After its brief breakdown last month, the Hubble Space Telescope’s main camera is gathering science data again. The Advanced Camera for Surveys stopped functioning after power supply problems, but engineers were able to switch to a backup power system and get it back online. This image was one of the first taken after the camera resumed operations on July 4th.
It shows a galaxy cluster located 9 billion light-years away.
Hubble located a supernova(A supernova is a stellar explosion that produces an extremely bright object made of plasma that declines to invisibility over weeks or months) in June 2006, and then returned to see its afterglow in July.
The picture above is one of a rich galaxy field containing a distant galaxy cluster 9 billion light-years away (redshift of z = 1.4). In a program conducted by Saul Perlmutter of the University of California at Berkeley, Hubble periodically revisits about 20 distant galaxy clusters on a “fishing trip” to capture the glow of a class of exploding star called a Type Ia supernova. The selected clusters were chosen because they allow astronomers to study dark energy at a distance too great to be easily observed from the ground. Type Ia supernovae are bright celestial distance markers that are invaluable for measuring how dark energy is influencing the universe. Ultimately, detailed observations like this will allow astrophysicists to better understand the nature of dark energy and its influence on the future evolution of the universe.
Discovered in 1998, dark energy seems to percolate out of empty space and provides a repulsive force that is causing the universe to expand at an ever-faster rate.
Via:Universe Today
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