Hubble Space Telescope captures "cosmic fountain" (2009-04-24)

This image provided by NASA Tuesday April 21, 2009 shows a peculiar system of galaxies known as Arp 194. This interacting group contains several galaxies, along with a 'cosmic fountain' of stars, gas, and dust that stretches over 100,000 light-years. The most striking feature of this galaxy troupe is the impressive blue stream of material extending from the northern component. This 'fountain' contains complexes of super star clusters, each one of which may contain dozens of individual young star clusters. The blue color is produced by the hot, massive stars which dominate the light in each cluster. Overall, the 'fountain' contains many millions of stars. This picture was issued to celebrate the 19th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. During the past 19 years Hubble has made more than 880,000 observations and snapped over 570,000 images of 29,000 celestial objects. The Space Shuttle Discovery placed the Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit on April 25, 1990.

哈勃望远镜又拍奇景 "宇宙喷泉"壮丽现身

据美国宇航局太空网报道，为了纪念哈勃太空望远镜成功发射近20年来一直对令人震惊的宇宙不断拍摄，它最近拍摄了一张相互作用的星群图，这些星群里包含延伸大约100000光年的恒星、气体和尘埃"宇宙喷泉"。

过去19年间，哈勃太空望远镜拍摄到很多大规模撞击和近距离相遇的天体图。最近该望远镜拍摄到的一张新图片上展示了三个星系，这个星系群被称作Arp 194。从图上看，感觉好像有物质从一个星系中泄露出来。图片中出现的明亮的蓝色彩带，其实是新生蓝色恒星向外延伸的完整的螺旋臂。当两个星系利用引力相互作用时，就会出现这种现象。