News Release Archive: 1996

1996

• 1/22/1997 STScI-1996-38 1. Giant "Twisters" and Star Wisps in the Lagoon Nebula This Hubble telescope snapshot unveils a pair of one-half, light-year-long interstellar "twisters" ? eerie funnels and twisted-rope structures... (More)
• 12/17/1996 STScI-1996-37 2. Hubble Census Tracks a Stellar "Baby Boom" Analyzing the pictures of some of the most distant galaxies in the universe, astronomers are uncovering intriguing new evidence that the Big Bang was followed by a stellar... (More)
• 12/10/1996 STScI-1996-04 3. Hubble Space Telescope Captures First Direct Image of a Star This is the first direct image of a star other than the Sun. Called Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, the star is a red super giant, a Sun-like star nearing... (More)
• 11/26/1996 STScI-1996-36 4. Hubble Spies Supersonic "Comet-Clouds" in Heart of Galaxy Analysis of dramatic Hubble telescope images reveals immense comet-shaped knots of gas in the heart of the Cartwheel Galaxy. The galaxy's unusual wagon-wheel... (More)
• 11/19/1996 STScI-1996-35 5. Hubble Surveys the "Homes" of Quasars Dramatic Hubble telescope pictures reveal that quasars live in a remarkable assortment of galaxies, many of which are violently colliding. This complicated picture suggests... (More)
• 11/1/1996 STScI-1996-34 6. Springtime Dust Storm Swirls at Martian North Pole Two Hubble telescope images of Mars, taken about a month apart, reveal a state-sized dust storm churning near the edge of the northern polar cap. (More)
• 10/24/1996 STScI-1996-33 7. Hubble Makes Movie of Neptune's Rotation and Weather The Hubble telescope has been used to assemble a time-lapse color movie showing a full 16-hour rotation of the distant planet Neptune. (More)
• 10/17/1996 STScI-1996-32 8. Hubble Follows Rapid Changes in Jupiter's Aurora The Hubble telescope's sharp view of the rapid, spectacular dance of luminescent gases high in Jupiter's atmosphere ? better known as aurora ? is allowing astronomers... (More)
• 10/11/1996 STScI-1996-31 9. Bright Star Birth Region in a Dim Galaxy Clusters of stars and a fishhook-shaped cloud of luminescent gases glow brilliantly in NGC 2363, a giant star-forming region in the Magellanic galaxy NGC 2366. ... (More)
• 10/4/1996 STScI-1996-30 10. Rare Hubble Portrait of Io and Jupiter This image shows Jupiter's volcanic moon Io passing above the turbulent clouds of the giant planet. The conspicuous black spot on Jupiter is Io's shadow. (More)
• 9/4/1996 STScI-1996-29 11. Hubble Sees Early Building Blocks of Today's Galaxies New Hubble telescope images unveil what may be galaxies under construction in the early universe. ... (More)
• 8/7/1996 STScI-1996-27 12. Giant Star Birth Region in Neighboring Galaxy The colorful picture on the right is a Hubble telescope snapshot of a vast nebula of dust and gas called NGC 604, which lies in the neighboring spiral galaxy M33. ... (More)
• 7/18/1996 STScI-1996-25 13. Hubble Achieves Milestone: 100,000th Exposure The Hubble telescope reached a milestone several years sooner than scientists expected when it snapped its 100,000th exposure June 22, 1996. The six-year-old orbiting observatory... (More)
• 7/8/1996 STScI-1996-26 14. Hubble Telescope Measures Diameters of Pulsating Stars The Hubble telescope has been used successfully to measure the diameters of a special class of pulsating star called a Mira variable, which rhythmically change size. (More)
• 6/26/1996 STScI-1996-24 15. Findings from Hubble Deep Field Hone in on Distant Galaxies Astronomers analyzing the Hubble Deep Field — the faintest view of the universe taken with the Hubble telescope — may have identified... (More)
• 6/10/1996 STScI-1996-23 16. Doomed Star Eta Carinae A huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds is captured in this stunning Hubble telescope picture of the super-massive star Eta Carinae. ... (More)
• 5/30/1996 STScI-1996-22 17. Hubble Astronomers Unveil "Crab Nebula - The Movie" Probing the mysterious heart of the Crab Nebula, the tattered remains of an exploding star, astronomers have found this object to be even more dynamic than previously... (More)
• 5/9/1996 STScI-1996-21 18. Hubble Space Telescope on Track for Measuring the Expansion Rate of the Universe Using the Hubble telescope, two international teams of astronomers are reporting major progress in converging on an accurate measurement... (More)
• 4/30/1996 STScI-1996-20 19. The Original National Geographic Society - Palomar Observatory Sky Survey to be Available on 8 CD-ROMs The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) are pleased to announce... (More)
• 4/26/1996 STScI-1996-18 20. Saturn Ring-Plane Crossing, November 1995 This is a rare view of Saturn's rings seen just after the Sun has set below the ring plane. ... (More)