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Picture Perfect: Hubble's Ne
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| Title |
Picture Perfect: Hubble's New Improved Optics Probe the Core of a Distant Galaxy |
| General Information |
What is an Early Release Observation? A photograph of a celestial object that demonstrates the performance of a new Hubble camera. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. This comparison image of the core of galaxy M100 shows the dramatic improvement in the Hubble telescope's view of the universe. The new image (right) was taken with the second generation Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC2), which was installed during the STS-61 Hubble Servicing Mission. The picture beautifully demonstrates that the corrective optics incorporated within WFPC2 compensate fully for Hubble's near-sightedness. The new camera will allow Hubble to probe the universe with unprecedented clarity and sensitivity. The picture clearly shows faint structure as small as 30 light-years across in a galaxy tens of millions of light-years away. |
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Hubble Space Telescope Measu
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| Title |
Hubble Space Telescope Measures Precise Distance to the Most Remote Galaxy Yet |
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M100: A Grand Design
| Title |
M100: A Grand Design |
| Explanation |
Majestic [ http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/pubserv/hos/stars/welcome.htm ] on a truly cosmic scale, M100 [ http://bozo.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/m/m100.html ] is appropriately known as a Grand Design spiral [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961030.html ] galaxy. A large galaxy of over 100 billion or so stars with well defined spiral arms [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960409.html ], it is similar to our own Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970315.html ]. One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies [ http://bozo.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/virgo.html ] , M100 (alias NGC 4321) is 56 million light-years distant in the spring constellation of Coma Berenices [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/ constellations/Coma_Berenices.html ]. This Hubble Space Telescope image [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/94/01.html ] of the central region of M100 was made in 1993 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. It reveals the bright blue star clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980329.html ] and intricate winding dust lanes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980116.html ] which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies [ http://hermes.astro.washington.edu:80/scied/astro/hubble/hubble.html ]. Studies of stars in M100 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960110.html ] have recently played an important role in determining the size and age [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/ debate_1996.html ] of the Universe. |
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M100: A Grand Design
| Title |
M100: A Grand Design |
| Explanation |
Majestic [ http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/pubserv/hos/stars/welcome.htm ] on a truly cosmic scale, M100 [ http://bozo.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/m/m100.html ] is appropriately known as a Grand Design spiral galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961030.html ]. A large galaxy of over 100 billion or so stars with well defined spiral arms [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960409.html ], it is similar to our own Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970315.html ]. One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies [ http://bozo.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/virgo.html ] , M100 (alias NGC 4321) is 56 million light-years distant in the spring constellation of Coma Berenices [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/ constellations/Coma_Berenices.html ]. This Hubble Space Telescope image [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/94/01.html ] of the central region of M100 was made in 1993 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. It reveals the bright blue star clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980329.html ] and intricate winding dust lanes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980116.html ] which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies [ http://hermes.astro.washington.edu:80/scied/astro/hubble/hubble.html ]. Studies of stars in M100 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960110.html ] have recently played an important role in determining the size and age of the Universe. |
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A Nearby Supernova in Spiral
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| Title |
A Nearby Supernova in Spiral Galaxy M100 |
| Explanation |
One of the nearer supernovas of recent years was discovered last month in the bright nearby galaxy M100 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m100.html ]. The supernova, dubbed SN 2006X [ http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/sn2006/sn2006x.html ], is still near its maximum brightness and visible with a telescope toward the constellation of Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices [ http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=25 ]) The supernova, pictured above [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2006/phot-08-06.html ], has been identified as Type Ia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova#Type_Ia ] indicating that a white dwarf star [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000910.html ] in the picturesque spiral [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010203.html ] galaxy has gone near its Chandrasekhar limit [ http://physics.ship.edu/~mrc/pfs/108/node5.htm ] and exploded. Although hundreds of supernovas are now discovered each year by automated searches, nearby supernova [ http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/02/23/m100-before-and-after/ ] are rare and important because they frequently become bright enough to be studied by many telescopes and are near enough for their immediate surroundings to be spatially resolved. Supernova 2006X [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_2006X ]'s host galaxy M100 resides [ http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/cosmic/local_supercluster.html ] in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000220.html ] located about 50 million light years [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html ] from Earth. |
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