1997 (continued)

• 9/18/1997 STScI-1997-29 451. Blobs in Space: The Legacy of a Nova Nova eruptions by dying stars were thought to be simple, predictable acts of violence. Astronomers could point a telescope at the most recently exploded... (More)
• 9/17/1997 STScI-1997-31 452. Hubble Watches the Red Planet as Mars Global Surveyor Begins Aerobraking This Hubble telescope picture of Mars was taken Sept. 12, 1997, one day after the arrival of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft... (More)
• 9/16/1997 STScI-1997-30 453. Hubble Stays on Trail of Fading Gamma-Ray Burst Fireball, Results Point to Extragalactic Origin Hubble telescope observations of the ever-fading fireball from one of the universe's most mysterious phenomena ? a gamma-ray... (More)
• 9/10/1997 STScI-1997-28 454. Hubble Finds a Bare Black Hole Pouring Out Light Probing the heart of the active galaxy NGC 6251, the Hubble telescope has provided a never-before-seen view of a warped disk or ring of dust caught in a blazing... (More)
• 9/4/1997 STScI-1997-27 455. Hubble Reveals Huge Crater on the Surface of the Asteroid Vesta Astronomers have used the Hubble Space telescope to discover a giant impact crater on the asteroid Vesta. (More)
• 8/6/1997 STScI-1997-26 456. Hubble Separates Stars in the Mira Binary System Although the giant star Mira has been known for about 400 years, astronomers have had to wait for the Hubble telescope to provide the first ultraviolet-light... (More)
• 7/30/1997 STScI-1997-25 457. World's Most Powerful Telescopes Team Up With a Lens in Nature to Discover Farthest Galaxy in the Universe An international team of astronomers has discovered the most distant galaxy in the universe... (More)
• 7/15/1997 STScI-1997-24 458. Hubble Sees Rapid Weather Changes On Mars, New Dust Activity Astronomers using the Hubble telescope to track weather on Mars and how it might affect the Pathfinder landing... (More)
• 7/1/1997 STScI-1997-23 459. Hubble's Look At Mars Shows Canyon Dust Storm, Cloudy Conditions For Pathfinder Landing Hubble telescope pictures of Mars, taken June 27, 1997 in preparation for the July 4 landing of the Pathfinder spacecraft... (More)
• 6/19/1997 STScI-1997-21 460. Hubble Captures Volcanic Eruption Plume From Io The Hubble telescope has snapped a picture of a 400-kilometer-high (250-mile-high) plume of gas and dust from a volcanic eruption on Io, Jupiter's large, innermost moon. (More)
• 6/10/1997 STScI-1997-20 461. Gamma-Ray Bursts Common To Normal Galaxies? Hubble Data Offer New Clues and Puzzles Nature's most powerful explosions, gamma-ray bursts, occur among the normal stellar population inside galaxies scattered... (More)
• 6/10/1997 STScI-1997-22 462. Mysterious Fireball From A Cataclysmic Explosion The visible fireball from a titanic explosion in deep space, called a gamma-ray burst, blazes in the center of this image, taken with the Hubble telescope's imaging spectrograph. (More)
• 6/9/1997 STScI-1997-17 463. A Collision In The Heart Of A Galaxy The Hubble telescope's infrared camera has uncovered a collision between two spiral galaxies in the heart of the peculiar galaxy called Arp 220. The collision... (More)
• 6/9/1997 STScI-1997-18 464. Fireworks Near a Black Hole in the Core of Seyfert Galaxy NGC 4151 The Hubble telescope's imaging spectrograph simultaneously records, in unprecedented detail, the velocities of hundreds of gas knots streaming... (More)
• 6/9/1997 STScI-1997-19 465. Hubble Reveals Invisible High-Speed Collision around Supernova 1987A The highest velocity material expelled in a cataclysmic, stellar explosion 10 years ago has been detected for the first time by the Hubble telescope's imaging spectrograph. (More)
• 6/9/1997 STScI-1997-16 466. Hubble Snaps "Family Portrait" The Hubble telescope's infrared camera has peered into the Cone Nebula, revealing a stunning picture of six babies, Sun-like stars surrounding their mother, a bright, massive star. (More)
• 5/20/1997 STScI-1997-15 467. Hubble Finds Cloudy, Cold Weather Conditions for Mars-Bound Spacecraft As two NASA spacecraft speed toward a mid-year rendezvous with Mars, astronomers using the Hubble telescope are providing updated planetary weather reports... (More)
• 5/12/1997 STScI-1997-14 468. Hubble Chemically Analyzes the Ring around Supernova 1987A These pictures from the Hubble telescope's imaging spectrograph provide a new and unprecedented look at one of the most unique and complex structures in the universe... (More)
• 5/12/1997 STScI-1997-13 469. Hubble Captures the Heart of the Orion Nebula The Hubble telescope's infrared vision is providing a dramatic new look at the beautiful Orion Nebula, which contains the nearest nursery for massive stars. ... (More)
• 5/12/1997 STScI-1997-12 470. Hubble Records a Black Hole's Signature The colorful "zigzag" on the right is not the work of a flamboyant artist, but the signature of a super-massive black hole in the center of galaxy M84, discovered... (More)
• 5/12/1997 STScI-1997-11 471. Hubble Peers into Heart of Dying Star The Egg Nebula, also known as CRL 2688, is shown on the left as it appears in visible light and on the right as it looks in infrared light. Both Hubble views recount... (More)
• 4/1/1997 STScI-1997-10 472. Hubble Tracks the Fading Optical Counterpart of a Gamma-Ray Burst The Hubble telescope has made an important contribution toward solving one of astronomy's greatest enigmas by allowing astronomers to continue watching... (More)
• 3/27/1997 STScI-1997-08 473. Hale-Bopp Observations with Hubble and IUE Surprise Astronomers Completing an unprecedented yearlong study of Comet Hale-Bopp with two NASA observatories, including the Hubble telescope, astronomers report that they are surprised... (More)
• 3/20/1997 STScI-1997-09 474. Hubble's Sharpest View of Mars The recently refurbished Hubble telescope obtained the sharpest view of Mars ever taken from Earth. This stunning portrait was taken with March 10... (More)
• 3/19/1997 STScI-1997-06 475. 1997 Hubble Fellows to Study HST Discoveries The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has selected fifteen young scientists for the 1997 Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected... (More)
• 3/14/1997 STScI-1997-07 476. Hubble Camera Resumes Science Operation with Picture of "Butterfly" in Space The Hubble telescope is back at work, capturing this view of the butterfly-wing-shaped nebula, NGC 2346. ... (More)
• 1/14/1997 STScI-1997-02 477. Hubble Finds Intergalactic Stars The Hubble telescope has found a long-sought population of "stellar outcasts" ? stars tossed out of their home galaxies into the dark emptiness of intergalactic space. (More)
• 1/14/1997 STScI-1997-03 478. Supernova Blast Begins Taking Shape Though the brightest supernova in four centuries lit up the southern sky almost exactly 10 years ago on Feb. 23, 1987, astronomers have waited a decade for the ballooning fireball... (More)
• 1/13/1997 STScI-1997-01 479. Massive Black Holes Dwell in Most Galaxies, According to Hubble Census Announcing the discovery of three black holes in three normal galaxies, astronomers suggest that nearly all galaxies may harbor super-massive... (More)

1996

• 1/22/1997 STScI-1996-38 480. 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-1996-37 481. 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-1996-04 482. 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-1996-36 483. 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-1996-35 484. 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-1996-34 485. 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-1996-33 486. 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-1996-32 487. 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-1996-31 488. 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-1996-30 489. 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-1996-29 490. 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-1996-27 491. 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-1996-25 492. 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-1996-26 493. 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-1996-24 494. 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-1996-23 495. 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-1996-22 496. 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-1996-21 497. 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-1996-20 498. 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-1996-18 499. 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)
• 4/24/1996 STScI-1996-17 500. Swirling Galaxy Parents Generations of Stars in Its Center The Hubble telescope has snapped a view of several generations of stars in the central region of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), located 23 million light-years... (More)