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Universe

“I don’t know — when I was growing up, there was no such thing as planets around other stars. If you were to talk about it at a scientific meeting, people would laugh at you….”
Oh, how times change. And so begins a new short documentary by Goddard video producer Ryan Fitzgibbons and videographer Jamal Smith. 20 Years of Hubble Science: Exoplanets highlights the Hubble Space Telescope’s contributions to the study of planets around other stars.

In the video, Goddard scientists Marc Kuchner, Aki Roberge, and Jennifer Wiseman discuss how Hubble’s coronagraph and resulting images have helped scientists find exoplanets, dusty disks around other stars, and infant solar systems. All three astronomers are members of our Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory.

The science is at the leading edge and the graphics are awesome — especially the animated timeline showing all exoplanet discoveries to date. Go to the Scientific Visualization Studio website to download and view this film at the highest possible resolution. It’s worth the download time.

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