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Hubble Celebrates Its 19th Anniversary with a "Fountain of Youth"


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Over the past 19 years Hubble has taken dozens of exotic pictures of galaxies going "bump in the night" as they collide with each other and have a variety of close encounters of the galactic kind. Just when you thought these interactions couldn't look any stranger, this image of a trio of galaxies, called Arp 194, looks like one of the galaxies has sprung a leak. The bright blue streamer is really a stretched spiral arm full of newborn blue stars. This typically happens when two galaxies interact and gravitationally tug at each other.

Resembling a pair of owl eyes, the two nuclei of the colliding galaxies can be seen in the process of merging at the upper left. The blue bridge looks like it connects to a third galaxy. In reality the galaxy is in the background and not connected at all. Hubble's sharp view allows astronomers to try and visually sort out what are foreground and background objects when galaxies, superficially, appear to overlap. This picture was issued to celebrate the 19th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. During the past 19 years Hubble has made more than 880,000 observations and snapped over 570,000 images of 29,000 celestial objects.

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      claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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      To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
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      Download high-resolution images on NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

      By Jeanette Kazmierczak
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
      Media Contact:
      Claire Andreoli
      301-286-1940
      claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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      Last Updated Nov 20, 2024 Editor Jeanette Kazmierczak Location Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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      Download this image

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      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
      claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
      Share








      Details
      Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
      Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Hubble Space Telescope Spiral Galaxies Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
      Hubble Space Telescope


      Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.


      Galaxy Details and Mergers



      Hubble’s Galaxies



      Explore the Night Sky


      View the full article
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