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HUBBLE SEES STARS AS NUMEROUS AS GRAINS OF SAND IN NEARBY GALAXY(STScI-PRC04-13-Heritage)
FOR RELEASE: April 8, 2004
PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC04-13b HUBBLE SEES STARS AS NUMEROUS AS GRAINS OF SAND IN NEARBY GALAXY What appear as individual grains of sand on a beach in this image obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are actually myriads of stars embedded deep in the heart of the nearby galaxy NGC 300. The Hubble telescope's exquisite resolution enables it to see the stars as individual points of light, despite the fact that the galaxy is millions of light-years away. NGC 300 is a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way. It is a member of a nearby collection of galaxies known as the Sculptor group, named for the southern constellation where the group can be found. The distance to NGC 300 is 6.5 million light-years, making it one of the Milky Way's closer neighbors. At this distance, only the brightest stars can be picked out from ground-based images. With a resolution some 10 times better than ground-based telescopes, Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) resolves many more stars in this galaxy than can be detected from the ground. A ground-based Digitized Sky Survey image of the full field of NGC 300 is shown in the top left frame. An outline of the Hubble Heritage ACS image is marked and shown in the image in the top right frame. A detailed blowup of this image (in the bottom frame) shows individual stars in the galaxy. A background spiral galaxy is visible in the lower right corner. The individual Hubble ACS exposures were taken in July and September 2002. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) Acknowledgment: F. Bresolin (Institute for Astronomy, U. Hawaii) and the Digitized Sky Survey NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information, please contact Fabio Bresolin, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii USA, 96822, (phone) 808-956-8306, (email) , or Keith Noll, Hubble Heritage Team, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, (phone) 410-338-1828, (fax) 410-338-4579, (e-mail) or Electronic images and additional information are available at http://hubblesite.org/news/2004/13 http://heritage.stsci.edu/2004/13 The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), 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). To receive STScI Inbox Astronomy: News Alert messages, visit http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/mailing.php or send an e-mail to . Leave the subject line blank, and type the word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. The system will respond with instructions on how to confirm your subscription. Once you follow the instructions, you will receive news alerts as they are issued. Alerts will be sent to the e-mail address you use to subscribe. To unsubscribe, send e-mail to . Leave the subject line blank, and type the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. Please unsubscribe using the email account that you used to subscribe to the list. |
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