Hubble (accidentally) takes a step into the art field
(Credit: NASA)
You know those mornings where even coffee can’t bring focus to your scattered brain? Even the Hubble space telescope has those days. But the result is probably a lot prettier, and a bit more pleasant.
When taking photographs in space, the Hubble uses Fine Guidance Sensors to lock on to a specific, fixed star in order to stabilize and adapt to constant movement. But when the Hubble was taking a photograph of the NGC 288 globular cluster, the FGS didn’t quite work as intended. NASA has speculated that the system locked onto a different star, causing the brightly colored streaks in the image.
If only all of our human mistakes turned into interesting, and beautiful pieces of art.
