Hubble’s Sweet Sixteen at Wolverine’s Den

Hubble’s Sweet Sixteen

24Apr06

M82, the Cigar Galaxy
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 16 years of success, the two space agencies involved in the project, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), are releasing this image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82). This mosaic image is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82. The galaxy is remarkable for its bright blue disk, webs of shredded clouds, and fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out of its central regions. The observation was made in March 2006.

You may recall the recent infrared imagery of M82 released by the Spitzer team; this latest view was released today to commemorate HST’s 16th anniversary in space. Check out the enlarged view… magnificent. Happy anniversary, Hubble!

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Filed under: Astronomy, Science, Space |

5 Responses to “Hubble’s Sweet Sixteen”

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1 sunil on Apr 25th, 2006 said:

very nice sweet 16 image, I was just scratching my head that what is this sweet-16,? but later I got the answer when I read out the window below the image,
really the hubble doing quite well in capturing the images since 16 years .

awesome image here.

sunil ( the total blog is sweet one)
2 Wolverine on Apr 25th, 2006 said:

Ah yes sunil, the phrase “sweet sixteen” reflects somewhat of a custom here in the USA, although I’m not sure how commonly it’s followed. Just a play on words in this case.
3 Solar Flare on Apr 28th, 2006 said:

I already commented on Hubble at BA, but although this image is recent, it’s not making it into my Hubble Favorites List.

Picky, picky, I am…I admit.

Sunil, I didn’t have a “Sweet Sixteen Party,” but 16 was one of the best years of my life, if not the best (at least the first 10 months of 1982.) But “sweet” is a bit of a misnomer. (A misnomer is an incorrect name or designation applied to something.) I think it better fits you.

:-)
4 Wolverine on Apr 28th, 2006 said:

I understand the sentiment — personally I’m rather partial to Rob Gendler’s image (or Russ Croman’s, for that matter). Still gorgeous nonetheless.
5 Solar Flare on Apr 29th, 2006 said:

Hmm, actually I just meant that the galaxy itself is not a favorite image, not that I think Hubble’s version is worse than others. After looking at so many astro-images, it becomes a subjective exercise: why does anyone like a particular color more than another? A certain star cluster or nebula? And does it matter, really?

With the exception of sentimental favorites that go back to my childhood (eg the Sun, The Pleiades, solar eclipse, etc.) , my tastes are fickle. Really depends on what I can see: for example, last summer in FL, Arcturus looked like somebody’s porchlight hanging low in the late evening sky. It was so colorful and twinkling away–how could anyone not be beguiled by it? Same for Antares, which when I was there, was eclipsed by the Moon. Next year it will be something else…or next month…or tomorrow, lol.

But with galaxies, since one is relying on the manmade (in effect, mostly) choice of colors and such in astro-images, it’s like judging artwork; either the meaning behind it has to be fascinating or the colors attract me, so this Hubble image of M82 isn’t tops on my list in either category.

D. Mitsky posts all those red Suns on BAUT and they look like bulleyes to me. If I had a house I could do something very cool with those, but I have no wall-space left, and if I paint anymore walls it’s going to be a pain when I have to turn them back to white. (Though there are some day-laborers who would be happy to do it for a nominal sum…but you didn’t hear me say that.)