IMAX NEWS

NASA today has unveiled the first images taken from the newly re-furbished Hubble Space Telescope.

At IMAX Darling Harbour, we are excited to bring you a taste of these truly breathtaking images - for now, on the small screen - but in early 2010 you'll have the chance to experience these wonders of our universe in spectacular IMAX 3D when we release the film HUBBLE 3D in its full-blown giant screen glory.

These images and captions below are provided courtesy of NASA and give you a taste of more to come...



NGC 6302
Butterfly Emerges from Stellar Demise in Planetary Nebula NGC 6302.
This celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But it is far from serene. What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes! A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the center of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow.




Omega Centauri
Colorful Stars Galore Inside Globular Star Cluster Omega Centauri.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped this panoramic view of a colourful assortment of 100,000 stars residing in the crowded core of a giant star cluster.




NGC 6217
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217. This image of barred spiral galaxy NGC 6217 is the first image of a celestial object taken with the newly repaired Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. The camera was restored to operation during the STS-125 servicing mission in May to upgrade Hubble.




Stephan's Quintet
Galactic Wreckage in Stephan's Quintet.
A clash among members of a famous galaxy quintet reveals an assortment of stars across a wide color range, from young, blue stars to aging, red stars.This portrait of Stephan’s Quintet, also known as Hickson Compact Group 92, was taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Stephan’s Quintet, as the name implies, is a group of five galaxies. The name, however, is a bit of a misnomer. Studies have shown that group member NGC 7320, at upper left, is actually a foreground galaxy about seven times closer to Earth than the rest of the group.




Carina Nebula
Stars Bursting to Life in Chaotic Carina Nebula.
These two images of a huge pillar of star birth demonstrate how observations taken in visible and in infrared light by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal dramatically different and complementary views of an object. The pictures demonstrate one example of the broad wavelength range of the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) aboard the Hubble telescope, extending from ultraviolet to visible to infrared light. Composed of gas and dust, the pillar resides in a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina.


You might be wondering... How did IMAX capture the images for the HUBBLE 3D film? Must be digital magic created in a studio, right?

WRONG. IMAX doesn't settle for half measures when it comes to space films. They send the giant IMAX 3D cameras into space and have the astronauts do the filming!

The IMAX 3D camera, which flew onboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, captured stunning 3D images of the intricate spacewalks required to service the telescope during the most recent mission last May. Shot by the STS-125 astronauts, this intimate look at the complexities of repairing the telescope will put IMAX audiences right there along-side the spacewalking astronauts. Hubble 3D will combine this awe-inspiring IMAX footage with breathtaking up-close imagery of distant galaxies, the birth of stars and planets, and more -- revealing the cosmos as never before.

"We have waited a long time to get the IMAX camera back into space and finally the opportunity came with the amazing final repair mission of the Hubble Space Telescope," said Toni Myers, director, producer and editor of the film. "In Hubble 3D, audiences will be able to float in space alongside the astronauts as they perform the repairs and upgrades to the telescope, and then fly to the edge of the universe, through its first new images. Hubble's incredible legacy changes the way we see and think about the universe, and it is an honour to give people a chance to experience its breath-taking images in IMAX 3D."

Launched in 1990 and greatly extended in its scientific powers through new instrumentation, the Hubble Space Telescope has validated Lyman Spitzer Jr.'s original concept of large, space-based observatory orbiting far above the distorting effects of the Earth's atmosphere. In Hubble 3D audiences will come to understand the profound significance of the greatest scientific instrument since Galileo's original telescope and how it has forever changed both our view of the universe and of ourselves.

Hubble 3D is an IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures production, in cooperation with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The film reunites the Space Station 3D filmmaking team, led by producer/director Toni Myers. James Neihouse, director of photography, also doubles as the astronaut crew trainer. Judy Carroll is associate producer, and Graeme Ferguson, co-founder of IMAX and pioneer producer of many IMAX space films, is executive producer.

CLICK HERE to visit the Hubble 3D film website.