Eta Carinae: Observations of a massive, unstable star called Eta Carinae, made with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC) aboard NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope HST, reveal surprising and complex new structure in a dusty nebula surrounding the star. New details include a jet of material flowing away from the star and a regularly spaced set of wave-like features. The results are being reported on May 17, 1991 at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Writer's Workshop in Baltimore MD.

Name: Eta Carinae, IRAS 10431-5925
Type: Milky Way : Star : Type : Wolf-Rayet
Category: Nebulae
Distance: 7500 light years
Release date: 17 May 1991, 06:00
Credit: NASA and ESA

47 Tucanae core: The core of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, as imaged by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC) onboard NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Space Telescope's high spatial resolution and ultraviolet sensitivity make it a powerful tool for probing the centers of globular clusters. The FOC resolves several hundred stars where ground-based images only yield a few dozen stars. At least 21 of these stars are exceptionally bright in ultraviolet light. HST's UV sensitivity and high resolution allow it to easily separate these so-called blue stragglers stars from the red giant stars which dominate the cluster. Blue stragglers may evolve from "old age" back to a hotter and brighter youth through stellar collisions and mergers. This high concentration of blue stragglers towards the core of 47 Tucanae suggests they are significantly more massive than most of the cluster's stars. Some of blue stragglers could be massive because they are really double star systems. Such binary systems may influence the motions of thousands of other stars within the cluster.

Name: 47 Tucanae, NGC 104
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Distance: 15000 light years
Release date: 24 July 1991, 06:00
Credit: Francesco Paresce (ESA/STScI). Michael Shara (STScI), Georges Meylan (ESA/STScI)

47 Tucanae core - ground based vs. HST resolution: [RIGHT] The core of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, as imaged by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC) onboard NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The FOC resolves several hundred stars where ground-based images only yield a few dozen stars. The image reveals so-called blue straggler stars (encircled) which are exceptionally bright in ultraviolet light. HST's UV sensitivity and high resolution allow it to easily separate the blue stragglers from the red giant stars which dominate the cluster. Blue straggler stars may evolve from "old age" back to a hotter and brighter youth through stellar collisions and mergers. This high concentration of blue stragglers towards the core of 47 Tucanae suggests they are significantly more massive than most of the cluster's stars. Some of blue stragglers could be massive because they are really double star systems. Such binary systems may influence the motions of thousands of other stars within the cluster. The FOC observations were made in ultraviolet light (2200 angstroms) on November 16, 1990 with the FOC in F/96 mode. Field of view is 11 X 11 arc seconds corresponding to a width of .75 light years, at 47 Tucanae's distance of 15,000 light years. Resolution is 0.1 arc second.

Name: 47 Tucanae, NGC 104
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Distance: 15000 light years
Release date: 24 July 1991, 06:00
Credit: NASA/ESA

Compact core of galaxy M87: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope clearly shows the central core and accompanying jet of the giant elliptical galaxy M87. This near-infrared image was taken with HST's Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC), in high resolution mode, on June 1, 1991. The image is being presented on Thursday, January 16th at the 179th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, Georgia. The steady increase in brightness of M87 towards its center is readily apparent in the image, showing that the stars in MS7 are strongly concentrated towards its nucleus, as if drawn into the center and held there by the gravitational field of a massive black hole. Theoretical models suggest that the structure of Mg7 is consistent with a central 2.6 billion solar mass black hole. High resolution spectroscopic observations are now needed to confirm this possibility.

Name: IRAS 12282+1240, M 87, Messier 87, NGC 4486, Virgo Galaxy
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : EllipticalLocal Universe : Galaxy : Size : GiantLocal Universe : Galaxy : Component : Center/Core
Category: GalaxiesQuasars and Black Holes
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 16 January 1992, 06:00
Credit: Tod R. Lauer (NOAO), Sandra M. Faber (CSC), C. Roger Lynds (NOAO), and the Wide Field/Planetary Camera Imaging Team.

Compact core of galaxy M87: Astronomers report today that they have found intriguing evidence that a black hole weighing over 2.6 billion times the mass of the Sun exists at the center of the giant elliptical galaxy M87, based upon images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The images show that stars become strongly concentrated towards the center of M87, as if drawn into the center and held there by the gravitational field of a massive black hole.

Name: IRAS 12282+1240, M 87, Messier 87, NGC 4486, Virgo Galaxy
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : EllipticalLocal Universe : Galaxy : Size : GiantLocal Universe : Galaxy : Component : Center/Core
Category: GalaxiesQuasars and Black Holes
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 16 January 1992, 06:00
Credit: NASA & ESA

Globular clusters at the core of NGC 1275: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field/Planetary Camera image of the center of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1275, reveals about 50 massive and compact globular clusters. This colour picture is a composite of red and green images. Though this is an approximation of a "true color" view, the colours are intensified beyond what one would expect to see with the naked eye. The clusters appear as blue dots. The white dot is the bright and compact core of the galaxy which is partially encircled by large dark filaments of nebulosity. This image is being presented on Thursday, January 16th at the 179th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, Georgia. Globular clusters typically contain 100,000 to 10 million stars packed in a region 100 light years in diameter. Most globular clusters are made up of very old stars. Surprisingly, those found in NGC 1275 are young. They may have formed from cataclysmic event in the history of the NGC 1275, such as a merger or collision of two galaxies.

Name: IRAS 03164+4119, NGC 1275, Perseus A
Type: Unspecified : Galaxy
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 16 January 1992, 06:00
Credit: Jon Holtzman (UCSC)1 Sandra M. Faber (UCSC), Edward Shaya (U. Maryland)) Tad R. Lauer (NOAO), Edward Groth (IAS, Princeton), Deidre Hunter (1owell Obs.) and the Wide Field Planetary Camera Instrument Team