The two winding arms of the
majestic Whirlpool spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) are
actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust, a
hallmark of so-called ‘grand-design’ spiral galaxies.
Located 31 million
light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici
(the Hunting Dogs), the Whirlpool's face-on view and
closeness to Earth allow astronomers to study a classic
spiral galaxy's structure and star-forming processes.
Some astronomers believe
that the Whirlpool's arms are so prominent because of
the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the
small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of
the Whirlpool's arms.
At first glance, the compact
galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble's clear
view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the
Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past the
Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years.
Pillars of Creation (Gas
Pillars in the Eagle Nebula M16)
Credit:
NASA,
ESA,
STScI, J. Hester and P. Scowen (Arizona State
University)
Undersea corral? Enchanted
castles? Space serpents? These eerie, dark pillar-like
structures are actually columns of cool interstellar
hydrogen gas and dust that are also incubators for new
starts. Released in 1995, this iconic Hubble image of
the Eagle Nebula became known as the "Pillars of
Creation".
Zoom-in to the Gaseous
Pillar
A soaring tower of cold gas
and dust about 9.5 light-years high, which is twice the
distance from the Sun to our nearest star, rises from a
stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula, M16.
Inside the gaseous tower,
stars may be forming. Some of the stars may have been
created by dense gas collapsing under gravity. Other
stars may be forming due to pressure from gas that has
been heated by the neighboring hot stars.
The tower's rough surface is
illuminated by starlight and is silhouetted against the
background glow of more distant gas. The colors in this
image were produced by gas energized by the star
cluster's powerful ultraviolet light. The blue color at
the top is from glowing oxygen and the red in the lower
region is from glowing hydrogen.
Close Encounter with Mars
Polar white contrasts with
rusty surface terrain in this August 2003 image, taken
when the red planet was just 35 million miles from Earth,
its closest approach in 60,000 years.
Helix Nebula
In 2002, Hubble caught this
dizzying look down a trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing
gases. Combined with a wide view from a ground telescope,
it's one of the largest and most detailed celestial images
ever made.
Pluto and it's Moons
This image of Pluto and
Charon (pronounced
shair'-on or
kair'-on)
was taken using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on
February 15, 2006. It confirmed the presence of two new
moons around Pluto.
In the image, Pluto is in
the center and Charon is just below it. The moons Nix
and Hydra are located to the right of Pluto and Charon.
The moons were first
discovered by Hubble in May 2005. Nix and Hydra are
roughly 5,000 times fainter than Pluto and are about two
to three times farther from Pluto than its large moon,
Charon, which was discovered in 1978.
