1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:04,030 [slate] 2 00:00:04,050 --> 00:00:08,070 [slate] 3 00:00:08,090 --> 00:00:12,150 Well a meteor shower is a 4 00:00:12,170 --> 00:00:16,250 basically a burst of lights, streaking through the night 5 00:00:16,270 --> 00:00:20,390 sky. They're really pieces of asteroids or comets that are hitting 6 00:00:20,410 --> 00:00:24,580 the Earth's atmosphere and getting very hot as they come through the atmosphere. 7 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:28,690 This week we're experiencing the Geminid meteor shower 8 00:00:28,710 --> 00:00:32,820 which comes around every year in December. And you can see it 9 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:37,010 if you're in a place with a dark, clear night sky. And basically you look 10 00:00:37,030 --> 00:00:41,040 up. 11 00:00:41,060 --> 00:00:45,100 [slate] We have observed an amazing 12 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:49,190 cluster of stars with the Hubble Space Telescope 13 00:00:49,210 --> 00:00:53,330 called M79, or Messier 79. This 14 00:00:53,350 --> 00:00:57,520 cluster has over 150,000 stars kind of 15 00:00:57,540 --> 00:01:01,620 gravitationally collected near each other. Beautiful colors 16 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:05,730 of reds and blues. These are pretty old stars. 17 00:01:05,750 --> 00:01:09,890 Most of them are over 10 billion years old. The cluster 18 00:01:09,910 --> 00:01:13,950 is. You can see this cluster with your own telescope 19 00:01:13,970 --> 00:01:18,020 if you know where to look in the night sky. It's near the constellation Orion. 20 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:22,120 But the Hubble image gives you a lot more detail. You can compare it with. 21 00:01:22,140 --> 00:01:26,280 So we encourage you to look at our new image. You can find it at NASA.gov/Hubble 22 00:01:26,300 --> 00:01:30,310 [slate] 23 00:01:30,330 --> 00:01:34,500 December is a lovely 24 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:38,560 time to look at the night sky. The air is cold and crisp and dry 25 00:01:38,580 --> 00:01:42,630 and that's a wonderful time for astronomy. So in the night sky 26 00:01:42,650 --> 00:01:46,740 you can see nebulae, these kind of fuzzy 27 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,890 gas clouds. You can see of course stars. You can also see 28 00:01:50,910 --> 00:01:54,950 galaxies. And all of these phenomena include star clusters 29 00:01:54,970 --> 00:01:59,010 have been observed by Hubble as well. You can see 30 00:01:59,030 --> 00:02:03,110 many of these from a catalog that's known popularly by 31 00:02:03,130 --> 00:02:07,260 astronomers as the Messier catalog. There are like 110 objects 32 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,460 in this catalog of stellar, or cosmic objects 33 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:15,540 that many amateur astronomers enjoy looking at with their telescopes. Hubble 34 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:19,640 has looked at many of these objects as well and we posted all those Hubble 35 00:02:19,660 --> 00:02:23,800 images of the Messier objects on the Hubble website nasa.gov/hubble 36 00:02:23,820 --> 00:02:27,870 So it's a fun challenge for 37 00:02:27,890 --> 00:02:31,970 backyard astronomers to look for these objects with their own telescope 38 00:02:31,990 --> 00:02:36,090 and then compare with the Hubble images of those same objects. 39 00:02:36,110 --> 00:02:40,110 [slate] 40 00:02:40,130 --> 00:02:44,180 I think anyone 41 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:48,270 can be an astronomer; you simply need to take time 42 00:02:48,290 --> 00:02:52,430 at night to go out and look up. Especially on a clear night 43 00:02:52,450 --> 00:02:56,610 take time to look at the stars. I enjoy just looking at the moon with 44 00:02:56,630 --> 00:03:00,690 the naked eye and seeing the detail. Binoculars are the next step 45 00:03:00,710 --> 00:03:04,800 You can see a lot of detail you would never have imagined on the moon just with binoculars. 46 00:03:04,820 --> 00:03:08,980 You can also see Jupiter and its inner moons with binoculars 47 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:13,040 And of course you can see some of the other planets and stars 48 00:03:13,060 --> 00:03:17,110 Then the next step would be to get small telescope before 49 00:03:17,130 --> 00:03:21,220 working up to the more pricy ones. We also encourage people 50 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:25,400 to join a local astronomy club. Most cities and localities 51 00:03:25,420 --> 00:03:29,460 have astronomy groups. It's fun to connect with them, learn about the 52 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:33,560 night sky before you invest in more expensive equipment. 53 00:03:33,580 --> 00:03:37,680 And of course the nicest astronomy I think is to just find a dark sky. That's 54 00:03:37,700 --> 00:03:41,850 getting more challenging these days. But find a dark place and just look up and enjoy 55 00:03:41,870 --> 00:03:45,920 the grandeur of the night sky and the universe that we're a part of. 56 00:03:45,940 --> 00:03:49,940 [slate] 57 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:54,110 You can learn more about 58 00:03:54,130 --> 00:03:58,180 all of the Hubble Space Telescope observations 59 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:02,310 and even find out what Hubble is observing right now, but going to the Hubble 60 00:04:02,330 --> 00:04:06,330 website, nasa.gov/hubble. 61 00:04:06,350 --> 00:04:10,350 [slate] 62 00:04:10,370 --> 00:04:14,540 The Hubble Space Telescope is in fabulous scientific 63 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:18,610 condition right now. It's more powerful scientifically than 64 00:04:18,630 --> 00:04:22,720 ever. We've got several working science instruments, cameras and spectrographs. 65 00:04:22,740 --> 00:04:26,880 This is due to the fact that astronauts have visited Hubble 66 00:04:26,900 --> 00:04:30,950 several times over its 27 year operating history and 67 00:04:30,970 --> 00:04:35,000 upgraded it. So it's in great shape and we expect Hubble will keep bringing 68 00:04:35,020 --> 00:04:39,040 great science to us well into the 2020s. 69 00:04:39,060 --> 00:04:43,080 [slate] 70 00:04:43,100 --> 00:04:47,270 Well its hard to believe, but Hubble has actually delivered 71 00:04:47,290 --> 00:04:51,370 more than 1.3 million observations. 72 00:04:51,390 --> 00:04:55,460 Scientists are still scouring the archive of Hubble observations 73 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:59,630 and finding new discoveries and publishing new papers 74 00:04:59,650 --> 00:05:03,810 We have over 15,000 scientific papers that have come out of the Hubble Space Telescope 75 00:05:03,830 --> 00:05:07,880 and its observations. So this is truly an incredible 76 00:05:07,900 --> 00:05:11,960 productive facility that's still bringing us tremendous science and 77 00:05:11,980 --> 00:05:15,990 tremendously beautiful pictures of the cosmos. 78 00:05:16,010 --> 00:05:20,040 [slate] 79 00:05:20,060 --> 00:05:24,240 We have a really exciting plan ahead for using 80 00:05:24,260 --> 00:05:28,360 the Hubble Space Telescope. One is that we are observing 81 00:05:28,380 --> 00:05:32,500 the outer planets in our own solar system regularly to see how dynamic 82 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:36,680 the atmospheres are as they change. As we look at Jupiter and Saturn and Neptune 83 00:05:36,700 --> 00:05:40,740 and Uranus. We're also looking at the atmospheres of planets 84 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:44,810 outside our solar system. We call these planets exoplanets. 85 00:05:44,830 --> 00:05:48,910 We didn't even know there any exoplanets a few decades ago. 86 00:05:48,930 --> 00:05:53,070 Now we know of thousands of them and Hubble is studying a lot of them to 87 00:05:53,090 --> 00:05:57,120 study the compositions of their atmospheres. Farther 88 00:05:57,140 --> 00:06:01,180 afield we're studying very distant galaxies to understand how galaxies 89 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:05,270 formed and changed over the history of our universe. 90 00:06:05,290 --> 00:06:09,410 And we're even looking at some very mysterious phenomena such as very recent 91 00:06:09,430 --> 00:06:13,600 gravitational waves were detected, these are distortions in space 92 00:06:13,620 --> 00:06:17,710 and time with ground based observatories. And we used Hubble 93 00:06:17,730 --> 00:06:21,820 to follow up to actually detect radiation coming from the source of these 94 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:25,980 gravitational waves. Turns out the radiation was coming from a pair of 95 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:30,040 merging neutron stars. So we're using the Hubble Space Telescope to 96 00:06:30,060 --> 00:06:34,110 for all kinds of interesting observations both near and far 97 00:06:34,130 --> 00:06:38,140 in our magnificent universe. 98 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:42,170 [slate] 99 00:06:42,190 --> 00:06:46,220 There are many ways that you can engage with the Hubble Space Telescope 100 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:50,320 mission. One is to simply go to our fabulous website 101 00:06:50,340 --> 00:06:54,430 nasa.gov/hubble. You can learn all about what we're observing 102 00:06:54,450 --> 00:06:58,610 with Hubble and see images that Hubble has taken. 103 00:06:58,630 --> 00:07:02,680 You can also join our campaign that's called #spot hubble 104 00:07:02,700 --> 00:07:06,790 where you tell us where you've seen the Hubble space telescope in 105 00:07:06,810 --> 00:07:10,900 cultural settings. Like on clothes and in art and 106 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:15,080 this kind of stuff. We'd love to hear about it. You can also find out about that on our website. 107 00:07:15,100 --> 00:07:19,130 We're active on social media and you can also find out 108 00:07:19,150 --> 00:07:23,210 about what Hubble is looking at right now if you go to nasa.gov/hubble 109 00:07:23,230 --> 00:07:27,320 and Hubble itself will tell you what it's looking at any time you want. 110 00:07:27,340 --> 00:07:28,828 to know.