WEBVTT FILE 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.