Understanding Hubble’s Contributions

to the Study of the Cosmos

Summary
by Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman

The first USA TODAY Hubble Case Study (“The Hubble Legacy,” fall 2008) explained the original reasons for
building the Hubble Space Telescope, the initial crippling problem HST experienced due to the misshapen
primary mirror (spherical aberration) and how the problem was solved. Finally, it showed a few examples of
the extraordinary observations that the repaired HST has been able to make.

Astronauts have visited Hubble four more times since the original rescue/repair mission in December 1993,
fixing or replacing failed electronic and mechanical units, and, most importantly, installing new, up-to-date
scientific instruments that keep Hubble on the cutting edge of astronomical technology. The result has been
fifteen years of unprecedented scientific exploration and discovery.

This second USA TODAY Hubble Case Study looks more closely at three areas in which discoveries made with
Hubble (often working together with other telescopes, both on the ground and in space) have fundamentally
changed scientists’ ideas about astronomy: extrasolar planets (i.e. planets circling other stars), the forma-
tion and evolution of galaxies, and the nature of the expansion of the universe. Discoveries related to this last
topic have been so revolutionary that they have led to the realization that all the normal matter and energy
that physics currently deals with comprises less than 5% of the universe. About a quarter of the universe
seems to be made of “dark matter,” which has normal gravitational attraction for regular matter but seems
not to interact at all with light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation (hence the term “dark” matter).
The largest component of the universe, however, seems to be something that repels other matter —just the
opposite of gravity. Astronomers call this “dark energy,” but even though they have given it a name, they have
almost no understanding of what it is.

Extrasolar Planets
Astronomers have speculated for a long time on the possible existence of planets circling other stars. It was
not until 1995, however, that astronomers first detected unambiguously an extrasolar planet. Since that time,
hundreds of such planets have been detected, all around stars relatively close to the sun. Most of these plan-
ets are relatively large, like Jupiter. Recently, however, scientists’ instruments have become sensitive enough
to detect smaller planets. The goal of extrasolar planet searches is to understand better how planetary sys-
tems are formed and, of particular interest to human beings, to discover Earth-like planets which might pos-
sibly harbor life.

The Hubble Space Telescope has an extraordinarily small field of view, and as such, it is not ideally suited to
searching for new planets. However, once extrasolar planets have been discovered using other telescopes,
such as the recently launched Kepler Mission, Hubble’s powerful instruments can analyze the nature of these
planets. In a few cases, Hubble has even been able to make measurements of the atmospheres of these plan-
ets — an extraordinary feat.

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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Formation and Evolution of Galaxies
Because Hubble is so sensitive, it can see faint objects very far away; and because light from faraway objects
takes a long time to reach the Earth, Hubble sees these objects as they were a long time ago. Hubble has been
able to photograph and study galaxies formed early in the history of the universe, shortly after the first stars
were born. These early galaxies differ in many respects from galaxies formed later in the universe, and the
differences between young and old galaxies have taught astronomers a lot about how galaxies evolve over
time.

The Expansion of the Universe Reconsidered – Dark Matter and Dark Energy
Ever since Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe was expanding, and that the rate of expansion seems to
increase linearly with distance from an observation point on the Earth, astronomers have tried to determine
the proportionality constant (the “Hubble constant”) that relates the expansion velocity and the distance.
Moreover, since all matter in the universe attracts by the force of gravity, scientists have assumed that the
expansion of the universe is gradually slowing down. Astronomers are hoping to measure the rate of decel-
eration of the universe’s expansion. One of the primary research programs of the Hubble Space Telescope has
been to determine accurately the Hubble constant and the rate of deceleration of the universe’s expansion.

The Hubble constant has now been measured quite accurately, which has in turn led to a determination of
the “age” of the universe: the Big Bang took place about 13.7 billion years ago. As scientists gathered more
and more data, however, it became apparent that, contrary to all expectations, the expansion of the uni-
verse does not seem to be slowing down at all — just the opposite: the expansion of the universe seems to
be speeding up! Since gravity wants to slow down the expansion, there must be another force pushing the
universe apart. Astronomers call this force “dark energy.”

Observations of the universal microwave background, the remnant of radiation left over from shortly after the
Big Bang, have allowed astronomers to measure how much of the universe is composed of dark energy, how
much of dark matter, and how much of ordinary matter and energy. The astounding discovery that ordinary
matter and energy constitute less than 5% of the universe indicates that scientists’ knowledge of physics is far
from complete! This is an excellent example of the nature of scientific discovery – every time new discoveries
are made, they open up many new questions. This is one reason that science is always so interesting!

Hubble has, of course, produced many important discoveries in areas other than the three dealt with in this
case study. However, many astronomers believe that these three areas are among the most important and
revolutionary that Hubble has dealt with, which is why they were selected. In reading the attached material
and trying to answer the accompanying questions, students will share the excitement of scientific investiga-
tions with Hubble astronomers and gain an appreciation for how the Hubble Space Telescope has fundamen-
tally changed basic concepts about the nature of the universe.

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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Looking back at Hubble as it takes a leap forward
The 19-year-old space
telescope undergoes ‘brain
surgery’ this week to make
it more powerful
By Dan Vergano
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
High overhead, NASA astronauts are
scheduled this week to begin repairs
on the Hubble Space Telescope.
The 360-mile-high “brain surgery” in
space, in the words of astronaut John
Grunsfeld, promises a brighter view
of the cosmos for Hubble astrono-
mers and fans alike. Sometimes the
two are interchangeable.
“We are waiting on the edge of our
seats for the incredible results we
will get from a repaired Hubble,”
says cosmologist Mario Livio of the
Space Telescope Science Institute in
Baltimore. “We are only going to get
more great science.”
“Hubble will go from a VW Super
Beetle to a high-powered race car,”
says astronomer Julianne Dalcanton
of the University of Washington-Se-
attle. Hubble will peer at stars and
galaxies formed 500 million years
after the Big Bang, equipped with a
new camera 30 times more sensitive
to light and a chemical spectrom-
eter 10 times more effective. “We
will be able to plan observations we
never could before, simply because
the telescope will be more efficient,”
Livio said in April.
Hubble has delivered so many astro-
nomical findings, that picking out
a “greatest hits” list is a challenge,
Dalcanton says. When she wrote
a retrospective of Hubble finds for
the Nature, she says, “I had to leave
things out, there was just too much.”
Among the highlights:

Cosmic ‘yardsticks’: Cepheids, pulsating stars thousands Stellar nurseries: Images of the Orion Nebula, a star birth
of times brighter than our sun, serve as ready-made distance factory, revealed that the youngest stars are surrounded by
markers in space. Measuring Cepheids in galaxies — such as dust disks buffeted by the winds from nearby exploding giant
the Spiral Galaxy M100, above — allows astronomers to cre- stars. These are exactly the conditions astronomers suspected
ate a framework by which they can precisely gauge distances would lead to solar system formation. More than 3,000 stars
throughout the sky. appear in this composite of 100 images.

Star blasts: After stars consume their hydrogen fuel, an ex- Black holes: Hubble has observed the stars orbiting near
plosion can’t be far behind. Images of nearby explosions reveal
the “light echoes” of blast waves shocking clouds of dust that
escape from stars on the edge of eruption, such as this star
20,000 light years away on the outer edge of the Milky Way.
Galaxy growth: “Deep field” images — such as this 2004
composite of the telescope’s farthest looks into the universe
— surprised astronomers by showing that the most distant,
and earliest, galaxies don’t resemble the spiral and football-
shaped galaxies of the modern universe but look more like
“insects spattered on a windshield,” Dalcanton says.
suspected supermassive black holes, from which nothing —
not even light — can escape, such as the Sagittarius A* at the
center of our own Milky Way galaxy. Hubble also has detect-
ed previously unsuspected middle-size black holes (merely
10,000 times more massive than the sun) in nearby galaxies.
Above, a star cluster with a black hole in its dense core.
Age of the universe: Hubble has honed the precision of
the “Hubble constant” (also named for the astronomer Edwin
Hubble), the measure of the universe’s expansion rate. Hubble
measurements of exploding stars in distant galaxies, such
as the one shown above, led to the 1998 discovery of “dark
energy,” the unexplained observation that galaxies across the
cosmos are moving apart at an accelerating rate

Remarkably, Hubble isn't a very advanced observatory compared with massive telescopes on Earth, such as the
33-foot-wide mirror of Hawaii's Keck telescopes, Dalcanton says. But its location in orbit frees it from clouds, atmo-
spheric distortion and city lights on Earth, which makes it invaluable to astronomers. "It's hard to conceive of a world
without Hubble," she says. "And the repairs will, hopefully, mean we won't have to."
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Matter matters to American, 2 Japanese sharing Nobel
Tiniest particles explain origin of the universe
By Dan Vergano
Wednesday,October 8, 2008
Insights into the peculiarities of the smallest sub-
atomic particles and the existence of the universe
have netted one American and two Japanese theo-
rists the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded half
of the $1.4 million prize Tuesday to Yoichiro Nambu,
87, of the University of Chicago and the remainder to
Makoto Kobayashi, 64, of Japan’s High Energy Accel-
erator Research Organization and Toshihide Maska-
wa, 68, of Kyoto University. The academy said their
work allows “deeper understanding of what happens
far inside the tiniest building blocks of matter.”
“I was surprised. I did not expect it,” Nambu said. “My
wife didn’t believe it for 30 minutes.”
In 1960, Nambu introduced particle physics to the
idea of spontaneous “symmetry-breaking” to explain
why subatomic particles possess particular magnetic
strengths and electrical charges rather than sym-
metrically possessing every possible value of these
things.
“The award to Nambu is long overdue,” says Steven
Weinberg of the University of Texas-Austin, who won
the Nobel for physics in 1979. “He was the first to
realize the importance of spontaneous symmetry
breaking,” which “allows you to see that beneath the
apparent messiness of nature, there is an underlying
simplicity.”
Nambu’s work contributed to the discovery of quarks,
the sub-atomic particles hidden inside the protons
and neutrons at the center of atoms.
In turn, Kobayashi and Maskawa in 1973 explored
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more broken symmetry, the predominance of matter
over antimatter.
Antimatter, a form of matter not found outside labo-
ratories, has particles with opposite electrical and
nuclear force charges that annihilate normal matter
on contact.
Kobayashi and Maskawa predicted the existence of
the “top” and “bottom” quarks in research that “ranks
among the 100 most cited papers in physics in the last
century,” says science historian David Pendlebury.
Quarks come in pairs and triplets, and in this case,
the discovery of the new quark pair fully explained
radioactivity.
In its announcement, the academy said the Japanese
theorists’ work contributed to an understanding of
why more matter than antimatter appeared in the
Big Bang, the cosmic explosion that began the uni-
verse 13.7 billion years ago. “One extra particle of
matter for every 10 billion particles of antimatter
was enough to make our world survive. This excess
of matter was the seed of our whole universe, which
filled with galaxies, stars and planets ­— and eventu-
ally life.”
Physicist H. Frederick Dylla, head of the American In-
stitute of Physics, said, “Such fundamental discover-
ies, which have laid the groundwork for experiments
that themselves later won the Nobel, suggest the
award this year was long overdue.”
With public interest in particle physics piqued by
September’s start-up of Europe’s Large Hadron Col-
lider, the world’s largest atom-smasher, Dylla said the
Nobel Prize “points to the groundwork for the phys-
ics we’ll be seeing in the next few years.”
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
‘Super-Earth’ planets make selves known
By Dan Vergano
Tuesday,June 17, 2008
Nearby stars probably abound with planets only
slightly larger than our own, an international astron-
omy team suggested Monday as it reported the dis-
covery of 45 of these “super-Earth” planets.
All of the planets, including a solar system of three
super-Earths reported by team leader Michel Mayor
of Switzerland’s University of Geneva Observatory, or-
bit too close to their stars to harbor life. Their surface
temperatures exceed Mercury’s in our solar system.
Mercury has a mean temperature of 354 degrees.
Since Mayor announced the first discovery of a planet
outside our solar system in 1995, astronomers have
gone on to document about 300 such planets, includ-
ing the latest ones, orbiting nearby stars.
Most are giant gas planets as big or bigger than Sat-
urn and Jupiter, but lately astronomers have turned
up more planets close to Earth in size.
“Probably the true abundance of these planets is even
larger,” says Notre Dame astronomer David Bennett,
who attended Mayor’s presentation in Nantes, France.
Bennett announced a similar super-Earth discovery
this month, and his planet was too cold for life.

“If you are considering life on these planets, forget it,”
says Mayor’s colleague, astronomer Didier Queloz, a
co-author on two studies detailing the discoveries
submitted to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
“But what is exciting is that we can say about one-
third of stars have these kind of low-mass planets.”
The latest discoveries include a solar system of three
planets orbiting the sunlike star HD 40307 about 42
light-years away. (One light-year is about 5.9 trillion
miles.) Planets weigh 4.2, 6.7, and 9.4 times as much
as Earth and complete their orbits in less than 21
days.

Hubble hits 100,000-orbit milestone

By Jess Zielinski
Monday, August 11, 2008
We warned you last week, and
now it’s official: Hubble made its
100,000th orbit today at 7:42 am
ET. Not bad for an 18-year-old.
So what do astronomers do to cel-
ebrate the big day? Release a gor-
geous photo.
To fete the telescope’s looping
achievement, scientists at the Space
Telescope Science Institute aimed
NASA, ESA, and M. Livio (STScI)
Hubble at a dazzling region of ce-
lestial birth — the pretty nebula
near the star cluster NGC 2074
(upper left in the photo below).
The region, raging with raw stel-
lar creation, is about 170,000
light-years away near the Taran-
tula nebula.
The image was taken on August
10 with Hubble’s Wide Field
Planetary Camera 2. Red shows
emission from sulfur atoms,
green from glowing hydrogen,
and blue from glowing oxygen.

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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Earth-like planet? Seems logical
Astronomers look to Epsilon Eridani
By Dan Vergano
Monday,October 27, 2008
Star Trek fans, take heart — Mr. Spock’s fabled home
star, the nearby Epsilon Eridani, could harbor an
Earth-like planet.
NASA astronomers today report that the triple-ringed
star has an asteroid belt and a Jupiter-like giant planet
in roughly the same orbits as in our own solar system.
Only 850 million years old, a fifth the age of Earth’s
sun, Epsilon Eridani resembles a younger twin to our
solar system. About 62 trillion miles away, it is the
closest known solar system.
It was borrowed by the creators of the TV series Star
Trek as the location of Vulcan, the planet that gave us
the super-logical science officer Mr. Spock.
“We certainly haven’t seen it yet, but if its solar sys-
tem is anything like ours, then there should be plan-
ets like ours,” say astronomer Massimo Marengo of
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in
Cambridge, Mass.
The NASA Spitzer space telescope results, which
measure the infrared heat given off by dust and ice
rings circling the star, suggest Epsilon Eridani pos-
sesses three jumbo worlds, revealed by dust-free cir-
cular lanes in its asteroid belt and more distant comet
belts.
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The circular asteroid belt that, like ours, orbits within
300 million miles of the star is particularly surprising,
Marengo says, because earlier studies had suggested
the star’s Jupiter-like planet followed a looping path
that would have destroyed the narrow belt. Instead,
it must follow a nearly circular orbit.
Because Epsilon Eridani is smaller, dimmer and
younger than the sun, the “habitable zone” for Earth-
like planets there is closer to the star, says planetary
theorist Sean Raymond of the University of Colora-
do-Boulder. “An Earth-like planet could actually form
in the (star’s) habitable zone,” he says, if the report
of a well-behaved Jupiter-sized planet bears out. An-
other planetary theorist, Alan Boss of the Carnegie
Institute of Washington (D.C.), is doubtful, suggesting
such a planet is “likely to be too massive and too close
to allow Earth-like planets to form in the habitable
zone.”
Jokes Marengo: “Of course there is disagreement
among Star Trek fans about whether the planet of Mr.
Spock could be at Epsilon Eridani, because it is such
a young star and Vulcans are supposed to be an ad-
vanced civilization.”
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Search for Super-Earths gains momentum
NASA to launch Kepler mission to find more
By Dan Vergano
Monday,February 9, 2009
So, Sir Isaac Newton, it turns out, was no slouch: Amid
his accomplishments in math, physics and optics, he
prophesied the glut of planets discovered in the past
two decades circling nearby stars. The 1713 edition
of the venerable astronomer’s Principia Mathematica
describes our own solar system -- “ of the sun, plan-
ets, and comets” -- and speculates that “the fixed
stars are the centers of other like systems.”
The story of these “extrasolar” planets gained its
latest chapter last week, at a Paris colloquium for
France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales space
telescope, COROT. The telescope searches a swath of
nearby stars for signs of dimming caused by planets
passing in front of them, so-called transit planets,
and one reported at the colloquium, COROT-Exo-7b,
was among the smallest yet detected, less than twice
the size of the Earth, but much hotter.
“For the first time, we have unambiguously detected
a planet that is ‘rocky’ in the same sense as our own
Earth,” said COROT’s Malcolm Fridlund, in a Europe-
an Space Agency statement. “This discovery is a very
important step on the road to understanding the for-
mation and evolution of our planet.”
Almost 340 planets have been detected orbiting
nearby stars, according to the catalogue maintained
by Paris Observatory astronomer Jean Schneider.
Most discovered since 1995 are Jupiter-sized or larg-
er worlds, many of them “roaster” planets that nearly
graze their star.
The past few years have brought reports of “Super-
Earths,” planets like COROT-Exo-7b that only out-
weigh our planet by a bit.
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“Finding Super-Earths, roughly a dozen of them, has
been profound, a major leap forward,” says theorist
Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washing-
ton, author of The Crowded Universe: The Search for
Living Planets, released today. Judged by the rate of
recent discoveries, about 30% of nearby stars likely
possess planets in Earth’s weight class, he says.
COROT’s report clears the way for the planned March
5 launch of NASA’s $591 million Kepler mission, a
larger transit-spotting telescope that should be able
to spot Earth-size planets in the “habitable zone”
around stars, where water neither boils away nor
freezes away.
“The whole point of Kepler is to find lots of Earths,”
says Boss, the mission’s official theorist. “We hope to
see even more Super-Earths.”
The smallest transit planets uncovered by Kepler will
be too small for confirmation by the “radial velocity”
technique responsible for finding most of the worlds
spotted since 1995. The technique records gravi-
tational wobbles in stars triggered by companion
planets.
“Once we find those Earths, there will be a decade
or two of waiting for measurements of atmospher-
ic methane and oxygen before we can say anything
about life there,” Boss says.
NASA’s plans for “Terrestrial Planet Finder” missions,
which could make these measurements, have reced-
ed largely because of the agency’s budget woes, he
adds. “Kepler has become NASA’s terrestrial planet
finder.”
Over the next three years, assuming a successful
launch, the mission will identify steadily smaller
planets more distant from their host stars.
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
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About 10% of solar systems are thought to orbit edge-
on to Earth, just by chance, and it will be planets in
those alignments that Kepler will detect through
transits. The feat requires the eyeballing of about
100,000 stars lying in the direction of the constella-
tion, Cygnus, the Swan.
In the meantime, planetary discoveries of other sorts
keep on coming.
Spitzer space telescope astronomers recently re-
ported HD 80606b, located 190 light-years away in
the constellation Ursa Major (one light-year is about
5.9 trillion miles), which follows an elongated orbit
‘Dark matter’ ring detected for first time
By Michelle Healy
From staff and wire reports
Wednesday,May 16, 2007
Colliding galaxies 5 billion light-years away have left
behind a ring of “dark matter,” the first one ever
spotted, Hubble telescope scientists say. Dark matter,
which is believed to make up most of the universe,
gives off no light and is detectable only indirectly
through its gravitational pull on stars. “The ring’s dis-
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passing so close to its star that its atmosphere’s tem-
perature rises from 980 degrees Fahrenheit to 2,240
degrees in about six hours time, a shocker of a sum-
mer.
“If I have seen further it, is only by standing on the
shoulders of Giants,” wrote Newton, who designed
the first simple mirror-using telescope in 1670.
From transit to radial velocity detection, his tricks
still play a part in the very latest discoveries, one he
predicted three centuries ago.
covery is among the strongest evidence yet that dark
matter exists,” the team led by M. James Jee of Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore said. Hubble images
of the head-on galaxy collision reveal that the ring,
which bends light, is 2.6 million light-years across
(one light-year equals about 5.9 trillion miles) in a gal-
axy cluster called ZwCl0024+1652. The dark-matter
find follows similar “Bullet Cluster” galaxy-collision
results seen last year, says Caltech’s Sean Carroll, who
was not part of the Astrophysical Journal study.
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
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Kepler’s on a mission to discover ‘Earths’
NASA telescope will keep an eye out for planets like ours in the neighborhood
By Dan Vergano
Thursday,March 5, 2009
Life on Earth got you down? NASA offers some sol-
ace: a planet-hunting satellite that’s poised to search
nearby stars for alternate “Earths.”
Scheduled for launch Friday evening, Kepler, the space
agency’s long-awaited $591 million space telescope,
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opens a new era in planet detection. In its four-year
mission, planetary scientists expect the spacecraft to
discover roughly 1,200 planets, more than quadru-
pling the number of worlds spotted orbiting nearby
stars since 1995.
“I call it our planet census-taker,” say NASA’s Jon
Morse. “Its discoveries may fundamentally alter hu-
manity’s view of itself and our place in the universe.”
Says mission chief scientist William Borucki of
NASA’s Ames Research Center: “Kepler is designed to
find hundreds of Earths. Kepler won’t find E.T., but it
hopes to find E.T.’s home.”
Along the Orion spur
After thundering out of Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta
II rocket, Kepler will follow an Earth-trailing orbit and
turn its 3-foot-wide telescope towards the constella-
tion Cygnus, the Swan, to begin four years of viewing
of roughly 100,000 stars.
Looking along the “Orion spur” of our Milky Way gal-
axy, a spoke of stars rich with stellar objects similar
to our own sun, Kepler will watch unblinkingly for
“transits.” These tiny dips in light -- a 0.01% dimming
for a planet the size of Earth -- can be observed as
worlds orbit in front of those stars.
Only about 10% of planets orbiting nearby stars are
expected, purely by chance, to orbit at an angle ac-
cessible to Kepler’s view, says planetary theorist
Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Already a dozen jumbo planets have been spotted
by transit with telescopes on Earth. Unhindered by
clouds and daylight in the depths of space, Kepler
should find many more:
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
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uAbout 870 Jupiter-size planets (89,000 miles wide)
orbiting close in to their stars, the most easily detect-
ed transits.
uAt least 50 Earth-size planets (8,000 miles wide),
and possibly hundreds more if rocky planets average
bigger diameters than Earth.
uA handful of planets as small as Mercury (3,000
miles wide) orbiting the more common stars that are
dimmer and smaller than our sun.
“The big outcome that Kepler provides is a picture
of both small, Earth-size worlds and planets really
far enough away from their stars to be habitable,”
says astronomer Greg Laughlin of the University of
California-Santa Cruz, who is not part of the project.
“Kepler will provide a whole crop of them and give us
the numbers to really know what’s out there.”
Not too hot and not too cold
Transit detection provides planetary width and, in
some cases, atmospheric chemistry, results that
other planet-detection methods can’t, adds Boss, au-
thor of The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living
Planets. He expects discovery of transit planets in the
“habitable zone” — not too hot and not too cold for
water — of stars will spur efforts to detect whether
they possess atmospheres rich in water or methane,
signatures of life.
Kepler’s unblinking stare and wide viewing area dif-
fer from the Hubble Space Telescope, which can look
only briefly at one nearby star at a time.
“One of the mysteries Kepler should address is wheth-
er solar systems like Earth’s are normal or not,” says
Laughlin, an investigator on the Lick Carnegie Exo-
planet Survey, which uses the better-known method
of detecting gravitational wobbles of stars induced
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by orbiting planets to discover new worlds. Planets in
our solar system follow nearly circular orbits, and the
massive outer gas giants block comets from wreaking
too much havoc with closer planets, including Earth.
But many of the solar systems so far detected possess
planets with looping, or eccentric, orbits that swing
them close to their star and then further out. One
recently observed transit planet, HD 80606b, sees
its temperature increase from 980 to 2,240 degrees
Fahrenheit in just six hours as it whips around its star
during the close-in part of its orbit.
In April 2007, European astronomers led by Steph-
ane Udry of Switzerland’s Geneva Observatory an-
nounced the detection of an Earth-size planet po-
tentially in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star
Gliese 581, about 20 light-years away. (One light-year
is about 5.9 trillion miles.) That discovery relied on
the gravitational wobbles method. Kepler, with its
transit detections, should uncover many similar plan-
ets residing in its 3,000 light-year-deep field of view,
if they are there to be found.
The discovery of many Earths “certainly may well
mean that life may be common throughout our gal-
axy,” Borucki says.
“On the other hand, if we don’t find anything, that
may well mean that life is very rare.”
Our solar system resides in the suburbs of the Milky
Way, a spiral-shaped galaxy of at least 200 billion stars
about 100,000 light-years across. NASA’s Kepler space
telescope will peer at a wedge 3,000 light-years deep
with roughly 100,000 stars running along the “Orion
Spur,” a streamer of stars between the major spirals
of the galaxy. Kepler will reveal how often stars like
our sun possess planets like Earth and open a new
era in planet discovery.
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
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Direct evidence of ‘dark matter’ claimed
By Larry Wheeler
Gannett News Service
Monday,August 21, 2006
WASHINGTON — Astronomers used an array of power-
ful telescopes and cosmological measuring techniques
to capture images that are the first direct evidence of
“dark matter,” the unseen material believed to comprise
most of the mass of the universe, researchers announced
Monday.
The breakthrough came from observing the aftermath of
the collision of two massive galaxies — together known
as the bullet cluster because of its telltale bullet-shaped
cloud.
The cosmic crash separated the gas clouds that normally
surround the galaxies from the stars within the galaxies,
researchers from several universities said in a conference
call.
Knowing that gravity follows mass, astronomers mapped
the concentration of gravity and found it had separated
from the gas clouds and remained with the swirling col-
lection of billions of stars moving through space at mil-
lions of miles per hour. The gravity of the stars them-
selves wouldn’t account for the gravity the astronomers
detected.
This meant there had to be some material — hidden from
view — accounting for all the gravity that remained with
the stars.
“We have seen for the first time a large spatial separa-
tion in the sky between the majority of the (visible) mat-
ter and where the gravity is found,” said Doug Clowe, a
University of Arizona postdoctoral fellow who led the
research team. “This provides the first direct proof dark
matter must exist and must make up a majority of matter
in the universe.”
In collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
The researchers said they’re confident their findings will
help settle the lingering question over whether dark
matter really exists.
Now, cosmologists and other specialists in related fields
can focus on trying to figure out the nature of dark mat-
ter.
Monday’s announcement strengthens the case that dark
matter consists of particles that neither absorb nor emit
light or any other easily measurable electromagnetic ra-
diation — such as X-rays.
“There absolutely is a new particle, something beyond
what we’ve detected that physicists have to go out there
and find,” said Sean Carroll, an assistant professor of
physics, University of Chicago, Ill., who participated in a
conference call to announce the results.
Observations were made using NASA’s orbiting Chan-
dra X-ray observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, the
European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope
and the Magellan optical telescope.
Images posted on the Internet by the team of astrono-
mers show gas clouds and gravitational fields depicted in
hues of red and blue surrounding a pair of galaxies that
appear to hang in the night sky like two delicate jewels.
But the serene beauty disguises the awesome violence
that accompanied the collision, which occurred an esti-
mated 100 million years ago.
“The kinetic energy was enough to completely evapo-
rate the planet Earth 10 trillion times over,” said Maxim
Markevitch, an astrophysicist with the Harvard-Smith-
sonian Center for Astrophysics and a member of the re-
search team.
A paper describing the dark matter findings will be pub-
lished in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal
Letters.
Page 11
 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Scientists still in the murk about cosmic ‘dark energy’
It could hold key to universe’s fate
By Ron Cowen
Special for USA TODAY
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Nearly a decade after scientists discovered that a
mysterious force is pushing the universe to expand
at an ever-faster rate, they still don’t understand how
that is happening.
University of Chicago cosmologist Michael Turner
calls the acceleration “the most profound mystery
in all of science.” It was Turner who coined the term
“dark energy” for the unknown substance that pro-
vides this cosmic push. Studies have shown that it
comprises 74% of all the mass and energy of the uni-
verse.
Scientists say that if they can understand dark ener-
gy, they may learn the fate of the universe — whether
it will keep on expanding, tear itself apart or implode
cataclysmically billions of years from now.
Science writers took part in a workshop last month
at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore
to focus on the question of why gravity, on the larg-
est scales, has switched roles — pushing out instead
of holding in.
NASA plans to explore the question in a big way as
well. The National Research Council recommended
in early September that a dark-energy probe be the
first spacecraft NASA launches in its delayed “Be-
yond Einstein” series of missions designed to explore
the formation of the universe and some of its most
unique features.
Jointly sponsored by the Department of Energy, the
series has three proposed missions, one of which
would be selected and launched around 2015.
In collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
“It’s not very often that theorists face a situation in
which they need to explain something that is 74% of
everything there is and they don’t have a clue,” says
Mario Livio, theorist for the space telescope insti-
tute.
Coming to the opposite conclusion
Astronomer Adam Riess remembers the moment
he realized that instead of pulling galaxies together,
gravity was pushing them apart.
A decade ago, Riess was a 26-year-old postdoctoral
researcher at the University of California-Berkeley,
part of a team using the light from distant superno-
vae to study how rapidly the universe has been ex-
panding over the past several billion years.
Researchers had known since the 1920s that the uni-
verse has been expanding in all directions but had
assumed that the expansion was slowing, weighed
down by the combined tug of all the galaxies.
But when Riess examined the supernova data in the
fall of 1997, he found just the opposite: Cosmic ex-
pansion was speeding up. Something was undermin-
ing gravity’s pull, turning it into a push and inflating
the universe like a balloon. “I still recall feeling very
excited — excited that it was true and also very anx-
ious ... because most things you discover in science
are wrong, and they have a half-life of about five min-
utes.”
But this time, the finding didn’t fizzle. Instead, a rival
team studying supernovae, led by Saul Perlmutter of
the University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley Na-
tional Laboratory, had arrived at the same conclu-
sion.
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Three destinies
Three theories on what could happen as dark energy
expands the universe:
1. Accelerated expansion
If dark energy is a constant, expansion will continue at
an accelerated pace. In 30 billion years, we will see only
a handful of galaxies — all the others will have sped out
of sight.
2. The Big Rip
Strengthening dark energy will force an expansion in
about 30 billion years so violent that every structure
— from clusters of galaxies to atoms — will be ripped
apart.
3. The Big Crunch
Dark energy will fade, and gravity will cause the uni-
verse to implode.
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Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
The most compelling evidence of dark energy relies on some
of the most brilliant objects in the cosmos. Type 1a superno-
vae are stars that have blown themselves to smithereens and
are bright enough to be seen in galaxies several billion light-
years from Earth.
Like light bulbs of similar wattage, these supernovae all have
about the same intrinsic brightness. This enables astronomers
to calculate the distance to each eruption by observing how
dim it appears on the sky. In addition, astronomers also deter-
mine how fast the host galaxy of each supernova is speeding
away from Earth.
By combining this information, scientists find that the 13.7-
billion-year-old universe began revving up its rate of expan-
sion about 5 billion years ago.
Over the past 10 years, other studies have reinforced the dark-
energy picture, Turner notes. These include images of the mi-
crowave glow left over from the universe-forming Big Bang
and studies of X-rays that bathe distant clusters of galaxies.
“Now the evidence is rock-solid that the universe is speeding
up,” Turner says. “We live in this kooky universe.”
‘Big Rip’ or ‘Big Crunch’?
Dark energy presents a tremendous opportunity for physicists,
in much the same way that the mysteries of the subatomic
world did in the past century, Turner and others say.
In fact, dark energy may be tied to the subatomic world. Stud-
ies so far hint that dark energy might be sprinkled evenly
throughout space. According to quantum mechanics, the laws
that govern the motion and behavior of atomic particles such
as electrons and protons, empty space isn’t really empty. It
seethes with pairs of particles and negatively charged anti-
particles that constantly pop in and out of existence.
That activity imbues the nothingness of space with energy.
And that energy could be just the hidden culprit behind dark
energy.
So what are the possible fates awaiting the universe?
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
If dark energy has a constant density, as hinted by
the supernova studies, the universe would continue
to expand at an accelerated rate. Galaxies would be
separated by such great distances and flee from one
another at such high speeds that in 30 billion years,
Turner says, residents of our own Milky Way would
look out on a lonely sky. Only six other galaxies would
be visible, compared with the billions seen today.
If dark energy becomes more powerful with time, its
cosmic push would eventually become a cosmic kill-
er. In 30 billion years, the runaway expansion would
tear asunder every galaxy, star, planet, molecule and
atom in what theorists call the “Big Rip.” If, however,
dark energy were to fade away, gravity’s tug eventu-
ally would take back the reins. The universe would
collapse in a “Big Crunch.”
Now, scientists are designing new experiments to
elucidate the properties of dark energy. The pro-
posed space missions would variously hunt for sev-
eral thousand supernovae, record the positions of
100 million galaxies and scour the heavens to study
the image-distorting properties of gravity. Scientists
acknowledge that there’s a chance the missions could
discover there’s another reason altogether for the
universe’s accelerated expansion.
Colliding galaxies win Hubble vote
By Dan Vergano
You voted for the stars, and got your wish — Hubble
space telescope astronomers will turn their gaze to a
pair of colliding galaxies selected by public vote. “Out
of a total of 139,944 votes cast online by the public
since the “Hubble, You Decide” contest opened on
January 28, nearly 50 percent favored the interacting
pair of spiral galaxies called Arp 274,” says a Space
Telescope Science Institute statement.
In collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
uThe Supernova/Acceleration Probe would study the
expansion history of the universe by recording 2,000
type 1a supernovae a year, using a mirror slightly big-
ger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope and the
biggest camera ever launched into space.
uThe Advanced Dark Energy Physics Telescope
would use the echoes of primordial sound waves to
examine cosmic expansion.
uThe Dark Energy Space Telescope would be used to
detect more than 3,000 type 1a supernovae over two
years. It would then survey the sky to determine how
the distribution of galaxies has evolved since the Big
Bang.
The estimated $1 billion price tag for these projects
comes with no guarantee, but Turner says he’s opti-
mistic that in 10 years, space and ground-based tele-
scopes will crack the mystery. “This puzzle seems
to be (related) to a number of other puzzles. It’s the
nexus,” he says. “We can’t understand the universe
until we discover what dark energy is.”
The gravitationally-bound galaxies beat out five other
starry candidates for investigation in early April, part
of worldwide International Year of Astronomy ob-
serving activities. “Hubble has shown that interact-
ing galaxies are very photogenic because, under the
relentless pull of gravity, they weave elegant twisted
lanes of dust and stars, and brilliant blue clusters of
newborn stars,” says the Hubble statement. A color
image should be released by the evening of April 5,
showing the galaxies.
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Merging galaxies magnified
Hubble photos provide look at how stars form
By Paul Hoversten
Wednesday,October 22, 1997
WASHINGTON — Two nearby galaxies are slamming
into each other and giving birth to a profusion of stars
in what astronomers call a brilliant “fireworks” dis-
play in space.
New photos from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope re-
leased Tuesday give the first close-up look at one of
nature’s most violent events, the collision of galaxies.
Out of the maelstrom are coming more than 1,000
bright young star clusters — each containing up to 1
million stars.
The clusters seem to blaze and pop like a string of
firecrackers and provide new clues into how stars
form, evolve and eventually die, astronomers say.
The new pictures also might settle an old controversy
about how a type of galaxy is formed.
Spiral galaxies, such as our Milky Way, have long curv-
ing arms of stars and dust that rotate about a center.
Elliptical galaxies are oval and more compact, lacking
the arms. About 80% of all galaxies are spiral. Both are
held together by the gravitational pull of the matter
within them.
Based on the Hubble photos, the astronomers say it
is now clear that elliptical galaxies are formed when
two spirals collide.
“Here is the smoking gun,” says astronomer Bruce
Margon, University of Washington. “It’s not just a
theoretical computer model.”
Astronomers used Hubble to look at the heart-shaped
nucleus of the Antennae galaxies, located 63 million
light-years from Earth in the southern constellation
Corvus.
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The galaxies are so named because long tails of glow-
ing gas, formed by the gravitational forces of their
encounter, flow from them, resembling an insect’s
antennae.
The Antennae “is an excellent laboratory for studying
the formation of stars and star clusters since it is the
nearest and youngest example of colliding galaxies,”
says astronomer Francois Schweizer of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, D.C.
Although the forces at work in such a collision are
enormously powerful, scientists estimate it takes al-
most a half-billion years before merging spiral galax-
ies settle into an elliptical galaxy with a billion stars.
“It certainly isn’t gentle,” says NASA’s Edward Weiler,
a Hubble scientist. “It’s a train wreck.”
Until now, astronomers, using ground-based tele-
scopes, could see the Antennae only as a few bright
dots with tails.
Hubble was able to probe much deeper, into the very
center of the collision.
It found two bright orange-colored galactic cores
ringed by more than 1,000 young, bluish star clus-
ters.
“The sheer number of these young star clusters is
amazing,” says Brad Whitmore, Space Telescope Sci-
ence Institute, Baltimore. “The discovery will help us
put together a chronological sequence of how collid-
ing galaxies evolve.”
The origin of these clusters appears to lie in huge
puffy clouds of super cold hydrogen gas. The clouds
range from 50 to 300 light-years across. A light-year
is the distance light travels in a year, about six trillion
miles.
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
A typical spiral galaxy contains from 1,000 to 2,000
clouds, which float harmlessly until disturbed in
something like a collision.
The gravitational force created when galaxies collide
sets off a string of cataclysmic events: Old stars can
explode even as new ones are born.
Stars usually don’t crash into each other when galax-
ies collide because they generally are too far apart.
The gravitational force heats cold hydrogen gas clouds
to super-high temperatures. Stars are formed out of
the gas when the heat and pressure cause the clouds
to collapse. Reservoirs of gas light up like firecrackers
as the stars are formed.
Dark energy limits galaxy clusters’ size
By Dan Vergano
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Clusters of galaxies, the vast islands of stars filling
outer space, are limited in their growth by the mys-
terious force known as dark energy, NASA scientists
said Tuesday.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory spacecraft looked at
“super-clusters” of galaxies within 7 billion light-years
of Earth. (One light-year is about 5.9 trillion miles.)
Its findings indicate that dark energy, the anti-grav-
ity force that permeates the universe, began heavily
dampening the growth of galaxy clusters about 5.5
billion years ago and hasn’t let up.
“This may well be called ‘arrested development’ of
the universe,” says research leader Alexey Vikhlinin
of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in
Cambridge, Mass.
In collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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“It’s almost like a pressure cooker,” Schweizer says.
“The collision crunches the hydrogen gas and new
stars form all over the place.”
Earlier Hubble pictures have shown that nearly one-
third of very distant galaxies — those that existed
early in the history of the universe — are colliding
galaxies.
“By looking at the nearby mergers, which are quite
rare, we can get a glimpse of what happened early
in the universe when mergers were quite prevalent,”
Whitmore says.
The Chandra findings also suggest that our own Milky
Way galaxy and its neighbors will enjoy a solitary re-
tirement tens of billions of years from now, torn from
view of the cosmos by dark energy.
In 1998, astronomers detected dark energy in the ac-
celerating retreat of the exploding stars called super-
novas. Scientists believe that showed dark energy is
pulling galaxies away from one another.
The Chandra study, scheduled for publication in The
Astrophysical Journal, shows that dark energy limits
galaxy super-clusters to about 10 clusters, each one
containing thousands of galaxies.
Our own Milky Way and its neighbor, Andromeda,
will never merge with other galaxies. “We will never
lose Andromeda,” says Vikhlinin. “Galaxies farther
away will move from our sight.”
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Hubble spies two spiral galaxies aligning
By Jess Zielinski
Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Hubble Space Telescope snapped this rare align-

ment of two spiral galaxies. The small galaxy in the
foreground is visible by its outer rim, where it over-
laps with the larger background galaxy. There are
dark tentacles of dust visibly extending from the
small galaxy’s starry disk.

We think those dusty structures lack stars. They’re

rarely as visible as this because nothing is usually
behind them to make them visible — like holding up
a cut-out piece of black paper against a black back-
ground. This is the first time astronomers have ob-
served this kind of dark dust this far beyond the vis-
ible edge of a galaxy.
Astronomers measure the background galaxy as 780
million light-years away. They don’t yet know the
distance between the two galaxies, but they think
they’re relatively close in space terms. The back-
ground galaxy is about equal to the size of the Milky
Way and around 10 times larger than the smaller
aligned galaxy.
NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
The stars in the background mostly belong to NGC 253,
a spiral galaxy that’s out of view. Astronomers were
actually photographing NGC 253 when they spotted
these two galaxies in the background. Viewed with
a ground-based telescope, the two galaxies look like
a single blob. But Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Sur-
veys is so sharp it deciphered there were two galax-
ies, now cataloged as 2MASX J00482185-2507365.

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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Overarching Theme and Goal:
From capturing the nearby, violent death of a massive star, to staring far back in time to see embryonic galaxies, the
Hubble Space Telescope’s many awe-inspiring observations have changed humans’ understanding of the universe.
The iconic Earth-orbiting observatory collects and analyzes light from wavelengths that span from ultraviolet to
near- infrared, seeing sharply because of its exquisite optics and by virtue of its location above Earth’s turbulent
atmosphere. Hubble’s razor-sharp view of the heavens has “rewritten the textbooks” by answering many astronomi-
cal questions while uncovering many new surprises. While Hubble has thus advanced humans’ understanding of
the cosmos on many fronts, many more questions remain. Both ground-based and space-based observatories are
marshaled in the effort to find them.

The goal of this case study is to more deeply understand select topics in modern astronomy by researching pub-
lished literature on the subjects, while concurrently learning to appreciate the unique contributions that Hubble has
made to these fields of investigation.

The following overarching theme questions should be answered in concert with a select topic below:

uWhat are some of the astrophysical phenomena that the Hubble Space Telescope can study?
uHow have Hubble’s capabilities advanced humans’ understanding of those phenomena?
uHow have Hubble observations changed your personal view of humans’ place in the universe?

The three select topics are:

1. Search for extrasolar planets and life beyond Earth

Scientists had no confirmed knowledge of the existence of extrasolar, or exoplanets when Hubble was launched
in 1990. It wasn’t until five year later in 1995 that the first exoplanet orbiting another Sun-like star was confirmed
using special techniques with ground-based telescopes. While Hubble was not specifically designed to view exo-
planets, its powerful vision and instrumentation suite have added significantly to the knowledge of these remote
worlds.

Inquiry Questions:

uWhat determines the location of the “habitable zone” around a star?

uWhat experiments should scientists do next if Kepler finds that Earthlike planets are common in the galaxy?
Why is it difficult to detect planets around other stars? What clues do astronomers look for to determine if a
u
star has planets?

uWhat kinds of stars are most likely to have planets that could support Earth-like life? Why?

Describe a few of the different methods that astronomers use to search for planets around other stars? What
u
factors may dictate whether these planets harbor life? Can you think of any ways that such signatures can be ob-
served. (Imagine looking back at the Earth from a distant planet, what would you search for to verify life?)
2. Dark matter and dark energy
Evidence gathered over the last two decades has convinced astronomers that the ordinary matter and energy locked
up in stars and galaxies comprise less than five percent of the makeup of the universe. An invisible form of matter
Page 18
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
called “dark matter” and a smooth medium called “dark energy” (which generates a repulsive force) appear to make
up the rest of the universe’s constituency. Hubble has provided important evidence for the existence of dark energy
and dark matter, although a detailed understanding of these mysterious phenomena is not yet at hand.

Inquiry Questions:
What is the difference between ordinary matter and dark matter? What is the difference between dark matter and
u
dark energy?

uHow do astronomers manage to map the location of dark matter if it is dark?

uWhy are dark matter and ordinary matter separated when two clusters of galaxies collide?

When something is mysterious we call it “dark.” Can you think of a better descriptive name for dark energy and
u
dark matter?

Briefly summarize how astronomers have used Hubble observations of supernovae as beacons in tracing the evo-
u
lution of the universe.

uWhat alternate explanations exist for these startling observations?

3. Formation and evolution of galaxies

Hubble’s sharp vision allows it to view faint, faraway galaxies, whose light takes a long time to reach Earth. Hubble
sees these galaxies as they appeared a long time ago. Many of them formed just several hundred million years after
the Big Bang. By studying these distant galaxies, astronomers are learning how galaxies have evolved over time.

Inquiry Questions:

uIf the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, how is it possible that some galaxies are colliding?

uIf galaxies collide, why don’t stars collide?

uHow can a galaxy have old and young stars at the same time?

uAre collisions between galaxies more or less common in the early universe? How do scientists know?

What are the differences between two objects on earth colliding (e.g., billiard balls on a pool table) and two galax-
u
ies colliding in space?

What are examples of analogies that scientists use to describe collisions between galaxies? How are these
u
analogies helpful? How can they lead to misconceptions?

uHow do spiral and elliptical galaxies form?

uWhat is a barred spiral galaxy? How common are they?

uWhat type of galaxy is the Milky Way? How do scientists know this?
Page 19
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Subject Matter Experts
Bonnie Eisenhamer oversees Hubble Space Telescope education in her role as Formal Edu-
cation Program Manager, Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Bonnie has had the opportunity to see a variety of classroom work samples that include po-
etry about the telescope, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations about how it works, and models
of it made from recycled materials. Ms. Eisenhamer had the interesting experience of leading
a workshop for local middle school students during Queen Elizabeth’s Goddard visit in 2007.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Hoffman is an astronaut and Professor of the Practice of Aerospace Engineer-
ing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronau-
tics; Jeff’s fourth space flight was as an EVA crewmember on Hubble’s first servicing mission in
1993 (STS-61). He was one of the four astronauts who performed a record five space walks,
and has logged more than 1,211 hours and 21.5 million miles in space. Jeff’s interests focus
on the future of human spaceflight (operations, technology, human-machine interactions and
extra-vehicular activity) and in the use of the International Space Station as a test-bed for fu-
ture aerospace technology. Jeff has a bachelor’s degree in astronomy from Amherst College, a
master’s degree in materials science from Rice University and a doctorate in astrophysics from
Harvard University.

Dr. Jason Kalirai is an astrophysicist and new team member at the Space Telescope Science
Institute, having joined the Institute in the fall of 2008. He is fresh off a four-year post-doctoral
research term at the University of California at Santa Cruz as a Hubble Fellow. Jason enjoys
tackling interesting astrophysical research problems that can be solved through the study of
resolved stellar populations such as nearby star clusters and galaxies. He is a frequent user
of both ground-based telescopes, such as the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, and
space-based telescopes such as Hubble. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in honors physics, and
master’s and doctorate degrees in astrophysics from the University of British Columbia in Van-
couver, BC, Canada.

Dr. Mario Livio, the head of the new Institute Science Division at the Space Telescope Sci-
ence Institute, joined the Institute in 1991 as head of the Archive Branch. Mario was a professor
of physics in the physics department of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology from 1981
until 1991. He has published over 400 scientific papers and received numerous awards for re-
search, for excellence in teaching and for his books. His interests span a broad range of topics
in astrophysics, from cosmology to the emergence of intelligent life. His latest book entitled “Is
God a Mathematician?” appeared in January 2009. Prior to coming to STScI, Mario completed
his undergraduate studies (majoring in both physics and mathematics) at the Hebrew Univer-
sity in Jerusalem, his M.Sc. degree (in theoretical particle physics) at the Weizmann Institute,
and his Ph.D. (in theoretical astrophysics) at Tel-Aviv University.
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 Understanding Hubble’s Contributions
to the Study of the Cosmos
Subject Matter Experts (continued)
Ray Villard serves as news director for the Space Telescope Science Institute at the Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Ray has specialized in communicating astronomy
to the public for the past 30 years and is responsible for disseminating news about the most re-
cent discoveries made with the Hubble Space Telescope. Ray has written a variety of freelance
articles for varied media and instructs astronomy courses and hosts public seminars through
the Johns Hopkins University, the Smithsonian Institution and Howard Community College in
Columbia MD. Ray holds a bachelor’s degree in communication arts from State University of
New York at Albany and a master’s degree in science communication from Boston University.

Case Study Advisors

Bonnie McClain has developed and managed space education investments for NASA for
the past fourteen years. In 2005, Ms. McClain joined the NASA Goddard Space Flight Cen-
ter’s (GSFC) Office of Education in Greenbelt, Maryland. Her current responsibilities include
development and directorship of the pre-college Career Experience Program, co- lead of the
NASA Hubble Education Plan, and project manager of NASA’s Endeavor Science Teaching Cer-
tification Program. Prior to working at NASA, Bonnie was a professional classroom educator in
the state of Indiana. An author of published education materials, she also created educational
programs that have been replicated in other schools and states.

Kevin Hartnett is the Deputy Science Operations Manager for the Hubble Space Telescope
Project. Kevin directly supported the last three Hubble Servicing Missions, manning a con-
sole position that coordinated the activities of the Johnson Space Center and Goddard Hubble
teams during SM4 in May 2009. Kevin has worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center since
the early 1980s in various positions related to the operation of scientific satellites. Kevin is an
active amateur astronomer. He is a member of the Goddard Astronomy Club, an amateur orga-
nization comprised of government and contractor employees at Goddard. He enjoys general
observing, celestial photography, public lecturing and writing poetry. Kevin studied physics
and astronomy at the University of Delaware.

Malcolm Niedner is an astrophysicist and the Observatory Project Scientist, Hubble Space
Telescope. Mal’s professional specialties are the interaction between solar wind and large-
scale cometary plasma environment, origin and dynamics of plasma-tail transients, role of
solar wind and solar EUV in ionization of cometary neutrals, and the use of cometary plasma
tails as 3D probes of solar wind and interplanetary magnetic fields to high heliospheric lati-
tudes. Recently, his interests have focused on properties and evolution of distant galaxies,
protoplanetary disks and young stellar objects. Mal holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from
Brown University and master’s and doctorate degrees in astronomy from Indiana University.

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