Hubble Finds Mysterious Disk of Blue Stars Around Black Hole

[[email protected]]

FOR RELEASE: September 20, 2005

Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Susan Hendrix
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-7745)

Donna Weaver
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore
(Phone: 410/338-4493)

Lars Lindberg Christensen
Hubble European Space Agency Information Center, Garching, Germany
(Phone: 011/49-89-320-06-306)

Rebecca Johnson
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Tx.
(Phone: 512/475-6763)

Doug Isbell
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, Ariz.
(Phone: 520-318-8214)

PRESS RELEASE NO.: STScI-PR05-26

HUBBLE FINDS MYSTERIOUS DISK OF BLUE STARS AROUND BLACK HOLE

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have identified the
source of a mysterious blue light surrounding a supermassive black hole
in our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy (M31). The strange light has
puzzled
astronomers for more than a decade.

For imagery and additional information about the research on the
Internet, visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2005/26
http://hubblesite.org/news/2005/full
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0512.html
http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/news/releases/2005/0920.html

For information about NASA on the Internet, visit:
www.nasa.gov/home/

-end-

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).