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February 25, 2013 - Babes in Arms

Babes in Arms The Hubble Space Telescope has been a cutting-edge instrument since 1990 because of periodic servicing by shuttle astronauts who repaired Hubble’s faults and upgraded its instruments. In 2009, Hubble received the Wide Field Camera 3, a high-quality optical and near-infrared imager. This WFC3 image of a portion of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83) shows dark dust lanes curving out from the nucleus (top) to form a spiral arm. Along the edges of the lanes, clusters of newborn stars, only a few million years old, are bursting out of their dusty cocoons and producing bubbles of reddish glowing hydrogen gas. Radiation from these fledgling stars blows away surrounding gas, revealing the bright blue stars within. Older stars, not nearly so blue, appear throughout the scene.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Weekly Calendar

February 25 - March 3, 2013

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Moon phase Monday 25

Full Moon 3:26 PM ET

Moon phase Tuesday 26

1842: Camille Flammarion born
1966: First Saturn 1B rocket launched

Moon phase Wednesday 27

1897: Bernard Lyot born
1970: HL-10 sets lifting body altitude record of 90,300 feet

Moon phase Thursday 28

1959: Discoverer 1 launched
1966: Gemini IX primary crew, Bassett & See, killed in plane crash
1990: STS-36 Atlantis launched
2007: New Horizons spacecraft flies past Jupiter en route to Pluto

Moon phase Friday 1

Spica 0.1° north of Moon

1927: George Abell born
1966: Venera 3 impacts on Venus
1982: Venera 13 returns first color photos from the surface of Venus
2002: STS-109 Columbia launched

Moon phase Saturday 2

Saturn 3° north of Moon

1972: Pioneer 10 launched
1995: STS-67 Endeavour launched (Astro-2 mission)
2004: Rosetta cometary probe launched


Moon phase Sunday 3

1959: Pioneer 4 launched
1969: Apollo 9 launched

 

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