Clearest images taken of space

[dk]

'Clearest' images taken of space

A team of astronomers from the US and the UK has obtained some of the clearest pictures of space ever taken.
They were acquired using a new "adaptive optics" system which sharpens pictures taken from the Mount Palomar Observatory in California. The images are twice as sharp as those from Hubble Space Telescope.


Pictures taken by Hubble are normally much better than images from ground-based telescopes because the Earth's atmosphere has a distorting effect.


The Lucky camera overcomes this problem in two ways.


First, it uses one of the most sensitive light-detection systems developed to date. This comprises a chip that has very low electrical noise and so can see much greater detail.

Secondly, the software system is able to distinguish when the atmospheric distortion starts and stops.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6975961.stm

I get really excited whenever I read stories about new advances in science, especially when it's related to space. Cool example pictures too!

[socalheart]

That's incredible! It's so much more clear. It's as if it were CGI of space things. I half expect to see a Vogan pop into frame. ;) Thanks for the info.

[dk]

LMAO I think it was a week or two ago I was asking TP "Isn't a vegan something from Star Trek?"

Is it Vogan?

Edit, oh, woops, that's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogon_poetry

[socalheart]

Ha! No, a Vogon is from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (http://video.movies.go.com/hitchhikersguide/global/index_main.html?countryID=us&section=&datastr=&). They're the ones who blow up Earth to make way for the new interstellar expressway. ;) It's one of those quirky early British comedies.

[dk]

Yeah, I'm a fan. I knew vegan sounded like something from SF, I just couldn't put my finger on it!

[Muku]

DK great shots btw, thanks for sharing.:D

[dk]

Thanks for reading! Yeah, I really love space photography!

[P_chan]

yeah very interesting, thanks:thumbup1:

[Fonze]

Thanks for reading! Yeah, I really love space photography!

I agree. Of all photography out there I like space ones the best and close behind are big puffy clouds.

[newvalor]

this stuff is awesome to see, I'm the same way about outer space science and eventually we'll be able to travel further than the moon. Hell I wish that NASA would do such a mission again, it would probably make alot of Americans happy that we can still accomplish things of the nature.

[Tempestuous]

I enjoy getting on Nasa's site and going through the space pics......I have never seen blurry ones like the ones on the left of that article....wonder if NASA photoshops them to clean them up???

[dk]

I'm pretty sure they use a bunch of filters to clean them up, and a lot of the pictures on the nasa site are usually an artist's rendition of some picture they've taken.

[dk]

The gloves have come off.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070910-sharpest-space.html