Hubble Photos

1994/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

The spacecraft repaired Hubble space telescope starts sending agile images. The telescope sees it further than before (up to 14 billion lights a year) and also separates stars from galaxies.

Hubble's constant is also expected to be measured in order to calculate the age of the Universe.

The following images show the spiral galaxy M-100 to 12 million light-years, before and after repairing the Hubble telescope. One of the brightest in the constellation of Virgo, it has so far been seen as a luminous mist. However, today astronomers can also distinguish stars. We also see the cefeid stars considered as reference. The knowledge of the intrinsic luminosity of these variable and specific periodic brightness stars allows us to calculate the distance between the galaxy M-100 and the Earth.

For the first time it will be possible to study the evolution of a galaxy outside the Milky Way and the Local Group. They will analyze the chemical composition of ages, masses and stars.