The consistently awesome Big Picture feature at Boston.com delivers the goods once again, collecting tons of high-quality photos from NASA’s latest mission to service the Hubble telescope. Bask in the glory of mankind working at the peak of their technological abilities.

The Big Picture – Hubble Servicing Mission

The ultimate cosmic Super Soaker has been detected by the Hubble Telescope. Astronomers have discovered the most distant indication of water yet in the form of a jet firing from the center of a supermassive black hole 11.1 billion light years away.

From Universe Today:

The water emission is seen as a maser, where molecules in the gas amplify and emit beams of microwave radiation in much the same way as a laser emits beams of light. The faint signal is only detectable by using a technique called gravitational lensing, where the gravity of a massive galaxy in the foreground acts as a cosmic telescope, bending and magnifying light from the distant galaxy to make a clover-leaf pattern of four images of MG J0414+0534. The water maser was only detectable in the brightest two of these images.

“We have been observing the water maser every month since the detection and seen a steady signal with no apparent change in the velocity of the water vapor in the data we’ve obtained so far, McKean said. “This backs up our prediction that the water is found in the jet from the supermassive black hole, rather than the rotating disc of gas that surrounds it.”

It’s hard to believe that Hubble has been in orbit for nearly 20 years, but the old workhorse is still churning out amazing images of our Universe, evidenced by this just-released photograph of three galaxies interacting with one another.

From Space.com:

Hubble’s resolution shows clearly that the stream of material lies in front of the southern component of Arp 194, as shown by the dust that is silhouetted around the star cluster complexes.

Resembling a pair of owl’s eyes, the two nuclei of the colliding galaxies can be seen in the process of merging at the upper left of the image. The bizarre blue bridge of material extending out from the northern component looks as if it connects to a third galaxy but in reality this galaxy is in the background and not connected at all.

The details of the interactions among the multiple galaxies that make up Arp 194 are complex. The system was most likely disrupted by a previous collision or close encounter. The shapes of all the galaxies involved have been distorted by their gravitational interactions with one another.

The existence of Dark Matter has long been argued but new evidence from the Hubble Space Telescope insists Dark Matter is real. Dark Matter is a tricky thing to research because it is invisible, so the only way to get a handle on if it’s real or not is to observe its interaction on normal matter. This is where Hubble comes in. It recently took a photo of the Perseus galaxy cluster and determined that four dwarf galaxies appear completely untouched by the massive amount of gravitational turmoil in that region, gravitational turmoil that is literally ripping neighboring galaxies apart.

Hence, something is protecting these ancient dwarf galaxies that isn’t protecting spiral galaxies. Theory? Dwarf galaxies have a much thicker shield of Dark Matter than spiral galaxies.

From Live Science:

First proposed about 80 years ago, dark matter is thought to be the “glue” that holds galaxies together. Astronomers suggest that dark matter provides vital “scaffolding” for the universe, forming a framework for the formation of galaxies through gravitational attraction.

Previous studies with Hubble and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory found evidence of dark matter in entire clusters of galaxies such as the Bullet Cluster. The new Hubble observations continue the search for dark matter in individual galaxies.

Because dark matter cannot be seen, astronomers detect its presence through indirect evidence. The most common method is by measuring the velocities of individual stars or groups of stars as they move randomly in the galaxy or as they rotate around the galaxy. But the Perseus Cluster is too far away for telescopes to resolve individual stars and measure their motions.

The Hubble Telescope continues to impress, returning valuable science and amazing images, despite its aging hardware. The photo above is Hubble’s latest masterpiece, depicting a galaxy called NGC 4921, which exists in a cluster of galaxies known as Coma. What’s unusual about this galaxy is its apparent “fluffiness”. It looks like a cotton ball in space, which is an unusual appearance for a spiral galaxy. Why unusual? Most galaxies depict active star formation, but this galaxy is notably dormant, though it does have a small region of activity near the center.

What’s really fascinating about the photo aside from the central galaxy are all the visible galaxies lurking in the distance. Every speck and smudge you see in this photo is a galaxy, each galaxy containing billions of stars, with each star undoubtedly having at least a planet or two in orbit.

Source

I’m still getting my head around the fact that the Hubble telescope launched 18 years ago today. It seemed like only yesterday that everyone was freaking-out about Hubble’s blurry mirror and bloated budget, calling it the biggest blunder in NASA history. 18 years later finds a different story, with people up in arms about the fate of Hubble and applying pressure to save the astronomical workhorse from death.
In celebration of Hubble’s 18th, NASA has released a ton of new and amazing photographs that depict galaxies colliding with one another. Check out the complete gallery here.