| Hubble observes the lost ancestors to our Milky Way Galaxy | 12/01/1994 | ||
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This NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the central portion of a remote cluster of galaxies (CL 0939+4713) as it looked when the universe was two-thirds of its present age. Hubble's high resolution allows astronomers to study, for the first time, the shapes of galaxies as they were long ago. | ||
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| Image Credit: Alan Dressler (Carnegie Institution) and NASA. | |||
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| This
NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the central portion of a remote
cluster of galaxies (CL 0939+4713) as it looked when the universe was two-thirds
of its present age. Hubble's high resolution allows astronomers to study,
for the first time, the shapes of galaxies as they were long ago.
The Space Telescope pictures are sharp enough to distinguish between various forms of spiral galaxies. Most of the spiral, or disk, galaxies have odd features, suggesting they were easily distorted within the environment of the rich cluster. Hubble reveals a number of mysterious "fragments" of galaxies interspersed through the cluster. |
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The HST picture confirms that billions of years ago, clusters of galaxies contained not only the types of galaxies dominating their descendant clusters today, but also several times as many spiral galaxies. These spiral galaxies have since disappeared through mergers and disruptions, as evident in the Hubble image. | |
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