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[Music Plays] 

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ERIN:
Hi, Facebook.

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We're live from NASA
Goddard's Space Flight Center.

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I'm Erin Kisliuk and you
are live in 360 at the Hubble

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Space Telescope
Operations Control Center.

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Take a look around.

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This place is the heart, soul,
and the brains of the Hubble

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Space Telescope who
launched 28 years ago today.

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Speaking of brains, we've
got a couple of pretty smart

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folks here to answer your
questions so send them all in to

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the comments section below so we
can answer them during the show

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and even a few after it's ended.

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So without further ado, we've
got Deputy Project Manager

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Jim Jeletic.

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JIM: Hi, Erin.

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ERIN: Hey, Jim.

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Thanks so much for being here.

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JIM: Thanks for having me.

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ERIN: So, Hubble is
such an iconic, iconic mission

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but it's not so young anymore.

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How's Hubble doing?

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(1:09) JIM: Well, science-wise
it is at the peak of its

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scientific capability.

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It's been doing great.

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In fact, this year we had
more papers published on its

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discoveries than ever
in its 28 year history.

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And as far as the
spacecraft is concerned, you

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know, even with all those parts
that are on it that have been

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flying in the harsh environment
of space for 28 years, we still

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have redundancy in all
of its critical systems.

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We're hopeful that we
can continue to make these

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groundbreaking observations
well into the next decade.

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ERIN: Into
the next decade?

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So, when Hubble was launched it
had a life expectancy of about

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15 years.

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How have we
managed to double that?

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JIM: Well, you know we
had 5 servicing missions that we

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went went up on a space
shuttle with astronauts and they

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repaired, replaced, and
upgraded its hardware over time.

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And it's kinda like your cell
phone you know when you get a

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new cell phone you get a
better camera on it a higher

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resolution, you can
take even better pictures.

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Well, we did that
with the instruments on Hubble.

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Because of that it's at its
peak of its capability and we're

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hopeful that we can continually
change our fundamental

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understanding of the universe
for years to come with it.

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ERIN: That sounds great.

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I just want to remind anyone
just tuning in that we are at

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NASA Goddard's Space
Flight Center in Hubble Space

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Telescope's
Operations Control Center.

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We're in 360 so take a look
around while I introduce our

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next guest we have Senior
Project Scientist 

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Jennifer Wiseman joining us
today.

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Hi!

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JENNIFER: Hi, Erin.

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ERIN: Thank you so
much for being here.

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JENNIFER: My pleasure.

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ERIN: You've been on this
mission for about 11 years.

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Does Hubble still do anything or
show you anything that surprises

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you?

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JENNIFER: Oh my goodness,
every year Hubble

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is surprising us.

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We're looking at things with
Hubble now that we didn't even

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imagine that we would be
observing when it was launched

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back in 1990.

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For example, we are
studying the atmospheres of

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planets outside our solar system
and we recently observed light

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coming from a
merger of neutron stars.

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This event also created
gravitational waves and these

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are the kind of phenomena we
didn't even imagine decades

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ago. 

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ERIN: That's amazing.

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And I hear Hubble sent us
something amazing for its own

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anniversary.

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Can we talk about
this image here?

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JENNIFER: We have
this great image of the

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Lagoon Nebula.

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So this is a region of gas and
dust that's being churned up by

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star formation.

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You can see a lot of features
like pillars and clumps of gas.

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It's lit up because one of the
stars that has recently formed

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is a monster star.

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It's about 200 thousand
times brighter than our sun.

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And it's ionizing the gas, it's
creating these structures, its

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winds and radiation are carving
out these various pillars and

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globules and so we like to think
of this as kind of a 

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stellar nursery.

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ERIN: That's amazing.

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So are these two different
like parts of the nebula?

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Why do they look so different?

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JENNIFER: So you see
two images here, but they are

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actually the same place.

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They are both the same region of
the Lagoon Nebula, but they are

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looking at it with different
kinds of light so Hubble can see

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both visible light like our eyes
can see and that's what we can

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see here on the left and also
infrared light which is what you

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see here on the right.

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And so infrared light we can
actually see through a lot of

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the dusty veil in front
of and within the nebula.

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You can see a lot of
stars behind it you can see

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some stars within the nebula.

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And you can see these very dark
globules where new smaller stars

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are still incubating so it's
wonderful to have Hubble's

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panchromatic view of all
these different colors.

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It gives us
different information.

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ERIN: That's amazing.

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And so how far
away about is this?

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JENNIFER: So the nebula is about
4,000 lightyears away, that's a

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unit of distance that we use
that basically means that the

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light started its journey
to us about 4,000 years ago.

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Think about what was happening
on Earth at that time and that's

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when the light
started traveling to us.

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ERIN: That is
extremely impressive.

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For our viewers at home we are
at NASA Goddard Space Flight

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Center inside the Hubble Space
Telescope Operations Control

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Center and now I'm going to jump
over and ask someone really cool

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to speak with me
if he has a second.

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We've got systems
engineer Mike Wenz.

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Hi.

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Thank you so much
for being here.

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MIKE: Hi, Erin.

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You are perfectly welcome.

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ERIN: So can you tell us a
little bit about what goes on in

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this room?

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MIKE: Yeah, this is
actually the room where we

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control the Hubble
Space Telescope.

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We'll send commands up to it
and we'll also receive telemetry

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down from it so we can actually
see how the instruments are

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doing and how the
telescope is doing.

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In this room right here, this is
where the systems engineers will

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work for various circumstances.

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This is actually where we did
support the servicing missions

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that Jim talked about where we
were replacing the instruments

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on Hubble that was a lot of
fun working with the astronauts.

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But we use this room now
mainly for two reasons one of

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them is if we have some sort of
anomaly on the spacecraft which

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is when the spacecraft does
something we weren't quite

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expecting and so the system
engineers here try to figure out

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what's going on and why it
happened and what can we do to

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make it not happen again.

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We also use this room for
testing if we are going to be

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sending up new software to the
instruments or new software to

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the telescope.

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We gotta make sure we test it
out on the ground beforehand

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because you don't want to be
testing it out 

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on the spacecraft itself.

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ERIN: Ok,
so trick question!

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What is something that Hubble
do that would fall under that

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unexpected category?

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MIKE: One of the small
anomalies that we have fairly

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recently that we have once,
maybe even twice a week is there

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is instruments on the Hubble
that allow us to point the

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telescope very accurately.

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To be able to take the images
that Jennifer was talking about

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have to be able to point and
hold the telescope extremely

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accurately in fact we have to
able to focus on essentially on

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the width of a human hair
held at one mile distance.

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To be able to do that is
instruments that we have fine

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guidance sensors.

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They lock up on stars.

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They actually find the stars
and they lock and they hold it.

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But every once in a while
they'll try to lock up on a star

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and they can't do it and they
send information 

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down saying we can't do it.

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So we have to come in here and
we find that they are actually

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lock up on single stars and that
they aren't single stars but we

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don't know about it
on the ground yet.

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No one on the ground can tell
that these are double stars or

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binary stars and Hubble
makes these discoveries when it

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actually has these anomalies.

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ERIN: That's
quite the silver lining.

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So how about you?

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What is your role?

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How long have you been
working with Hubble?

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MIKE: I'm a
systems engineer here.

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I've actually been on
Hubble for 26 years.

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I'm one of the older guys around
who've been 

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around here for a lot of it.

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I'm actually in charge of those
fine guidance sensors and those

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are actually the instruments
that I have to take care of.

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I actually am the one who gets
to come in here and find all the

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double stars and variable stars
that Hubble has found because

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it's had trouble.

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ERIN:
That's an amazing job.

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I'll let you get back to work.

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Thank you so much for your time.

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MIKE: Thank you.

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ERIN: Alright, so we are
going to start taking some of

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your questions.

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Continue to send them in.

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We're going to be taking them
here and also after the show is

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over we'll be answering them
in the comments section below.

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Let's see what we've got here.

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So Tia from Twitter asks: how
do you deal with damages made by

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impacts from space
objects on Hubble?

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That's an interesting one, do
you want to take that one Jim?

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JIM: Sure.

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It's a great question we
actually look for major impacts

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so that we can actually turn
the telescope to be as small of

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surface area as possible so
they'll avoid us if we know

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one's coming or if
it's big enough.

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But for the most part it gets
hit and so far I think we've

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been really lucky in that
nothing has hit us that has

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caused anything really to break.

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We are going to keep our fingers
crossed here for the next

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however many years.

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ERIN: Long live Hubble.

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Alright, so Dan asks: what's
the furthest point in lightyears

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that Hubble has seen?

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I'll leave that
to you, Jennifer.

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JENNIFER: That's a very
good question, so we're trying

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to see objects in space farther
and farther out, the cameras on

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Hubble have improved over the
years because of these astronaut

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servicing missions we've
had more sensitivities.

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So right now we're seeing
emission in galaxies in the very

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distant universe that are in the
process of forming more than 13

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billion lightyears away.

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So we know the universe
seems to be about 13.8 billion

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years old and we're seeing these
baby galaxies form within the

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first point eight of these 13.8
billion years in fact within the

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first few hundred million
years we are seeing these infant

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galaxies start to form.

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And the upcoming James Webb
Space Telescope will be able to

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see even farther because it has
infrared capabilities and will

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be able to see even farther
back into time as light travels

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through this expanding universe
and gets stretched into redder

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and redder wavelengths of light.

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ERIN: Thanks.

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Alright, let's see
what we've got next.

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On that same note, what has
Hubble found out about the

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beginning of the universe?

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JENNIFER: Well, Hubble
cannot see all the way back to

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the beginning.

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There's a time before radiation
could even escape for us to see.

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But we are able to
see pretty close.

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Like I said, the first point
eight of the 13.8 billion year

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history of the universe and what
we've learned is that galaxies

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formed early on.

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Galaxies are collections of
stars and gas and dark matter.

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Stars formed early on
these gravitational collections

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of material grew over time and
we can now see with Hubble by

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looking far out in space, which
means looking back in time, that

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galaxies were once quite small
and and irregular looking and

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they merged together many times
to grow into the bigger type

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galaxies like the Milky Way.

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So we've been able to see
with Hubble that galaxies began

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small, they grew over time,
and now we have the privilege of

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several generations of stars,
massive stars, that come and go

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and that gives us heavier
elements like carbon and oxygen

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things we need for
planets and life.

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ERIN: Thank you so much.

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Unfortunately, I think we're
going to have to get out of here

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and let these folks
get back to work.

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But I want to thank you all for
joining us and please continue

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to send in your questions.

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We'll get to some of them in
the comments section below.

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Take one last look at the room
around us before you leave and

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if you want to know anything
more about Hubble you can always

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find on nasa.gov/hubble or
NASA Social Media @NASAHubble.

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Thank you both so
much for being here.

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Let's get on out of here.

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Thanks, Mike!

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[Music Fades]