Weekend Web: Become Captain of the Hubble Space Telescope

September 12, 6:40 PMSpace News ExaminerPatricia Phillips

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  Star power: V838/NASA & Hubble Heritage Team

So you don't have your own Starship Enterprise (me, either). But you've seen those gorgeous images from the Hubble Space Telescope and you've wished that you could become captain of the Hubble and command your own tour of far-flung skies.

Go ahead--right from where you're sitting. The folks at Hubble's home portal, HubbleSite, have created special files that you can download and use with Google Earth/Google Sky.

Not only that, but you can also explore strange new worlds (thanks, Star Trek!) in Google Earth with files already onboard the application. The designers at HubbleSite have provided easy-to-use instructions on three ways to access the existing files in your own onboard computer.

When you tour the great known and unknown regions of space with Hubble images and Google Earth, you can also zoom in and explore the inner regions of your chosen destination. You can zoom out and see it in relation to the rest of our known sky.

Or, you can just  tour around.  Like the teenagers in American Graffiti, you can power up your dragster and cruise  the Main Streets--and some byways--of  galaxies, universes, nebulae, stars, and cosmic events. (Sorry, no Mel's Diner or car hops available. Bring your own refreshments.)

Among the special files you can download in KML format for Google Earth: views of Comet Holmes, Hubble at work, the best of Hubble, and a stellar explosion,  like the one pictured here. Sometimes likened to Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh's famous light-kaleidoscope night sky painting, this image of V838 Monocerotis explosed with light--literally.

The distant star is about 20,000 light-years away from Earth, at the outer edge of our Milky Way galaxy in the direction of the constellation Monoceros. Hubble smapped this image on Feb. 8, 2004.

If you're new to Google Earth/Sky, don't worry. HubbleSite provides a video to show the different ways you can quickly explore the universe through Hubble's long-seeing eyes.

And, if you find something you'd like to bring home as a souvenir, HubbleSite can help you select favorite images to turn into wallpaper for your computer monitor. You can also select Hubble images for printing for off-line use.