Hubble can see again

The over weeks "blinded" Space telescope returns with a fascinating image

The Hubble Space Telescope is able to "see" again, having previously gone into safety mode due to a malfunction. A space mission to replace cameras and batteries was postponed due to Hurricane Ike and will now probably not take place until 2009. At the beginning of October the data transmission broke down (Cosmic Landscape). A first restart had failed. Last week, scientists were able to reboot the computer system that controls the science instruments.

Arp 147. Image: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio (STScI)

Apparently, this rescue operation was successful, because today a new, technically and aesthetically perfect image, taken on 27. and 28. Oktober mit der Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), veroffentlicht. And again it is another fascinating image of two interacting galaxies, called ARP 147. The name comes from the Arp Atlas of Unusual Galaxies, compiled by astronomer Halton Arp in the 1960s. ARP 147 is in the constellation Whale and about 400 million light years from Earth.

The round and flat galaxy on the left appears to be largely undisturbed, as indicated in the communication, except for a small ring of light from stars. The galaxy on the right, on the other hand, is a turbulent blue ring in which stars form. The ring developed after this galaxy passed through the first one. When the galaxies collided, matter of coarse density was printed outward in a circular shape and then collided with matter pulled inward by gravity, creating new stars. The reddish area in the otherwise blue ring represents, as the scientists suppose, the original core of the galaxy.

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