Hubble image archive

M100 WFPC1

This is an image of spiral galaxy M100 taken in 1993 with Hubble's Wide Field/Planetary Camera 1, which was part of an original suite of instruments launched aboard Hubble in 1990. Because of a manufacturing flaw in the primary mirror, which created an optical effect called spher...

Date
Jan 1, 2018
Mission
Hubble Space Telescope
Archive ID
hubblesite-images-2018-48-4279-image
By

This is an image of spiral galaxy M100 taken in 1993 with Hubble's Wide Field/Planetary Camera 1, which was part of an original suite of instruments launched aboard Hubble in 1990. Because of a manufacturing flaw in the primary mirror, which created an optical effect called spherical aberration, the galaxy appears blurred because it cannot be brought into a single focus. In particular, the orange foreground star below image center has tentacle-like image artifacts that are clear evidence of spherical aberration, where the starlight is not concentrated into a single point.

Credits

NASA, ESA, and Judy Schmidt

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Source

Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.

View on NASA.gov

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