NASA is currently running the final Hubble mission, upgrading the satellite one last time. If you are interested in watching the mission in real time, as always you can see it on NASA TV, both online and on select cable systems. If their are any problems with the mission, NASA now has an emergency response shuttle ready to run a rescue flight. Part of the mission is to bring home the camera that saved the Hubble, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Installed in 1993, this was the first camera with a corrective function for the flaw in the Hubble’s mirror. To commemorate the retirement they have released one last beauty shot of planetary nebula Kohoutek 4-55; the camera will be added to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum permanent collection. For other incredible images captured by the Hubble, take a look at their Gallery site. And if you get by the Smithsonian in the next week or two, don’t forget to see the original Enterprise model used in the 60s Star Trek TV show, and maybe catch the Star Trek IMAX version of the new movie. They will also be running other Sci-Fi IMAX films including NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN and Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen. Here is the video of the shuttle capturing the Hubble to bring it onboard for repairs.
JPL has a searchable database of exoplanets that currently lists the 340 known planets around other stars. None of them is Earth-like, most being gas giants, several orbiting pulsars, and a handful being on the border between planets and stars (the so-called Hot Jupiter model). That may change in the next few weeks with the launch of Kepler, an orbital telescope designed specifically to find habitable planets. It’s about time we get a realistic idea how common potentially life-bearing worlds are, and either meet the neighbors or get ready to move.
Peak visibility for Comet Lulin will be on Monday night, but the viewing is good all weekend with the right sky. Sky and Telescope has the details you will need to spot it yourself, and APOD just had a good picture of this green visitor. We are also pointing some other observational resources at it, like the Swift spacecraft, which is looking at it in the ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths.
Google has been gathering the data for a while now for their Google Mars project. I first linked to its early version in March, 2006, but as you can see from the current version it has come a long way. As of yesterday, they announced its integration with the Google Earth 5 App. Time to download and install this puppy! Of course, it is currently in Beta, so whether you run Google Windoze or the Mac version it has some flaws. Just remember to send your bug reports back in, so they can get it working better. Meanwhile, a few videos to give you the idea…