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Chandra X-ray Image of M83
| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image of M83 |
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Chandra X-ray Image with Sca
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| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image with Scale Bar |
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Chandra X-ray Image of M51 (
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| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image of M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) |
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Chandra X-ray Image with Sca
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| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image with Scale Bar |
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Chandra X-ray Image of NGC 4
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| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image of NGC 4697 |
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Chandra X-ray Image with Sca
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| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image with Scale Bar |
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DSS Optical Image of M101
| Name |
DSS Optical Image of M101 |
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Four-Panel of M101, M83, M51
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| Name |
Four-Panel of M101, M83, M51, & NGC 4697 |
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Chandra X-ray Image of M101
| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image of M101 |
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More Images of M101/Quasisof
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| Name |
More Images of M101/Quasisoft Sources |
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NOAO Optical Image of SN 197
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| Name |
NOAO Optical Image of SN 1970G |
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Hubble's Largest Galaxy Port
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| Title |
Hubble's Largest Galaxy Portrait Offers a New High-Definition View |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Giant galaxies weren?t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. The galaxy?s portrait is actually composed of 51 individual exposures taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in March 1994, September 1994, June 1999, November 2002, and January 2003. The newly composed image also includes elements from images from ground-based photos. |
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Hubble's Largest Galaxy Port
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| Title |
Hubble's Largest Galaxy Portrait Offers a New High-Definition View |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Giant galaxies weren?t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. The galaxy?s portrait is actually composed of 51 individual exposures taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in March 1994, September 1994, June 1999, November 2002, and January 2003. The newly composed image also includes elements from images from ground-based photos. |
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Happy Sweet Sixteen, Hubble
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| Title |
Happy Sweet Sixteen, Hubble Telescope! |
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Messier 101
| Title |
Messier 101 |
| Explanation |
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier's [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000311.html ] famous catalog, but definitely not one [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m102d.html ] of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous, almost twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy. M101 was also one of the original spiral nebulae [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/m101_rosse.html ] observed by Lord Rosse's large 19th century telescope, the Leviathan [ http://www.birrcastle.com/telescopeHistory.htm ] of Parsontown. Assembled from 51 exposures recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 20th and 21st centuries, with additional data from ground based telescopes, this mosaic of M101 [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/ releases/2006/10/ ] is touted as the largest, most detailed spiral galaxy [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/2006/10/index.html ] view ever released from Hubble. The sharp image [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/ releases/2006/10/fastfacts/ ] shows stunning features [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/ releases/2006/10/image/a+zoom ] along the galaxy's face-on disk of stars and dust along with background galaxies, some visible right through M101 itself. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m101.html ] lies within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Major ], about 25 million light-years away. |
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M101: An Ultraviolet View
| Title |
M101: An Ultraviolet View |
| Explanation |
This picture of giant spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101) [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m101.html ] was taken by the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope [ http://hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/uit/uit.html ] (UIT). UIT [ http://hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov/astro/uit/uitcutaway.html ] flew into orbit as part of the Astro 2 mission [ http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-67/mission-sts-67.html ] on-board the Space Shuttle Endeavour in March 1995. The image has been processed [ http://trifle.gsfc.nasa.gov/UIT/Astro2/Astro2_pictures.html ] so that the colors (dark purple through white) represent an increasing intensity of ultraviolet light [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/introduction/ emspectrum.html ]. Pictures of galaxies like this one show mainly clouds of gas containing newly formed stars many times more massive than the sun, which glow strongly in the ultraviolet. In contrast, visible light pictures of galaxies [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/m101_more.html ] tend to be dominated by the yellow and red light of older stars. Ultraviolet light [ http://titan.srrb.noaa.gov/UV/ ], invisible to the human eye, is blocked by ozone in the atmosphere [ http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] so ultraviolet pictures of celestial objects must be taken from space. M101 is a mere 22 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major [ http://www.seds.org/Maps/Stars_en/Fig/ursamajor.html ]. Its popular moniker is the Pinwheel Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970805.html ]. |
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An Ultraviolet Image of Mess
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| Title |
An Ultraviolet Image of Messier 101 |
| Explanation |
This giant spiral galaxy, Messier 101 (M101), was photographed by the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour during the Astro-2 mission (March 2 - 18, 1995). The image has been computer processed so that the colors represent the intensity of ultraviolet light. Pictures of galaxies like this one show mainly clouds of gas containing newly formed stars many times more massive than the sun, which glow strongly in ultraviolet light. In contrast, visible light pictures of galaxies tend to be dominated by the yellow and red light of older stars. Ultraviolet light, invisible to the human eye, is blocked by ozone in the atmosphere so ultraviolet pictures of celestial objects must be taken from space. For more information see NASA Astro-2 UIT release. [ http://fondue.gsfc.nasa.gov/UIT/Astro2/Astro2_pictures.html#M101 ] |
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M101: The Pinwheel Galaxy
| Title |
M101: The Pinwheel Galaxy |
| Explanation |
Why do many galaxies appear as spirals [ http://www.seds.org/messier/spir.html ]? A striking example is M101, shown above [ http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/HawaiianStarlight/AIOM/English/CFHT-Coelum-AIOM-Mar2003.html ], whose relatively close distance of about 22 million light years allow it to be studied in some detail. Recent evidence [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1997ApJ...481..169W ] indicates that a close gravitational interaction with a neighboring galaxy created waves of high mass [ http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/~danforth/spiral/ ] and condensed gas which continue to orbit the galaxy center. These waves [ http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~ummccowa/density.htm ] compress existing gas and cause star formation. One result is that M101 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m101.html ], also called the Pinwheel Galaxy [ http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/m101.html ], has several extremely bright star-forming regions [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000610.html ] (called HII regions [ http://skyserver.fnal.gov/en/proj/challenges/hii/ ]) spread across its spiral arms. M101 [ http://www.astr.ua.edu/gifimages/m101b.html ] is so large that its immense gravity distorts smaller nearby galaxies. |
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Tomorrow's picture: An Auror
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| Title |
Tomorrow's picture: An Auroral Ring on Jupiter [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970609.html ] |
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M101: The Pinwheel Galaxy
| Title |
M101: The Pinwheel Galaxy |
| Explanation |
Why do many galaxies appear as spirals [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/spirals.html ]? A striking example is M101, shown above [ http://www.astr.ua.edu/gifimages/m101b.html ], whose relatively close distance of about 22 million light years allow it to be studied in some detail. Recent evidence [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1997ApJ%2E%2E%2E481%2E%2E169W&db_key=AST&nosetcookie=1 ] indicates that a close gravitational interaction with a neighboring galaxy created waves of high mass [ http://lsnt7.lightspeed.net/~astronomy/galaxy.notes/galaxy.notes.html#A1.1.5.1 ] and condensed gas which continue to circle the galaxy [ ftp://crux.astr.ua.edu/web/goodies/data_resources/galaxies.text ]. These waves compress existing gas and cause star formation [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970119.html ]. One result is that M101 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970608.html ], also called the Pinwheel Galaxy, has several extremely bright star-forming regions (called HII regions) spread across its spiral arms. M101 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m101.html ] is so large that its immense gravity distorts smaller nearby galaxies. |
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Candidates for a Hypernova
| Title |
Candidates for a Hypernova |
| Explanation |
What created these huge explosion remnants? Speculation has been building recently that outbursts even more powerful than well-known supernovae [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961114.html ] might occur. Dubbed hypernovae [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1999ApJ...512L.117H ], these explosions might result from high-mass stars and liberate perhaps ten times more energy than conventional supernovae [ http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/snr.html ]. A hypernova [ http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9712123 ] was originally postulated to explain the great amount of energy seemingly liberated in a gamma-ray burst [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970513.html ]. A search [ http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9903246 ] for visible remnants of hypernovae has now yielded the above two candidates [ ftp://PAO.GSFC.NASA.GOV/newsmedia/HEAD/HN/hypernova.html ]. Nearby spiral galaxy M101 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970805.html ], shown on the right, has two large expanding shells that might have originated from a hypernova. Remnant NGC 5471B on the upper left and MF83 below were identified by the unusually high amount of X-ray radiation [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html ] they emit. MF83 is also one of the largest expanding shells [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990307.html ] ever found. Research continues into the possible nature and visibility of hypernovae and the gas shells they likely leave behind. |
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Galaxy M101
PIA04630
GALEX Telescope
| Title |
Galaxy M101 |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This three-color image of galaxy M101 was taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer on June 20, 2003. The far ultraviolet emissions are shown in blue, the near ultraviolet emissions are green, and the red emissions, which were taken from NASA's Digital Sky Survey, represent visible light. This image combines short, medium, and long "exposure" pictures to best display the evolution of star formation in a spiral galaxy. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission is led by the California Institute of Technology, which is also responsible for the science operations and data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of Caltech, manages the mission and built the science instrument. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorers Program, managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The mission's international partners include South Korea and France. |
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