2004

• 12/16/2004 STScI-2004-32 1. A New Twist on an Old Nebula Looks can be deceiving, especially when it comes to celestial objects like galaxies and nebulas. These objects are so far away that astronomers cannot see their three-dimensional... (More)
• 12/9/2004 STScI-2004-33 2. Spitzer and Hubble Capture Evolving Planetary Systems Two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, have provided astronomers an unprecedented look at dusty planetary... (More)
• 12/1/2004 STScI-2004-35 3. Hubble Uncovers a Baby Galaxy in a Grown-Up Universe Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have measured the age of what may be the youngest galaxy ever seen in the universe. By cosmological standards... (More)
• 11/11/2004 STScI-2004-31 4. Hubble Tracks Asteroid's Sky Trek While analyzing NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of the Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy (SagDIG), an international team of astronomers led by Simone Marchi, Yazan Momany... (More)
• 11/4/2004 STScI-2004-30 5. Hubble Spots Rare Triple Eclipse on Jupiter At first glance, Jupiter looks like it has a mild case of the measles. Five spots – one colored white, one blue, and three black – are scattered... (More)
• 10/27/2004 STScI-2004-34 6. Stellar Survivor from 1572 A.D. Explosion Supports Supernova Theory An international team of astronomers is announcing today that they have identified the probable surviving companion star to a titanic supernova explosion witnessed... (More)
• 10/6/2004 STScI-2004-29 7. NASA's Great Observatories May Unravel 400-Year Old Supernova Mystery Four hundred years ago, sky watchers, including the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler, were startled by the sudden appearance of a "new star" in the western... (More)
• 9/23/2004 STScI-2004-28 8. Hubble Approaches the Final Frontier: The Dawn of Galaxies Detailed analyses of mankind's deepest optical view of the universe, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), by several expert teams have at last identified... (More)
• 9/9/2004 STScI-2004-27 9. Dying Star Creates Fantasy-like Sculpture of Gas and Dust In this detailed view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the so-called Cat's Eye Nebula looks like the penetrating eye of the disembodied sorcerer... (More)
• 9/2/2004 STScI-2004-23 10. A Bright Supernova in the Nearby Galaxy NGC 2403 The explosion of a massive star blazes with the light of 200 million Suns in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. The arrow at top right points to the stellar... (More)
• 8/12/2004 STScI-2004-26 11. Hubble Peers Inside a Celestial Geode In this unusual image, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the celestial equivalent of a geode -- a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet... (More)
• 8/5/2004 STScI-2004-25 12. Hubble Images Majestic Cousin of the Milky Way Our Sun and solar system are embedded in a broad pancake of stars deep within the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. Even from a distance, it is impossible... (More)
• 7/22/2004 STScI-2004-21 13. A Day in the Lives of Galaxies Like a photographer clicking random snapshots of a crowd of people, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken a view of an eclectic mix of galaxies. In taking this picture... (More)
• 7/15/2004 STScI-2004-24 14. Astronomers Measure Mass of a Single Star — First Since the Sun Astronomers have directly measured the mass of a single star — the first time such a feat has been accomplished for any solitary... (More)
• 7/8/2004 STScI-2004-53 15. Process Astronomical Images on Your Home Computer Just Like the Experts Anyone with a desktop computer running Adobe® Photoshop® or Adobe Photoshop Elements software can try their hand at crafting astronomical... (More)
• 7/1/2004 STScI-2004-22 16. Hubble Studies Generations of Star Formation in Neighboring Galaxy NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures the iridescent tapestry of star birth in a neighboring galaxy in this panoramic view of glowing gas, dark dust clouds... (More)
• 6/24/2004 STScI-2004-16 17. Hubble IMAX Film Takes Viewers on Ride Through Space and Time Take a virtual ride to the outer reaches of the universe and explore 10 billion years of galactic history, from fully formed and majestic... (More)
• 6/17/2004 STScI-2004-52 18. A Really Neat Close-up of Comet NEAT from Kitt Peak Observatory This image of comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) was taken at the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson... (More)
• 6/15/2004 STScI-2004-51 19. Ultra-cool Diminutive Star Weighs In The power of the some of the world's biggest telescopes has been brought to bear to directly measure the mass, for the first time, of one of the smallest stars ever seen in the universe. (More)
• 6/10/2004 STScI-2004-50 20. STScI Director Steven Beckwith Inducted as 2004 American Academy Fellow The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced the election of 178 new Fellows and 24 new Foreign Honorary Members to Academy membership. Dr. (More)
• 6/3/2004 STScI-2004-17 21. New Hubble Image Reveals Details in the Heart of the Trifid Nebula Three huge intersecting dark lanes of interstellar dust make the Trifid Nebula one of the most recognizable and striking star birth regions... (More)
• 6/2/2004 STScI-2004-49 22. Hubble Takes Faintest Spectroscopic Survey of Distant Galaxies Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have measured accurate distances to several faint, red galaxies seen in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, confirming... (More)
• 6/1/2004 STScI-2004-19 23. Spitzer Leads NASA's Great Observatories to Uncover Black Holes, Other Hidden Objects in the Distant Universe Astronomers unveiled the deepest images from NASA's new Spitzer Space Telescope today, and announced the detection... (More)
• 6/1/2004 STScI-2004-20 24. Hubble Refines Distance to Pleiades Star Cluster Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have helped settle a mystery that has puzzled scientists concerning the exact distance to the famous nearby star cluster... (More)
• 5/26/2004 STScI-2004-18 25. Saturn Seen from Far and Near As Saturn grows closer through the eyes of the Cassini spacecraft, which is hurtling toward a rendezvous with the ringed world on June 30 (July 1, Universal Time), both Cassini... (More)
• 5/11/2004 STScI-2004-11 26. Dying Star Sculpts Rungs of Gas and Dust Astronomers may not have observed the fabled "Stairway to Heaven," but they have photographed something almost as intriguing: ladder-like structures surrounding... (More)
• 5/6/2004 STScI-2004-48 27. Ethan J. Schreier to Become President of Associated Universities, Inc. The Board of Trustees of Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) has announced the appointment of Dr. Ethan J. Schreier as the next President of AUI. Schreier... (More)
• 5/4/2004 STScI-2004-47 28. HubbleSite.org Nominated for Best Science Web Site for the Eighth Annual Webby Awards The Webby Awards, the leading international honor for web sites and individual achievement in technology and creativity... (More)
• 5/3/2004 STScI-2004-46 29. Demise in Fire and Ice The Bug Nebula, NGC 6302, is one of the brightest and most extreme planetary nebulae known. The fiery, dying star at its center is shrouded by a blanket of icy hailstones. (More)
• 4/22/2004 STScI-2004-15 30. The Lure of the Rings Resembling a diamond-encrusted bracelet, a ring of brilliant blue star clusters wraps around the yellowish nucleus of what was once a normal spiral... (More)
• 4/14/2004 STScI-2004-14 31. Hubble Observes Planetoid Sedna, Mystery Deepens Astronomers poring over 35 NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of the solar system's farthest known object, unofficially named Sedna, are surprised... (More)
• 4/8/2004 STScI-2004-13 32. Hubble Sees Stars as Numerous as Grains of Sand in Nearby Galaxy What appear as individual grains of sand on a beach in the image obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are actually myriads... (More)
• 3/9/2004 STScI-2004-07 33. Hubble's Deepest View Ever of the Universe Unveils Earliest Galaxies Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute today unveiled the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind. (More)
• 3/4/2004 STScI-2004-10 34. Space Phenomenon Imitates Art in Universe's Version of van Gogh Painting This image resembling Vincent van Gogh's painting, "Starry Night," is Hubble's latest view of an expanding halo of light around a distant... (More)
• 2/20/2004 STScI-2004-12 35. New Clues About the Nature of Dark Energy: Einstein May Have Been Right After All The good news from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is that Einstein was right — maybe. A strange... (More)
• 2/19/2004 STScI-2004-09 36. Supernova Shock Wave Is Producing a Spectacular New Light Show Seventeen years ago, astronomers spotted the brightest stellar explosion ever seen since the one observed by Johannes Kepler 400 years ago. (More)
• 2/15/2004 STScI-2004-08 37. Hubble and Keck Team Up to Find Farthest Known Galaxy in Universe An international team of astronomers may have set a new record in discovering what is the most distant known galaxy in the universe. Located... (More)
• 2/5/2004 STScI-2004-04 38. An Abrasive Collision Gives One Galaxy a "Black Eye" A collision of two galaxies has left a merged star system with an unusual appearance as well as bizarre internal motions. Messier 64 (M64) has a spectacular... (More)
• 2/4/2004 STScI-2004-45 39. New Hubble Study Reveals How Black Holes Get Their Kicks When black holes collide, look out! The "kick" from an enormous burst of gravitational radiation that occurs during the collision... (More)
• 2/3/2004 STScI-2004-06 40. Supernova Blast Bonanza in Nearby Galaxy The nearby dwarf galaxy NGC 1569 is a hotbed of vigorous star birth activity which blows huge bubbles that riddle the main body of the galaxy. The galaxy's "star factories"... (More)
• 2/2/2004 STScI-2004-44 41. Oxygen and Carbon Found in Atmosphere of an Extrasolar Planet NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected, for the first time ever, the presence of oxygen and carbon in the atmosphere of a planet outside... (More)
• 1/27/2004 STScI-2004-43 42. Massive Old Star Reveals Secrets on Deathbed Like a doctor trying to understand an elderly patient's sudden demise, astronomers have obtained the most detailed observations ever of an old, but otherwise normal massive... (More)
• 1/22/2004 STScI-2004-05 43. The Colorful Lives of the Outer Planets Atmospheric features on Uranus and Neptune are revealed in images taken with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Advanced Camera for Surveys... (More)
• 1/15/2004 STScI-2004-03 44. 2004 Van Biesbroeck Prize Awarded to Doxsey Citing "his outstanding, unselfish dedication to making the Hubble Space Telescope one of the most scientifically productive telescopes of all time," the American Astronomical... (More)
• 1/12/2004 STScI-2004-42 45. Mining for Cosmic Treasures NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped an unparalleled image of a wide swath of the sky, unveiling 10,000 galaxies, which could help astronomers understand how large galaxies... (More)
• 1/7/2004 STScI-2004-41 46. Supernova Survivor: First Supernova Companion Star Found An international team of astronomers has, for the first time, observed a stellar "survivor" to emerge from a double star system involving an exploded supernova. (More)
• 1/6/2004 STScI-2004-02 47. Too Fast, Too Furious: A Galaxy's Fatal Plunge Trailing 200,000-light-year-long streamers of seething gas, a galaxy that was once like our Milky Way is being shredded as it plunges at 4.5 million... (More)
• 1/1/2004 STScI-2004-01 48. Images from Hubble's ACS Tell a Tale of Two Record-Breaking Galaxy Clusters Looking back in time nearly 9 billion years, an international team of astronomers found mature galaxies in a young universe. The galaxies... (More)