Night Launch of Endeavour
Credit:
Space Shuttle Endeavour
thunders off into orbit in a rare night launch.
This March 1995
mission
is most famous for operating the set of
astronomical telescopes known as
Astro-2. Astro-2's telescopes
observed the universe in ultraviolet light - light so blue humans
by themselves can't see it. Astro-2
measured the amount of ultraviolet light emitted by several interesting
stars,
galaxies, planets,
and
QSOs. Analysis of data from
this NASA mission has yielded the first clear detection of
helium
created during the beginning of the universe.