Topic: Galaxies Collide - Hubble Telescope Pics

[Michael Vandeven]

this is really cool.  they have released some hubble telescope pictures of galaxies colliding in some far off corner of the universe.  here is the story at fox news:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352439,00.html

kinda funny how in the story they mention this is the "largest collection of hubble images ever released together."  does this mean not all of hubble's images are publicly available?  if not, why?  public funds are paying for the project and have been since day one.  why would all images not be made public as a matter of standard practice?  maybe i'm interpreting that sentence from the news story incorrectly.

for a more thorough collection of imagery, go here:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/16/

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

From wikipedia -
"All Hubble data are eventually made available via a public archive at http://archive.stsci.edu/hst. Data are usually proprietary?available only to the principal investigator (PI) and astronomers designated by the PI?for one year after being taken. The PI can apply to the director of the STScI to extend or reduce the proprietary period in some circumstances.

Observations made on Director's Discretionary Time are exempt from the proprietary period, and are released to the public immediately. Calibration data such as flat fields and dark frames are also publicly available straight away. All data in the archive are in the FITS format, which is suitable for astronomical analysis but not for public use. The Hubble Heritage Project processes and releases to the public a small selection of the most striking images in JPEG and TIFF formats."

[Max]

kinda funny how in the story they mention this is the "largest collection of hubble images ever released together."  does this mean not all of hubble's images are publicly available?  if not, why?  public funds are paying for the project and have been since day one.  why would all images not be made public as a matter of standard practice?  maybe i'm interpreting that sentence from the news story incorrectly.

probably some UFO caught streaking past thats why not all are released or something :p

who knows..

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

Gee... no images of the two dwarf galaxies that are in collision with our own galaxy?
 

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

OOPS!
Forgot this great link for a daily fix of Astronomy  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

[Michael Vandeven]

imagine being a life form on one of the planets in the midst of all this chaos and all of the hell that must be breaking loose all around the place.  wow.

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

imagine being a life form on one of the planets in the midst of all this chaos and all of the hell that must be breaking loose all around the place.  wow.

If they are very lucky, they have an Art Bell to make it entertaining.

[Michael Vandeven]

If they are very lucky, they have an Art Bell to make it entertaining.

i believe somewhere in space and/or time, they do.

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

Wouldn't that just be the coolest (and so appropriate in a weird way).  "TAKE US TO YOUR LEADER.....ART BELL"