After undergoing repair, Hubble is back online and is producing images that are both clear and the most detailed we have ever seen. The mission took place in May to update the aging telescope and essentially turned the 19 year old giant into a new beast that is much more capable.
The repair mission added a new camera to the orbiting telescope. The new wide field camera 3 replaces the wide field camera 2. The new camera covers the visible spectrum and some of the near ultraviolet and infrared fields.
"With these two channels, WFC3 will achieve excellent panchromatic (full - spectrum) imaging. Stellar objects are not just in the visible spectrum, but also exist in the blue (near-UV) and red (near-IR) extremes. WFC3 was designed to study light in these regions of the spectrum better than Hubble's current capabilities."
Posted below are a few of the pictures that Hubble has sent back and they show some remarkable events occurring in Space.
1) "What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes!"
2) "The image reveals a small region inside the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri, which boasts nearly 10 million stars. Globular clusters, ancient swarms of stars united by gravity, are the homesteaders of our Milky Way galaxy. The stars in Omega Centauri are between 10 billion and 12 billion years old. The cluster lies about 16,000 light-years from Earth."
3) "This image of barred spiral galaxy NGC 6217 is the first image of a celestial object taken with the newly repaired Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. The camera was restored to operation during the STS-125 servicing mission in May to upgrade Hubble."