Published the first images of space from a telescope in a balloon
Miscellaneous / / April 24, 2023
It takes photos with the same resolution as Hubble, but with a much wider field of view.
Astronomers from the University of Toronto, Princeton University, Durham University and NASA successfully launched powerful telescope in a super-high pressure balloon (Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope, superbit). He has already reached a predetermined height at the "edge of space" and sent first pictures.
The first frame shows the Tarantula Nebula, a bright cluster of gas and dust not far from our Milky Way. Previously her demonstrated and James Webb.
The second frame shows a collision between two galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039. The authors of the project are very pleased with the first results.
After a decade of tremendous effort, we are getting these exquisite images with a wide range of scientific purposes that will help us better understand the universe.
Bart Netterfield
Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Dunlap University.
The balloon lifted off from Wanaka, New Zealand earlier in the week after a two-year delay due to the COVID pandemic. SuperBIT flies at an altitude of 33.5 km above 99.5% of the earth's atmosphere. It takes high-resolution images like the Hubble Space Telescope, but with a much wider field of view.
This is the first balloon telescope capable of taking wide-angle images - its clarity of vision is not affected by the atmosphere, only the laws of optics apply.
With seasonally stable winds for about three months, SuperBIT will circumnavigate the world several times. across the southern hemisphere, photographing the sky all night and then using solar panels to recharge their batteries during day.
The main scientific goal of the first flight is to measure the properties of dark matter, heavy but invisible material. SuperBIT will map it by the way it bends passing light rays, a technique known as gravitational lensing.
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