FOR RELEASE: 9:45 am (EDT) May 7, 2003

CONTACT: Don Savage
         NASA Headquarters, Washington
         (Phone: 202-358-1547; E-mail: dsavage@hq.nasa.gov)

         Ray Villard
         Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
         (Phone: 410-338-4514; E-mail: villard@stsci.edu)

         Tom Brown
         Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
         (Phone: 410-338-4902; E-mail: tbrown@stsci.edu

PRESS RELEASE NO.: STScI-PR03-15


DEEPEST VIEW OF SPACE YIELDS YOUNG STARS IN ANDROMEDA HALO

Relying on the deepest visible-light images ever taken in space,
astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have reliably
measured the age of the spherical halo of stars surrounding the
neighboring Andromeda galaxy (M31).

To their surprise, they have discovered that approximately one-third of
the stars in Andromeda's halo formed only 6 to 8 billion years ago.
That's a far cry from the 11-to-13-billion-year age of the stars in the
Milky Way's halo.

To see and read more about young stars in Andromeda's halo, click on
http://hubblesite.org/news/2003/15

The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA)
operates the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) for NASA, under
contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble
Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA
and the European Space Agency (ESA).

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