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|  | | | | | | Rebirth of an icon: Hubble's first images since Servicing Mission 4
9 September 2009
| These four images are among the first observations made by the new Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the upgraded NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The image at top left shows the Bug Nebula, a butterfly-shaped nebula surrounding a dying star. At top right, is a picture of a clash among members of a galactic grouping called Stephan's Quintet. The image at bottom left, gives viewers a panoramic portrait of a colourful assortment of 100 000 stars residing in the crowded core of Omega Centauri, a giant globular cluster. At bottom right, an eerie pillar of star birth in the Carina Nebula rises from a sea of greenish-coloured clouds.
Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team | |  |  | |
| | | | | Composed of gas and dust, the pictured pillar resides in a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina.
Taken in infrared light, the image shows the dense column and the surrounding greenish-coloured gas all but disappear. Only a faint outline of the pillar remains. By penetrating the wall of gas and dust, the infrared vision of WFC3 reveals the infant star that is probably blasting the jet. Part of the jet nearest the star is more prominent in this view. These features can be seen because infrared light, unlike visible light, can pass through the dust.
Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 observed the Carina Nebula on 24-30 July 2009. WFC3 was installed aboard Hubble in May 2009 during Servicing Mission 4. The composite image was made from filters that isolate emission from iron, magnesium, oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur.
These Hubble observations of the Carina Nebula are part of the Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Early Release Observations.
Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team | | | | |
| | | | | The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's newly-repaired Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) has peered across almost 5000 million light-years to resolve intricate details in the galaxy cluster Abell 370. Abell 370 is one of the very first galaxy clusters where astronomers observed the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, the warping of space-time by the cluster’s gravitational field that distorts the light from galaxies lying far behind it. This is manifested as arcs and streaks in the picture, which are the stretched images of background galaxies.
Gravitational lensing is a vital tool for astronomers when measuring the dark matter distribution in massive clusters, since the mass distribution can be reconstructed from observations of its gravitational effects.
Ground-based telescopic observations in the mid-1980s of the most prominent arc (near the right-hand side of the picture) allowed astronomers to deduce that the arc was not a structure of some kind within the cluster, but the gravitationally lensed image of an object twice as far away. Hubble has now resolved new, previously unseen details in the arc that reveal structure in the lensed background galaxy.
Galaxy clusters are the most massive structures of the Universe, located at the crossing of the filaments of the cosmic web of dark matter. The most massive clusters can contain up to 1000 galaxies and intergalactic hot gas, all held together primarily by the gravity of dark matter.
These observations were taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in its Wide Field mode on 16 July 2009. The composite image was made using filters that isolate light from green, red and infrared wavelengths.
These Hubble data are part of the Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Early Release Observations.
Credits: NASA, ESA, the Hubble SM4 ERO Team and ST-ECF | | | | |
| | | | | This video animation shows the remnant of the explosion of a supermassive star. Stars greater that eight times the mass of our Sun will self-detonate as supernovae. Supernovae can briefly outshine an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months. During this short interval, a supernova radiates as much energy as the Sun could emit over its entire lifespan. The star is shredded and blown into the surrounding interstellar medium. This shock wave sweeps up an expanding shell of gas and dust called a supernova remnant. Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopic observations have yielded the chemistry cooked up by the supernova, including oxygen, nitrogen and carbon – the basis of life as we know it.
Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team | | | | |
| | | | | Scientists have concluded the checkout period for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and are now revealing images showcasing the power of the much-improved observatory. This zoom into the globular star cluster Omega Centauri converges onto the Hubble Wide Field Camera 3’s panoramic view of 100 000 stars lying in the centre of the cluster. The stars vary in age and change colour as they get older. Most of them are middle-aged, yellowish stars like our Sun. But as they near the end of their lives, they balloon into red giants, and later still, into hot, blue stars.
Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team | | | | |
| | | | | Focusing on the Bug Nebula, also known as the Butterfly Nebula, this video highlights the difference between the imaging capability of the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA and the SM4 ERO Team | | | | |
| | | | | Scientists have concluded the checkout period for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and now are revealing images showcasing the power of the much-improved observatory. In this zoom sequence, one of Hubble’s new instruments, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), sets its eyes on a stellar nursery located 7500 light-years away in the Carina Nebula. The pillar of gas and dust in the WFC3 visible-light image seems to glow from hot, massive stars in the vicinity. In the WFC3 infrared-light image, the dusty pillar becomes practically invisible, revealing an infant star blasting out a jet of material, evidence of new stars being born.
Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team | | | | |
| | | | | Scientists have concluded the checkout period for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and are now revealing images showcasing the power of the much-improved observatory. In this zoom sequence Hubble’s new Wide Field Camera 3 focuses its attention on a group of five galaxies known as Stephan’s Quintet. Three of the galaxies are interacting, while one of the galaxies actually lies about seven times closer to Earth than the rest of the group. The wide range of colours in the image depicts the varying ages of the stars.
The video also highlights the imaging capability of the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) compared to the retired Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team | | | | |
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| | More about Hubble overviewJWST overview IYA 2009 Related videos Hubblecast at the Hubble ESA Information CentreHubble on YouTube  Hubble's achievements Importance of Hubble's discoveriesRelated articles Hubble captures rare Jupiter collisionHistoric Hubble Servicing Mission 4 ends with successful landingServicing Mission 4 — the fifth and final visit to HubbleOn Hubble's 19th birthday, a fountain of youthDramatically backlit dust in giant galaxyFour of Saturn's moons parade by their parentRelated links All images and videos at the Hubble European Information CentreServicing Mission 4Servicing Mission 4 timeline
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