The Hubble Telescope – Spatial Sprawling

The 1.5 billion dollar Hubble Telescope that was launched into orbit around the Earth in 1990 has been collecting information and taking pictures of our universe for almost 25 years. The Hubble Telescope transmits about 120 gigabytes of data every week, which translates to about 3,600 feet (1,097 meters) of books on a shelf. But even with all of the research and data the telescope has already gathered, scientists are still finding new, groundbreaking ways to use the Hubble Telescope.

Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/about/

Earlier this year, astronomers developed an innovative technique that improves the Hubble Telescope’s observing accuracy to the point where concrete distance measurements can be made from us to stars in the Milky Way that are 10 times farther away than ever accomplished before. This new technique, called spatial sprawling, allows astronomers, with the use of the Hubble Telescope, enables the Hubble to measure the distance of stars up to 10,000 light years away.

The idea for spatial sprawling was created by astronomer Adam Riess and is used in combination with the Parallax, the old yet reliable method of measuring distances to nearby stars. Recall that Parallax uses the idea of forming a triangle on the sky, using the earth’s position around the sun in 6 month intervals as the base for the triangle, and then measuring the extremely small angles made by the distant star. This, combined with some trigonometry, allows us to determine the distance to said star.

Source: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/star/2014/23/image/a/format/web/

Riess imagined that if the Hubble Telescope could take numerous exposures of a target star quickly, he could combine the data to measure extremely small angles on the sky. But rather than taking multiple exposures, Riess had the stars trail across the Hubble Telescope's imaging detector to leave linear streaks. This method allows the Hubble Telescope to make measurements as precise as five-billionths of a degree on the sky.

This new method, along with providing a firmer, more detailed diagram of the cosmic distance ladder, is expected to lead to more insight about the nature of dark energy, which could help lead us closer to gauging just how much our universe is stretching.

Sources:

http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/hubble_essentials/quick_facts.php

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/star/2014/23/full/

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/6585/20140411/hubble-space-telescope-used-to-measure-stars-10-times-farther-than-before.htm