Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

steve smyth — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:12:57 GMT

Re what is it?
From the looks of the images above, I'd guess some sort of unwanted surface blemish...like a skin cancer eating the cells around it in some wacked attempt at nourishment.
There are pics in Medical texts which look an awful lot like Big Red and Jr.
It's all the same stuff in differing configurations.
Don't forget, here is part of the Universe too...

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Jason Houston, Texas — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:13:04 GMT

Fascintating spectrum. The universe is a wonderful place with so much to be gained. How many wonderful findings are waiting for our discovery!

http://web.mac.com/jasonfontaine

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Gustavo Herrera-Marcano, Caracas, Venezuela — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:19:12 GMT

Larger atmospheric disturbances trnd to absorb smaller ones, no matteron which planet they occu

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Justin B — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:52:46 GMT

Clearly this is caused by global warming. We need to stop all use of Oil by 2018 or the Great Red Spot is doomed!

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

liz ur, asheville, nc — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:55:59 GMT

I really do wish that reporting was a FACTual happening & not an emotional one--"Baby Red Spot's sad fate" ---its science, folks, not a soap opera!
The 'storm' was absorbed-not 'gobbled up' !

Putting human emotions onto non-animate objects is a very strange thing to do-doesn't seem there is too much sorrow for the 1,000s that are killed/starved around the world everyday.

Beware of soppy articles--they really demean one's intellegence & draw our attention from the real causes of occurances.
I have very little regard for such articles, the publishers or authors.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Tim Rommes, Washington, UT — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:08:46 GMT

Do the innermost spot and the outer ring rotate in opposite directions?

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

john doe — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:10:26 GMT

The space program is a waste of money, who cares.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

LeeP — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:13:42 GMT

we need to mine the red spot. It's probably a swirling cloud of half refined gasoline. All the heat and pressure- isn't that what it takes to make gas? Lets go get it.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Justin Mo — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:21:11 GMT

"However, there's nothing on Earth to compare it to"

So is it possible that there are other elements that do not exist on earth that do exist on other planets? And perhaps our laws of chemistry and physics are wrong. Hell, science has a very discrediting history. But I agree, it is caused by global warming.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Juan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:22:17 GMT

How many light years away is Jupiter? How far back can the Hubble see? These changes all happened hundreds of years ago, right?

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

James, Middleton, WI — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:25:18 GMT

Justin, thanks for dragging earthly politics into a fascinating article about the wonders and mysteries far beyond our own planet.

Humor attempt = fail, I'm afraid.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Gery Gudgell, Lewiston, ID — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:38:59 GMT

It appears that Giant Red spot is rotating counter clockwise and Red Spot Jr is rotating clockwise. Is Jupiters equator in between?

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Dena Lawless — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:03:54 GMT

my question is how has the Red Spot been able to sustain itself for so long in such a chaotic atmosphere.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Chris Parker, Sacramento, CA — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:36:39 GMT

This is all just another NASA conspiracy. The Baby Red Spot is still there and doing fine- I was abducted again and taken to Jupiter just last night.

They're Photoshopping it out- they're faking it- just like when they "landed on the moon".

Who knows why they do these things.

Ha ha, just kidding.

It's cool to be able to see such dynamics on another body in space that's measurable on such a short timescale with your own backyard telescope. Sort of like watching the sandstorms on Mars...

Yet another way that can connect the small scale amateur astronomer to the Big Boys, akin to finding your own comet. THIS is the stuff that makes astronomy so exciting!

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

KT — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:39:44 GMT

I agree with Liz. I've been a scientist for more than 20 years, and I'm nauseated by the space community's and researchers' sappy phrases and cute names for their discoveries as a means to appeal to the media and subsequently gain enough public favor to obtain funding though our tax dollars.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Sid Levingston — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:43:37 GMT

Juan,

Jupiter is 741 million kilometers from the sun, and 592 million kilometers from the Earth. The speed of light is very close to 300,000 kilometers per second. It took the light 1973 seconds to get here from Jupiter, or about 33 minutes. Or, since you asked about light years, 0.0000625 light years. Stars are light years apart, not planets within the same solar system.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Eric, Cincinnati, OH — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:46:10 GMT

Juan - Jupiter is less than 60 light minutes from earth, so whatever the telescope saw happened less than 60 minutes earlier. When you see stuff from other galaxies, that's when the pictures are hundreds of years old

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Jack — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:46:25 GMT

Jaun!!! Jupiter is in our solar system, it is not a even a light year away. Hubble is not looking back in time as you were inquiring, it is seeing something that happened approximately 20 minutes before. We are talking several million miles away, not trillions and trillions.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Alan Boyle — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:47:10 GMT

A few things: I've gotten several comments taking Justin to task for bringing up global warming. It's obviously a joke, folks, though admittedly not a good one. I've approved a couple of the "boo, hiss" comments but not all.

Juan, Jupiter is in our own solar system, so it's not all that far away: merely 623.4 million kilometers (390 million miles) as of today. Light travel time is 35 minutes. Those are my off-the-cuff ephemeris calculations, and I've been known to drop a zero of forget a conversion from time to time.

Some of you are very observant about the way these storms are swirling. The Great Red Spot rotates counterclockwise, but everything I've been able to find indicates that Red Spot Jr. rotates counterclockwise as well. That would make them both anticyclonic.

[NOTE: Other commenters have different estimates for the distance to Jupiter, but the important thing is that the distance varies from day to day. To get the current distance, you need to check an ephemeris like this one:

http://nsstarhopper.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/jupiter-ephemerids-2008.pdf

[That yields a distance of 4.1676 AU for today, or 387.4 million miles, which I rounded up to 390 million miles. What's 12 million miles or so between friends? ;-)]

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Jack Baum — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:50:15 GMT

I love how people say "The Space program is a waste"
over half of the stuff you use every day is directly related to inventions in the space program.
Just for example have you ever used VELCRO? and a cell phone? Thats right communication satelites are part of a SPACE PROGRAM otherwise they would not be there. There are literally thousands of items you use or affect your daily life because of the space program.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Carl Sagan, Alpha Centauri — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:51:53 GMT

Justin, Love it! James, nice sense of humor knucklehead.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

maggie — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:00:18 GMT

A question to the person thinking the space program is a waste of money--Where will we escape, when we wreck this planet?

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Joseph Moore, Beaufort, SC — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:03:19 GMT

Oh, sorry that this article doesn't interest you people who complain about the problems we cause and don't do anything about it. Don't read it then. Everyone is different. I personally care more about how pluto obtained its three moons more than some poor country destroying itself through religion (I personally believe we need a controlled annihilation and cleanse our gene pool).

Also, Jupiter is 43 light minutes away (just did the calculations) so you're seeing Jupiter as it was 43 minutes ago (sorry, your light year thing gave me some laughs). Not like it matters when it was, it's the event that's the focus of the subject :3

Anyway, I didn't even know there were other red storms. Nice =P

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Dani - Middleburg, FL — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:49:07 GMT

What's wrong with applying a little anthropomorphism to the universe? Yeah, ok, there's probably a small fraction of it that's for money-raking PR or slightly cooky scientists. But then, most of the wonderful innovations in the world have come from crackpots.

Why is it bad to have a romance and passion for your line of work, especially when it's something as vast and mysterious as the universe?

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

God, Heaven, Universe — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:56:21 GMT

Love that so many people chose to comment... Juan... keep asking questions...that's how you find out answers.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

KT — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:56:35 GMT

Did I say that the space program is a waste?

Velcro did not come out of space exploration. It was invented in 1941 by a Swiss engineer who investigated why burrs stuck so stubbornly to his dog's fur. Velcro was not developed as a result of space exploration.

I never criticized space exploration. My point was ... well, you can re-read what I said.

"There are literally thousands of items you use or affect your daily life because of the space program."

The list of these literal thousands of things is where?

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

The Great Kazoo, IN — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:24:03 GMT

It must have been a microscopic black hole from CERN that ate the little red spot...

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Leena, Washington, DC — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:38:39 GMT

While I see Liz and KT's very valid point. The little emotion/jokes did get me to read the whole article when I might not have. I think it's just done to catch people who otherwise wouldn't read a 'dry' article and no harm is intended to anyone's intellect. I admit to enjoying the way it was written.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

DS — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:16:46 GMT

I do wish people would be more courteous in these posts.

To John Doe, who thinks the space program is a waste of money...
We have achieved so much through competition with the USSR to get to space. Many of the things we use on a daily basis are the results of advances in science through the Space Program. Also, innovation in one area can help spur on creativity and innovation in many other areas. The microwave oven, for example, came from the wartime invention of radar. Exotic metals like titanium alloys that are used in medical implants were developed in part through space programs that needed stronger but lighter materials. The things we discover through science may seem like a waste at first, but many times, they spawn extraordinary benefits in other areas of our lives.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Miguel, Medford, OR — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:55:58 GMT

Mr.Spock is buried on Jupiter... isn't he?

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Steve, G.R., MI — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:08:54 GMT

It not global warming, it's 2nd hand smoke!!! Everyone knows that smokers use 2nd hand smoke to tenderize their young before eating them! 'scuse me, (Hack-cough-choke), my nephew is crying and I'm hungry.
As far as "the space program is a waste of money" goes, historically two things have spurred innovation more than any other -- war and just lately the space program. If you don't like the products of the space program go ahead and make your case for war. Feel free to quote Still-President Bush.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Leslie Halls — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:22:58 GMT

My 9 year-old daughter just discovered astronomy in summer school. Articles, photos and comments like these are so helpful in showing her that this is real stuff, it really affects us, and there is so much more to learn. Thanks, all of you, for helping me encourage her interest in science and especially astronomy. I love it!

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

bob jones, jefferson city, mo — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:03:34 GMT

this subject absolutely fascinates me and i agree that if you think it's a waste of time or energy then you don't appreciate what you've gained due to the decades of research and innovation that comes from these endeavors...if you don't like these articles, go somewhere else

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Maggie A., Scottsdale,AZ — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:14:11 GMT

[...] We all know our history when it comes to cleansing our gene pool. Anyone know what's being done about the meteor heading our way in someting scary like 2019 (I might be off 8 years or so, Joe, but that's not the most important part of the question). I really would like to know - my 10 year old nephew was watching DSC channel and saw that program and started crying and asked if he and our family would die before he got to grow up. Kinda scared me too. Thanks, Maggie

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Puffin, Golden, CO — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:35:10 GMT

Maggie - if we aren't smart enough to stop wrecking this planet and start healing it so we can continue here, I certainly hope we don't get anywhere else to ruin it!
Maybe some people, many people even, can become convinced of the value of our unique place in the universe by dicoveries of the space program. I think it is enough just to go outside and pay attention to want to save the planet, but to each her own.
As far as "moving on up", we aren't even decent or evolved enough of a species for anyone out there to even want to talk (much) to us, we are a loooooooong way from taking that trip. Will we change our ways (vote Obama!) and survive long enough to consider real space travel? If so we will probably be pretty cool and worthy of doing it by the time it is possible.
And that time will come a lot sooner when we put aside all this destruction to benefit a few and work on worldwide goals. Once we can keep half the world from starving/junk-eating to death and get back to anot polluting and destroying the environment we can
build that fancy spaceship
- Not because we have to, but for fun and we will have earned it then

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Mike, San Antonio, TX — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:04:26 GMT

For Juan,
1 Light Year(LY) = 9,460,730,472,580.8 km
Average Distance from Jupiter to the Sun: 778,547,200 km
Average Distance from Earth to the Sun 14,959,788.5 km
Nominal Maximum Distance from Earth to Jupiter (We wouldn't be able to see it because it would be on the other side of the Sun): 793,506,988.5 km
793,506,988.5 km/9,460,730,472,580.8 km = 0.00008 LY
Time for Light to travel Maximum Distance: 44 Min, 5 Sec.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Charles, New York, New York — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:24:59 GMT

As for inventions coming from space explorations, people really forget about the microwave oven, computers, thinsulate clothing materials (for the northern folks) plexiglass, lexan, kevlar, and solar & hydrogen fuel cell power, the list can go on and on. You need to strike a balance between your return on investment when you call something a "waste". My opinion is that we have reaped many, many rewards on our investment in the space program and should look forward to the inventions & discoveries that we can provide in the near & distant future.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

R Shel, DeSoto, Tx — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:00:23 GMT

If it takes cute names to get the public interested and therefore funding, go fur it NASA.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Bill Evans — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:06:31 GMT

Hmmm What good is space exploration?

Wow, I cannot believe that someone would even consider this. As far back as our civilaztion can reach, we have looked to the stars. What we have to offer today is observation of how another planet evolves and exists. This alone is an important factor in our lives, why? Because those observations are going to provide our grand-children or great grand-children with the knowledge of what to expect when they step off that space ship onto another planet. They will know that on jupiter there are violent storms, mars has ice at the north pole, and the moon is barren without gravity. Don't know about you, but I do believe that warrants our observations in space. Secondly, these observations may provide answers for our own worlds issues in the future.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Bill Evans — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:14:02 GMT

How strong is the Hubble Telescope?

I am not sure on this, but I think I can shed some light on the subject. In 1956 our lead scientists in the USA were asked to build a new figter for WWII. These scientist started providing the standard ideas when they were told "Think out of the box". With that they did, in 1958 our new aircraft was revealed to the United States public. It was named the Blackbird (SR-71), a aircraft that flies at the edge of space. Why am I telling you all this? Because that aircraft is still today the fastest aircraft in the world, secondly it could not be a fighter or bomber due to it's speed. Therefor it was added to our spy aircraft, it had cameras on it that could show you the mint on a dime. How strong is Hubble, not sure but it can take images of planets millinos of light years away, and not just oridnary images but awesome images.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

K Parker Morgantown WV — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:01:09 GMT

For those of you "offended" or "upset" by the humor and approach the author takes to this story, let me tell you who appreciates it - my kids. the way this story is written isn't necessarily for the scientist. The title caught my young daughter's attention and she read it. We talked about it and researched it on the web. She is interested. That is what these stories try to do - they try to put scientific events in words and descriptions that just about anyone can understand.

As a scientist this story wouldn't have been my first choice, I most likely would have read a more scholarly article in one of many journals. But I am not the entire audience. If scientists and groups such as NASA want continued support from the public they need articles like this, written for the common person including the children in the audience. Thank you for bringing this to my daughter.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

S.B. Stein E.B. NJ — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:41:52 GMT

I would love to be able to answer the question as to what kind of storm that is and how far down it extends to. We just don't have the technology and personnel to do that at this point. If we did, I would jump at the chance. Too bad there aren't sensors and satelites that can hover above the surface of Jupiter by a few kilometers.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

J. Wilson — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:48:09 GMT

While I agree that anthromorphizing physical phenomena is annoying, I understand why. It is inportant the average person understand science. Anything that will help people appreciate the wonders of nature and absorb reality with even half the enthusiasm fantasy is taken in should be encouraged.
And ... for those who think the space program is a waste of time and "who cares"; millions do, around the world. Beyond all of the technological benefits from the program, don't forget the millions of young people inspired to enter engineering and science because of these activities. Those with no imagination, no soul, don't move the world.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Daniel Fischer, Königswinter, Germany — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:42:52 GMT

The HST folks should have checked again before issuing this press release: High-resolution amateur images of Jupiter that can be found in this database for July 13, 15 and 17 show that the "baby spot" seems to be back and moving away swiftly from the Great Red Spot ...

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Todd, Billerica, MA — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:50:06 GMT

The amount of ignorant, misinformed, and misguided comments on these cosmic blogs is very disheartening.

On Topic. It is awesome to watch these storms from the Great Hubble Telescope. I am thrilled we are sending up the Shuttle to extend Hubble's life and improve it's capabilities. :)

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Chris Parker, Sacramento, CA — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:37:46 GMT

Re: "How strong is the Hubble"?

According to http://hubblesite.org/reference_desk/faq/answer.php.id=77&cat=topten, its resolution is .03 arcseconds. Multiply that by 3600 (3600 arcseconds in a degree of arc) to get .000008 degrees. This means it can't resolve objects that appear to be smaller than .000008 degrees from its position.

For perspective, your thumb at arm's length is about 2 degrees of arc.

Assuming the Hubble is about 250,000 miles from the moon, to determine how big an object Hubble would be able to resolve on the moon, here's the math (it's basic trigonometry)- 250,000 tan(.000008)= .034907 miles. That means its resolution of the moon would be about 184 feet.

That may not seem like a whole lot, but many lay people think that the purpose of a telescope is just to magnify- that's only part true. It's main purpose is to magnify AND to collect enough light to make dim things seem brighter.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Nik, Raleigh, NC — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:07:59 GMT

@ Liz:
"I really do wish that reporting was a FACTual happening & not an emotional one--"Baby Red Spot's sad fate" ---its science, folks, not a soap opera!
The 'storm' was absorbed-not 'gobbled up' ! "

Using humanistic language for inanimate objects isn't the same thing as assigning emotions to them. It's not intended to be taken literally, and as an avid fan of the English language I'm glad that popular science writing doesn't replicate the dry factual recitations of academic journals. Professional publications need to be as precise and value-neutral as possible, but popular science exists for a different reason and different standards apply. Not lower standards: DIFFERENT.

Personally, I'm a bit sick of uptight, condescending scientists who don't seem to get that.

"Putting human emotions onto non-animate objects is a very strange thing to do-doesn't seem there is too much sorrow for the 1,000s that are killed/starved around the world everyday. "

Ok... and the second part of that sentence has what exactly to do with the first part? Even if I agreed with the first part, which I don't, the second doesn't logically follow.

@ KT:
Wow, harsh. You're quite the cynic. Sorry you didn't get your grant!

@ Alan:
Nice article! I enjoyed your literary whimsy.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Alan Boyle — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:54:19 GMT

Dear K.T.:

If you're looking for a list of items spawned by the space program that are used in daily life, you can start by combing through the archives of the NASA Spinoff Web portal:

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/

These highlight *technologies* that have been adapted from the space program for commercial use, and you'll want to keep in mind that one technology may be reflected in multiple items. In addition, there are items that did not originate in the space program (such as Tang, Teflon and Velcro) but arguably became more popular because of the space connection.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Mike Maxwell, Laurel MD — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:57:30 GMT

The distance from Earth to Jupiter varies throughout the Earthly year by about 17 or 18 light-minutes (roughly), depending on whether we're on the same side of the Sun or the opposite side (we're 93 million miles from the Sun, so the variation is about twice this). The distance Sid Levingston gives is the minimum distance.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Paul Calgary — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:49:16 GMT

The reason why, its written as a 'soap opera' and not released as a technical white paper on the dynamics of the Jovian atmosphere is because.

A. Technical White papers are boring.
B. Who the heck has time to read it unless your a scientist
C. Because you're writing it to help the unwashed masses comprehend it.

[...]

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Timothy Rommes, Washington, UT — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:53:42 GMT

All kidding aside, the severe weather on Jupiter probably is due to global warming. Not our globe, of course. Jupiter puts out a lot more heat than it receives. By all rights it should be almost completely frozen. This implies a large metalic core. Or maybe the threshold for fusion is lower than you'd think. Any way it happens, the excess heat is what fuels the turbidity. Perhaps it's just a look ahead for us, albeit on a larger scale.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Katherine Olivera, Stamford CT — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:10:43 GMT

Although the article seems to add human feelings to the topic of the matter, it is fine with me. The main point of what is happening is getting across. And, also, we must remember that not everyone who reads these articles are scientists. So I'm sure people who would find it complicated or "boring" to read on would most likely appreciate the article, my opinion. Regardless, I can see who others who prefer it bein formal and factual may get annoyed by the deliverance, so all I can say to that is... THAT SUX FOR YOU. There are several other sites you can get more factual details about this same topic. As for me, I will keep reading these articles because I just like to update myself with news.. simply :)

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Mark Phelps, Phoenix, Arizona — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:17:09 GMT

A little off topic, but I'm just curious. I read some time ago that Jupiter is theorized to have a core made of metalic hydrogen. Any new information on that?

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

dennis cameron, Long Plains,Reserve,Manitoba,Canada — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:54:54 GMT

Just wanna say that all there is to offer here about astronomy is what I'm looking for when I look up astronomy. The hubble will soon be out and the new advanced telescope sure will bring us more pics that are unseen by hubble.Very interesting stuff here.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

john boie seatle wash — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:51:21 GMT

Cool.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

adam,easton,PA — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:54:51 GMT

@ liz ur: You sound like the borg. "irrelevant." Its a storm, storms have no feelings. STUDY AND MOVE ON. However i agree its a science fact it has no feelings. Trust me before this earth perishes there will be way more interesting things to discover.

Bye-bye, Baby Red Spot

Ed Buchmann — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:29:22 GMT

Bill Evans:
I was born in 1956, and by that time, WWII was over already for 10 years. I believe you've meant to say "cold war" or something else when referencing the development of a spy plane with cameras capable of reading what is in a dime.
But yeah, fantastic technology, so imagine what an instrument designed 50 years later can do on space, where we don't have the blur of the atmosphere.
It's too bad there are talks about retiring the Hubblebecause of maintenace costs, even before something better is put in place.