What a long, strange SMOV it’s been …

Here at the Space Telescope Science Institute we are recovering from a whirlwind summer commissioning the new and repaired instruments on Hubble. Our public unveiling last Wednesday was a rocking success, judging from the reactions: the Internet was abuzz with comments, and tens of millions of you were hungry to see the images and get [...]

Two pictures from the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope: the Butterfly Nebula (top) and globular cluster Omega Centauri (detail, bottom).
Here at the Space Telescope Science Institute we are recovering from a whirlwind summer commissioning the new and repaired instruments on Hubble. Our public unveiling last Wednesday was a rocking success, judging from the reactions: the Internet was abuzz with comments, and tens of millions of you were hungry to see the images and get your hands on them. The network here at the Institute was considerably slower than normal on Wednesday and Thursday — not that we minded, as we all knew the reason why!
You might be thinking that we wizened astronomers are used to seeing such amazing images all the time, and are jaded by this awesome display of Hubble’s power. It’s not true, though. The auditorium here was packed with people ...