Narrow Search
 
 
Advanced Search

Browse All : Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and NICMOS

Printer Friendly
1 2 3 4
1-50 of 171
     
     
Big Galaxy in Baby Universe
Title Big Galaxy in Baby Universe
Description NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes combined forces to uncover one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. The faraway galaxy, named HUDF-JD2 (in green circles) is not seen in Hubble's visible-light image (upper right), but was detected using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer (lower left). It appears even brighter at the longer infrared wavelengths, as revealed by the Spitzer infrared camera (lower right). At visible wavelengths, the light from the galaxy is absorbed by intervening hydrogen gas, and so the galaxy appears faint in the Hubble visible and near-infrared images. The surprise is how bright is appears to Spitzer in the infrared, suggesting a very massive and distant galaxy.
Big Galaxy in Baby Universe
Title Big Galaxy in Baby Universe
Description NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes combined forces to uncover one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. The faraway galaxy, named HUDF-JD2 (in green circles) is not seen in Hubble's visible-light image (upper right), but was detected using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer (lower left). It appears even brighter at the longer infrared wavelengths, as revealed by the Spitzer infrared camera (lower right). At visible wavelengths, the light from the galaxy is absorbed by intervening hydrogen gas, and so the galaxy appears faint in the Hubble visible and near-infrared images. The surprise is how bright is appears to Spitzer in the infrared, suggesting a very massive and distant galaxy.
Spitzer and Hubble Team Up T …
Title Spitzer and Hubble Team Up To Find 'Big Baby' Galaxies in the Newborn Universe
Description This image demonstrates how data from two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, are used to identify one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. This galaxy is unusually massive for its youthful age of 800 million years. (After the Big Bang, the Milky Way by comparison, is approximately 13 billion years old.) [Left] - The galaxy, named HUDF-JD2, was pinpointed among approximately 10,000 others in a small area of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. This is the deepest images of the universe ever made at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. [Upper Right] - A blow-up of one small area of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is used to identify where the distant galaxy is located (inside green circle). This indicates that the galaxy's visible light has been absorbed by traveling billions of light-years through intervening hydrogen. [Center Right] - The galaxy was detected using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer. But at near-infrared wavelengths it is very faint and red. [Bottom Right] - The Spitzer infrared array camera, easily detects the galaxy at longer infrared wavelengths. The instrument is sensitive to the light from older, redder stars which should make up most of the mass in a galaxy. The brightness of the infrared galaxy suggests that it is quite massive.
Spitzer and Hubble Team Up T …
Title Spitzer and Hubble Team Up To Find 'Big Baby' Galaxies in the Newborn Universe
Description This image demonstrates how data from two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, are used to identify one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. This galaxy is unusually massive for its youthful age of 800 million years. (After the Big Bang, the Milky Way by comparison, is approximately 13 billion years old.) [Left] - The galaxy, named HUDF-JD2, was pinpointed among approximately 10,000 others in a small area of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. This is the deepest images of the universe ever made at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. [Upper Right] - A blow-up of one small area of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is used to identify where the distant galaxy is located (inside green circle). This indicates that the galaxy's visible light has been absorbed by traveling billions of light-years through intervening hydrogen. [Center Right] - The galaxy was detected using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer. But at near-infrared wavelengths it is very faint and red. [Bottom Right] - The Spitzer infrared array camera, easily detects the galaxy at longer infrared wavelengths. The instrument is sensitive to the light from older, redder stars which should make up most of the mass in a galaxy. The brightness of the infrared galaxy suggests that it is quite massive.
Spitzer and Hubble Team Up T …
Title Spitzer and Hubble Team Up To Find 'Big Baby' Galaxies in the Newborn Universe
Description This image demonstrates how data from two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, are used to identify one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. This galaxy is unusually massive for its youthful age of 800 million years. (After the Big Bang, the Milky Way by comparison, is approximately 13 billion years old.) [Left] - The galaxy, named HUDF-JD2, was pinpointed among approximately 10,000 others in a small area of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. This is the deepest images of the universe ever made at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. [Upper Right] - A blow-up of one small area of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is used to identify where the distant galaxy is located (inside green circle). This indicates that the galaxy's visible light has been absorbed by traveling billions of light-years through intervening hydrogen. [Center Right] - The galaxy was detected using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer. But at near-infrared wavelengths it is very faint and red. [Bottom Right] - The Spitzer infrared array camera, easily detects the galaxy at longer infrared wavelengths. The instrument is sensitive to the light from older, redder stars which should make up most of the mass in a galaxy. The brightness of the infrared galaxy suggests that it is quite massive.
Spitzer and Hubble Team Up T …
Title Spitzer and Hubble Team Up To Find 'Big Baby' Galaxies in the Newborn Universe
Description This image demonstrates how data from two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, are used to identify one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. This galaxy is unusually massive for its youthful age of 800 million years. (After the Big Bang, the Milky Way by comparison, is approximately 13 billion years old.) [Left] - The galaxy, named HUDF-JD2, was pinpointed among approximately 10,000 others in a small area of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. This is the deepest images of the universe ever made at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. [Upper Right] - A blow-up of one small area of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is used to identify where the distant galaxy is located (inside green circle). This indicates that the galaxy's visible light has been absorbed by traveling billions of light-years through intervening hydrogen. [Center Right] - The galaxy was detected using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer. But at near-infrared wavelengths it is very faint and red. [Bottom Right] - The Spitzer infrared array camera, easily detects the galaxy at longer infrared wavelengths. The instrument is sensitive to the light from older, redder stars which should make up most of the mass in a galaxy. The brightness of the infrared galaxy suggests that it is quite massive.
Spitzer and Hubble Team Up T …
Title Spitzer and Hubble Team Up To Find 'Big Baby' Galaxies in the Newborn Universe
Description This image demonstrates how data from two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, are used to identify one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. This galaxy is unusually massive for its youthful age of 800 million years. (After the Big Bang, the Milky Way by comparison, is approximately 13 billion years old.) [Left] - The galaxy, named HUDF-JD2, was pinpointed among approximately 10,000 others in a small area of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. This is the deepest images of the universe ever made at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. [Upper Right] - A blow-up of one small area of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is used to identify where the distant galaxy is located (inside green circle). This indicates that the galaxy's visible light has been absorbed by traveling billions of light-years through intervening hydrogen. [Center Right] - The galaxy was detected using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer. But at near-infrared wavelengths it is very faint and red. [Bottom Right] - The Spitzer infrared array camera, easily detects the galaxy at longer infrared wavelengths. The instrument is sensitive to the light from older, redder stars which should make up most of the mass in a galaxy. The brightness of the infrared galaxy suggests that it is quite massive.
Hubble Tracks Clouds on Uran …
title Hubble Tracks Clouds on Uranus
date 07.28.1997
description Taking its first peek at Uranus, NASA Hubble Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) has detected six distinct clouds in images taken July 28,1997. The image on the right, taken 90 minutes after the left-hand image, shows the planet's rotation. Each image is a composite of three near-infrared images. They are called false-color images because the human eye cannot detect infrared light. Therefore, colors corresponding to visible light were assigned to the images. (The wavelengths for the "blue,""green," and "red" exposures are 1.1, 1.6, and 1.9 micrometers, respectively.) At visible and near-infrared light, sunlight is reflected from hazes and clouds in the atmosphere of Uranus. However, at near-infrared light, absorption by gases in the Uranian atmosphere limits the view to different altitudes, causing intense contrasts and colors. In these images, the blue exposure probes the deepest atmospheric levels. A blue color indicates clear atmospheric conditions, prevalent at mid-latitudes near the center of the disk. The green exposure is sensitive to absorption by methane gas, indicating a clear atmosphere, but in hazy atmospheric regions, the green color is seen because sunlight is reflected back before it is absorbed. The green color around the south pole (marked by "+") shows a strong local haze. The red exposure reveals absorption by hydrogen, the most abundant gas in the atmosphere of Uranus. Most sunlight shows patches of haze high in the atmosphere. A red color near the limb (edge) of the disk indicates the presence of a high-altitude haze. The purple color to the right of the equator also suggests haze high in the atmosphere with a clear atmosphere below. The five clouds visible near the right limb rotated counterclockwise during the time between both images. They reach high into the atmosphere, as indicated by their red color. Features of such high contrast have never been seen before on Uranus. The clouds are almost as large as continents on Earth, such as Europe. Another cloud (which barely can be seen) rotated along the path shown by the black arrow. It is located at lower altitudes, as indicated by its green color. The rings of Uranus are extremely faint in visible light but quite prominent in the near infrared. The brightest ring, the epsilon ring, has a variable width around its circumference. Its widest and thus brightest part is at the top in this image. Two fainter, inner rings are visible next to the epsilon ring. Eight of the 10 small Uranian satellites, discovered by Voyager 2, can be seen in both images. Their sizes range from about 25 miles (40 kilometers) for Bianca to 100 miles (150 kilometers) for Puck. The smallest of these satellites have not been detected since the departure of Voyager 2 from Uranus in 1986. These eight satellites revolve around Uranus in less than a day. The inner ones are faster than the outer ones. Their motion in the 90 minutes between both images is, marked in the right panel. The area outside the rings was slightly enhanced in brightness to improve the visibility of these faint satellites. The Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and managed by the Goddard Spaced Flight Center for NASA's Office of Space Science. This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/ *Image Credit*: NASA
Giant Twisters in the Lagoon …
Title Giant Twisters in the Lagoon Nebula
Full Description This NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image reveals a pair of one-half light-year long interstellar "twisters," eerie funnels and twisted-rope structures in the heart of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8) which lies 5,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The central hot star, O Herschel 36 (lower right), is the primary source of the ionizing radiation for the brightest region in the nebula, called the Hourglass. Analogous to the spectacular phenomena of Earth tornadoes, the large difference in temperature between the hot surface and cold interior of the clouds, combined with the pressure of starlight, may produce strong horizontal shear to twist the clouds into their tornado-like appearance. Though the spiral shapes suggest the clouds are "twisting," future observations will be needed, perhaps with Hubble's next generation instruments, with the spectroscopic capabilities of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) or the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), to actually measure velocities. These color-coded images are the combination of individual exposures taken in July and September, 1995 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) through three narrow-band filters (red light ionized sulphur atoms, blue light, double ionized oxygen atoms, green light, ionized hydrogen).
Date 09/27/1995
NASA Center Hubble Space Telescope Center
Giant "Twisters" and Star Wi …
Title Giant "Twisters" and Star Wisps in the Lagoon Nebula
Giant "Twisters" and Star Wi …
Title Giant "Twisters" and Star Wisps in the Lagoon Nebula
A Collision In The Heart Of …
Title A Collision In The Heart Of A Galaxy
General Information What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. The Hubble telescope's infrared camera has uncovered a collision between two spiral galaxies in the heart of the peculiar galaxy called Arp 220. The collision has provided the spark for a burst of star formation. Hubble's infrared vision has captured bright knots of stars forming in the heart of Arp 220. The bright, crescent, moon-shaped object is a remnant core of one of the colliding galaxies. The core is a cluster of 1 billion stars. The core's half-moon shape suggests that its bottom half is obscured by a disk of dust about 300 light-years across. This disk is embedded in the core and may be swirling around a black hole. The core of the other colliding galaxy is the bright round object to the left of the crescent, moon-shaped object. Both cores are about 1,200 light-years apart and are orbiting each other.
Hubble Snaps "Family Portrai …
Title Hubble Snaps "Family Portrait
General Information What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. The Hubble telescope's infrared camera has peered into the Cone Nebula, revealing a stunning picture of six babies, Sun-like stars surrounding their mother, a bright, massive star. Known as NGC 2264 IRS, the massive star triggered the creation of these baby stars by releasing high-speed particles of dust and gas during its formative years. The image on the left, taken in visible light by a terrestrial telescope, shows the Cone Nebula, located 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros. The white box pinpoints the location of the star nursery, which cannot be seen in this image because dust and gas obscure it. The infrared image on the right shows the massive star ? the brightest source in the region ? and the stars formed by its outflow.
Hubble Watches Uranus
Title Hubble Watches Uranus
Hubble Takes First Image of …
Title Hubble Takes First Image of a Possible Planet around Another Star and Finds a Runaway World
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. The Hubble telescope has given astronomers their first direct look at what is possibly a planet outside our solar system &#151, one apparently that has been ejected into deep space by its parent stars. The discovery further challenges conventional theories about the birth and evolution of planets, and offers new insights into the formation of our own solar system. Located within a star-forming region in the constellation Taurus, the object, called TMR-1C, appears to lie at the end of a strange filament of light, suggesting it has apparently been flung away from the vicinity of a newly forming pair of binary stars. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1998/19/text/ ]
Hubble Camera Resumes Scienc …
Title Hubble Camera Resumes Science Operation with Picture of "Butterfly" in Space
General Information What is an Early Release Observation? A photograph of a celestial object that demonstrates the performance of a new Hubble camera. The Hubble telescope is back at work, capturing this view of the butterfly-wing-shaped nebula, NGC 2346. The nebula is about 2,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros. It represents the spectacular "last gasp" of a double-star system at the nebula's center. The image was taken March 6, 1997 as part of the re-commissioning of Hubble's previously installed scientific instruments following a successful servicing mission.
Hubble Peers into Heart of D …
Title Hubble Peers into Heart of Dying Star
General Information What is an Early Release Observation? A photograph of a celestial object that demonstrates the performance of a new Hubble camera. The Egg Nebula, also known as CRL 2688, is shown on the left as it appears in visible light and on the right as it looks in infrared light. Both Hubble views recount the last gasps of a dying, Sun-like star. Objects like the Egg Nebula are helping astronomers understand how stars like our Sun expel carbon and nitrogen ? elements crucial for life ? into space. Studies on the Egg Nebula show that these dying stars eject matter at high speeds along a preferred axis and may even have multiple jet-like outflows. The signature of the collision between this fast-moving material and the slower, out-flowing shells is the glow of hydrogen molecules [the red material] captured in the right-hand image. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1997/11/text/ ]
Hubble Goes to the Limit In …
Title Hubble Goes to the Limit In Search Of Farthest Galaxies
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Stretching the Hubble telescope's vision farther across space and further back into time than ever before, astronomers have peered into a previously unseen realm of the universe. A "long-exposure" infrared image has uncovered the faintest galaxies ever seen. Astronomers believe some of these galaxies could be the farthest objects ever seen. A powerful new generation of telescopes will be needed to confirm the suspected distances. The picture on the left contains over 300 galaxies, which have spiral, elliptical, and irregular shapes. The two images on the right represent close-up views of objects that may be over 12 billion light-years away, the farthest galaxies ever seen. Each faraway galaxy is centered in the frame. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1998/32/text/ ]
Hubble Identifies What May B …
Title Hubble Identifies What May Be the Most Luminous Star Known
Hubble Views of Dust Disks a …
Title Hubble Views of Dust Disks and Rings Surrounding Young Stars Yield Clues
General Information What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their first views of a dust ring around the star HR 4796A and a dark gap dividing an immense dust disk around the star HD 141569. These images may provide important clues to possible planet formation. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/03/text/ ]
Hubble Provides Infrared Vie …
Title Hubble Provides Infrared View of Moon, Ring, and Clouds
Hubble's Infrared Galaxy Gal …
Title Hubble's Infrared Galaxy Gallery
Hubble Captures a Grand View …
Title Hubble Captures a Grand View of the Birth of "Hefty" Stars
Starry Bulges Yield Secrets …
Title Starry Bulges Yield Secrets to Galaxy Growth
General Information What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. The Hubble telescope is uncovering important new clues to a galaxy's birth and growth by peering into its heart ? a bulge of millions of stars resembling a bulbous center yolk in the middle of a disk of egg white. Astronomers have combined information from the Hubble telescope's visible- and infrared-light cameras to show the heart of four spiral galaxies peppered with ancient populations of stars. The top row of pictures, taken by a ground-based telescope, represents complete views of each galaxy. The blue boxes outline the regions observed by the Hubble telescope. The bottom row represents composite pictures from Hubble's visible- and infrared-light cameras. Astronomers combined views from both cameras to obtain the true ages of the stars surrounding each galaxy's bulge. The Hubble telescope's sharper resolution allows astronomers to study the intricate structure of a galaxy's central region. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/34/text/ ]
The "Rotten Egg" Nebula: A P …
Title The "Rotten Egg" Nebula: A Planetary Nebula in the Making
Hubble Space Telescope Compl …
Title Hubble Space Telescope Completes Eighth Year Of Exploration
Hubble Finds Many Bright Clo …
Title Hubble Finds Many Bright Clouds on Uranus
Hubble Spies Huge Clusters o …
Title Hubble Spies Huge Clusters of Stars Formed by Ancient Encounter
Hubble's Infrared Camera is …
Title Hubble's Infrared Camera is Back in Business ? New Images Released
General Information What is an Early Release Observation? A photograph of a celestial object that demonstrates the performance of a new Hubble camera. Back to top [ #top ]
Hubble's Infrared Camera is …
Title Hubble's Infrared Camera is Back in Business ? New Images Released
General Information What is an Early Release Observation? A photograph of a celestial object that demonstrates the performance of a new Hubble camera. Back to top [ #top ]
Hubble's Infrared Camera is …
Title Hubble's Infrared Camera is Back in Business ? New Images Released
General Information What is an Early Release Observation? A photograph of a celestial object that demonstrates the performance of a new Hubble camera. Back to top [ #top ]
Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in L …
Title Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in Living Color
Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in L …
Title Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in Living Color
Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in L …
Title Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in Living Color
Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in L …
Title Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in Living Color
Hubble Resolves a Blaze of S …
Title Hubble Resolves a Blaze of Stars in a Galaxy's Core
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ]
Hubble's Deepest View Ever o …
Title Hubble's Deepest View Ever of the Universe Unveils Earliest Galaxies
Hubble's Deepest View Ever o …
Title Hubble's Deepest View Ever of the Universe Unveils Earliest Galaxies
Spitzer and Hubble Team Up t …
Title Spitzer and Hubble Team Up to Find "Big Baby" Galaxies in the Newborn Universe
Thompson and NICMOS Team Win …
Title Thompson and NICMOS Team Win Muhlmann Award
General Information What is a News Nugget? News Nuggets are bulletins from the world of astronomy. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) has awarded its 2003 Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award to Professor Rodger I. Thompson (University of Arizona) and the team that developed the Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS instrument, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2003/33/text/ ]
Hubble's Deepest View Ever o …
Title Hubble's Deepest View Ever of the Universe Unveils Earliest Galaxies
Hubble Approaches the Final …
Title Hubble Approaches the Final Frontier: The Dawn of Galaxies
Hubble's Infrared Eyes Home …
Title Hubble's Infrared Eyes Home in on Suspected Extrasolar Planet
General Information What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Back to top [ #top ]
Hubble's Infrared Eyes Home …
Title Hubble's Infrared Eyes Home in on Suspected Extrasolar Planet
General Information What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Back to top [ #top ]
Astronomers Find One of the …
Title Astronomers Find One of the Youngest and Brightest Galaxies in the Early Universe
Astronomers Use Hubble and K …
Title Astronomers Use Hubble and Keck to Identify Dwarf Galaxy
General Information What is a News Nugget? News Nuggets are bulletins from the world of astronomy. A team of astronomers at the University of California at Santa Barbara report that they have resolved a dwarf galaxy 6 billion light-years away. Weighing only 1/100 as much as our Milky Way Galaxy, the dwarf is much smaller than anything studied before in any detail at this distance. They report in the Dec. 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal that the galaxy looks very similar to one of the dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster, which is located only 60 million light-years away. "We believe we may have identified the progenitors of local dwarf galaxies," says Tommaso Treu. "We see them as clearly as we would see dwarfs in the Virgo cluster using ground-based telescopes. The sharp view of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and the laser guide stars adaptive optics system on the W.M. Keck Telescope, were aimed at a natural lens in space, called a gravitational lens, to study the dwarf. The researchers took advantage of the fact that the distant dwarf galaxy lies behind a massive foreground galaxy that bends light rays much as a glass lens does. This gravitational lensing amplifies the image of the much farther dwarf galaxy, making it appear 10 times brighter and 10 times larger than it would normally be seen by either Hubble or Keck.
Cone Nebula Infrared Close-U …
Title Cone Nebula Infrared Close-Up
Explanation After astronauts repaired NICMOS [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/13/ index.html ] - the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer - during the latest Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020314.html ], astronomers were quick to turn the sophisticated instrument on the photogenic stellar nursery [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020503.html ] known as the Cone Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020107.html ]. This remarkable NICMOS [ http://www.stsci.edu/hst/nicmos/ ] close-up of the Cone Nebula [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/13/ fastfacts.html#Cone ] dramatically confirms that the Hubble's infrared vision has been restored [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/13/faq.html ]. Gas and dust clouds at the blunted tip of the cone-shaped star-forming region are seen here [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/13/ pr-photos.html ] in false-color covering an area about half a light-year across. Toward the left hand side of the picture, the four bright stars with diffraction spikes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010415.html ] are also present in visible light images and are in front of the Cone Nebula, itself 2,500 light-years away. But the fainter stars to their right are embedded in or behind the nebula's obscuring dust clouds and are revealed [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/13/prc/ 0213aw.jpg ] only in this penetrating infrared view [ http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Outreach/Edu/Regions/ irregions.html ].
Hubble Tracks Clouds on Uran …
Title Hubble Tracks Clouds on Uranus
Description Taking its first peek at Uranus, NASA Hubble Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) has detected six distinct clouds in images taken July 28,1997. The image on the right, taken 90 minutes after the left-hand image, shows the planet's rotation. Each image is a composite of three near-infrared images. They are called false-color images because the human eye cannot detect infrared light. Therefore, colors corresponding to visible light were assigned to the images. (The wavelengths for the "blue,""green," and "red" exposures are 1.1, 1.6, and 1.9 micrometers, respectively.) At visible and near-infrared light, sunlight is reflected from hazes and clouds in the atmosphere of Uranus. However, at near-infrared light, absorption by gases in the Uranian atmosphere limits the view to different altitudes, causing intense contrasts and colors. In these images, the blue exposure probes the deepest atmospheric levels. A blue color indicates clear atmospheric conditions, prevalent at mid-latitudes near the center of the disk. The green exposure is sensitive to absorption by methane gas, indicating a clear atmosphere, but in hazy atmospheric regions, the green color is seen because sunlight is reflected back before it is absorbed. The green color around the south pole (marked by "+") shows a strong local haze. The red exposure reveals absorption by hydrogen, the most abundant gas in the atmosphere of Uranus. Most sunlight shows patches of haze high in the atmosphere. A red color near the limb (edge) of the disk indicates the presence of a high-altitude haze. The purple color to the right of the equator also suggests haze high in the atmosphere with a clear atmosphere below. The five clouds visible near the right limb rotated counterclockwise during the time between both images. They reach high into the atmosphere, as indicated by their red color. Features of such high contrast have never been seen before on Uranus. The clouds are almost as large as continents on Earth, such as Europe. Another cloud (which barely can be seen) rotated along the path shown by the black arrow. It is located at lower altitudes, as indicated by its green color. The rings of Uranus are extremely faint in visible light but quite prominent in the near infrared. The brightest ring, the epsilon ring, has a variable width around its circumference. Its widest and thus brightest part is at the top in this image. Two fainter, inner rings are visible next to the epsilon ring. Eight of the 10 small Uranian satellites, discovered by Voyager 2, can be seen in both images. Their sizes range from about 25 miles (40 kilometers) for Bianca to 100 miles (150 kilometers) for Puck. The smallest of these satellites have not been detected since the departure of Voyager 2 from Uranus in 1986. These eight satellites revolve around Uranus in less than a day. The inner ones are faster than the outer ones. Their motion in the 90 minutes between both images is marked, in the right panel. The area outside the rings was slightly enhanced in brightness to improve the visibility of these faint satellites. The Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and managed by the Goddard Spaced Flight Center for NASA's Office of Space Science. This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/
Date 11.20.1997
EVA 1 activity on Flight Day …
johnsonspacecentermediaarchi …
Extravehicular Activity (EVA …
STS082-717-026
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1997-02-14
creator NASA
identifier STS082-717-026
EVA 1 activity on Flight Day …
johnsonspacecentermediaarchi …
Extravehicular Activity (EVA …
STS082-705-055
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1997-02-14
creator NASA
identifier STS082-705-055
1 2 3 4
1-50 of 171