
A new photo of Mars from the Hubble Telescope - Tomte
http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/19/11715340/nasa-mars-photograph-sun-opposition-hubble-space-telescope
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brianpgordon
At a cost of $10 billion I still think the Hubble is one of the best
investments that high science has offered us. The images it produces have to
be _the_ most fascinating and valuable pieces of data humanity has ever
produced.

Hubble's successor, the James Webb, is scheduled to launch in a couple of
years. It will orbit the Sun rather than the Earth (at the L2 Earth-Sun
Lagrange point) with a mirror more than twice the diameter of Hubble's. The
images that it will produce are expected to be even more stunning than
Hubble's. These are truly great times we're living in.

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mamurphy
I knew little about Larange points[0] or the James Webb[1] before reading your
comment and spending 10 minutes on Wikipedia. The L2 is a stable orbit with
the Earth between the L2 point and the sun; the Webb is a telescope that seems
twice as large as the Hubble scheduled for launch in 2018. Fascinating stuff!

As noted in the Webb article:

>The JWST will operate near the Earth-Sun L2 (Lagrange) point, approximately
1,500,000 km (930,000 mi) beyond the Earth. Objects near this point can orbit
the Sun in synchrony with the Earth, allowing the telescope to remain at a
roughly constant distance and use a single sunshield to block heat and light
from the Sun and Earth. This will keep the temperature of the spacecraft below
50 K (−220 °C; −370 °F), necessary for infrared observations.

There's a great picture[2] on Wikipedia comparing sizes of major telescopes.

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point)

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope)

[2][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Comparison_optical_telesc...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Comparison_optical_telescope_primary_mirrors.svg)

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sliverstorm
Idle speculation, but I wonder if the distance will impair service, repair and
upgrades, all of which I believe Hubble has benefited from

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XorNot
Yes.

No human has ever been out that far into space. Though I suspect by the time
it launches it is conceivable SpaceX and NASA could actually put a mission
together to do that since at SpaceX prices repairs might be cost effective.

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nitrogen
On that note, is it possible for the mission operators to put the telescope in
earth orbit first, make sure everything is working, then repair if needed
before sending it out to L2?

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lmm
No. It would be too warm to take good observations. And the mirror unfolds in
sections, and isn't AFAIK equipped to fold back down again for the journey to
L2. And repairing in LEO would still be tremendously expensive in any case.

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photonwins
Some more images from ISRO MOM.

[http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25-mars-orbiter-
mission/picture...](http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25-mars-orbiter-
mission/pictures-mars-colour-camera-mcc-onboard-india%E2%80%99s-mars-orbiter)

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piyush_soni
Thanks for the link. This image out of all posted there compares directly to
the one taken by Hubble :
[http://www.isro.gov.in/sites/default/files/galleries/Picture...](http://www.isro.gov.in/sites/default/files/galleries/Pictures%20from%20Mars%20Colour%20Camera%20%28MCC%29%20onboard%20India%E2%80%99s%20Mars%20Orbiter%20Spacecraft/mars4.jpg)

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solipsism
The article from NASA themselves is a lot better, with a lot more information:
[http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/new-hubble-
portrait...](http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/new-hubble-portrait-of-
mars)

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Yuioup
Also, the headline is less click-baity.

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djaychela
And the site doesn't auto play audio at high volume and wake your girlfriend
when she's asleep but you can't!

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mholt
NASA's Instagram post has a surprising amount of detail in the photo
description that helped orient me to the features in the photo:
[https://www.instagram.com/p/BFmwqJNIaLU/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BFmwqJNIaLU/)

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jackbravo
Could someone provide a link to the high res photo?

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throwaway_exer
I always thought Mars was red and dusty. That image looks more like Earth than
not!

