Hubble image archive
Hubble's Visible and Infrared Views of Nearby Galaxies Yield Clues to Early Universe
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped these two views of the heart of the galaxy M82. The image at left was taken in visible light; the picture at right, in infrared light. In the infrared view, the telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer peered through thi...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2001
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2001-08-1025-image
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped these two views of the heart of the galaxy M82. The image at left was taken in visible light; the picture at right, in infrared light. In the infrared view, the telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer peered through thick dust lanes to find some of the galaxy's more than 100 super star clusters. The clusters are the larger pink and yellow dots scattered throughout the picture. They were formed during a violent collision with the galaxy M81 about 600 million years ago. The galaxy is 12 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. The pictures were taken Sept. 15, 1997.
Credits
NASA, ESA, R. de Grijs (Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK)Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | M82, NGC 3034 |
| Object Description | Irregular Galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 09h 55m 52.18s |
| Dec. Position | 69° 40' 48.79" |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Distance | About 3.6 Mpc (12 million light-years) |
| Dimensions | The visible portion of the HST M82 image is ~210 arcseconds (3.7 kpc) along the diagonal. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The release image of M82 was created from WFPC2 archived HST data from the following science Proposals: (WFPC2/NICMOS observations): R. O'Connell (Univ. Virginia). Principal Astronomers: R. de Grijs (Inst. of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK), R. O'Connell (Univ. Virginia), J. Gallagher (Univ. Wisc-Madison), D. Hunter (Lowell Obs.) : P. Shopbell (Cal Tech). Principal Astronomers: P. Shopbell (Cal Tech), R. Dufour (Rice Univ.), J. Cohen (Cal Tech), J. Bland-Hawthorn (AAO) |
| Instrument | HST>WFPC2 (left), HST>NICMOS (right) |
| Exposure Dates | March 16, 1997; September 15, 1997; August 28, 1998, Exposure Time: 8.7 hours |
| Filters | Prop 7446 (WFPC2): F814W (I), F555W (V), F439W (B) Prop 7446 (NICMOS): F110W, F160W Prop 6826 (WFPC2): F656N (Ha) |
Downloads
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov