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Hubble`s Advanced Camera unveils a panoramic new view of the Universe
April 30, 2002Jubilant astronomers today unveiled humankind`s most spectacular views of the Universe as captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope`s new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). They also reported that Hubble is operating superbly since the March servicing mission and are looking forward to more pictures from the newly revived NICMOS camera.
"The ACS is opening a wide new window onto the Universe. These are among the best images of the distant Universe humans have ever seen," says Johns Hopkins University astronomer Holland Ford, the lead scientist in the ACS` seven-year development. "The ACS will let us obtain the deepest image of the Universe for the foreseeable future," added astronomer Garth Illingworth, the deputy leader for the ACS.
The camera`s tenfold increase in efficiency will open up much anticipated new `discovery space` for Hubble. "ACS will allow us to push back the frontier of the early Universe. We will be able to enter the `twilight zone` period when galaxies were just beginning to form out of the blackness following the cooling of the Universe from the Big Bang," says Ford.
Among the suite of four `suitable for framing` ACS science demonstration pictures released today is a stunning view of a colliding galaxy, dubbed the `Tadpole`, located 420 million light-years away. Unlike textbook images of stately galaxies, the `Tadpole` with a long tidal tail of stars, looks like a runaway pinwheel firework. It captures the essence of our dynamic, restless and violent Universe.
But what came as an unexpected bonus is the enormous number of galaxies behind the Tadpole galaxy - as many as 6000, twice the number in the legendary Hubble Deep Field (HDF) in 1995. Amazingly, the ACS picture was taken in one-twelfth the time it took for the original HDF, and in blue light it shows even fainter objects than the HDF. Like the HDF, the galaxies stretch back to nearly the beginning of time and contain myriad shapes that are snapshots of galaxies throughout the Universe`s 13 billion-year evolution.
The ACS images are so sharp astronomers can identify `building blocks` of galaxies, colliding galaxies, an exquisite `Whitman`s Sampler` of galaxies, and extremely distant galaxies in the field. The ACS image of the Tadpole illustrates the dramatic gains over the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 that were expected from doubling the area and resolution, and five times improvement in sensitivity.
The other pictures include a stunning collision between two spiral galaxies - dubbed `the Mice` - that presage what may happen to our own Milky Way several billion years in the future when it collides with the neighbouring galaxy in the constellation Andromeda. Computer simulations made by J. Barnes and J. Hibbard show that we are seeing the collision of the Mice approximately 160 million years after their closest encounter. Running the simulations forward in time shows that the two galaxies will eventually merge, forming an elliptical-like galaxy. A similar fate may await the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy.
Looking closer to home, ACS imaged the Cone Nebula, a craggy-looking mountaintop of cold gas and dust that is a cousin to Hubble`s iconic `pillars of creation` in the Eagle Nebula, photographed in 1995.
Peering into a celestial maternity ward called the Swan Nebula (M17), the ACS revealed a watercolour fantasy-world tapestry of vivid colours and glowing ridges of gas. Embedded in this crucible of star creation are embryonic planetary systems.
Mounted aboard the world`s premier optical-ultraviolet telescope, the ACS is a camera of superlatives. It is expected to go beyond the sensitivity of the largest ground-based telescope to eventually see the very faintest objects ever. Its camera delivers a panoramic crispness comparable to that of a wide-screen IMAX movie, a staggering 16 million picture elements (megapixels) per snapshot (typical consumer cameras are 2 to 4 megapixels).
European Space Agency (ESA)
Among the suite of four `suitable for framing` ACS science demonstration pictures released today is a stunning view of a colliding galaxy, dubbed the `Tadpole`, located 420 million light-years away. Unlike textbook images of stately galaxies, the `Tadpole` with a long tidal tail of stars, looks like a runaway pinwheel firework. It captures the essence of our dynamic, restless and violent Universe.
But what came as an unexpected bonus is the enormous number of galaxies behind the Tadpole galaxy - as many as 6000, twice the number in the legendary Hubble Deep Field (HDF) in 1995. Amazingly, the ACS picture was taken in one-twelfth the time it took for the original HDF, and in blue light it shows even fainter objects than the HDF. Like the HDF, the galaxies stretch back to nearly the beginning of time and contain myriad shapes that are snapshots of galaxies throughout the Universe`s 13 billion-year evolution.
The ACS images are so sharp astronomers can identify `building blocks` of galaxies, colliding galaxies, an exquisite `Whitman`s Sampler` of galaxies, and extremely distant galaxies in the field. The ACS image of the Tadpole illustrates the dramatic gains over the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 that were expected from doubling the area and resolution, and five times improvement in sensitivity.
The other pictures include a stunning collision between two spiral galaxies - dubbed `the Mice` - that presage what may happen to our own Milky Way several billion years in the future when it collides with the neighbouring galaxy in the constellation Andromeda. Computer simulations made by J. Barnes and J. Hibbard show that we are seeing the collision of the Mice approximately 160 million years after their closest encounter. Running the simulations forward in time shows that the two galaxies will eventually merge, forming an elliptical-like galaxy. A similar fate may await the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy.
Looking closer to home, ACS imaged the Cone Nebula, a craggy-looking mountaintop of cold gas and dust that is a cousin to Hubble`s iconic `pillars of creation` in the Eagle Nebula, photographed in 1995.
Peering into a celestial maternity ward called the Swan Nebula (M17), the ACS revealed a watercolour fantasy-world tapestry of vivid colours and glowing ridges of gas. Embedded in this crucible of star creation are embryonic planetary systems.
Mounted aboard the world`s premier optical-ultraviolet telescope, the ACS is a camera of superlatives. It is expected to go beyond the sensitivity of the largest ground-based telescope to eventually see the very faintest objects ever. Its camera delivers a panoramic crispness comparable to that of a wide-screen IMAX movie, a staggering 16 million picture elements (megapixels) per snapshot (typical consumer cameras are 2 to 4 megapixels).
European Space Agency (ESA)
Galaxies Current Events and Galaxies News RSSWatching a Cannibal Galaxy Dine
A new technique using near-infrared images, obtained with ESO's 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT), allows astronomers to see through the opaque dust lanes of the giant cannibal galaxy Centaurus A, unveiling its "last meal" in unprecedented detail - a smaller spiral galaxy, currently twisted and warped.
Baffling boxy bulge
When targeting spiral galaxy bulges, astronomers often seek edge-on galaxies, as their bulges are more easily distinguishable from the disc.
Rapid star formation spotted in 'stellar nurseries' of infant galaxies
The Universe's infant galaxies enjoyed rapid growth spurts forming stars like our sun at a rate of up to 50 stars a year, according to scientists at Durham University.
Swift XMM-Newton Satellites Tune Into a Middleweight Black Hole
While astronomers have studied lightweight and heavyweight black holes for decades, the evidence for black holes with intermediate masses has been much harder to come by.
'Dropouts' pinpoint earliest galaxies
Astronomers, conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang, have found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic hydrogen signature at 787 million years post Big Bang.
VERITAS telescopes help solve 100-year-old mystery: The origin of cosmic rays
Nearly 100 years ago, scientists detected the first signs of cosmic rays - subatomic particles (mostly protons) that zip through space at nearly the speed of light.
Iowa State researchers contribute to discovery of gamma rays from starburst galaxy
Iowa State University astrophysicists contributed to the recent discovery that a galaxy quickly creating new stars is also a source of high energy gamma rays.
Starburst galaxy sheds light on longstanding cosmic mystery
An international collaboration that includes scientists from the University of Delaware's Bartol Research Institute in the Department of Physics and Astronomy has discovered very-high-energy gamma rays in the Cigar Galaxy (M82), a bright galaxy filled with exploding stars 12 million light years from Earth.
NASA's Fermi Telescope Detects Gamma-Ray From
Nearby galaxies undergoing a furious pace of star formation also emit lots of gamma rays, say astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
Shedding light on the cosmic skeleton
"Matter is not distributed uniformly in the Universe," says Masayuki Tanaka from ESO, who led the new study. "In our cosmic vicinity, stars form in galaxies and galaxies usually form groups and clusters of galaxies. The most widely accepted cosmological theories predict that matter also clumps on a larger scale in the so-called 'cosmic web', in which galaxies, embedded in filaments stretching between voids, create a gigantic wispy structure."
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