It's never too early to start planning ahead. Hubble is nearing the end of its lifespan, and the James Webb Space Telescope is just gearing up to take its place in 2018. But what comes after that?
It almost sounds too good to be true. Twin Hubble-quality space telescopes currently collecting dust in upstate New York are getting a second chance at flight, and they could be the best thing to happen to NASA since the real Hubble's mirrors were fixed. The unused scopes are even the same size as the beloved space telescope, and nary a civilian knew they existed until yesterday.
The James Webb Space Telescope may someday put Hubble out of business, but until then NASA's old standby is still making new discoveries. Today, that comes to us in the form of the first exoplanet "waterworld" - a water-covered planet shrouded by a dense, steamy atmosphere, the first confirmed planet of its kind.
Behold, your galactic centre. This Hubble image, captured with the space telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), is the highest-resolution pic of the Milky Way's galactic center taken to date, taking in a newly discovered group of massive stars, lots of super-hot gas, and roughly 35,000 square light years of space in one sweeping mosaic.
