Astronomers today announced the discovery of a very bright region which is forming new stars at the centre of the famous Lagoon Nebula. Here, the embryonic stirrings of newly forming stars cause the surrounding placental material to be heated, producing the exceptionally intense emission.The figure shows optical and infrared picture
s of the Lagoon Nebula, and a map in the submillimetre wavelength light of the carbon monoxide (CO) molecule. The bright white spot on the CO molecules map shows the location of the region where the new stars are forming. Star Formation is one of the key topics in modern astronomical research, and the identification of sites of star
 formation like this are fundamentally important for understanding the birth of Planetary Systems and the origins of life. Twisters aren't just a fascination for weather-watchers on Earth. Scientists released dramatic pictures Wednesday of interstellar "twisters" that were photographed by the Hubble telescope. The twisters are swirl
ing in the center of the Lagoon nebula, which is thought to be a star-birth region about 5,000 light years from Earth. The nebula is a huge gas cloud surrounding O Herchel 36, a central bright star. The twisters snaking along the sides of the star are funnels of gas created when the hot surfaces of clouds interract with their cold i
nteriors.Scientists say that while the twisters may resemble tornadoes, more study is needed to determine if they act like them, as well. The photos are the most recent pictures snapped by Hubble. The shuttle Discovery is scheduled to blast off February 11 on the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Space shuttle Atlanti
s returned to Earth Wednesday after a 10-day mission. For the first time in history, mankind is about to become a regular visitor to places in our own solar system. Already, plans are in the works to check out Mars, Saturn, and even Pluto, the most distant in our own cosmic village of planets. The plans for interplanetary travel sou
nd like something out of science fiction, but they're not."Our plan is to send the first mission to Pluto shortly after the turn of the century," said Robert Staehle, the manager of the Pluto Mission. Daniel McCleese of the Mars Expeditions Team predicts that by 2015, "you could see the planet with people living on the surface for a
s long as two Earth years." And Cheik Diara, a scientist from Jet Propulsion Lab, said that eventually, weather forecasts from Mars will be available on the Internet. In the next 20 years, scientists say, planetary exploration may lead to an explosion of knowledge, a 21st century renaissance. Robotic emissaries will carry out the fi
rst expeditions. Next October, the Cassini probe begins a seven-year trip to Saturn and its moon Titan. As Cassini mission manager Richard Spehalski noted, robots have the capacity to tell us much about the makeup of other planets through chemical analysis and photography. Half a dozen other landers and orbiters are scheduled in the
 next eight years, all leading up to the most ambitious mission since the days of Apollo. In about 2005, a spacecraft will leave Earth for Mars and hopefully will return three years later with a 1 pound sample of Martian rock and soil. The theory, according to Ed Shostak of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project
, is that Mars had very simple forms of life before organic life forms appeared on Earth. "A chunk of Mars lands on Earth and seeds our planet, and we are the result -- four billion years later, three billion years later. So in that scenario, we are the Martians," Shostak said. The Hubble Space Telescope reawakened following the lon
gest hiatus in its nine-year life, snapping stunning images of a dying star known as the Eskimo nebula and a dense cluster of remote galaxies that acts like a celestial magnifying glass, NASA reported Monday. The observatory had been out of service for two months until the space shuttle Discovery crew performed major repairs on the 
orbiting telescope in late December. The images, released Monday, were among the first taken by the revived Hubble. Since early January the $3 billion space telescope has resumed probing the mysteries of the universe with unprecedented clarity. "Thanks to the great work by the astronauts, Hubble is better than new," said Dr. Ed Weil
er, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science. "I think there is no better proof than these pictures that NASA's capability to send humans into space to work on Hubble has had a vital role in space science and the renaissance in astronomy we're now seeing." To verify the telescope's refurbishment, astronomers aimed it at two sc
ientifically intriguing celestial targets. One object is an intricate structure of shells and streamers of gas around a dying sun-like star 5,000 light-years away. "The clumps that form the comet heads all seem to be located at a similar distance from the star. This fact will be important in developing a theory of why the clumps for
med in the first place," said planetary nebula expert J. Patrick Harrington of the University of Maryland, College Park.A second target is a massive cluster of galaxies called Abell 2218, which acts like a giant zoom lens in space. The gravitational field of the cluster magnifies the light of more distant galaxies far behind it, pro
viding a deep probe of the very distant universe. The cluster is located in the constellation Draco, about 2 billion light-years from Earth. It was imaged in full color, providing astronomers with a spectacular and unique new view of the early "For the first time we can view the internal color structure of some very distant galaxies
. This gives us new insight into details of what young galaxies are like," says Richard Ellis at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and University of Cambridge, England.The Discovery crew restored NASA's premier optical space observatory with nearly $70 million worth of critically needed replacement gyroscopes and upg
raded electronic parts. All the new equipment is working well, including the new computer, solid state recorder and fine guidance sensor, according to NASA. In particular the new gyroscopes are allowing Hubble to point precisely at celestial objects. The Hubble science operations center is the Space Telescope Science Institute in Ba
ltimore, Maryland. The institute is operated for NASA under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. Astronomers today announced the discovery of a very bright region which is forming new s
tars at the centre of the famous Lagoon Nebula. Here, the embryonic stirrings of newly forming stars cause the surrounding placental material to be heated, producing the exceptionally intense emission.The figure shows optical and infrared pictures of the Lagoon Nebula, and a map in the submillimetre wavelength light of the carbon mo
noxide (CO) molecule. The bright white spot on the CO molecules map shows the location of the region where the new stars are forming. Star Formation is one of the key topics in modern astronomical research, and the identification of sites of star formation like this are fundamentally important for understanding the birth of Planetar
y Systems and the origins of life. Twisters aren't just a fascination for weather-watchers on Earth. Scientists released dramatic pictures Wednesday of interstellar "twisters" that were photographed by the Hubble telescope. The twisters are swirling in the center of the Lagoon nebula, which is thought to be a star-birth region about
 5,000 light years from Earth. The nebula is a huge gas cloud surrounding O Herchel 36, a central bright star. The twisters snaking along the sides of the star are funnels of gas created when the hot surfaces of clouds interract with their cold interiors.Scientists say that while the twisters may resemble tornadoes, more study is ne
eded to determine if they act like them, as well. The photos are the most recent pictures snapped by Hubble. The shuttle Discovery is scheduled to blast off February 11 on the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth Wednesday after a 10-day mission. For the first time in history, man
kind is about to become a regular visitor to places in our own solar system. Already, plans are in the works to check out Mars, Saturn, and even Pluto, the most distant in our own cosmic village of planets. The plans for interplanetary travel sound like something out of science fiction, but they're not."Our plan is to send the first
 mission to Pluto shortly after the turn of the century," said Robert Staehle, the manager of the Pluto Mission. Daniel McCleese of the Mars Expeditions Team predicts that by 2015, "you could see the planet with people living on the surface for as long as two Earth years." And Cheik Diara, a scientist from Jet Propulsion Lab, said t
hat eventually, weather forecasts from Mars will be available on the Internet. In the next 20 years, scientists say, planetary exploration may lead to an explosion of knowledge, a 21st century renaissance. Robotic emissaries will carry out the first expeditions. Next October, the Cassini probe begins a seven-year trip to Saturn and 
its moon Titan. As Cassini mission manager Richard Spehalski noted, robots have the capacity to tell us much about the makeup of other planets through chemical analysis and photography. Half a dozen other landers and orbiters are scheduled in the next eight years, all leading up to the most ambitious mission since the days of Apollo
. In about 2005, a spacecraft will leave Earth for Mars and hopefully will return three years later with a 1 pound sample of Martian rock and soil. The theory, according to Ed Shostak of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, is that Mars had very simple forms of life before organic life forms appeared on Earth
. "A chunk of Mars lands on Earth and seeds our planet, and we are the result -- four billion years later, three billion years later. So in that scenario, we are the Martians," Shostak said. The Hubble Space Telescope reawakened following the longest hiatus in its nine-year life, snapping stunning images of a dying star known as the
 Eskimo nebula and a dense cluster of remote galaxies that acts like a celestial magnifying glass, NASA reported Monday. The observatory had been out of service for two months until the space shuttle Discovery crew performed major repairs on the orbiting telescope in late December. The images, released Monday, were among the first t
aken by the revived Hubble. Since early January the $3 billion space telescope has resumed probing the mysteries of the universe with unprecedented clarity. "Thanks to the great work by the astronauts, Hubble is better than new," said Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science. "I think there is no better proof th
an these pictures that NASA's capability to send humans into space to work on Hubble has had a vital role in space science and the renaissance in astronomy we're now seeing." To verify the telescope's refurbishment, astronomers aimed it at two scientifically intriguing celestial targets. One object is an intricate structure of shell
s and streamers of gas around a dying sun-like star 5,000 light-years away. "The clumps that form the comet heads all seem to be located at a similar distance from the star. This fact will be important in developing a theory of why the clumps formed in the first place," said planetary nebula expert J. Patrick Harrington of the Unive
rsity of Maryland, College Park.A second target is a massive cluster of galaxies called Abell 2218, which acts like a giant zoom lens in space. The gravitational field of the cluster magnifies the light of more distant galaxies far behind it, providing a deep probe of the very distant universe. The cluster is located in the constell
ation Draco, about 2 billion light-years from Earth. It was imaged in full color, providing astronomers with a spectacular and unique new view of the early "For the first time we can view the internal color structure of some very distant galaxies. This gives us new insight into details of what young galaxies are like," says Richard 
Ellis at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and University of Cambridge, England.The Discovery crew restored NASA's premier optical space observatory with nearly $70 million worth of critically needed replacement gyroscopes and upgraded electronic parts. All the new equipment is working well, including the new compute
r, solid state recorder and fine guidance sensor, according to NASA. In particular the new gyroscopes are allowing Hubble to point precisely at celestial objects. The Hubble science operations center is the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The institute is operated for NASA under contract with NASA's Goddard
 Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. Astronomers today announced the discovery of a very bright region which is forming new stars at the centre of the famous Lagoon Nebula. Here, the embryonic stirrings of newly f
orming stars cause the surrounding placental material to be heated, producing the exceptionally intense emission.The figure shows optical and infrared pictures of the Lagoon Nebula, and a map in the submillimetre wavelength light of the carbon monoxide (CO) molecule. The bright white spot on the CO molecules map shows the location o
f the region where the new stars are forming. Star Formation is one of the key topics in modern astronomical research, and the identification of sites of star formation like this are fundamentally important for understanding the birth of Planetary Systems and the origins of life. Twisters aren't just a fascination for weather-watche
rs on Earth. Scientists released dramatic pictures Wednesday of interstellar "twisters" that were photographed by the Hubble telescope. The twisters are swirling in the center of the Lagoon nebula, which is thought to be a star-birth region about 5,000 light years from Earth. The nebula is a huge gas cloud surrounding O Herchel 36, 
a central bright star. The twisters snaking along the sides of the star are funnels of gas created when the hot surfaces of clouds interract with their cold interiors.Scientists say that while the twisters may resemble tornadoes, more study is needed to determine if they act like them, as well. The photos are the most recent picture
s snapped by Hubble. The shuttle Discovery is scheduled to blast off February 11 on the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth Wednesday after a 10-day mission. For the first time in history, mankind is about to become a regular visitor to places in our own solar system. Already, pl
ans are in the works to check out Mars, Saturn, and even Pluto, the most distant in our own cosmic village of planets. The plans for interplanetary travel sound like something out of science fiction, but they're not."Our plan is to send the first mission to Pluto shortly after the turn of the century," said Robert Staehle, the manag
er of the Pluto Mission. Daniel McCleese of the Mars Expeditions Team predicts that by 2015, "you could see the planet with people living on the surface for as long as two Earth years." And Cheik Diara, a scientist from Jet Propulsion Lab, said that eventually, weather forecasts from Mars will be available on the Internet. In the ne
xt 20 years, scientists say, planetary exploration may lead to an explosion of knowledge, a 21st century renaissance. Robotic emissaries will carry out the first expeditions. Next October, the Cassini probe begins a seven-year trip to Saturn and its moon Titan. As Cassini mission manager Richard Spehalski noted, robots have the capa
city to tell us much about the makeup of other planets through chemical analysis and photography. Half a dozen other landers and orbiters are scheduled in the next eight years, all leading up to the most ambitious mission since the days of Apollo. In about 2005, a spacecraft will leave Earth for Mars and hopefully will return three 
years later with a 1 pound sample of Martian rock and soil. The theory, according to Ed Shostak of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, is that Mars had very simple forms of life before organic life forms appeared on Earth. "A chunk of Mars lands on Earth and seeds our planet, and we are the result -- four bi
llion years later, three billion years later. So in that scenario, we are the Martians," Shostak said. The Hubble Space Telescope reawakened following the longest hiatus in its nine-year life, snapping stunning images of a dying star known as the Eskimo nebula and a dense cluster of remote galaxies that acts like a celestial magnify
ing glass, NASA reported Monday. The observatory had been out of service for two months until the space shuttle Discovery crew performed major repairs on the orbiting telescope in late December. The images, released Monday, were among the first taken by the revived Hubble. Since early January the $3 billion space telescope has resum
ed probing the mysteries of the universe with unprecedented clarity. "Thanks to the great work by the astronauts, Hubble is better than new," said Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science. "I think there is no better proof than these pictures that NASA's capability to send humans into space to work on Hubble has
 had a vital role in space science and the renaissance in astronomy we're now seeing." To verify the telescope's refurbishment, astronomers aimed it at two scientifically intriguing celestial targets. One object is an intricate structure of shells and streamers of gas around a dying sun-like star 5,000 light-years away. "The clumps 
that form the comet heads all seem to be located at a similar distance from the star. This fact will be important in developing a theory of why the clumps formed in the first place," said planetary nebula expert J. Patrick Harrington of the University of Maryland, College Park.A second target is a massive cluster of galaxies called 
Abell 2218, which acts like a giant zoom lens in space. The gravitational field of the cluster magnifies the light of more distant galaxies far behind it, providing a deep probe of the very distant universe. The cluster is located in the constellation Draco, about 2 billion light-years from Earth. It was imaged in full color, provid
ing astronomers with a spectacular and unique new view of the early "For the first time we can view the internal color structure of some very distant galaxies. This gives us new insight into details of what young galaxies are like," says Richard Ellis at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and University of Cambridge, 
England.The Discovery crew restored NASA's premier optical space observatory with nearly $70 million worth of critically needed replacement gyroscopes and upgraded electronic parts. All the new equipment is working well, including the new computer, solid state recorder and fine guidance sensor, according to NASA. In particular the n
ew gyroscopes are allowing Hubble to point precisely at celestial objects. The Hubble science operations center is the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The institute is operated for NASA under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of 
international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. Astronomers today announced the discovery of a very bright region which is forming new stars at the centre of the famous Lagoon Nebula. Here, the embryonic stirrings of newly forming stars cause the surrounding placental material to be heated, producing the except
ionally intense emission.The figure shows optical and infrared pictures of the Lagoon Nebula, and a map in the submillimetre wavelength light of the carbon monoxide (CO) molecule. The bright white spot on the CO molecules map shows the location of the region where the new stars are forming. Star Formation is one of the key topics in
 modern astronomical research, and the identification of sites of star formation like this are fundamentally important for understanding the birth of Planetary Systems and the origins of life. Twisters aren't just a fascination for weather-watchers on Earth. Scientists released dramatic pictures Wednesday of interstellar "twisters" 
that were photographed by the Hubble telescope. The twisters are swirling in the center of the Lagoon nebula, which is thought to be a star-birth region about 5,000 light years from Earth. The nebula is a huge gas cloud surrounding O Herchel 36, a central bright star. The twisters snaking along the sides of the star are funnels of g
as created when the hot surfaces of clouds interract with their cold interiors.Scientists say that while the twisters may resemble tornadoes, more study is needed to determine if they act like them, as well. The photos are the most recent pictures snapped by Hubble. The shuttle Discovery is scheduled to blast off February 11 on the 
second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth Wednesday after a 10-day mission. For the first time in history, mankind is about to become a regular visitor to places in our own solar system. Already, plans are in the works to check out Mars, Saturn, and even Pluto, the most distant in our 
own cosmic village of planets. The plans for interplanetary travel sound like something out of science fiction, but they're not."Our plan is to send the first mission to Pluto shortly after the turn of the century," said Robert Staehle, the manager of the Pluto Mission. Daniel McCleese of the Mars Expeditions Team predicts that by 2
015, "you could see the planet with people living on the surface for as long as two Earth years." And Cheik Diara, a scientist from Jet Propulsion Lab, said that eventually, weather forecasts from Mars will be available on the Internet. In the next 20 years, scientists say, planetary exploration may lead to an explosion of knowledge
, a 21st century renaissance. Robotic emissaries will carry out the first expeditions. Next October, the Cassini probe begins a seven-year trip to Saturn and its moon Titan. As Cassini mission manager Richard Spehalski noted, robots have the capacity to tell us much about the makeup of other planets through chemical analysis and pho
tography. Half a dozen other landers and orbiters are scheduled in the next eight years, all leading up to the most ambitious mission since the days of Apollo. In about 2005, a spacecraft will leave Earth for Mars and hopefully will return three years later with a 1 pound sample of Martian rock and soil. The theory, according to Ed 
Shostak of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, is that Mars had very simple forms of life before organic life forms appeared on Earth. "A chunk of Mars lands on Earth and seeds our planet, and we are the result -- four billion years later, three billion years later. So in that scenario, we are the Martians,"
 Shostak said. The Hubble Space Telescope reawakened following the longest hiatus in its nine-year life, snapping stunning images of a dying star known as the Eskimo nebula and a dense cluster of remote galaxies that acts like a celestial magnifying glass, NASA reported Monday. The observatory had been out of service for two months 
until the space shuttle Discovery crew performed major repairs on the orbiting telescope in late December. The images, released Monday, were among the first taken by the revived Hubble. Since early January the $3 billion space telescope has resumed probing the mysteries of the universe with unprecedented clarity. "Thanks to the grea
t work by the astronauts, Hubble is better than new," said Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science. "I think there is no better proof than these pictures that NASA's capability to send humans into space to work on Hubble has had a vital role in space science and the renaissance in astronomy we're now seeing." T
o verify the telescope's refurbishment, astronomers aimed it at two scientifically intriguing celestial targets. One object is an intricate structure of shells and streamers of gas around a dying sun-like star 5,000 light-years away. "The clumps that form the comet heads all seem to be located at a similar distance from the star. Th
is fact will be important in developing a theory of why the clumps formed in the first place," said planetary nebula expert J. Patrick Harrington of the University of Maryland, College Park.A second target is a massive cluster of galaxies called Abell 2218, which acts like a giant zoom lens in space. The gravitational field of the c
luster magnifies the light of more distant galaxies far behind it, providing a deep probe of the very distant universe. The cluster is located in the constellation Draco, about 2 billion light-years from Earth. It was imaged in full color, providing astronomers with a spectacular and unique new view of the early "For the first time 
we can view the internal color structure of some very distant galaxies. This gives us new insight into details of what young galaxies are like," says Richard Ellis at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and University of Cambridge, England.The Discovery crew restored NASA's premier optical space observatory with nearly
 $70 million worth of critically needed replacement gyroscopes and upgraded electronic parts. All the new equipment is working well, including the new computer, solid state recorder and fine guidance sensor, according to NASA. In particular the new gyroscopes are allowing Hubble to point precisely at celestial objects. The Hubble sc
ience operations center is the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The institute is operated for NASA under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. Astronomers today 
announced the discovery of a very bright region which is forming new stars at the centre of the famous Lagoon Nebula. Here, the embryonic stirrings of newly forming stars cause the surrounding placental material to be heated, producing the exceptionally intense emission.The figure shows optical and infrared pictures of the Lagoon Ne
bula, and a map in the submillimetre wavelength light of the carbon monoxide (CO) molecule. The bright white spot on the CO molecules map shows the location of the region where the new stars are forming. Star Formation is one of the key topics in modern astronomical research, and the identification of sites of star formation like th
is are fundamentally important for understanding the birth of Planetary Systems and the origins of life. Twisters aren't just a fascination for weather-watchers on Earth. Scientists released dramatic pictures Wednesday of interstellar "twisters" that were photographed by the Hubble telescope. The twisters are swirling in the center 
of the Lagoon nebula, which is thought to be a star-birth region about 5,000 light years from Earth. The nebula is a huge gas cloud surrounding O Herchel 36, a central bright star. The twisters snaking along the sides of the star are funnels of gas created when the hot surfaces of clouds interract with their cold interiors.Scientist
s say that while the twisters may resemble tornadoes, more study is needed to determine if they act like them, as well. The photos are the most recent pictures snapped by Hubble. The shuttle Discovery is scheduled to blast off February 11 on the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Space shuttle Atlantis returned to Eart
h Wednesday after a 10-day mission. For the first time in history, mankind is about to become a regular visitor to places in our own solar system. Already, plans are in the works to check out Mars, Saturn, and even Pluto, the most distant in our own cosmic village of planets. The plans for interplanetary travel sound like something 
out of science fiction, but they're not."Our plan is to send the first mission to Pluto shortly after the turn of the century," said Robert Staehle, the manager of the Pluto Mission. Daniel McCleese of the Mars Expeditions Team predicts that by 2015, "you could see the planet with people living on the surface for as long as two Eart
h years." And Cheik Diara, a scientist from Jet Propulsion Lab, said that eventually, weather forecasts from Mars will be available on the Internet. In the next 20 years, scientists say, planetary exploration may lead to an explosion of knowledge, a 21st century renaissance. Robotic emissaries will carry out the first expeditions. N
ext October, the Cassini probe begins a seven-year trip to Saturn and its moon Titan. As Cassini mission manager Richard Spehalski noted, robots have the capacity to tell us much about the makeup of other planets through chemical analysis and photography. Half a dozen other landers and orbiters are scheduled in the next eight years,
 all leading up to the most ambitious mission since the days of Apollo. In about 2005, a spacecraft will leave Earth for Mars and hopefully will return three years later with a 1 pound sample of Martian rock and soil. The theory, according to Ed Shostak of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, is that Mars had
 very simple forms of life before organic life forms appeared on Earth. "A chunk of Mars lands on Earth and seeds our planet, and we are the result -- four billion years later, three billion years later. So in that scenario, we are the Martians," Shostak said. The Hubble Space Telescope reawakened following the longest hiatus in its
 nine-year life, snapping stunning images of a dying star known as the Eskimo nebula and a dense cluster of remote galaxies that acts like a celestial magnifying glass, NASA reported Monday. The observatory had been out of service for two months until the space shuttle Discovery crew performed major repairs on the orbiting telescope
 in late December. The images, released Monday, were among the first taken by the revived Hubble. Since early January the $3 billion space telescope has resumed probing the mysteries of the universe with unprecedented clarity. "Thanks to the great work by the astronauts, Hubble is better than new," said Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA Associate
 Administrator for Space Science. "I think there is no better proof than these pictures that NASA's capability to send humans into space to work on Hubble has had a vital role in space science and the renaissance in astronomy we're now seeing." To verify the telescope's refurbishment, astronomers aimed it at two scientifically intri
guing celestial targets. One object is an intricate structure of shells and streamers of gas around a dying sun-like star 5,000 light-years away. "The clumps that form the comet heads all seem to be located at a similar distance from the star. This fact will be important in developing a theory of why the clumps formed in the first p
lace," said planetary nebula expert J. Patrick Harrington of the University of Maryland, College Park.A second target is a massive cluster of galaxies called Abell 2218, which acts like a giant zoom lens in space. The gravitational field of the cluster magnifies the light of more distant galaxies far behind it, providing a deep prob
e of the very distant universe. The cluster is located in the constellation Draco, about 2 billion light-years from Earth. It was imaged in full color, providing astronomers with a spectacular and unique new view of the early "For the first time we can view the internal color structure of some very distant galaxies. This gives us ne
w insight into details of what young galaxies are like," says Richard Ellis at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and University of Cambridge, England.The Discovery crew restored NASA's premier optical space observatory with nearly $70 million worth of critically needed replacement gyroscopes and upgraded electronic p