EMBARGOED UNTIL: 9:00 a.m. (EST) March 7, 2001

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC01-08a


HUBBLE SPIES HUGE CLUSTERS OF STARS FORMED
BY ANCIENT ENCOUNTER


This stunningly beautiful image [right] taken with the NASA Hubble Space
Telescope shows the heart of the prototypical starburst galaxy M82. The
ongoing violent star formation due to an ancient encounter with its
large galactic neighbor, M81, gives this galaxy its disturbed
appearance.

The smaller picture at upper left shows the entire galaxy. The image was
taken in December 1994 by the Kitt Peak National Observatory's 0.9-meter
telescope. Hubble's view is represented by the white outline in the
center.

In the Hubble image, taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, the
huge lanes of dust that crisscross M82's disk are another telltale sign
of the flurry of star formation. Below the center and to the right, a
strong galactic wind is spewing knotty filaments of hydrogen and
nitrogen gas.

More than 100 super star clusters -- very bright, compact groupings of
about 100,000 stars -- are seen in this detailed Hubble picture as white
dots sprinkled throughout M82's central region. The dark region just
above the center of the picture is a huge dust cloud. A collaboration of
European and American scientists used these clusters to date the ancient
interaction between M82 and M81. About 600 million years ago, a region
called "M82 B" (the bright area just below and to the left of the
central dust cloud) exploded with new stars. Scientists have discovered
that this ancient starburst was triggered by the violent encounter with
M81.

M82 is a bright (eighth magnitude), nearby (12 million light-years from
Earth) galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear).

The Hubble picture was taken Sept. 15, 1997. The natural-color composite
was constructed from three Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 exposures,
which were combined in chromatic order: 4,250 seconds through a blue
filter (428 nm); 2,800 seconds through a green filter (520 nm); and
2,200 seconds through a red (820 nm) filter.

Credits for Hubble image: NASA, ESA, R. de Grijs (Institute of
Astronomy, Cambridge, UK)

Credits for ground-based picture: N.A. Sharp (Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, National Optical Astronomy
Observatories, National Science Foundation)


NOTE TO EDITORS:  For additional information, please contact
Richard de Grijs, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University,
Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK, +44(0)1223-337528 (phone),
+44(0)1223-337523 (fax), grijs@ast.cam.ac.uk (e-mail).

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by 
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. 
(AURA), for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight 
Center, Greenbelt, MD.  The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of
international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency
(ESA).

This image is issued jointly by NASA and ESA.

Electronic images, animation and additional information are available
at:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/08 and via links in
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html
http://hubble.stsci.edu/go/news
http://hubble.esa.int

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