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On the left, one can see the 9-light-year-tall Eagle Nebula, including its massive clouds of gas and dust and the stars forming inside it.
Then, when taking a quick glance to the right, it would be hard to miss the massive Whirlpool Galaxy, with its arms spinning clockwise and the quasar at the center radiating a bright, white light.
And while it might seem one needs to be floating among the stars to see these sights, it all can be seen from the lobby of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Mueller Planetarium in Morrill Hall.
On Monday, the Nebraska State Museum unveiled two new images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in celebration of the 15th anniversary of its launch.
In front of about 25 visitors, Lincoln Mayor Coleen Seng and Museum Director Priscilla Grew tore down the drapes covering the poster-sized images NASA had chosen to commemorate the event.
NASA selected the museum as one of 100 sites to unveil and display the new images, and Seng, who spoke briefly before the unveiling, said the addition increases the appeal and strengthens the educational opportunities of the museum.
“This is certainly one place to which visitors in the community always come to visit,” she said. “The images will add to the highlights in the building.”
Prem Paul, UNL vice chancellor for research, and Chancellor Harvey Perlman also addressed the audience.
Paul said the images were a great addition to the museum’s current attractions, and he hopes the images will pique the interest of younger visitors.
“We certainly need more young people thinking about science as a career,” he said, “because science is absolutely exciting.”
Perlman also stressed the importance of science education and outreach programs, and he said the images would help people to see the effect of science on the world.
“It has to be more than just teaching and research,” he said. “Science is a broad part of our lives.”
After the images had been unveiled, UNL astronomy lecturer Martin Gaskell explained the content of the images.
The images are not only interesting to look at, but they offer scientists opportunities to make new insights into the nature and origins of the universe.
“Because we’re in our galaxy, it’s hard to get a full view of it, so it’s hard to learn things,” he said. “But with (the Whirlpool Galaxy image), we can really look down into it and see things we couldn’t see before.”
The images will be on permanent display outside the planetarium, and Jack Dunn, supervisor of the planetarium, said they go well with the planetarium programs and the Hubble view space, which shows visitors a live image feed from Hubble.
“We’re very thankful for the people at Space Telescope,” Dunn said. “They’re great at providing outreach programs for us and enhancing the program here at the museum.”
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