ELIZABETH A. KESSLER PICTURING THE COSMOS Elizabeth A. Kessler PICTURING THE COSMOS HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGES AND THE ASTRONOMICAL SUBLIME UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS MINNEAPOLIS · LONDON The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges funding provided for the publication of this book from the Margaret S. Harding Memorial Endowment, honoring the first director of the University of Minnesota Press. Frontispiece: View of a supernova remnant in the Large Megallanic Cloud, designated N49, as crafted by members of the Hubble Heritage Project. July 3, 2003; WFPC2. Courtesy of NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScl/AURA) Copyright 2012 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kessler, Elizabeth A. Picturing the cosmos : Hubble Space Telescope images and the astronomical sublime / Elizabeth A. Kessler. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978--0-8166-8249-2 1. Galaxies—Pictorial works. 2. Stars—Pictorial works. 3. Sublime, The, in art. 4. Hubble Space Telescope (Spacecraft). I. Title. QB857.K47 2012 520—dc23 2012020744 The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. CONTENTS Abbreviations vii Introduction Astronomy’s Romantic Landscapes 1 One The Astronomical Sublime and the American West 19 Two Ambivalent Astronomers and the Embrace of Hubble Images 69 Three Translating Data into Pretty Pictures 127 Four From Unknown Frontiers to Familiar Places 175 Epilogue A Very Distant and Peaceful Star 229 Acknowledgments 232 Notes 235 Bibliography 256 Index 267 This page intentionally left blank ABBREVIATIONS AAS American Astronomical Society ACS Advanced Camera for Surveys ASU Arizona State University AURA Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy CCDs charge-coupled devices COSTAR Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement EGGs evaporating gaseous globules EROs early release observations ESA European Space Agency ESO European Southern Observatory FITS Flexible Image Transport System IDL Interactive Data Language IRAF Image Reduction and Analysis Facility JHU Johns Hopkins University JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory LST Large Space Telescope MAST Multimission Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration NICMOS Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer NOAO National Optical Astronomy Observatories STIS Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph STScI Space Telescope Science Institute STSDAS Space Telescope Science Data Analysis System UCSC/LO University of California, Santa Cruz/Lick Observatory WFC Wide Field Camera WFC3 Wide Field Camera 3 WFPC Wide Field Planetary Camera WFPC2 Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 INTRODUCTION ASTRONOMY’S ROMANTIC LANDSCAPES Hubble Images and Aesthetics A dark cloud against a background of orange and blue reaches upward, stretching nearly to the top of the frame that contains it. Brightly backlit at its top and outlined throughout with a soft glow, the majesty and grace of the sinuous shape claim the viewer’s attention (Figure 1). But the closer one looks, the more difficult it becomes to classify what is pictured. Because of its wispy outline and top-heavy proportions, it appears that the form must be composed of something airy, something gaseous and insubstantial; however, its elongated profile resembles none of the clouds seen above the earth, and its blackness surpasses that of even the most threatening storm. Its color and assertive vertical orientation instead suggest a gravity-defying geological formation carved into a twisting pillar by unknown forces and silhouetted against a bright sky. The object almost oscillates before the viewer: cloud and landscape, familiar and alien. The image is one of the many compelling views of the cosmos credited to the Hubble Space Telescope since its launch in April 1990. The National Aeronau- tics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the research center that manages the instrument, released the image of the Eagle Nebula, along with one of the Whirlpool Galaxy (Figure 2), to celebrate the orbiting telescope’s fifteenth anniversary in April 2005.1 The view of the Whirlpool is less ambiguous than that of the Eagle; its distinctive spiral shape is iconic, the recog- nizable sign of a star system akin to the Milky Way. It is, however, no less powerful an image than the representation of the Eagle Nebula. The dynamic whirl pulls the 1