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Hubble's Infrared Camera Repaired

Posted by michael on from the windows-on-the-world dept.

blamanj writes "Hubble's newly repaired Infrared Camera, has produced some interesting new pics, including a "golden band" at the galactic center that is 'churning out stars at a torrid pace.' NASA press release and images here."

4 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hubble..... by Fantanicity · · Score: 3, Informative

    NASA false-color these images

    Since it's an infra-red camera, yes.

  2. Not our Galactic Center by spaceling · · Score: 3, Informative

    This slashdot post had me assuming that the galactic center being referred to was our own Milky Way's. It is not. The findings are not of our galactic center, but that of NGC 4013. "NGC 4013, which looks similar to our Milky Way Galaxy, resides in the constellation Ursa Major, 55 million light-years from Earth."

    1. Re:Not our Galactic Center by mgarraha · · Score: 3, Informative

      NGC 4013 was also the subject of the Hubble Heritage image for March 2001. Here's a ground-based image from the WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak. It's supposed to be visible in a 6-inch telescope. Next clear night I'll take a look.

  3. Re: False Color by Ethidium · · Score: 2, Informative
    As stated in the article, red represents longer infrared wavelengths, and blue represents shorter ones. This corresponds exactly to what we would see if our eyes picked up the IR part of the spectrum, rather than the visible bit.

    Nearly all of the cool astrophotographs that you'll see from Hubble and elsewhere are false-colored, because the visible spectrum is not any more useful than any of the other spectra (microwave, UV, and IR, to name a few), provided you have the proper equipment to capture all of them.

    You can see more cool hubble pics (and other astrophotographs), and learn more about false-coloring of astrophotographs at the Astronomy Picture of the Day page.

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