The Hubble Gallery

Well, it's been a long week.

I believe it's time to relax and enjoy a celestial show, courtesy of our old friend, the Hubble Space Telescope. Today's FamilyFirst site is the Hubblesite Gallery.

What we have here are hundreds of dazzling photographs taken by the venerable orbiting telescope. And no matter how many times you have seen pictures of distant stars, nebulae, and galaxies, it still puts your heart in your throat. The universe is one massive place, folks.

Touring through the photos, we see novae, binary stars, amazing shots of stars with planets (their existence only recently proven), protostellar jets, entire fields of galaxies, and an absolutely stunning picture of satellite trails seen in the aurora of Jupiter.

My apologies if I speak too much in the superlative sense. It's just that the universe can only be spoken of in the superlative.

You can easily spend hours here. Sort through the photos by their subject matter, or just enjoy a random show. Don't miss one called Hubble's Smash Hits!

For those of you fortunate enough to have some serious bandwidth, there are movies that tell the history of the telescope, as well as providing a quick way to view some of its greatest discoveries.

There is also a section of the site dedicated to educating you on how to produce your own gallery of Hubble images. You can end up with your own 8x10 glossies of stellar masterpieces.

The telescope itself also deservedly has its own area, with photos of its renovations that have kept it in good shape, sending us its sharp pics of the edge of the universe.

So enjoy today's FamilyFirst site. And keep in mind that SOMETIMES, tax dollars are WISELY spent!

http://hubblesite.org/gallery

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