Hubbles Ultra Deep Field Shots

Channel Hopper

The latest pictures emerging from the Hubble Space telescope have taken almost four years of imaging, and uses a correlation technique, more commonly used for verification of coded data over long distance transmission.

The method of eliminating false data, by multiple sampling of the same string of binary code, allows the final signal to be as true as it can be, save for further exposure over time. The methods employed help to remove the primary errors of imaging caused by spacecraft fast movement 'jitter', orbital positioning differences, attitude correction and image rotation correction (dithering), cosmic ray interference (background noise), redshift (doppler) effect, and even minute alterations in the telescope lens from exposure to exposure .

The images released this week to the public show parts of space at an age never before detected by optical methods.

Further time spent on retrieving data is going to be about the only way further clarity of images will be gained, unless an additional set of correction techniques are used by the Hubble scientists, but the project is already under threat owing to the changes made by NASA to the Space Shuttle programme, following financial cutbacks, a rethink on the priorities of its use, and the last shuttle disaster.


For more info on the methods employed, go to the following reference page
http://www-int.stsci.edu/~fruchter/dither/dither.html

A site all about Hubble
http://hubblesite.org

For news on the photo release
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3546803.stm

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