Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection
Title:
GALEX 1st Light Near Ultraviolet -50
Original Caption Released with Image:
This image was taken May 21 and 22 by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The image was made from data gathered by the two channels of the spacecraft camera during the mission's "first light" milestone. It shows about 50 celestial objects in the constellation Hercules. The reddish objects represent those detected by the camera's near ultraviolet channel over a 5-minute period, while bluish objects were detected over a 3-minute period by the camera's far ultraviolet channel. Deeper imaging may confirm the apparent existence in this field of galaxy pairs and triplets or individual star formation regions in single galaxies.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer's first light images are dedicated to the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The Hercules region was directly above Columbia when it made its last contact with NASA Mission Control on February 1, over the skies of Texas.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer launched on April 28 on a mission to map the celestial sky in the ultraviolet and determine the history of star formation in the universe over the last 10 billion years.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Caltech
Produced By:
California Institute of Technology
Mission:
Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
Spacecraft:
GALEX Orbiter
Instrument:
GALEX Telescope
Product Size:
534 samples x 528 lines
facet_what:
Explorer
facet_what:
Galaxy Evolution Explorer
facet_what:
GALEX
facet_what:
GALEX Orbiter
facet_what:
Hercules
facet_what:
GALEX Telescope
facet_what:
Space Shuttle Orbiter
facet_what:
Columbia
facet_where:
California
facet_where:
Texas
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Image #:
PIA04278
UID:
SPD-PHOTJ-PIA04278
orignial url:

GALEX 1st Light Near Ultraviolet -50