Image: Hubble Returns to Science Operations

Description: These early snapshots demonstrate the return of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to full science operations, following correction of a computer anomaly aboard the spacecraft. Normal science observations were restarted on July 17, at 1:18 pm EDT. Among the early targets are globular star clusters in other galaxies and aurorae on the giant planet Jupiter, in addition to a look at bizarre galaxies. These two peculiar galaxies are part of a program led by Julianne Dalcanton of the University of Washington in Seattle, to survey oddball galaxies scattered across the sky. LEFT— ARP-MADORE2115-273 is a rare example of an interacting galaxy pair in the southern hemisphere. These Hubble observations provide Hubble's first high-resolution glimpse at this intriguing system, which is located 297 million light-years away. Astronomers had previously thought this was a "collisional ring" system due to the head-on merger of two galaxies. The new Hubble observations show that the ongoing interaction between the galaxies is far more complex, leaving behind a rich network of stars and dusty gas. RIGHT — ARP-MADORE0002-503 is a large spiral galaxy with unusual, extended spiral arms, at a distance of 490 million light-years. Its arms extend out to a radius of 163,000 light-years, making it three times more expansive than our Milky Way Galaxy. While most disk galaxies have an even number of spiral arms, this one has three.
Title: Hubble Returns to Science Operations
Credit: https://esahubble.org/images/opo2145a/
Author: NASA, ESA, STScI, Julianne Dalcanton (UW), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
License: CC BY 4.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Attribution Required?: Yes