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This composite contains almost all of Hubble’s observations in one photo

Apr 29, 2022 by Alex Baker Leave a Comment

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The Hubble telescope has been showing us breathtaking images of space since its launch in 1990. So far it has made 1.4 million observations. Physicist Dr Casey Handmer took 936,000 of these observations and created an insanely detailed composite image of all of them.

After piecing the composite together (using calculations and coding rather than Photoshop!) Dr Handmer realised that around 0.8 per cent of the sky was on show.

The first thing you probably notice is the curved arc across the centre of the image. That’s apparently the ecliptic (plane of orbit) of our solar system.

Handmer goes on to explain “These are planets, asteroids, moons. Their planes vary a little bit so the curved line is actually a family of nearby lines.” If you look closely, you’ll see a  dark U-shaped curve crossing the middle of the frame. This, says Handmer, is the galactic plane.

“Even though our galaxy is full of interesting stuff, it’s also full of dust which probably obscures a lot of more distant sources. Other obvious features include nearby galaxies such as the large and small Magellanic clouds in the lower left and the Andromeda galaxy,” he says.

Handmer says that he was interested to know how many observations would need to be made to cover the whole sky. He worked out the number would need to be about 3.5 million. “Halfway there? Not quite…” he says in his tweet.

And here's one that's a bit easier to see on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/dlNS5jbod3

— Casey Handmer, PhD (@CJHandmer) April 19, 2022

He then found a database (Astropy API) that contained all the information he needed. After pulling all the data and creating a script to collate it, he decided a visual representation would be interesting. And that is what prompted him to make the image above.

The Hubble telescope never ceases to amaze, and if it’s only halfway done with its observations we can hope to see a lot more interesting things in the future.

Header image courtesy of Dr Casey Handmer.

 

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Filed Under: news Tagged With: Astrophotography, Hubble, space photography

About Alex Baker

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

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Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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