1 00:00:00,005 --> 00:00:05,600 In 2016 Hubble celebrated its 26th year in space. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,160 More than a quarter of a century of intriguing observations and remarkable discoveries. 3 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:18,626 But what is there left for Hubble, and the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope, to do? 4 00:00:19,300 --> 00:00:23,562 We have asked astronomers working with, and developing, the telescopes 5 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,544 what they think we can expect over the coming years. 6 00:00:28,700 --> 00:00:31,495 The things that we’re thinking about are changing rapidly, 7 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:36,735 and so questions that we’re trying to ask today, 8 00:00:37,300 --> 00:00:40,375 we’ve only just begun to think about them in many cases. 9 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:42,066 They’re new questions, 10 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:46,000 and so when you have observatories that have the kind 11 00:00:46,100 --> 00:00:48,750 of transformational abilities like Hubble, or Webb 12 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,000 to really take you places you haven’t gone before, 13 00:00:51,025 --> 00:00:53,696 to make you think about questions you haven’t asked before, 14 00:00:54,300 --> 00:00:57,100 it can move the whole field forward very quickly. 15 00:01:13,900 --> 00:01:19,030 Hubble is one of the most successful astronomical instruments in history 16 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:23,369 and has made its mark on almost every field of astronomy. 17 00:01:23,900 --> 00:01:26,500 But its achievements go beyond science 18 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:30,170 to its unique influence on wider society. 19 00:01:30,937 --> 00:01:34,250 Hubble has always been a telescope for the public 20 00:01:34,500 --> 00:01:40,000 and as such it has changed humanity’s view of the Universe. 21 00:01:42,250 --> 00:01:45,926 Well I think that Hubble has been really revolutionary in the field 22 00:01:46,330 --> 00:01:50,602 also because the public can be in contact with space 23 00:01:50,742 --> 00:01:52,984 and really feel part of it. 24 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:54,500 Not only, I mean as a scientist of course, 25 00:01:54,620 --> 00:01:59,000 I would have many things to tell about the great opportunities for science 26 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:03,600 but I think that great opportunity is for the public to meet the science, 27 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,827 and to meet the Universe was incredibly nice. 28 00:02:09,750 --> 00:02:13,100 Hubble’s biggest accomplishment has been just 29 00:02:13,100 --> 00:02:16,000 opening up the entire Universe to us 30 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,750 in ways that we hadn’t really imagined before. 31 00:02:19,100 --> 00:02:23,000 I think it’s the cumulative sum of all of the observations that Hubble has taken 32 00:02:23,900 --> 00:02:26,474 that has given us just such a different view 33 00:02:27,250 --> 00:02:29,000 of what the Universe is like 34 00:02:29,250 --> 00:02:30,964 and our place in it 35 00:02:30,964 --> 00:02:34,728 that’s been really revolutionary. 36 00:02:39,082 --> 00:02:41,000 Hubble’s place in popular culture 37 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,500 has inspired the public to consider the Universe differently, 38 00:02:46,118 --> 00:02:49,764 and it will continue to do so. 39 00:03:07,250 --> 00:03:10,652 But it’s very human appeal has also influenced the work 40 00:03:10,652 --> 00:03:12,250 and the lives, of 41 00:03:12,250 --> 00:03:16,250 the many astronomers who have built careers around it. 42 00:03:17,900 --> 00:03:21,500 I’ve been growing up with Hubble since I started working in astronomy 43 00:03:21,500 --> 00:03:24,500 so Hubble has become a very close friend of mine 44 00:03:24,500 --> 00:03:27,864 and I’ve been through all the ups and downs that Hubble had 45 00:03:28,688 --> 00:03:31,428 and it fell ill and it needed cure 46 00:03:31,450 --> 00:03:35,800 and I’m thrilled by the human aspect with that we had 47 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:37,800 to have astronauts going up servicing it 48 00:03:37,850 --> 00:03:39,985 and I had the opportunity to meet some of them. 49 00:03:40,551 --> 00:03:44,498 Beyond the science there’s a very human story 50 00:03:44,498 --> 00:03:47,282 of exploration of the Universe involved, 51 00:03:47,282 --> 00:03:48,669 which that I find very fascinating 52 00:03:48,669 --> 00:03:52,500 and seeing the next big observatory being ready to launch 53 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,250 is a very exciting moment in time, 54 00:03:55,300 --> 00:03:59,542 so I’m thrilled that I will hopefully have the opportunity 55 00:03:59,542 --> 00:04:01,750 to make use of that myself. 56 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:05,750 As the astronomers who grew up with Hubble 57 00:04:05,750 --> 00:04:09,234 await the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope 58 00:04:09,234 --> 00:04:13,650 a key question to ask is — what is left for Hubble? 59 00:04:13,700 --> 00:04:16,364 What more does it have to show us? 60 00:04:21,715 --> 00:04:25,821 We will probe stellar populations in other galaxies 61 00:04:25,900 --> 00:04:30,000 and so that will give clues on some mysteries that we have today, 62 00:04:31,906 --> 00:04:35,450 and that we’ll probe a very large Universe, 63 00:04:35,475 --> 00:04:37,836 but not only in space but also in time, 64 00:04:38,300 --> 00:04:41,113 and we really need to look back in time 65 00:04:41,113 --> 00:04:47,250 and to have information about was the situation very similar in the very early Universe. 66 00:04:47,250 --> 00:04:51,448 For example for the formation of stars, or was it very different, 67 00:04:51,500 --> 00:04:56,585 do we have something that is related in terms of star formation that is related to cosmology 68 00:04:56,590 --> 00:05:00,418 or does it happen that everywhere in the same way 69 00:05:00,500 --> 00:05:05,500 independently of the time, the cosmic time that these stars formed. 70 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,773 I think we’re going to learn a lot more about how stars form, 71 00:05:09,588 --> 00:05:11,500 and I suspect we’re going to learn a lot more about 72 00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:13,564 what’s happening in the early Universe. 73 00:05:14,423 --> 00:05:18,742 Even though that’s one of Webb’s prime science drivers, 74 00:05:18,742 --> 00:05:21,153 you still need the Hubble data for context, 75 00:05:21,153 --> 00:05:24,119 and so I think that those are all big areas. 76 00:05:27,001 --> 00:05:29,948 The mysteries lurking in the early Universe, 77 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:34,034 and uncovering the very first galaxies that reside there, 78 00:05:34,075 --> 00:05:38,302 are areas that will be tackled by the Hubble and Webb teams. 79 00:05:38,500 --> 00:05:43,600 A new collaboration of telescopes that will take Hubble into the future 80 00:05:43,650 --> 00:05:50,552 with the same huge potential for discovery that we have seen over the last 26 years. 81 00:05:52,100 --> 00:05:57,442 So in the infrared Webb will provide images and information 82 00:05:57,442 --> 00:06:02,100 with the kind of clarity that Hubble provides at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. 83 00:06:02,623 --> 00:06:08,000 And I think when you see an astronomical object at one wavelength, 84 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:12,447 you immediately want to know what it looks like in a different colour or a different wavelength 85 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,500 and so having both of them together 86 00:06:15,525 --> 00:06:19,750 is certainly going to be more powerful than either of them alone. 87 00:06:21,848 --> 00:06:24,810 So will Hubble, with the help of James Webb, 88 00:06:24,825 --> 00:06:28,500 be able to solve the big mysteries of modern astronomy? 89 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:31,100 The origins of the Universe, 90 00:06:31,100 --> 00:06:33,000 the formation of stars, 91 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,570 the nature of dark matter and dark energy? 92 00:06:37,235 --> 00:06:39,603 The answer is that nobody knows. 93 00:06:39,750 --> 00:06:42,244 And as we have seen in the past 94 00:06:42,250 --> 00:06:45,916 it is not just the new answers, but the new, 95 00:06:45,916 --> 00:06:48,240 and currently inconceivable, questions 96 00:06:48,250 --> 00:06:51,022 thrown up by telescopes such as Hubble 97 00:06:51,023 --> 00:06:53,350 that make them revolutionary. 98 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,349 And Hubble is still up to the challenge. 99 00:06:59,450 --> 00:07:04,650 Well more generally speaking we are entering new territory in many fields of astronomy 100 00:07:04,650 --> 00:07:08,701 so we have discovered in the past twenty years that the Universe 101 00:07:08,701 --> 00:07:12,087 is filled with dark energy and is actually accelerating in this expansion; 102 00:07:12,262 --> 00:07:13,934 we have discovered extrasolar planets; 103 00:07:14,140 --> 00:07:19,062 There’s a huge range of absolutely novel physics and astronomy 104 00:07:19,500 --> 00:07:22,361 that we didn’t even know that it existed when Hubble was launched 105 00:07:22,770 --> 00:07:25,289 so I think that’s one of the big fascinations in astronomy 106 00:07:25,289 --> 00:07:29,115 that we simply don’t know what the future holds, 107 00:07:29,115 --> 00:07:33,325 and in having, having these very powerful observatories both in space at the same time 108 00:07:33,796 --> 00:07:37,743 I’m really sure that there will be new discoveries coming along. 109 00:07:37,955 --> 00:07:41,850 I think that with these new instruments we will have a lot of surprises 110 00:07:41,850 --> 00:07:43,913 that we don’t expect now 111 00:07:44,185 --> 00:07:46,356 and I think that’s really the place, the moment 112 00:07:46,356 --> 00:07:49,310 when you will have exciting discoveries. 113 00:07:51,716 --> 00:07:54,607 There is a lot of work left to do in astronomy 114 00:07:54,906 --> 00:07:59,909 and astronomers will continue to work with Hubble to make sense of the Universe. 115 00:08:00,588 --> 00:08:06,500 We are ready to be surprised by nature beyond our wildest imaginations. 116 00:08:07,100 --> 00:08:12,000 As a kid you learn these basics, right, that the Universe 117 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,615 is unchanging and that the stars are there forever, 118 00:08:14,615 --> 00:08:20,292 and that you know, it’s more or less a static Universe out there. 119 00:08:20,292 --> 00:08:24,126 And when you start working in this field you realise how dynamic it is, 120 00:08:24,126 --> 00:08:25,458 how much things change, 121 00:08:25,868 --> 00:08:31,348 even how much your understanding changes which is just as remarkable. 122 00:08:31,348 --> 00:08:35,697 I think in that sense it’s really exciting to be part of something 123 00:08:35,697 --> 00:08:40,400 where everyday you come in and you know, the next big discovery 124 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:42,910 is just a few hours away or a few days away, 125 00:08:43,459 --> 00:08:45,317 and that’s the way it is with Hubble 126 00:08:45,317 --> 00:08:46,780 and that’s the way it’s going to be with Webb. 127 00:08:50,577 --> 00:08:58,000 Transcription by ESA/Hubble; translation by —