SPACE.com -- Hubble Provides View Inside Another Galaxy

This image shows galaxy ngc1365 as viewed by optical telescopes from the ground (white in center), at optical wavelengths using the Hubble Space Telescope (inset left) and in near-infrared wavelengths with Hubble (inset right). Click to enlarge.

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	Hubble Provides View Inside Another Galaxy By Jeff Kanipe Special to space.com posted: 01:00 pm ET 06 October 1999

NASA has released new images from the Hubble Space Telescope that are helping researchers understand how galaxies form and growNASAhas released new images from the Hubble Space Telescope that are helpingresearchers understand how galaxies form and grow. Clickhere to see the press conference.

In the collageof images, the galaxy NGC 1365 is shown in visible light and at infraredwavelengths. The visible light image at the center of the collage, takenby an optical telescope on Earth, shows the overall shape of the galaxyand its propeller-like arms. The close up of the galaxy's hub (upper left),was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The creamy bright, compact centralglow - the galaxy's nucleus - is surrounded by a whirlpool of dark dust,which is being whisked around the center by gravitational forces in thegalaxy's disk. The blue knots are clouds of hydrogen gas ionized by emerginghot stars and young star clusters.

The infrared image at lower right,taken by the Hubble's near-infrared camera, NICMOS, provides astronomerswith a unique look at the substructure of the galaxy's hub, beneath theskin of stars, gas, and dust shown in the visible light images.

Now, many new star clusters are visible.The bright blue dots represent young star clusters that can also be seenin the visible light image. The brighter red splotches, however, are veryyoung star clusters still enshrouded in dust and visible only in the infraredimage. The fainter red dots are older star clusters.

Together, these images illustrate howdust and gas are being whisked into the galaxy's central regions, triggeringstar formation and consequently increasing the size of the galaxy's bulge.Astronomers also think the inflowing material may be feeding a massiveblack hole at the galaxy's core. Such images of galaxies at infrared wavelengthsmay help answer the question of how and when bulges formed in spiral galaxies.

Scientists are also releasing comparativeimages of a series of galaxies (NGC5689, NGC5965,NGC7537,NGC5838),showing the qualitative difference between images obtained optically andthe composites generated by Hubble.

Credits for the ground-based image:Allan Sandage (The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington)and John Bedke (Computer Sciences Corporation and the Space Telescope ScienceInstitute). Credits for the Hubble Space Telescope image: NASA and JohnTrauger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Credits for the NICMOS image: NASA,ESA, and C. Marcella Carollo (Columbia University).

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