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MARCH 2020
VOL. 48, NO. 3
CONTENTS
FEATURES
18
Hubble’s greatest hits
The world’s favorite orbiting
observatory has transformed
our knowledge about
exoplanet atmospheres, the
fate of the universe, and
almost everything in between.
RICHARD TALCOTT
ON THE COVER
60
The Carina Nebula is the largest
and brightest Milky Way star-
forming region. Hubble captured
this image of its dusty pillars.
NASA/ESA/N. SMITH (UC, BERKELEY)/
THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STS
C
I/AURA)
COLUMNS
38
Star Dome and
Paths of the Planets
RICHARD TALCOTT;
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROEN KELLY
56
Explore the Moon
at First Quarter
If you’re just starting out,
our natural satellite makes a
tempting target in the evening
sky.
MICHAEL E. BAKICH
Strange Universe
14
BOB BERMAN
Secret Sky
16
STEPHEN JAMES O’MEARA
Binocular Universe
64
PHIL HARRINGTON
44
Do all galaxies have
dark matter?
The discovery of two ghostly
galaxies created quite a
hullabaloo in the astronomical
community. But the jury’s still
out on what’s really going on.
JAKE PARKS
60
Run a Messier marathon
Seeing all 109 objects in
one night should be on
your observing bucket list.
MICHAEL E. BAKICH
Observing Basics
66
GLENN CHAPLE
30
How the Ritchey-Chrétien
telescope was born
George Ritchey had great
vision and skill. Henri
Chrétien was a brilliant
astronomer and optical
engineer. Together, they
created one of today’s best
telescope designs.
RON VOLLER
7
QUANTUM GRAVITY
Everything you need to
know about the universe
this month: the mystery
of Planet Nine, water
vapor on Europa, ancient
life in Australia, bright
X-ray bursts, and more.
68
Ask Astro
Weighing black holes.
52
Secrets of the Northern
Pinwheel Galaxy
Think you know the big
spiral M101? Take a deep
dive into its myriad
details, and you’ll know
it like never before.
ROD POMMIER
36
Sky This Month
Venus sidles up to Uranus.
MARTIN RATCLIFFE AND
ALISTER LING
IN EVERY ISSUE
From the Editor
5
Astro Letters
6
New Products
65
Reader Gallery
70
Advertiser Index
73
Breakthrough
74
Globes
From Mercury
to Pluto, get the
hottest globes
around.
Go to
www.Astronomy.com
for info on the biggest news and
observing events, stunning photos,
informative videos, and more.
ONLINE
FAVORITES
My Science
Shop
Perfect gifts for
your favorite
science geeks.
Trips and
Tours
Travel the
world with the
Astronomy
staff.
Ask Astro
Archives
Answers to all
your cosmic
questions.
Astronomy
(ISSN 0091-6358, USPS 531-350)
is published monthly by Kalmbach Media
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4
ASTRONOMY
•
MARCH 2020
FROM THE EDITOR
Remembering
Hubble
Launched in 1990, the Hubble
Space Telescope became an instant
fiasco in orbit. During in-orbit test-
ing, astronomers immediately found that the
2.4-meter mirror was flawed. It had been
figured incorrectly at Perkin-Elmer due to a
lens in a testing instrument that was out of
place by 1.3 millimeters. The world’s greatest
space telescope became an instant boon-
doggle and the butt of jokes on the late-night
talk shows.
In December 1993, the first servicing mis-
sion, using the space shuttle
Endeavour,
fixed
the problem with a set of corrective optics.
COSTAR, the corrective optics package, was
supplemented with the Wide Field and
Planetary Camera 2, which also had correc-
tive optics and allowed for a series of magnificent images to be made.
All was right again with the world’s greatest in-orbit telescope.
On this 30th anniversary of the launching of Hubble, Senior Editor
Rich Talcott delivers a magnificently illustrated story highlighting
some of the space telescope’s greatest victories. Among them is ongo-
ing research into one of the greatest mysteries of cosmology: the
nature of dark energy. The fact that the universe’s expansion is accel-
erating and we don’t know the cause is somewhat astonishing, and
villages full of cosmologists are working on this problem to try to
understand it. Hubble played the key role in observing the distant
supernovae that revealed the accelerating cosmos.
Hubble has also contributed substantially to understanding how
stars form in the universe. In a series of so-called deep field expo-
sures, beginning in 1995, the telescope has produced looks at small
areas of the sky. A key result of studying these distant fields of
mostly galaxies has been deciphering the rate at which stars form
as a function of distance or time. This helps to reveal how galaxies
themselves formed over time, and how they have evolved.
And then there are the images: Hubble has created many thou-
sands of spectacular pictures of the cosmos, the best ever made. One
of them is the so-called Pillars of Creation, towers of dust in the
Eagle Nebula, a shot created by our very own Jeff Hester. But so
many others are there. Enjoy the sample within this issue. It is a
celebration of the greatest astronomical instrument ever made.
Yours truly,
Follow the
Dave’s Universe blog:
www.Astronomy.
com/davesuniverse
Editor
David J. Eicher
Design Director
LuAnn Williams Belter
EDITORIAL
Senior Editor
Richard Talcott
Production Editor
Elisa R. Neckar
Associate Editors
Alison Klesman, Jake Parks
Copy Editor
McLean Bennett
Editorial Assistant
Hailey McLaughlin
ART
Contributing Design Director
Elizabeth Weber
Illustrator
Roen Kelly
Production Specialist
Jodi Jeranek
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Michael E. Bakich, Bob Berman, Adam Block,
Glenn F. Chaple Jr., Martin George, Tony Hallas,
Phil Harrington, Korey Haynes, Jeff Hester, Alister Ling,
Stephen James O’Meara, Martin Ratcliffe, Raymond Shubinski
SCIENCE GROUP
Executive Editor
Becky Lang
Design Director
Dan Bishop
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Buzz Aldrin, Marcia Bartusiak, Jim Bell, Timothy Ferris,
Alex Filippenko, Adam Frank, John S. Gallagher lll,
Daniel W. E. Green, William K. Hartmann, Paul Hodge,
Edward Kolb, Stephen P. Maran, Brian May, S. Alan Stern,
James Trefil
Kalmbach Media
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ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
The so-called Pillars
of Creation, towers
of dust in the Eagle
Nebula, became the
most celebrated
image ever made
with HST.
NASA, ESA, AND
THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM
(STS
C
I/AURA)
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