Hubble - Looking deep

(Words typed in purple have been linked to language notes; clicking on orange words will take you to other sites)

Have you ever wondered how pristine clear pictures like this one of the Cat's Eye Nebula are taken? The fascinating image above could not possibly have been taken from Earth. The atmosphere around our planet would have dimmed the picture to a great extent. The picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which is the result of one of the most revolutionary space exploration projects of mankind to date. When I started to write this blog and I got down to collecting ideas for it, one of the things I had in mind was an entry for the twentieth anniversary of the launching of Hubble. This will be in April, 2010 but I just feel too impatient. Furthermore, Hubble has just been repaired (probably for the last time) by the crew of space shuttle Atlantis, and it is making the headlines once again.

The Hubble Space Telescope seen from Space Shuttle Atlantis

Let's start with a brief history of Hubble. It is a space telescope that was carried into Earth orbit by the space shuttle in April 1990. It was named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Although Hubble was not the first space telescope, it is one of the largest and most versatile. Initially, the launch was planned for 1983 but technical and financial problems delayed the project. One of the most severe problems was the tragic disaster of the Challenger space shuttle. The explosion of the spaceship, which killed all the crew members, caused a three year break in US space travel and exploration.

When the first pictures from Hubble came through, in May 1990, scientists were horrified. The images were blurred - no better than the pictures produced by telescopes on Earth. Hubble's mirror was flatter than it should be by just one-fiftieth of the width of a human hair. In December 1993, Hubble was repaired in orbit. This was one of the biggest achievements of manned space flight. A series of corrective mirrors were fixed to the telescope in a series of five spacewalks. Below, you can see two pictures taken of the same galaxy before and after the repair. This shows you the huge difference in clarity.

Before and... after the 1993 repair

Since the repair, Hubble has sent back a series of stunning photographs of deep space, and has revolutionised our thinking about the universe. One of those really important images is the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), a series of pictures taken from a small and seemingly empty patch of dark sky. What could be so fascinating about staring at space like that? The fact that closer inspection of that emptiness revealed thousands of distant galaxies. Some of these are (were?) 12 billion light years away. The HDF has become a landmark image in the study of the early universe and has provided extremely rich material for cosmologists to analyse. The following video has been taken from the official site of Hubble. It explains the Hubble Deep Field and the problems that scientists encountered while capturing it. The explanation is clear and can help the layman like me understand the basic concept.

The language of this video is a bit hard. If you are a learner of English you might need the script here.

Although Hubble is almost twenty years old, making it quite old for a spacecraft, its best years are probably yet to come. According to this science article, the Hubble now "appears better than new after its final facelift by an astronaut repair crew" (Service Mission 4, the fifth and final human spaceflight to the observatory). So, we'd better be on the lookout for more news about astounding new pictures and discoveries.

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The London Eye

Have you been to London since the Millennium? If the answer is yes, then you must have seen the new landmark of the city, the huge observation wheel on the bank of the River Thames. With its height of 135 metres, the impressive structure is quite difficult to miss. Even if you haven't visited England's capital lately the sight of this giant wheel must be familiar from photos and postcards.

The London Eye, or simply - the Eye, was formally opened on 31 December 1999, but it was opened to the public only three months later. Since then, it has become a major landmark of the city and has been visited by millions of people. The Eye has 32 air-conditioned passenger capsules. On a clear day (you need to be lucky to have one of those in London:-) you can see for as far as 40 kilometres from the top of the wheel. The capsules are safe and although they look small from the ground they are spacious and heavy. Each capsule can carry 25 people and weighs 10 tonnes!


















Naturally, the capsules don't stand still, they slowly move along the circumference of the wheel as the wheel turns around. Each rotation takes about 30 minutes, which means that a capsule travels at 26cm per second, or 0.9km per hour - twice as fast as a tortoise sprinting. The wheel does not usually stop to take on passengers: the rotation rate is so slow that they can walk on and off the moving capsules at ground level. However, the wheel is stopped when disabled passengers get on and get off.


Trivia about the London Eye:

- Originally, the London Eye had only a temporary permission for 5 years but it was so successful that the permit was made permanent.

- You can reserve a capsule for your wedding or for your hen party or stag party.

- At the time of its construction and opening, The Eye was the tallest observation wheel in the world. Currently, this is the third tallest in the world. It has been surpassed in height by the Star of Nanchang (160 meters) and the Singapore Flyer (165 meters).

- A souvenir photograph of passengers in the capsule is taken automatically (also for security purposes).

- The Eye is owned by the Tussauds Group, the world's second largest leisure group, which also owns the famous Madame Tussauds waxworks among many other attractions.


Watch this video about the view that you can enjoy from the London Eye (Don't panic about your sound settings, this time there is no sound at all, just watch and relax) :




Do these exercises about the language content of this post.

Monty Python on Youtube

I think there are few people who are not familiar with them, but still for those of you who aren't, here is a very short introduction: Monty Python is a group of comedians who created Monty Python's Flying Circus, a TV comedy show, which was broadcast on British television between 1969 and 1974 and had a tremendous influence on the world of comedy. The show finished in 1974 but the group went on to make four films and a musical. Because of the absurdity of the sketches, people usually either love or hate the Pythons. Personally, I love them, not only because of their humour but also because the atmosphere of Flying Circus reminds me a bit of my first English books that were only slightly less bizarre.

The funniest Python, John Cleese, and his silly walk

Last November, the Pythons made their own channel on Youtube, partly because they were fed up with the illegal and often bad quality videos of their old shows on the site, and partly because this way they could advertise the sketches of the Flying Circus era as well as their films and their musical, Spamalot. Most of the videos are short and can be regarded as teaser spots, often ending at the best part. Fortunately, not all of them are like that. Look at this video, titled “Bicycle Repair Man”, which shows one of their best known and - in my opinion - one of their funniest sketches. The setting is a parody of the Superman comic book (with phoney American accents and a double-decker bus to make it more hilarious and grotesque!), and the hero is F.G. Superman, who can do a miraculous thing: repair bikes with his own hands! As you will see, the roles of hero and ordinary citizen have been mixed up quite a bit here.

Do some English exercises about the video.

Read the text of the video with language notes.

If you like this kind of humour you can watch some other videos on the Monty Python channel and download the scripts from here.