The Antennae, a pair of colliding galaxies, was previously photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, but never like this
The Antennae, a pair of
colliding galaxies, was previously
photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, but now the view has been enhanced.
A new image, released this week, brings out areas of intense star formation
by combining old Hubble data with a new image captured by a camera called PANIC
(Persson's Auxilliary Nasmyth Infrared Camera).
The camera is mounted on
the 6.5-meter Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile, and has just
begun operations. Astronomers will use it to study star birth as well as supernovae,
the explosive events that signal the end of stellar life.
The fiery reddish regions
in the image are dense clusters of massive stars that are enshrouded in dust.
While Hubble did not see all of the star clusters, PANIC is designed to look
through the dust. Many of the stars in these clusters will not live long and
will explode spectacularly.
"Near-infrared observations
with PANIC can see through clouds of gas and dust that obscure our normal vision,"
said Wendy Freedman, director of the Carnegie Observatories. "They open up a
whole new window to study star formation, distant galaxies, and supernovae."
The interaction of the galaxies
-- a giant cosmic crash scene -- is forcing new star formation in the Antennae.
-- Robert
Roy Britt
CREDIT: HST/6.5-meter
Magellan/Clay
| 
