Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
M32: Blue Stars in an Elliptical Galaxy
Explanation:
Elliptical galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] are known for their old, red stars. But is this old elliptical [ http://www.seds.org…] up to new tricks? In recent years, the centers of elliptical galaxies [ http://www.windows.…] have been found [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…http://adsabs.harva…] to emit unexpectedly high amounts of blue and ultraviolet light [ http://imagine.gsfc…]. Most blue light from spiral galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] originates from massive young hot stars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…ap981025.html ], in contrast to the red light from the old cool stars thought to compose ellipticals. In the above recently released, false-color photograph [ http://oposite.stsc…] by the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://www.stsci.ed…], the center of nearby dwarf elliptical M32 has actually been resolved and does indeed show thousands of bright blue stars. The answer [ http://adsabs.harva…] is probably that these blue stars [ http://oposite.stsc…] are also old and glow blue, reaching relatively high temperatures by the advanced process [ http://zebu.uoregon…] of fusing helium [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], rather than hydrogen [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], in their cores. M32 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] appears in many pictures as the companion galaxy to the massive Andromeda Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] (M31).
Credit and Copyright:
Thomas M. Brown (GSFC [ http://www.gsfc.nas…]) et al., NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]
keyword:
galaxy
keyword:
elliptical
keyword:
M32
facet_where:
M31
facet_where:
Andromeda Galaxy
facet_where:
M32
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Washington, D.C.
facet_what:
Andromeda
facet_what:
elliptical galaxy
facet_what:
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap991103

M32: Blue Stars in an Elliptical Galaxy
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