EXPLORATIONS - Hubble's New Camera

EXPLORATIONS -May 8, 2002: Hubble's New Camera

By Paul Thompson
VOICE ONE:
This is Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS.
Last week, the National Aeronautics¹ and Space Administration released four new pictures. They were taken by

the Hubble Space Telescope’s new Advanced Camera for Surveys. Today we tell about the photographs the

camera took and the excitement they have caused among scientists who study the universe.

((THEME))

VOICE ONE:

Holland Ford² is a scientist at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. He
is also the leading scientist for Hubble Space Telescope’s new Advanced Camera
for Surveys known as A-S-C.

The new camera was expected to give the Hubble telescope ten times more power than the older camera on
Hubble. NASA scientists say the new camera is much better than expected.

Mister Ford said he and his team of scientists were shocked and surprised by Hubble ’s increased power. He said
the new camera is like having a new window that permits us to see the universe. He said this new window is very
large and extremely clear. Mister Ford said, “We can now see galaxy³ after galaxy.
”

VOICE TWO:

NASA released four photographs taken by the space telescope. One of the photographs shows the Omega
Nebula⁴. There are hundreds of stars in this Nebula, surrounded by clouds of cold, dark hydrogen. Omega is also
called the Swan Nebula and is about five-thousand-five hundred light years away from Earth in the constellation⁵
Sagittarius.

A photograph of the Cone⁶ Nebula was also released. It is a beautiful red color. It
shows a tall structure made of gas and dust with many bright stars near the top.
Another photograph shows two small galaxies⁷ named the Mice. They are three
hundred million light years away from Earth. They seem to be chasing each other.
However, they are about to crash together.

VOICE ONE:

Perhaps the most exciting picture shows a galaxy four-hundred-twenty-million light-
years from Earth. The galaxy is called the Tadpole⁸. The Tadpole is a group of stars
that seems to be spinning in space, surrounded by clouds of gas. It has a long tail of
stars that follow behind it. The galaxy is shaped like a tadpole, which is a small,
developing toad⁹ or frog with a big head and long tail. NASA says the galaxy has this
unusual shape because it is really two galaxies that crashed into each other millions
of years ago.

The photograph of the Tadpole Galaxy is extremely
beautiful. Mister Ford was quick to say that the photographs were much more than just
pretty pictures. He said the new photographs taken by the A-S-C of the Tadpole show


about six -thousand other galaxies behind it. This is about two times as many as could
be seen by Hubble ’s earlier camera. Hubble first photographed the Tadpole Galaxy in
nineteen-ninety-five.

Mister Ford said some the galaxies behind the Tadpole are more than ten-thousandmillion
light years from Earth. He said this is almost at the edge of the universe that we
can observe. He also said new photographs provide huge amounts of new and valuable
information.

VOICE TWO:

NASA says the new Advanced Camera for Surveys has such great power because it is able to gather very small
amounts of light that come from extreme distances. This amount of light is so small that it can not be seen by the
human eye. The A-S-C takes photographs by gathering¹⁰ these small amounts of light for several hours at a time. It
can then produce a photograph from all the light that has been gathered.

The A-C-S carries equipment that can control light that enters the camera. It does this by placing different pieces
of glass in front of the eye of the camera.

The A-S-C can take photographs of a much larger area than the earlier camera. This will let space scientists see
much larger areas of the universe.

The new camera records what it sees in electronic information called megapixels. This is similar to the electronic
information recorded by electronic or digital cameras that anyone can buy.

The more magapixels a camera has the better the quality of the photograph. Most digital cameras that can be
bought today in a photography store use two to four magapixels to record a picture. Hubble’
s new camera
records with sixteen million magapixels. This means the A-S-C photographs show sharp details of objects farther
away than have been seen before.

VOICE ONE:

Astronomers¹¹ say the new A-S-C will make it possible to look so far back in time that they can study how stars
and galaxies appeared as they were forming. It will also let astronomers study how these galaxies have changed
through time.

Astronomers also hope to use the new Advanced Camera for Surveys to make maps of galaxies. These maps will
show how different galaxies develop and are held together. They will help researchers better understand how the
universe is expanding. The maps also will permit astronomers to search areas near distant stars for planets that
are similar to Earth.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE TWO:

The new Advanced Camera for Surveys is just one of many devices that were repaired or placed in the space
telescope in March. The work was done by the crew of the Space Shuttle Colombia.

The Hubble Space Telescope is the first scientific instrument ever designed to be repaired and rebuilt by
astronauts who work in space. Ninety percent of its parts can be repaired or replaced by space shuttle astronauts.

Besides the A-S-C, the space telescope also received new equipment so it can make electric power from sunlight.
Radiation and small space objects had damaged the old power supply equipment.

The new equipment looks like large wings. The wings are called solar arrays. The new solar arrays are smaller
than the ones they replaced, but they produce twenty-seven percent more power.

VOICE ONE:

Hubble’s electric power control device also was replaced. It now lets the telescope use all of the increased


power provided by the new solar arrays.
Astronauts repaired an instrument called the Near Infrared¹² Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. They

replaced the cooling system that the camera needed to operate. A NASA spokesman says the new cooling system
is working well. They hope to release the first photographs from this camera in June.
VOICE TWO:
The space shuttle crew also successfully repaired Hubble ’s communications system and its computers. NASA

says the only repair problem that remains¹³ involves the devices that are used to point the telescope at distant

objects.
The Hubble’s pointing system is extremely important. It is used to find and lock the telescope on objects so
they can be studied. The pointing system has a small computer that looks for any movement or mistakes forty
times a second. If movement occurs, spinning wheels change speeds to bring the telescope back into the correct
position.

NASA says the pointing system may have a shorter working life than expected. Experts say it could fail because
it uses more electricity than it should. A second device can be used if the first one fails.
((MUSIC BRIDGE)
)

VOICE ONE:
The Hubble Space Telescope is an eye in space that lets people around the world see pictures of the distant
universe. It orbits six -hundred kilometers above the Earth.

The telescope works twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week helping¹⁴ astronomers unlock the secrets of the
universe. It provides information and photographs of distant parts of the universe that cannot be seen from Earth
because of clouds or atmospheric¹⁵ conditions.

The Hubble Space Telescope has provided thousands of photographs of distant objects in the universe. Many of
these objects are millions of light years away from Earth. The space telescope has provided evidence of the birth
of stars and their deaths.

A NASA official says the space telescope has provided twelve years of great science and wonderful pictures. Yet,
he said, the new camera has already shown us that what we will see in the future will be even more exciting.

VOICE TWO:
If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can see several thousand photographs taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope. The four new ones taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys are among them.

Have your computer search for the word Hubble. That is H-U-B-B-L-E. Your computer will provide several Web
sites that will permit you to see millions of kilometers into our universe.
((THEME)
)

VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio
engineer was Darryl Smith. This is Mary Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of
America.


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1 aeronautics   

n.航空术，航空学

参考例句：

• National Aeronautics and Space undertakings have made great progress.国家的航空航天事业有了很大的发展。
• He devoted every spare moment to aeronautics.他把他所有多余的时间用在航空学上。

2 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

3 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

4 nebula   

n.星云，喷雾剂

参考例句：

• A powerful telescope can resolve a nebula into stars.一架高性能的望远镜能从星云中分辨出星球来。
• A nebula is really a discrete mass of innumerous stars.一团星云实际上是无数星体不连续的集合体。

5 constellation   

n.星座n.灿烂的一群

参考例句：

• A constellation is a pattern of stars as seen from the earth. 一个星座只是从地球上看到的某些恒星的一种样子。
• The Big Dipper is not by itself a constellation. 北斗七星本身不是一个星座。

6 cone   

n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果

参考例句：

• Saw-dust piled up in a great cone.锯屑堆积如山。
• The police have sectioned off part of the road with traffic cone.警察用锥形路标把部分路面分隔开来。

7 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

8 tadpole   

n.[动]蝌蚪

参考例句：

• As a tadpole changes into a frog,its tail is gradually absorbed.蝌蚪变成蛙，它的尾巴就逐渐被吸收掉。
• It was a tadpole.Now it is a frog.它过去是蝌蚪，现在是一只青蛙。

9 toad   

n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆

参考例句：

• Both the toad and frog are amphibian.蟾蜍和青蛙都是两栖动物。
• Many kinds of toad hibernate in winter.许多种蟾蜍在冬天都会冬眠。

10 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

11 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 infrared   

adj./n.红外线(的)

参考例句：

• Infrared is widely used in industry and medical science.红外线广泛应用于工业和医学科学。
• Infrared radiation has wavelengths longer than those of visible light.红外辐射的波长比可见光的波长长。

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

14 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

15 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。