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Galaxy M100 Resolution Compa
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| Title |
Galaxy M100 Resolution Comparison |
| General Information |
What is an Early Release Observation? A photograph of a celestial object that demonstrates the performance of a new Hubble camera. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. This sequence of pictures shows successive steps in optical improvement from ground based telescopes to the newly improved Hubble Space Telescope and demonstrates the unique capability of the repaired HST. HST offers superb resolution, which allows astronomers to distinguish individual afar. in other galaxies. The resolution also allows very faint stars to be seen. This set of pictures demonstrates that the repaired HST can see stars which could never before be detected. |
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The Spiral Galaxy M100 as Se
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| Title |
The Spiral Galaxy M100 as Seen With the Hubble's Improved Vision |
| General Information |
What is an Early Release Observation? A photograph of a celestial object that demonstrates the performance of a new Hubble camera. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. An image of the grand design spiral galaxy M100 obtained with the second generation Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC-2), newly installed in the Hubble Space Telescope. Though the galaxy lies several tens of millions of light-years away, modified optics incorporated within the WFPC-2 allow Hubble to view M100 with a level of clarity and sensitivity previously possible only for the very few nearby galaxies that compose our "Local Group." Just as one does not learn about the diversity of mankind by conversing only with your next door neighbor, astronomers must study many galaxies in a host of different environments if they are to come to understand how our own galaxy, out star, and our earth came to be. By expanding the region of the universe that can be studied in such detail a thousand fold, the WFPC-2 will help the Hubble Space Telescope to fulfill this mission. |
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Picture Perfect: Hubble's Ne
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| Title |
Picture Perfect: Hubble's New Improved Optics Probe the Core of a Distant Galaxy |
| General Information |
What is an Early Release Observation? A photograph of a celestial object that demonstrates the performance of a new Hubble camera. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. This comparison image of the core of galaxy M100 shows the dramatic improvement in the Hubble telescope's view of the universe. The new image (right) was taken with the second generation Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC2), which was installed during the STS-61 Hubble Servicing Mission. The picture beautifully demonstrates that the corrective optics incorporated within WFPC2 compensate fully for Hubble's near-sightedness. The new camera will allow Hubble to probe the universe with unprecedented clarity and sensitivity. The picture clearly shows faint structure as small as 30 light-years across in a galaxy tens of millions of light-years away. |
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Hubble Space Telescope Measu
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Hubble Space Telescope Measures Precise Distance to the Most Remote Galaxy Yet |
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M100: A Grand Design
| Title |
M100: A Grand Design |
| Explanation |
Majestic [ http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/pubserv/hos/stars/welcome.htm ] on a truly cosmic scale, M100 [ http://bozo.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/m/m100.html ] is appropriately known as a Grand Design spiral [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961030.html ] galaxy. A large galaxy of over 100 billion or so stars with well defined spiral arms [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960409.html ], it is similar to our own Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970315.html ]. One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies [ http://bozo.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/virgo.html ] , M100 (alias NGC 4321) is 56 million light-years distant in the spring constellation of Coma Berenices [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/ constellations/Coma_Berenices.html ]. This Hubble Space Telescope image [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/94/01.html ] of the central region of M100 was made in 1993 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. It reveals the bright blue star clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980329.html ] and intricate winding dust lanes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980116.html ] which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies [ http://hermes.astro.washington.edu:80/scied/astro/hubble/hubble.html ]. Studies of stars in M100 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960110.html ] have recently played an important role in determining the size and age [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/ debate_1996.html ] of the Universe. |
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M100: A Grand Design
| Title |
M100: A Grand Design |
| Explanation |
Majestic [ http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/pubserv/hos/stars/welcome.htm ] on a truly cosmic scale, M100 [ http://bozo.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/m/m100.html ] is appropriately known as a Grand Design spiral galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961030.html ]. A large galaxy of over 100 billion or so stars with well defined spiral arms [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960409.html ], it is similar to our own Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970315.html ]. One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies [ http://bozo.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/virgo.html ] , M100 (alias NGC 4321) is 56 million light-years distant in the spring constellation of Coma Berenices [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/ constellations/Coma_Berenices.html ]. This Hubble Space Telescope image [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/94/01.html ] of the central region of M100 was made in 1993 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. It reveals the bright blue star clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980329.html ] and intricate winding dust lanes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980116.html ] which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies [ http://hermes.astro.washington.edu:80/scied/astro/hubble/hubble.html ]. Studies of stars in M100 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960110.html ] have recently played an important role in determining the size and age of the Universe. |
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