To celebrate the NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 16 years of success, the two space agencies are releasing the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of Messier 82 (M82), a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions.
Located 12 million light-years away, M82 appears high in the northern spring sky in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It is also called the ‘Cigar Galaxy’ because of the elongated elliptical shape produced by the tilt of its starry disk relative to our line of sight.
fantastica!
Mi pare che in questi ultimi tempi stiano rilasciando tantissime e stupendissime foto di HST (vedi le megacomposizioni di M1, nebulosa di orione, deep field, ecc ecc)… Insomma gli stanno facendo una pubblicita enorme. C'e qualche scopo recondito dietro tutto cio? C'e in ballo qualche cosa di particolare? Saranno le foto del “canto del cigno” di hubble?
