**Ultraviolet Surprise**

by Patrick L. Barry and Tony Phillips

How would you like to visit a universe full of exotic stars and weird
galaxies the likes of which astronomers on Earth have never seen
before?\
\
Now you can.  Just point your web browser to
[galex.stsci.edu](http://galex.stsci.edu/) and start exploring.\
\
That\'s the address of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer image archive, a
survey of the whole sky at ultraviolet wavelengths that can\'t be seen
from the ground. Earth\'s atmosphere blocks far-ultraviolet light, so
the only way to see the ultraviolet sky is by using a space telescope
such as NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer.\
\
About 65% of the images from the all-sky survey haven\'t been closely
examined by astronomers yet, so there are plenty of surprises waiting to
be uncovered.\
\
"The Galaxy Evolution Explorer produces so much data that, beyond basic
quality control, we just don\'t have time to look at it all," says Mark
Seibert, an astronomy postdoc at the Observatories of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington in Pasadena, California.\
\
This fresh view of the sky has already revealed striking and unexpected
features of familiar celestial objects. Mira is a good
example. Occasionally visible to the naked eye, Mira is a pulsating star
monitored carefully by astronomers for more than 400 years. Yet until
Galaxy Evolution Explorer recently examined Mira, no one would have
guessed its secret: Mira possesses a comet-like tail 13 light-years
long.\
\
"Mira shows us that even well-observed stars can surprise us if we look
at them in a different way and at different frequencies," Seibert says.

Another example: In April, scientists announced that galaxies such as
NGC 1512 have giant ultraviolet spiral arms extending three times
farther out into space than the arms that can be seen by visible-light
telescopes.  It would be like looking at your pet dog through an
ultraviolet telescope and discovering his ears are really three times
longer than you thought!\
\
The images from the ultraviolet space telescope are ideal for hunting
new phenomena. The telescope\'s small, 20-inch primary mirror (not much
bigger than a typical backyard telescope) offers a wide field of view.
Each image covers 1.2 degrees of sky---lots of territory for the
unexpected.\
\
If someone combing the archives does find something of interest, Seibert
advises that she or he should first search astronomy journals to see
whether the phenomenon has been observed before. If it hasn\'t, email a
member of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer science team and let them know,
Seibert says.\
\
So what are you waiting for?  Fire up your web browser and let the
discoveries begin!

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California
Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="6.0in" height="4.623611111111111in"}

Caption:

*Astronomers looking at new ultraviolet images from the Galaxy Evolution
Explorer spacecraft were surprised to discover a 13-light-year long tail
on Mira, a star that has been extensively studied for 400 years.*

Note to editors:

*This image may be down-loaded from
<http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/news_images/mira.jpg>.*