Why can;t the Hubble record live action video?

Question

You always see still images, why cant the hubble making video recordings so we can see galxy's spinning in circles or stars exploding in real time.

Answer 1

There are 2 basic reasons that Hubble does not record video.

1) To observe extremely faint objects such as galaxies, the telescope must take long time exposures lasting hours duration to collect enough light to record the image. On earth - the atmosphere moves the light photons around so the images become blurred, effecting the resolution - the abliity to distinguish details - of the image such as a galaxy. Hubble being beyond the effects of the atmosphere can hold the object longer and see the objects further and with more detail.

2) Not much in the universe changes very quickly because again the great distances effect our ability to see the small scale changes such as a solar flare. So castrophic events such as supernovas are observed by making a sequence of long exposures to see the changes.

Pulsars represent an exception to this rule in that changes are vary rapid (less than second) and periodic. For example, the star in the center of the Crab nebula was suspected to be an optical pulsar but the time exposures necessary to see the star washed out the variations. To observe the event Cocke, Disney and Taylor at the University of Arizona in 1969 had to time split the photons into separate buckets and accumulating photons in each bucket over long time exposures. In this way they were able to "observe" the first star pulsating optically.

Not your typical way of making videos.

Answer 2

"Real time": In our own galaxy, it takes over 200 million years for the Sun to make one "orbit" around the galaxy center.

The initial portion of a supernova blast occurs quickly, but without warning, so there is no way to have the Hubble pointed at the correct location. After that, visible changes in the supernova remnant occur in a time frame of months or years - if it's close. Most supernovae are seen in other galaxies, which are too distant for the supernova remnant to be visible.

Furthermore, most things the Hubble images are very faint, and require long time exposures in order to record a good still image. If the Hubble was configured with an eyepiece for you to look through, those "real time" images would be far, far fainter, even invisible in many cases.

Answer 3

The Hubble Space Telescope is essentially a telescope, which enables the astronomers to view the universe. They use add-ons such as digital viewers to take pictures/record what they see. If they took videos, it could be potentially difficult to capture a specific moment in good resolution. Also, it's difficult to spot small but important celestial objects in moving images.

Answer 4

To even see many of these galaxies takes exposure times of hours. Most astronomical things don't happen nearly fast enough to justify a video feed. In fact, it takes hundreds of millions of years for a galaxy to rotate once. The early stages of an exploding star happen so quickly that it would be impossible to aim the scope in time. The later stages evolve over periods from days to years, so again, a video feed is just silly.

Answer 5

One rotation of the Milky Way takes well over a hundred million years. Work out the rest for yourself.

Answer 6

The forgot the digital cam corder

Answer 7

the hubble is a telescope. it's not a camcorder.

Answer 8

Because it's not equipped with a video camera, only a still camera. :)

Answer 9

its a telescope that takes pics !

Answer 10

it's not a freakin web cam.