News Release Archive: 2002

2002

• 12/19/2002 STScI-2002-16 1. A Tiny Galaxy is Born New detailed images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show a "late-blooming" galaxy, a small, distorted system of gas and stars that still appears to be in the process of development... (More)
• 12/12/2002 STScI-2002-22 2. Hubble Watches Galaxies Engage in Dance of Destruction NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is witnessing a grouping of galaxies engaging in a slow dance of destruction that will last for billions of years. The galaxies... (More)
• 12/5/2002 STScI-2002-29 3. Hubble Photographs 'Double Bubble' in Neighboring Galaxy A unique peanut-shaped cocoon of dust, called a reflection nebula, surrounds a cluster of young, hot stars in this view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The "double bubble,"... (More)
• 12/3/2002 STScI-2002-27 4. Hubble Makes Precise Measure of Extrasolar World's True Mass An international team of astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to help make a precise measurement of the mass of a planet outside our solar system. (More)
• 11/21/2002 STScI-2002-28 5. Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe" A new book of majestic images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope brings the wonders of our universe to the fingertips... (More)
• 11/18/2002 STScI-2002-30 6. Fast-Flying Black Hole Yields Clues to Supernova Origin A nearby black hole is hurtling like a cannonball through the disk of our galaxy. The detection of this speed demon is the best evidence yet, some astronomers... (More)
• 11/7/2002 STScI-2002-25 7. An Old Star Gives Up the Ghost NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught a glimpse of a colorful cosmic ghost, the glowing remains of a dying star called NGC 6369. The glowing apparition is known to amateur... (More)
• 10/9/2002 STScI-2002-26 8. Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to Astronomer for NASA-Funded Research Riccardo Giacconi, the "father of X-ray astronomy," has received the Nobel Prize in physics for "pioneering contributions to astrophysics,"... (More)
• 10/7/2002 STScI-2002-17 9. Hubble Spots an Icy World Far Beyond Pluto NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has measured the largest object discovered in the solar system since the discovery of Pluto 72 years ago. Approximately... (More)
• 10/3/2002 STScI-2002-23 10. Odd Couple Widely Separated by Time and Space Appearances can be deceiving. In this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, an odd celestial duo, the spiral galaxy NGC 4319 [center] and a quasar called Markarian... (More)
• 9/19/2002 STScI-2002-24 11. Space Movie Reveals Shocking Secrets of the Crab Pulsar Just when it seemed like the summer movie season had ended, two of NASA's Great Observatories have produced their own action movie. Multiple observations... (More)
• 9/17/2002 STScI-2002-18 12. Hubble Discovers Black Holes in Unexpected Places Medium-size black holes actually do exist, according to the latest findings from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, but scientists had to look in some unexpected... (More)
• 9/11/2002 STScI-2002-20 13. NASA Announces Contract for Next-Generation Space Telescope Named After Space Pioneer NASA has selected TRW to build the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. This space-based observatory... (More)
• 9/5/2002 STScI-2002-21 14. A Wheel within a Wheel A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures a face-on... (More)
• 8/1/2002 STScI-2002-19 15. Hubble Astronomers Feast on an Interstellar Hamburger Hold the pickles; hold the lettuce. Space is serving up giant hamburgers. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a photograph of a strange object that bears an uncanny... (More)
• 7/3/2002 STScI-2002-15 16. Colorful Fireworks Finale Caps a Star's Life Glowing gaseous streamers of red, white, and blue — as well as green and pink — illuminate the heavens like Fourth of July fireworks. The colorful streamers... (More)
• 6/13/2002 STScI-2002-14 17. Beauty in the Eye of Hubble The Hubble telescope reveals a rainbow of colors in this dying star, called IC 4406. Like many other so-called planetary nebulae, IC 4406 exhibits a high degree of symmetry. (More)
• 6/5/2002 STScI-2002-13 18. Hubble's Infrared Camera is Back in Business — New Images Released After more than three years of inactivity, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) has reopened its “near-infrared... (More)
• 5/9/2002 STScI-2002-12 19. Gaseous Streamers Flutter in Stellar Breeze N44C is the designation for a region of ionized hydrogen gas surrounding an association of young stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a nearby, small companion... (More)
• 4/30/2002 STScI-2002-11 20. Hubble's New Camera Delivers Breathtaking Views of the Universe Jubilant astronomers unveiled humankind's most spectacular views of the universe, courtesy of the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys... (More)
• 4/24/2002 STScI-2002-10 21. Hubble Uncovers Oldest "Clocks" in Space to Read Age of Universe Pushing the limits of its powerful vision, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered the oldest burned-out stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. (More)
• 4/17/2002 STScI-2002-04 22. Hubble Hunts Down Binary Objects at the Fringe of Our Solar System The Hubble Space Telescope is hot on the trail of a puzzling new class of solar system object that might be called a Pluto "mini-me."... (More)
• 4/9/2002 STScI-2002-09 23. Hubble Astronomer Creates Spectacular Galaxy Collision Visualization for the National Air and Space Museum Someday our Milky Way Galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy may come crashing together in a horrendous collision... (More)
• 4/4/2002 STScI-2002-07 24. A Galaxy That's All Wound Up Tightly wound, almost concentric, arms of dark dust encircle the bright nucleus of the galaxy NGC 2787 in this Hubble Space Telescope image. In astronomer Edwin Hubble's... (More)
• 3/21/2002 STScI-2002-08 25. Test Your Skills as a 'Galaxy Hunter' Journey to the deepest regions of space and wrestle with the cosmic giants called galaxies. In "Galaxy Hunter," students can go online... (More)
• 3/6/2002 STScI-2002-05 26. A Bow Shock Near a Young Star The Hubble Space Telescope continues to reveal various stunning and intricate treasures that reside within the nearby, intense star-forming... (More)
• 2/15/2002 STScI-2002-06 27. New Instrument Package to Expand Space Telescope's Vision NASA's Servicing Mission 3B for the Hubble Space Telescope will give the orbiting observatory a new camera that will significantly increase Hubble's abilities... (More)
• 2/7/2002 STScI-2002-03 28. Hubble Reveals "Backwards" Spiral Galaxy Astronomers have found a spiral galaxy that may be spinning to the beat of a different cosmic drummer. To the surprise of astronomers, the galaxy, called NGC 4622, appears to be rotating... (More)
• 1/8/2002 STScI-2002-02 29. Stellar 'Fireworks Finale' Came First in the Young Universe The deepest views of the cosmos from the Hubble Space Telescope yield clues that the very first stars may have burst into the universe as brilliantly and spectacularly... (More)
• 1/3/2002 STScI-2002-01 30. Thackeray's Globules in IC 2944 Strangely glowing dark clouds float serenely in this remarkable and beautiful image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. These dense, opaque dust clouds — known as "globules" —... (More)