number of very interesting features. 39 00:02:54,500 --> 00:02:58,500 Pillars of gas and dust reveal unequivocal evidence 40 00:02:58,500 --> 00:03:01,500 that stars are being born inside the columns. 41 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:08,000 Streamers of gas shoot out from the pillars and plough into the surrounding gas 42 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,500 like a fire hose hitting a wall of sand. 43 00:03:10,500 --> 00:03:15,500 The jets are being launched from newly forming stars hidden inside the columns. 44 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:20,500 Everywhere, we find small nuggets of cold molecular hydrogen and dust, 45 00:03:20,500 --> 00:03:24,000 called Bok globules, that are silhouetted against the nebula. 46 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:26,500 Now, the edges are glowing 47 00:03:26,500 --> 00:03:30,500 which indicates that they are being irradiated by the hottest stars around. 48 00:03:30,500 --> 00:03:36,000 It's been hypothesized that stars maybe forming inside these dusty cocoons. 49 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:42,000 Since February 2007, Hubble has been operating with a reduced capability 50 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,000 after one of its main cameras suffered a short circuit. 51 00:03:45,500 --> 00:03:50,000 A fifth servicing mission is, however, planned for September 2008 52 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:54,000 using NASA Space Shuttle. Two new instruments will be installed 53 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,500 and several other upgrades will be made. 54 00:03:57,500 --> 00:04:01,500 The Carina Nebula is just one example of what Hubble can do. 55 00:04:01,500 --> 00:04:05,000 Every day, Hubble generates 10 gigabytes of data. 56 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,000 That makes 30 terabytes over the 17 years of its lifetime. 57 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:15,000 The Hubble archive is a real goldmine to astronomers in Europe and in US. 58 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Every day, 66 gigabytes of data are being downloaded. 59 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,500 And absolutely everyone can get access to this riches via the Internet. 60 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:29,000 More than 7,000 scientific papers have been published based on Hubble observations, 61 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:33,500 and that makes Hubble one of the most productive scientific instruments ever. 62 00:04:34,500 --> 00:04:37,000 This is Dr. J signing off for the Hubblecast. 63 00:04:37,500 --> 00:04:41,500 Once again, nature has surprised us beyond our wildest imagination... 64 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,000 Hubblecast is produced by ESA / Hubble 65 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,000 at the European Southern Observatory in Germany. 66 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,000 The Hubble mission is a project of international cooperation 67 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,000 between NASA and the European Space Agency.