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A comment on Hubble takes gigantic image of the Triangulum Galaxy. Parent comment

Re:Hubble takes gigantic image of the Triangulum Galaxy by wpietri on Wednesday January 09, 2019 @11:42PM (#18871575)
It's really fun to zoom around.

Anybody know what the story is with the lens flare on some of the bigger/brighter objects? For some reason I expected that a Hubble image would be beyond such things.

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Re:Hubble takes gigantic image of the Triangulum Galaxy by wlesieutre on Thursday January 10, 2019 @12:20AM (#18871723)
Caused by diffraction around structural supports for the optics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_spike

EDIT - for Hubble specifically, here’s an exploded view: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/exploded_view1/

The spikes are caused by the arms holding the secondary mirror.

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