Документ взят из кэша поисковой машины. Адрес оригинального документа : http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~palla/ANDREAIMMAGINI/ISM/1987a.txt Дата изменения: Tue Jan 30 14:13:59 2001 Дата индексирования: Sat Dec 22 07:41:21 2007 Кодировка: Поисковые слова: п п п п п п п п п п п п п п

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:00 noon EST February 4, 1999

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC99-04


SN1987A IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

Glittering stars and wisps of gas create a breathtaking backdrop for the
self-destruction of a massive star, called supernova 1987A, in the Large
Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy. Astronomers in the Southern
hemisphere witnessed the brilliant explosion of this star on Feb. 23,
1987.

Shown in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, the supernova remnant,
surrounded by inner and outer rings of material, is set in a forest of
ethereal, diffuse clouds of gas. This three-color image is composed of
several pictures of the supernova and its neighboring region taken with
the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in Sept. 1994, Feb. 1996 and July
1997.

The many bright blue stars nearby the supernova are massive stars, each
more than six times heftier than our Sun. With ages of about 12 million
years old, they are members of the same generation of stars as the star
that went supernova. The presence of bright gas clouds is another sign
of the youth of this region, which still appears to be a fertile
breeding ground for new stars.

In a few years the supernova's fast moving material will sweep the inner
ring with full force, heating and exciting its gas, and will produce a
new series of cosmic fireworks that will offer a striking view for more
than a decade.

Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)

EDITOR'S NOTE: This image and a photo caption are available on the
Internet at:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1999/04
http://heritage.stsci.edu or via links in
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html or
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html

Higher resolution digital versions (300 dpi JPEG) of the release photos
are available at: http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1999/04.

TIFF image files are available at
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/tiff/1999/9904.tif.

STScI press releases and other information are available by sending an
Internet electronic mail message to pio-request@stsci.edu. In the body
of the message (not the subject line) users should type the word
"subscribe" (use no quotes). The system will respond with a
confirmation of the subscription and users will receive new press
releases as they are issued.