Next-door neighbors.Scientists have long suspected that the brilliant star Polaris, or the North Star, is part of a triple star system. But until recently, researchers had only spotted one of Polaris's neighbors, which is clearly visible through a high-powered telescope telescope, traditionally, a system of lenses, mirrors, or both, used to gather light from a distant object and form an image of it. Traditional optical telescopes, which are the subject of this article, also are used to magnify objects on earth and in astronomy; . The third star couldn't be seen because it is too faint faint (fant) syncope. faint n. An abrupt, usually brief loss of consciousness; an attack of syncope. adj. Extremely weak; threatened with syncope. and too close to Polaris, says Nancy Evans, an astronomer at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It consists of the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The Center is located at 60 Garden Street. . Researchers finally caught sight of the companion using images collected by the Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large optical orbiting observatory. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the clearest view yet obtained of the universe. . |
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