Sen. Mikulski Unveils First Images from Rejuvenated Hubble

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WASHINGTON -- Astronomers declared NASA's Hubble Space Telescope a
fully rejuvenated observatory with the release Wednesday of
observations from four of its six operating science instruments. Sen.
Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., unveiled the images at NASA Headquarters
in Washington.

Topping the list of new views are colorful, multi-wavelength pictures
of far-flung galaxies, a densely packed star cluster, an eerie
"pillar of creation," and a "butterfly" nebula. Hubble's suite of new
instruments allows it to study the universe across a wide swath of
the light spectrum, from ultraviolet all the way to near-infrared. In
addition, scientists released spectroscopic observations that slice
across billions of light-years to probe the cosmic-web structure of
the universe and map the distribution of elements that are
fundamental to life as we know it.

"This marks a new beginning for Hubble," said Ed Weiler, associate
administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "The telescope was given an extreme
makeover and now is significantly more powerful than ever,
well-equipped to last into the next decade."

"I fought for the Hubble repair mission because Hubble is the people's
telescope," said Mikulski, chairwoman of the Commerce, Justice and
Science Appropriations Subcommittee that funds NASA. "I also fought
for Hubble because it constantly rewrites the science textbooks. It
has more discoveries than any other science mission. Hubble is our
greatest example of our astronauts working together with scientists
to show American leadership and ingenuity. I want to salute Team
Hubble -- everyone who worked on Hubble from the Goddard Space Flight
Center and Space Telescope Science Institute scientists in Maryland,
to the ground crew at the Kennedy Space Center, to the Johnson Space
Center where the astronauts train, and to the astronauts who were
heroes in space."

The new instruments are more sensitive to light and, therefore, will
improve Hubble's observing efficiency significantly. It is able to
complete observations in a fraction of the time that was needed with
prior generations of Hubble instruments. The space observatory today
is significantly more powerful than it ever has been.

"We couldn't be more thrilled with the quality of the images from the
new Wide Field Camera 3 and repaired Advanced Camera for Surveys, and
the spectra from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Space
Telescope Imaging Spectrograph," said Keith Noll, leader of a team at
the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which planned the
early release observations. "The targets we've selected to showcase
the telescope reveal the great range of capabilities in our newly
upgraded Hubble."

These results are compelling evidence of the success of the STS-125
servicing mission in May, which has brought the space observatory to
the apex of its scientific performance. Two new instruments, the Wide
Field Camera 3 and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, were installed, and
two others, the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Space Telescope
Imaging Spectrograph, were repaired at the circuit board level.
Mission scientists also announced Wednesday that the Near Infrared
Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer was brought back into operation
during the three months of calibration and testing.

"On this mission we wanted to replenish the 'tool kit' of Hubble
instruments on which scientists around the world rely to carry out
their cutting-edge research," said David Leckrone, senior project
scientist for Hubble at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md. "Prior to this servicing mission, we had only three
unique instrument channels still working, and today we have 13. I'm
very proud to be able to say, 'mission accomplished.' "

For the past three months, scientists and engineers at the Space
Telescope Science Institute and Goddard have been focusing, testing,
and calibrating the instruments. Hubble is one of the most complex
space telescopes ever launched, and the Hubble servicing mission
astronauts performed major surgery on the 19-year-old observatory's
multiple systems. This orbital verification phase was interrupted
briefly July 19 to observe Jupiter in the aftermath of a collision
with a suspected comet.

Hubble now enters a phase of full science observations. The demand for
observing time will be intense. Observations will range from studying
the population of Kuiper Belt objects at the fringe of our solar
system to surveying the birth of planets around other stars and
probing the composition and structure of extrasolar planet
atmospheres. There are ambitious plans to take the deepest-ever
near-infrared portrait of the universe to reveal never-before-seen
infant galaxies that existed when the universe was less than 500
million years old. Other planned observations will attempt to shed
light on the behavior of dark energy, a repulsive force that is
pushing the universe apart at an ever-faster rate.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation
between NASA and the European Space Agency. Goddard manages the
telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute conducts Hubble
science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc. in
Washington, and is an International Year of Astronomy 2009 program
partner.

For images and more information about the Hubble Space Telescope,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble