|
|
Magnificant Details in a Dus
…
| Title |
Magnificant Details in a Dusty Spiral Galaxy |
| Full Description |
In 1995, the majestic spiral galaxy NGC 4414 was imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of the HST Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale. An international team of astronomers, led by Dr. Wendy Freedman of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, observed this galaxy on 13 different occasions over the course of two months. Images were obtained with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) through three different color filters. Based on their discovery and careful brightness measurements of variable stars in NGC 4414, the Key Project astronomers were able to make an accurate determination of the distance to the galaxy. The resulting distance to NGC 4414, 19.1 megaparsecs or about 60 million light-years, along with similarly determined distances to other nearby galaxies, contributes to astronomers' overall knowledge of the rate of expansion of the universe. In 1999, the Hubble Heritage Team revisited NGC 4414 and completed its portrait by observing the other half with the same filters as were used in 1995. The end result is a stunning full-color look at the entire dusty spiral galaxy. The new Hubble picture shows that the central regions of this galaxy, as is typical of most spirals, contain primarily older, yellow and red stars. The outer spiral arms are considerably bluer due to ongoing formation of young, blue stars, the brightest of which can be seen individually at the high resolution provided by the Hubble camera. The arms are also very rich in clouds of interstellar dust, seen as dark patches and streaks silhouetted against the starlight. |
| Date |
06/03/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|
Hubble Views Distant Galaxie
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Distant Galaxies through a Cosmic Lens |
|
Hubble Peers Deep into the C
…
| Title |
Hubble Peers Deep into the Crowded Heart of the Densest Known Star Cluster |
|
Hubble Observes the Fire and
…
| Title |
Hubble Observes the Fire and Fury of a Stellar Birth |
|
Hubble Spies a Really Cool S
…
| Title |
Hubble Spies a Really Cool Star |
|
Hubble Monitors Weather on N
…
| Title |
Hubble Monitors Weather on Neighboring Planets |
|
Galaxy NGC 4881 and the Coma
…
| Title |
Galaxy NGC 4881 and the Coma Cluster |
|
Hubble Tracks Jupiter Storms
| Title |
Hubble Tracks Jupiter Storms |
|
Hubble Probes the Violent Bi
…
| Title |
Hubble Probes the Violent Birth of Stars in Galaxy NGC 253 |
|
Doomed Star Eta Carinae
| Title |
Doomed Star Eta Carinae |
|
Hubble Sees Early Building B
…
| Title |
Hubble Sees Early Building Blocks of Today's Galaxies |
|
Hubble Identifies a Long-Sou
…
| Title |
Hubble Identifies a Long-Sought Population of Comets Beyond Neptune |
|
Hubble Again Views Saturn's
…
| Title |
Hubble Again Views Saturn's Rings Edge-On |
|
Hubble Discovers New Class o
…
| Title |
Hubble Discovers New Class of Gravitational Lens for Probing the Structure of the Cosmos |
|
Hubble Views the Galileo Pro
…
| Title |
Hubble Views the Galileo Probe Entry Site on Jupiter |
|
Doomed Star Eta Carinae
| Title |
Doomed Star Eta Carinae |
|
Astronomers Have Found a New
…
| Title |
Astronomers Have Found a New Twist in a Suspected Proto-Planetary Disk |
| 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. A telltale new warp uncovered in a vast, thin disk of dust encircling the star Beta Pictoris may be caused by the gravitational tug of a bypassing star or companion brown dwarf. These conclusions are based on Hubble telescope pictures that reveal the dim outermost reaches of the disk, which are 7 billion miles from the central star. The top image presents the entire disk, which spans 140 billion miles edge-to-edge. An unusual flaring at the top of the right side of the disk reveals that dust has been pulled above the dense plane of the disk beyond what is observed on the left side. A detailed close-up view of the inner region of the disk [bottom picture] shows a warp in the disk. These new details support the presence of one or more planets orbiting the star. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1998/03/text/ ] |
|
Magnificent Details in a Dus
…
| Title |
Magnificent Details in a Dusty Spiral Galaxy |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. The Key Project team used this Hubble telescope view of the magnificent spiral galaxy, NGC 4414, to help calculate the expansion rate of the universe. Based on their discovery and careful brightness measurements of variable stars in this galaxy, the Key Project astronomers were able to make an accurate determination of the distance to the galaxy. The resulting distance to NGC 4414, about 60 million light-years, along with similarly determined distances to other nearby galaxies, contributes to astronomers' overall knowledge of the expansion rate of the cosmos, and helps them determine the age of the universe. |
|
Far-Flung Supernovae Shed Li
…
| Title |
Far-Flung Supernovae Shed Light on Dark Universe |
|
Freewheeling Galaxies Collid
…
| Title |
Freewheeling Galaxies Collide in a Blaze of Star Birth |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
|
Firestorm of Star Birth Seen
…
| Title |
Firestorm of Star Birth Seen in a Local Galaxy |
| 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 Space Telescope Image
| Name of Image |
Hubble Space Telescope Image |
| Date of Image |
1995-01-01 |
| Full Description |
These eerie, dark, pillar-like structures are actually columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust that are also incubators for new stars. The pillars protrude from the interior wall of a dark molecular cloud like stalagmites from the floor of a cavern. They are part of the Eagle Nebula (also called M16), a nearby star-forming region 7,000 light-years away, in the constellation Serpens. The ultraviolet light from hot, massive, newborn stars is responsible for illuminating the convoluted surfaces of the columns and the ghostly streamers of gas boiling away from their surfaces, producing the dramatic visual effects that highlight the three-dimensional nature of the clouds. This image was taken on April 1, 1995 with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in the light of emission from different types of atoms. Red shows emissions from singly-ionized sulfur atoms, green shows emissions from hydrogen, and blue shows light emitted by doubly-ionized oxygen atoms. |
|
Globular Cluster M22
PIA04202
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Globular Cluster M22 |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Scientists are mystified by what may be unexpected, wandering, planet-sized objects. A new image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope implies the presence of these objects. The image is available at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html ] and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc ]. If confirmed, the new information collected by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 could yield new insights about how stars and planets formed. The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. In results published this week in the journal Nature, the scientists report six unusual "microlensing" events inside the globular cluster M22. Microlensing occurs when a background star brightens momentarily as a foreground object drifts by. The gravitational field of the object amplifies light from a distant background star in the huge central bulge of our galaxy. The objects believed to cause these events are too dim to be seen directly. The unusually short period (less than 20 hours) over which these microlensing events occurred indicates that the mass of the intervening objects could be as little as 80 times that of Earth. If confirmed, these bodies would be the smallest celestial objects ever seen beyond our solar system that are not orbiting any star. Theoretically, these objects might be planets that were gravitationally torn away from parent stars in the cluster. However, they are estimated to make up as much as 10 percent of the cluster's mass -- too numerous to be wandering, "orphaned" planets. Because these findings are so surprising, the astronomers caution that they must be confirmed by follow-up Hubble observations. The new Hubble image includes an inset photo showing the entire globular cluster of about 10 million stars. Globular cluster M22 is about 60 light-years wide. A light year equals about 9.5 trillion kilometers (5.9 trillion miles). The image was taken in June 1995 by the Burrell Schmidt telescope at the Case Western Reserve University's Warner and Swasey Observatory on Kitt Peak in Arizona. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is online at http://www.stsci.edu [ http://www.stsci.edu ]. More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov ]. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. |
|
Orion Nebula and Bow Shock
PIA04227
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Orion Nebula and Bow Shock |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found a bow shock around a very young star in the nearby Orion nebula, an intense star-forming region of gas and dust. A picture, from the Hubble Heritage team, is available at http://heritage.stsci.edu or http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/05 or http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc . It was taken in February 1995 as part of the Hubble Orion Nebula mosaic by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Named for the crescent-shaped wave a ship makes as it moves through water, a bow shock can form in space when two gas streams collide. In this case, the young star, LL Ori, emits a vigorous wind, a stream of charged particles moving rapidly outward from the star. Our own Sun has a less energetic version of this wind that is responsible for auroral displays on the Earth. The material spewed from LL Ori collides with slow-moving gas evaporating away from the center of the Orion nebula, located to the lower right of the image. The surface where the two winds collide is seen as the crescent-shaped bow shock. Unlike a water wave from a ship, this interstellar bow shock is three-dimensional. The filamentary emission has a distinct boundary on the side facing away from LL Ori, but is diffuse on the side closest to the star, a trait common to many bow shocks. A second, fainter bow shock can be seen around a star near the upper right-hand corner of the image. Astronomers have identified numerous shock fronts in this complex star-forming region and are using this data to understand the complex phenomena associated with star birth. The Orion nebula is a close neighbor in our Milky Way galaxy, at only 1,500 light-years from Earth. The filters used in this color composite represent oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen emissions. |
|
White Dwarf Stars
PIA04231
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
White Dwarf Stars |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Peering deep inside a cluster of several hundred thousand stars, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered the oldest burned-out stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, giving astronomers a fresh reading on the age of the universe. Located in the globular cluster M4, these small, burned-out stars -- called white dwarfs -- are about 12 to 13 billion years old. By adding the one billion years it took the cluster to form after the Big Bang, astronomers found that the age of the white dwarfs agrees with previous estimates that the universe is 13 to 14 billion years old. The images, including some taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, are available online at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/10/ or http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc . The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. In the top panel, a ground-based observatory snapped a panoramic view of the entire cluster, which contains several hundred thousand stars within a volume of 10 to 30 light-years across. The Kitt Peak National Observatory's .9-meter telescope took this picture in March 1995. The box at left indicates the region observed by the Hubble telescope. The Hubble telescope studied a small region of the cluster. A section of that region is seen in the picture at bottom left. A sampling of an even smaller region is shown at bottom right. This region is only about one light-year across. In this smaller region, Hubble pinpointed a number of faint white dwarfs. The blue circles indicate the dwarfs. It took nearly eight days of exposure time over a 67-day period to find these extremely faint stars. Globular clusters are among the oldest clusters of stars in the universe. The faintest and coolest white dwarfs within globular clusters can yield a globular cluster's age. Earlier Hubble observations showed that the first stars formed less than 1 billion years after the universe's birth in the big bang. So, finding the oldest stars puts astronomers within arm's reach of the universe's age. Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 made the observations from January through April 2001. These optical observations were combined to create the above images. Spectral data were also taken. M4 is 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The full press release on the latest findings is online at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/10/pr.html . The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between the European Space Agency and NASA. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. |
|
Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
…
PIA01598
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter - February, 1995 |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the southern hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the Solar System. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. The long lifetime of the Red Spot may be due to the fact that Jupiter is mainly a gaseous planet. It possibly has liquid layers, but lacks a solid surface, which would dissipate the storm's energy, much as happens when a hurricane makes landfall on the Earth. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in high-resolution Wide Field and Planetary Cameras 1 & 2 images of Jupiter obtained by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope between 1992 and 1999(PIA01594 thru PIA01599 and PIA02400 thru PIA02402). This image was obtained in February 1995. A montage representing the entire series of images was prepared by the Hubble Heritage Project team and is available atPIA01593 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01593 ]. Astronomers study weather phenomena on other planets in order to gain a greater understanding of our own Earth's climate. Lacking a solid surface, Jupiter provides us with a laboratory experiment for observing weather phenomena under very different conditions than those prevailing on Earth. This knowledge can also be applied to places in the Earth's atmosphere that are over deep oceans, making them more similar to Jupiter's deep atmosphere. |
|
Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
…
PIA01599
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter - October, 1995 |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the southern hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the Solar System. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. The long lifetime of the Red Spot may be due to the fact that Jupiter is mainly a gaseous planet. It possibly has liquid layers, but lacks a solid surface, which would dissipate the storm's energy, much as happens when a hurricane makes landfall on the Earth. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in high-resolution Wide Field and Planetary Cameras 1 & 2 images of Jupiter obtained by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope between 1992 and 1999(PIA01594 thru PIA01599 and PIA02400 thru PIA02402). This image was obtained in February 1995. A montage representing the entire series of images was prepared by the Hubble Heritage Project team and is available atPIA01593 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01593 ]. Astronomers study weather phenomena on other planets in order to gain a greater understanding of our own Earth's climate. Lacking a solid surface, Jupiter provides us with a laboratory experiment for observing weather phenomena under very different conditions than those prevailing on Earth. This knowledge can also be applied to places in the Earth's atmosphere that are over deep oceans, making them more similar to Jupiter's deep atmosphere. |
|
Hubble Discovers Bright New
…
PIA01260
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Discovers Bright New Spot on Io |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope pair of images of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io shows the surprising emergence of a 200-mile diameter large yellowish-white feature near the center of the moon's disk (photo on the right). This is a more dramatic change in 16 months than any seen over the previous 15 years, say researchers. They suggest the spot may be a new class of transient feature on the moon. For comparison the photo on the left was taken in March 1994 -- before the spot emerged - - and shows that Io's surface had undergone only subtle changes since it was last seen close-up by the Voyager 2 probe in 1979. The new spot seen in the July 1995 Hubble image replaces a smaller whitish spot seen in about the same place in the March 1994 image. Note the much more subtle changes seen elsewhere on this face of Io over the 16 months between the images. Each image is a composite of frames taken at near-ultraviolet, violet, and yellow wavelengths, with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. "The new spot surrounds the volcano Ra Patera, which was photographed by Voyager, and is probably composed of material, probably frozen gas, ejected from Ra Patera by a large volcanic explosion or fresh lava flows...," according to John Spencer of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. The new bright spot is also unusual because it is much yellower than other bright regions of Io, which are whitish in color. The unusual color may result from the freshness of the deposit and will probably provide clues as to the composition of new volcanic materials on Io. The temperature on Io's surface is about -150 degrees Celsius (-238 degrees Fahrenheit), however, "hot spots" associated with volcanic activity may be as warm as 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit). Follow-up observations by Hubble, in coordination with the Galileo spacecraft, scheduled to arrive at Jupiter and fly by Io in December 1995, will reveal the evolution and lifetime of the new feature. Galileo will be able to see much greater detail on Io in visible light, but will still rely on information gleaned from Hubble UV observations and Hubble observations taken at times when Galileo cannot observe Io. These further observations should also tell whether astronomers have witnessed, for the first time, one of the processes which creates the bright regions on Io. 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/ |
|
Seasonal Changes in Mars' No
…
PIA01247
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Seasonal Changes in Mars' North Polar Ice Cap |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
(673 nm) , blue (410 nm) and green (502 nm) light. The resolution at the North Pole ranges from about 115 km/pixel in October '96 to about 45 km/pixel in March '97. 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/, These images, which seem to have been taken while NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was looking directly down on the Martian North Pole, were actually created by assembling mosaics of three sets of images taken by HST in October, 1996 and in January and March, 1997 and projecting them to appear as they would if seen from above the pole. This first mosaic is a view which could not actually be seen in nature because at this season a portion of the pole would have actually been in shadow, the last view, taken near the summer solstice, would correspond to the Midnight Sun on Earth with the pole fully illuminated all day. The resulting polar maps begin at 50 degrees N latitude and are oriented with 0 degrees longitude at the 12 o'clock position. This series of pictures captures the seasonal retreat of Mars' north polar cap. October 1996 (early spring in the Northern hemisphere): In this map, assembled from images obtained between Oct. 8 and 15, the cap extends down to 60 degrees N latitude, nearly it's maximum winter extent. (The notches are areas where Hubble data were not available). A thin, comma-shaped cloud of dust can be seen as a salmon-colored crescent at the 7 o'clock position. The cap is actually fairly circular about the geographic pole at this season, the bluish "knobs" where the cap seems to extend further are actually clouds that occurred near the edges of the three separate sets of images used to make the mosaic. January 1997 (mid-spring): Increased warming as spring progresses in the northern hemisphere has sublimated the carbon dioxide ice and frost below 70 degrees north latitude. The faint darker circle inside the cap boundary marks the location of circumpolar sand dunes (see March '97 map), these dark dunes are warmed more by solar heating than are the brighter surroundings, so the surface frost sublimates from the dunes earlier than from the neighboring areas. Particularly evident is the marked hexagonal shape of the polar cap at this season, noted previously by HST in 1995 and Mariner 9 in 1972, this may be due to topography, which isn't well known, or to wave structure in the circulation. This map was assembled from WFPC2 images obtained between Dec. 30, 1996 and Jan. 4, 1997. March 30, 1997 (early summer): The cap has fully retreated to its remnant core of water-ice. This residual cap is actually almost cut into two by a large, horn-shaped canyon called Chasma Borealis which is cut deeply into the polar terrain. The HST images also reveal a curious layered terrain which is evidence of past climatic changes on Mars. The sublimation of all of the carbon dioxide has exposed the ring of dark sand dunes which encircle the North Polar Cap. Outliers of ice persist south of the polar sand sea (between the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions). The bright circular features at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock are ice-filled craters. All images were taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color is constructed from images taken in red |
|
Hubble Views the Galileo Pro
…
PIA01259
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Views the Galileo Probe Entry Site on Jupiter |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
[left] - This Hubble Space Telescope image of Jupiter was taken on Oct. 5, 1995, when the giant planet was at a distance of 534 million miles (854 million kilometers) from Earth. The arrow points to the predicted site at which the Galileo Probe will enter Jupiter's atmosphere on December 7, 1995. At this latitude, the eastward winds have speeds of about 250 miles per hour (110 meters per second). The white oval to the north of the probe site drifts westward at 13 miles per hour (6 meters per second), rolling in the winds which increase sharply toward the equator. The Jupiter image was obtained with the high resolution mode of Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Because the disk of the planet is larger than the field of view of the camera, image processing was used to combine overlapping images from three consecutive orbits to produce this full disk view of the planet. [right] - These four enlarged Hubble images of Jupiter's equatorial region show clouds sweeping across the predicted Galileo probe entry site, which is at the exact center of each frame (a small white dot has been inserted at the centered at the predicted entry site). The first image (upper left quadrant) was obtained with the WFPC2 on Oct. 4, 1995 at (18 hours UT). The second, third and fourth images (from upper right to lower right) were obtained 10, 20 and 60 hours later, respectively. The maps extend +/- 15 degrees in latitude and longitude. The distance across one of the images is about three Earth diameters (37,433 kilometers). During the intervening time between the first and fourth maps, the winds have swept the clouds 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) eastward. 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/ |
|
Mars At Opposition
PIA01252
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Mars At Opposition |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
These NASA Hubble Space Telescope views provide the most detailed complete global coverage of the red planet Mars ever seen from Earth. The pictures were taken on February 25, 1995, when Mars was at a distance of 65 million miles (103 million km). To the surprise of researchers, Mars is cloudier than seen in previous years. This means the planet is cooler and drier, because water vapor in the atmosphere freezes out to form ice-crystal clouds. Hubble resolves Martian surface features with a level of detail only exceeded by planetary probes, such as impact craters and other features as small as 30 miles (50 kilometers) across. [Tharsis region] - A crescent-shaped cloud just right of center identifies the immense shield volcano Olympus Mons, which is 340 miles (550 km) across at its base. Warm afternoon air pushed up over the summit forms ice-crystal clouds downwind from the volcano. Farther to the east (right) a line of clouds forms over a row of three extinct volcanoes which are from north to south: Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, Arsia Mons. It's part of an unusual, recurring "W"-shaped cloud formation that once mystified earlier ground-based observers. [Valles Marineris region] - The 16 mile-high volcano Ascraeus Mons pokes through the cloud deck along the western (left) limb of the planet. Other interesting geologic features include (lower left) Valles Marineris, an immense rift valley the length of the continental United States. Near the image center lies the Chryse basin made up of cratered and chaotic terrain. The oval-looking Argyre impact basin (bottom) appears white due to clouds or frost. [Syrtis Major region] - The dark "shark fin" feature left of center is Syrtis Major. Below it the giant impact basin Hellas. Clouds cover several great volcanos in the Elysium region near the eastern (right) limb. As clearly seen in the Hubble images, past dust storms in Mars' southern hemisphere have scoured the plains of fine light dust and transported the dust northward. This leaves behind a relatively coarser, and less reflective sand in, predominantly, the southern hemisphere. The pictures were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. 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/ |
|
Hubble Images Reveal Jupiter
…
PIA01257
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Images Reveal Jupiter's Auroras |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
These images, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal changes in Jupiter's auroral emissions and how small auroral spots just outside the emission rings are linked to the planet's volcanic moon, Io. The images represent the most sensitive and sharply-detailed views ever taken of Jovian auroras. The top panel pinpoints the effects of emissions from Io, which is about the size of Earth's moon. The black-and-white image on the left, taken in visible light, shows how Io and Jupiter are linked by an invisible electrical current of charged particles called a "flux tube." The particles - ejected from Io (the bright spot on Jupiter's right) by volcanic eruptions - flow along Jupiter's magnetic field lines, which thread through Io, to the planet's north and south magnetic poles. This image also shows the belts of clouds surrounding Jupiter as well as the Great Red Spot. The black-and-white image on the right, taken in ultraviolet light about 15 minutes later, shows Jupiter's auroral emissions at the north and south poles. Just outside these emissions are the auroral spots. Called "footprints," the spots are created when the particles in Io's "flux tube" reach Jupiter's upper atmosphere and interact with hydrogen gas, making it fluoresce. In this image, Io is not observable because it is faint in the ultraviolet. The two ultraviolet images at the bottom of the picture show how the auroral emissions change in brightness and structure as Jupiter rotates. These false-color images also reveal how the magnetic field is offset from Jupiter's spin axis by 10 to 15 degrees. In the right image, the north auroral emission is rising over the left limb, the south auroral oval is beginning to set. The image on the left, obtained on a different date, shows a full view of the north aurora, with a strong emission inside the main auroral oval. The images were taken by the telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 between May 1994 and September 1995. 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/ |
|
Hubble Tracks Jupiter Storms
PIA01262
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Tracks Jupiter Storms |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is following dramatic and rapid changes in Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere that will be critical for targeting observations made by the Galileo space probe when it arrives at the giant planet later this year. This Hubble image provides a detailed look at a unique cluster of three white oval-shaped storms that lie southwest (below and to the left) of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The appearance of the clouds, as imaged on February 13, 1995 is considerably different from their appearance only seven months earlier. Hubble shows these features moving closer together as the Great Red Spot is carried westward by the prevailing winds while the white ovals are swept eastward. (This change in appearance is not an effect of last July's comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collisions with Jupiter.) The outer two of the white storms formed in the late 1930s. In the centers of these cloud systems the air is rising, carrying fresh ammonia gas upward. New, white ice crystals form when the upwelling gas freezes as it reaches the chilly cloud top level where temperatures are -200 degrees Fahrenheit (- 130 degrees Centigrade). The intervening white storm center, the ropy structure to the left of the ovals, and the small brown spot have formed in low pressure cells. The white clouds sit above locations where gas is descending to lower, warmer regions. The extent of melting of the white ice exposes varied amounts of Jupiter's ubiquitous brown haze. The stronger the down flow, the less ice, and the browner the region. A scheduled series of Hubble observations will help target regions of interest for detailed scrutiny by the Galileo spacecraft, which will arrive at Jupiter in early December 1995. Hubble will provide a global view of Jupiter while Galileo will obtain close-up images of structure of the clouds that make up the large storm systems such as the Great Red Spot and white ovals that are seen in this picture. This color picture is assembled from a series of images taken by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, in planetary camera mode, when Jupiter was at a distance of 519 million miles (961 million kilometers) from Earth. These images are part of a set of data obtained by a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) team headed by Reta Beebe of New Mexico State University. 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/ |
|
Springtime on Mars: Hubble's
…
PIA01253
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Springtime on Mars: Hubble's Best View of the Red Planet |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope view of the planet Mars is the clearest picture ever taken from Earth, surpassed only by close-up shots sent back by visiting space probes. The picture was taken on February 25, 1995, when Mars was at a distance of approximately 65 million miles (103 million km) from Earth. Because it is spring in Mars' northern hemisphere, much of the carbon dioxide frost around the permanent water-ice cap has sublimated, and the cap has receded to a core of solid water-ice several hundred miles across. Towering 16 miles (25 km) above the surrounding plains, volcano Ascraeus Mons pokes above the cloud deck near the western or limb. This extinct volcano, measuring 250 miles (402 km) across, was discovered in the early 1970s by Mariner 9 spacecraft. Other key geologic features include (lower left) the Valles Marineris, an immense rift valley the length of the continental United States. Near the center of the disk lies the Chryse basin made up of cratered and chaotic terrain. The oval-looking Argyre impact basin (bottom), appears white due to clouds or frost. Seasonal winds carry dust to form striking linear features reminiscent of the legendary martian "canals." Many of these "wind streaks" emanate from the bowl of these craters where dark coarse sand is swept out by winds. Hubble resolves several dozen impact craters down to 30-mile diameter. The dark areas, once misinterpreted as regions of vegetation by several early Mars watchers, are really areas of coarse sand that is less reflective than the finer, lighter dust. Seasonal changes in the surface appearance occur as winds move the dust and sand around. This picture was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in PC mode. The pictures were map-projected onto a sphere for accurate registration and perspective. 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/ |
|
Hubble Discovery Image of Ne
…
PIA01274
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Discovery Image of New Moon Orbiting Saturn |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This four-picture sequence (spanning 30 minutes) shows one of four new moons discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope, in images taken of Saturn on May 22, 1995, when Saturn's rings were tilted edge-on to Earth. Identified as S/1995 S3, the moon appears as an elongated white spot near the center of each image. The new moon lies just outside Saturn's outermost "F" ring and is no bigger than about 15 miles across. The brighter object to the left is the moon Epimetheus, which was discovered during the ring-plane crossing of 1966. Both moons change position from frame to frame because they are orbiting the planet. Saturn appears as a bright white disk at far right, and the edge-on rings extend diagonally to the upper left. To the left of the vertical line, each image has been processed to remove residual light from the rings and accentuate any faint satellites orbiting near the rings. The long observing times necessary to detect the faint satellites have resulted in Saturn's bright, overexposed appearance. Saturn ring plane crossings happen only once every 15 years, and historically have given astronomers an opportunity to discover new satellites that are normally lost in the glare of the planet's bright ring system. 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/ |
|
Saturn's Rings Edge-on
PIA01275
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Saturn's Rings Edge-on |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
In one of nature's most dramatic examples of "now-you see-them, now-you-don't", NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured Saturn on May 22, 1995 as the planet's magnificent ring system turned edge-on. This ring-plane crossing occurs approximately every 15 years when the Earth passes through Saturn's ring plane. For comparison, the top picture was taken by Hubble on December 1, 1994 and shows the rings in a more familiar configuration for Earth observers. The bottom picture was taken shortly before the ring plane crossing. The rings do not disappear completely because the edge of the rings reflects sunlight. The dark band across the middle of Saturn is the shadow of the rings cast on the planet (the Sun is almost 3 degrees above the ring plane.) The bright stripe directly above the ring shadow is caused by sunlight reflected off the rings onto Saturn's atmosphere. Two of Saturn's icy moons are visible as tiny starlike objects in or near the ring plane. They are, from left to right, Tethys (slightly above the ring plane) and Dione. This observation will be used to determine the time of ring-plane crossing and the thickness of the main rings and to search for as yet undiscovered satellites. Knowledge of the exact time of ring-plane crossing will lead to an improved determination of the rate at which Saturn "wobbles" about its axis (polar precession). Both pictures were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The top image was taken in visible light. Saturn's disk appears different in the bottom image because a narrowband filter (which only lets through light that is not absorbed by methane gas in Saturn's atmosphere) was used to reduce the bright glare of the planet. Though Saturn is approximately 900 million miles away, Hubble can see details as small as 450 miles across. 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/ |
|
Hubble Captures Detailed Ima
…
PIA01280
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Captures Detailed Image of Uranus' Atmosphere |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Hubble Space Telescope has peered deep into Uranus' atmosphere to see clear and hazy layers created by a mixture of gases. Using infrared filters, Hubble captured detailed features of three layers of Uranus' atmosphere. Hubble's images are different from the ones taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew by Uranus 10 years ago. Those images - not taken in infrared light - showed a greenish-blue disk with very little detail. The infrared image allows astronomers to probe the structure of Uranus' atmosphere, which consists of mostly hydrogen with traces of methane. The red around the planet's edge represents a very thin haze at a high altitude. The haze is so thin that it can only be seen by looking at the edges of the disk, and is similar to looking at the edge of a soap bubble. The yellow near the bottom of Uranus is another hazy layer. The deepest layer, the blue near the top of Uranus, shows a clearer atmosphere. Image processing has been used to brighten the rings around Uranus so that astronomers can study their structure. In reality, the rings are as dark as black lava or charcoal. This false color picture was assembled from several exposures taken July 3, 1995 by the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2. 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/ |
|
Hubble Views Saturn Ring-Pla
…
PIA01277
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Saturn Ring-Plane Crossing (satellites labeled) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This sequence of images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope documents a rare astronomical alignment -- Saturn's magnificent ring system turned edge-on. This occurs when the Earth passes through Saturn's ring plane, as it does approximately every 15 years. These pictures were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on 22 May 1995, when Saturn was at a distance of 919 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. At Saturn, Hubble can see details as small as 450 miles (725 km) across. In each image, the dark band across Saturn is the ring shadow cast by the Sun which is still 2.7 degrees above Saturn's ring plane. The box around the western portion of the rings (to the right of Saturn) in each image indicates the area in which the faint light from the rings has been multiplied through image processing (by a factor of 25) to make the rings more visible. [Top] - This image was taken while the Earth was above the lit face of the rings. The moons Tethys and Dione are visible to the east (left) of Saturn, Janus is the bright spot near the center of the ring portion in the box, and Pandora is faintly visible just inside the left edge of this box. Saturn's atmosphere shows remarkable detail: multiple banding in both the northern and southern hemispheres, wispy structure at the north edge of the equatorial zone, and a bright area above the ring shadow that is caused by sunlight scattered off the rings onto the atmosphere. There is evidence of a faint polar haze over the north pole of Saturn and a fainter haze over the south. [Center] - This image was taken close to the time of ring-plane crossing. The rings are 75% fainter than in the top image, though they do not disappear completely because the vertical face of the rings still reflects sunlight when the rings are edge-on. Rhea is visible to the east of Saturn, Enceladus is the bright satellite in the rings to the west, and Janus is the fainter blip to its right. Pandora is just to the left of Enceladus, but is not visible because Enceladus is too bright. An oval-shaped atmospheric feature has just rotated into view (near the eastern limb, at the northern edge of the equatorial zone), and appears to be a local circulation pattern that is not penetrated by the bright clouds that are deflected around it. [Bottom] - This image was taken approximately 96 minutes (one Hubble orbit) after the center image. The rings are 10% brighter than they were in that image. Rhea is visible just off the eastern limb of Saturn, and casts a shadow on the south face of Saturn. During this exposure, the Earth and Sun were on opposite sides of Saturn's ring plane (they remain in this configuration until 10 August 1995). The atmospheric circulation pattern has rotated to just past the center of the planet's disk, and is followed by more wispy structure in the bright band of clouds, reminiscent of the structure seen during the Saturn storm observed in 1990. These images will be used to determine the time of, ring-plane crossing and the thickness of the main rings and to search for as yet undiscovered satellites. Knowledge of the exact time of ring-plane crossing will lead to an improved determination of the rate at which Saturn "wobbles" about its axis (polar precession). Technical Notes Each of these images is a 7-second exposure at 8922 Angstroms in a methane absorption band. North is up and east is to the left. 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/ |
|
Hubble again views Saturn's
…
PIA01273
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble again views Saturn's Rings Edge-on |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Saturn's magnificent ring system is seen tilted edge-on -- for the second time this year -- in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope picture taken on August 10, 1995, when the planet was 895 million miles (1,440 million kilometers) away. Hubble snapped the image as Earth sped back across Saturn's ring plane to the sunlit side of the rings. Last May 22, Earth dipped below the ring plane, giving observers a brief look at the backlit side of the rings. Ring-plane crossing events occur approximately every 15 years. Earthbound observers won't have as good a view until the year 2038. Several of Saturn's icy moons are visible as tiny starlike objects in or near the ring plane. They are from left to right, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Mimas. "The Hubble data shows numerous faint satellites close to the bright rings, but it will take a couple of months to precisely identify them," according to Steve Larson (University of Arizona). During the May ring plane crossing, Hubble detected two, and possibly four, new moons orbiting Saturn. These new observations also provide a better view of the faint E ring, "to help determine the size of particles and whether they will pose a collision hazard to the Cassini spacecraft," said Larson. The picture was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in wide field mode. This image is a composite view, where a long exposure of the faint rings has been combined with a shorter exposure of Saturn's disk to bring out more detail. When viewed edge-on, the rings are so dim they almost disappear because they are very thin -- probably less than a mile thick. 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/ |
|
Hubble Sees Material Ejected
…
PIA01291
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Sees Material Ejected From Comet Hale-Bopp |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
These NASA Hubble Space Telescope pictures of comet Hale-Bopp show a remarkable "pinwheel" pattern and a blob of free-flying debris near the nucleus. The bright clump of light along the spiral (above the nucleus, which is near the center of the frame) may be a piece of the comet's icy crust that was ejected into space by a combination of ice evaporation and the comet's rotation, and which then disintegrated into a bright cloud of particles. Although the "blob" is about 3.5 times fainter than the brightest portion at the nucleus, the lump appears brighter because it covers a larger area. The debris follows a spiral pattern outward because the solid nucleus is rotating like a lawn sprinkler, completing a single rotation about once per week. Ground-based observations conducted over the past two months have documented at least two separate episodes of jet and pinwheel formation and fading. By coincidence, the first Hubble images of Hale-Bopp, taken on September 26, 1995, immediately followed one of these outbursts and allow researchers to examine it at unprecedented detail. For the first time they see a clear separation between the nucleus and some of the debris being shed. By putting together information from the Hubble images and those taken during the recent outburst using the 82 cm telescope of the Teide Observatory (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain), astronomers find that the debris is moving away from the nucleus at a speed (projected on the sky) of about 68 miles per hour (109 kilometers per hour). The Hubble observations will be used to determine if Hale-Bopp is really a giant comet or rather a more moderate-sized object whose current activity is driven by outgassing from a very volatile ice which will "burn out" over the next year. Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered on July 23, 1995 by amateur astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp. Though this comet is still well outside the orbit of Jupiter (almost 600 million miles, or one billion kilometers from Earth) it looks surprisingly bright, fueling predictions that it could become the brightest comet of the century in early 1997. The full-field picture on the left, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (in WF mode), shows the comet against a stellar backdrop in the constellation Sagittarius. The stars are streaked due to a combination of Hubble's orbital motion and its tracking of the nucleus, which is now falling toward the Sun at 33,800 miles per hour (54,000 km/hr). In the close-up picture on the right, the stars have been subtracted through image processing. Each picture element is nearly 300 miles (480 km) across at the comet's distance. In this false color scale the faintest regions are black, the brightest regions are white, and intermediate intensities are represented by different levels of red. Even more detailed Hubble images will be taken with the Planetary Camera in late October to follow the further evolution of the spiral, look for more outbursts, place limits on the size of, the nucleus, and use spectroscopy to study the enigmatic comet's chemical composition. 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/ |
|
Hubble Views Saturn Ring-Pla
…
PIA01276
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Saturn Ring-Plane Crossing |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This sequence of images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope documents a rare astronomical alignment -- Saturn's magnificent ring system turned edge-on. This occurs when the Earth passes through Saturn's ring plane, as it does approximately every 15 years. These pictures were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on 22 May 1995, when Saturn was at a distance of 919 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. At Saturn, Hubble can see details as small as 450 miles (725 km) across. In each image, the dark band across Saturn is the ring shadow cast by the Sun which is still 2.7 degrees above Saturn's ring plane. The box around the western portion of the rings (to the right of Saturn) in each image indicates the area in which the faint light from the rings has been multiplied through image processing (by a factor of 25) to make the rings more visible. [Top] - This image was taken while the Earth was above the lit face of the rings. The moons Tethys and Dione are visible to the east (left) of Saturn, Janus is the bright spot near the center of the ring portion in the box, and Pandora is faintly visible just inside the left edge of this box. Saturn's atmosphere shows remarkable detail: multiple banding in both the northern and southern hemispheres, wispy structure at the north edge of the equatorial zone, and a bright area above the ring shadow that is caused by sunlight scattered off the rings onto the atmosphere. There is evidence of a faint polar haze over the north pole of Saturn and a fainter haze over the south. [Center] - This image was taken close to the time of ring-plane crossing. The rings are 75% fainter than in the top image, though they do not disappear completely because the vertical face of the rings still reflects sunlight when the rings are edge-on. Rhea is visible to the east of Saturn, Enceladus is the bright satellite in the rings to the west, and Janus is the fainter blip to its right. Pandora is just to the left of Enceladus, but is not visible because Enceladus is too bright. An oval-shaped atmospheric feature has just rotated into view (near the eastern limb, at the northern edge of the equatorial zone), and appears to be a local circulation pattern that is not penetrated by the bright clouds that are deflected around it. [Bottom] - This image was taken approximately 96 minutes (one Hubble orbit) after the center image. The rings are 10% brighter than they were in that image. Rhea is visible just off the eastern limb of Saturn, and casts a shadow on the south face of Saturn. During this exposure, the Earth and Sun were on opposite sides of Saturn's ring plane (they remain in this configuration until 10 August 1995). The atmospheric circulation pattern has rotated to just past the center of the planet's disk, and is followed by more wispy structure in the bright band of clouds, reminiscent of the structure seen during the Saturn storm observed in 1990. These images will be used to determine the time of, ring-plane crossing and the thickness of the main rings and to search for as yet undiscovered satellites. Knowledge of the exact time of ring-plane crossing will lead to an improved determination of the rate at which Saturn "wobbles" about its axis (polar precession). Technical Notes Each of these images is a 7-second exposure at 8922 Angstroms in a methane absorption band. North is up and east is to the left. 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/ |
|
Hubble Images of Comet Hale-
…
PIA01289
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Images of Comet Hale-Bopp |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This is a series of Hubble Space Telescope observations of the region around the nucleus of Hale-Bopp, taken on eight different dates since September 1995. They chronicle changes in the evolution of the nucleus as it moves ever closer to, and is warmed by, the sun. The first picture in the sequence, seen at upper left shows a strong dust outburst on the comet that occurred when it was beyond the orbit of Jupiter. Images in the Fall of 1996 show multiple jets that are presumably connected to the activation of multiple vents on the surface of the nucleus. In these false color images, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, the faintest regions are black, the brightest regions are white, and intermediate intensities are represented by different levels of red. All images are processed at the same spatial scale of 280 miles per pixel (470 kilometers), so the solid nucleus, no larger than 25 miles across, is far below Hubble's resolution. 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/ |
|
|
