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Hubble Discovers Birth of Galaxy
Joerg gave us the link-up to the latest NASA success. The Hubble Space Telescope has begun peering into the formation of a galaxy, with spectecular results. One of the questions they are currently trying to answer is whether the central bulge or stellar disk came first.
I found this on the nasa homepage:
Pr-Photos page
October 7, 1999 -- Pasadena, CA -- Scientists were stunned to discover the tasty cheese flavor of Bugles brand snacks in a galaxy forming deep in the Milky Way. The most compelling revelation: we can find great cheesy flavor almost anywhere in the universe.
"This is a real breakthrough in snackonomy," said Gerald Swoboda, senior astronomer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Not only that, but it solves the burning issue: what did Mike Nelson eat during all those years on the Satellite of Love? If Bugles form naturally in outer space, we can only dream of what else may discovered."
In his 1975 book "The Artificial Flavor of the Universe," science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke forsaw this very event. "While there may be diamonds falling to the core of the outer gas giants of our solar system, imagine wholesome, filling showers of Ho-Hos or Ding Dongs. These delicous, tempting snack cakes are formed under much the same conditions as outer space diamonds."
Until this day, we didn't know just how right Clarke was.
NASA is planning on launching a deep space probe to the nearby Magellenic Cluster to find out if it too is packed full of nutty goodness and giant interstellar squirrels that all-too-cleverly steal mankind's galactic breakfast cereal.
-- haaz.
Here's the official web site with pictures: http://oposite.stsci.edu/pub info/pr/1999/34/index.html
In general, you can get the best scoop from the Lastest Hubble News page.
Donald Savage
o tos.html
Headquarters, Washington, DC Oct. 6, 1999
(Phone: 202/358-1547)
Nancy Neal
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-0039)
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
(Phone: 410/338-4514)
RELEASE: 99-107
STARRY BULGES YIELD SECRETS TO GALAXY GROWTH
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is uncovering important new
clues to a galaxy's birth and growth by peering into its heart --
a bulge of millions of stars that resemble a bulbous center yolk
in the middle of a disk of egg white.
Hubble astronomers are trying to solve the mystery of which
came first: the stellar disk or the central bulge?
Two complementary surveys by independent teams of astronomers
using Hubble show that the hubs of some galaxies formed early in
the Universe, while others formed more slowly, across a long
stretch of time.
Hubble confirms that the evolutionary paths of bulges and
disks are connected. The central bulge stabilizes a galaxy's
development and largely controls the ebb and flow of star birth in
the core. The central bulge holds secrets as to how and when a
galaxy formed. Before Hubble, astronomers had detailed
information only about the complex core of our galaxy, which has a
small bulge peppered with massive young star clusters and a
telltale bar structure funneling gas to the center. Hubble allows
astronomers to see bright star clusters, bars and other structures
deep inside the bulges of other galaxies.
A group led by Reynier Peletier from the University of
Nottingham, in the United Kingdom, has confirmed that the central
bulges of more tightly wound spirals were all created at more or
less the same time in the early universe.
A second team, led by C. Marcella Carollo of Columbia
University in New York, surveyed galaxies that have small bulges
and bar-like structures that bisect the nucleus like the slash
across a no-smoking sign. They found that the bulges in these
galaxies grew more recently, through markedly different processes
happening within the galaxy's disk.
Both surveys used Hubble's precise resolution to peer into
bulbous hubs of more than 200 neighboring galaxies, out to a
distance of 100 million light-years. Using Hubble's visible-light
and infrared cameras to penetrate deep into the cores of the
galaxies, astronomers were able to untangle the stars' true colors
-- a measure of age -- from their apparent colors, which are made
redder by interstellar dust.
Peletier's team used Hubble to look into the center of 20
spiral galaxies that have large bulges. The team found that
elliptical bulges of stars formed over a relatively brief period
very early in the young universe. This could have happened
through the collapse of a single cloud of hydrogen or merger of
primeval star clusters.
"Apparently everywhere in the universe these intermediate-
sized galaxies must have started forming early on," reports
Peletier in a paper to be published in the Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society. "The bulges of early spiral galaxies
are old, and at least the outer parts of their disks are
considerably younger."
Carollo's team found that in a different class of spiral
galaxy, a small bulge probably formed early on, but was later fed
by gas flowing into the galaxy's core, likely along a bar-like
structure caused by instabilities in the surrounding disk of
stars. The gas fueled the birth of new stars, and the bulge
inflated like a beach ball as brilliant star clusters populated
the center.
Carollo's results, to be published in the Astrophysical
Journal, show young and old stars in the bulge. The researchers
say that these types of bulges can continue to grow in galaxies in
the present universe, but it is unlikely that they will ever
become as big as those giant bulges that formed when the universe
was young.
The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. for
NASA, under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of
international cooperation between NASA and the European Space
Agency.
- end -
NOTE TO EDITORS: Image files are available on the Internet at:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html and
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1999/34/pr-ph
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
It's only been 30 years since the moon landing. And yet we've already forgotten about it - the thirtieth anniversary passed by mostly uncelebrated. I don't recall a single mention of it in the press other than a fleeting mention on NPR. Why is space no longer interesting to anyone? There was a time, not long back, when people looked up at the stars and were consumed with the desire to explore and know what was out there - or so I like to think. Is what drove the space race of the sixties only the paranoia and jingoism of the cold war? Was there no trace of nobility, no desire to explore the unexplored? No burning curiousity? Things like Star Trek and the host of other popular space-opera shows around that time make me believe otherwise - people genuinely WERE captivated by space, and by the thought that man might, one day, pierce that star-studded blackness and live amongst comets and asteroids and pulsars and black holes and other galactic marvels. Where did that die? Why is the current generation so apathetic about space? Is it just that it's 'unimportant', that we find it non-critical and would rather devote interest to more important investments, like national security? Was the only reason NASA got any funding was that it furthered the development of ICBMs, or was it because the people had a genuine interest in it then and don't any longer? Finally, what can we do to rekindle interest in space? Are we reduced to just crowing about the latest NASA victories on /. and lamenting the fact that they don't get any funding? I'd like to think there's something more we geeks can do of substance. I propose a 'NASA box' that helps /.'ers send comments to Congressional individuals encouraging to direct funding to NASA. If we can't bring it to other people, at least the (potentially powerful) Geek Lobby can do something. SA