1996

• 1/22/1997 STScI-1996-38 1. Giant "Twisters" and Star Wisps in the Lagoon Nebula This Hubble telescope snapshot unveils a pair of one-half, light-year-long interstellar "twisters" ? eerie funnels and twisted-rope structures... (More)
• 12/17/1996 STScI-1996-37 2. Hubble Census Tracks a Stellar "Baby Boom" Analyzing the pictures of some of the most distant galaxies in the universe, astronomers are uncovering intriguing new evidence that the Big Bang was followed by a stellar... (More)
• 12/10/1996 STScI-1996-04 3. Hubble Space Telescope Captures First Direct Image of a Star This is the first direct image of a star other than the Sun. Called Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, the star is a red super giant, a Sun-like star nearing... (More)
• 11/26/1996 STScI-1996-36 4. Hubble Spies Supersonic "Comet-Clouds" in Heart of Galaxy Analysis of dramatic Hubble telescope images reveals immense comet-shaped knots of gas in the heart of the Cartwheel Galaxy. The galaxy's unusual wagon-wheel... (More)
• 11/19/1996 STScI-1996-35 5. Hubble Surveys the "Homes" of Quasars Dramatic Hubble telescope pictures reveal that quasars live in a remarkable assortment of galaxies, many of which are violently colliding. This complicated picture suggests... (More)
• 11/1/1996 STScI-1996-34 6. Springtime Dust Storm Swirls at Martian North Pole Two Hubble telescope images of Mars, taken about a month apart, reveal a state-sized dust storm churning near the edge of the northern polar cap. (More)
• 10/24/1996 STScI-1996-33 7. Hubble Makes Movie of Neptune's Rotation and Weather The Hubble telescope has been used to assemble a time-lapse color movie showing a full 16-hour rotation of the distant planet Neptune. (More)
• 10/17/1996 STScI-1996-32 8. Hubble Follows Rapid Changes in Jupiter's Aurora The Hubble telescope's sharp view of the rapid, spectacular dance of luminescent gases high in Jupiter's atmosphere ? better known as aurora ? is allowing astronomers... (More)
• 10/11/1996 STScI-1996-31 9. Bright Star Birth Region in a Dim Galaxy Clusters of stars and a fishhook-shaped cloud of luminescent gases glow brilliantly in NGC 2363, a giant star-forming region in the Magellanic galaxy NGC 2366. ... (More)
• 10/4/1996 STScI-1996-30 10. Rare Hubble Portrait of Io and Jupiter This image shows Jupiter's volcanic moon Io passing above the turbulent clouds of the giant planet. The conspicuous black spot on Jupiter is Io's shadow. (More)
• 9/4/1996 STScI-1996-29 11. Hubble Sees Early Building Blocks of Today's Galaxies New Hubble telescope images unveil what may be galaxies under construction in the early universe. ... (More)
• 8/7/1996 STScI-1996-27 12. Giant Star Birth Region in Neighboring Galaxy The colorful picture on the right is a Hubble telescope snapshot of a vast nebula of dust and gas called NGC 604, which lies in the neighboring spiral galaxy M33. ... (More)
• 7/18/1996 STScI-1996-25 13. Hubble Achieves Milestone: 100,000th Exposure The Hubble telescope reached a milestone several years sooner than scientists expected when it snapped its 100,000th exposure June 22, 1996. The six-year-old orbiting observatory... (More)
• 7/8/1996 STScI-1996-26 14. Hubble Telescope Measures Diameters of Pulsating Stars The Hubble telescope has been used successfully to measure the diameters of a special class of pulsating star called a Mira variable, which rhythmically change size. (More)
• 6/26/1996 STScI-1996-24 15. Findings from Hubble Deep Field Hone in on Distant Galaxies Astronomers analyzing the Hubble Deep Field — the faintest view of the universe taken with the Hubble telescope — may have identified... (More)
• 6/10/1996 STScI-1996-23 16. Doomed Star Eta Carinae A huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds is captured in this stunning Hubble telescope picture of the super-massive star Eta Carinae. ... (More)
• 5/30/1996 STScI-1996-22 17. Hubble Astronomers Unveil "Crab Nebula - The Movie" Probing the mysterious heart of the Crab Nebula, the tattered remains of an exploding star, astronomers have found this object to be even more dynamic than previously... (More)
• 5/9/1996 STScI-1996-21 18. Hubble Space Telescope on Track for Measuring the Expansion Rate of the Universe Using the Hubble telescope, two international teams of astronomers are reporting major progress in converging on an accurate measurement... (More)
• 4/30/1996 STScI-1996-20 19. The Original National Geographic Society - Palomar Observatory Sky Survey to be Available on 8 CD-ROMs The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) are pleased to announce... (More)
• 4/26/1996 STScI-1996-18 20. Saturn Ring-Plane Crossing, November 1995 This is a rare view of Saturn's rings seen just after the Sun has set below the ring plane. ... (More)
• 4/24/1996 STScI-1996-10 21. Hubble Space Telescope Completes Sixth Year of Exploration A new golden era of space exploration and discovery began April 24, 1990 with the launch and deployment of the Hubble telescope. Over the past six years Hubble's... (More)
• 4/24/1996 STScI-1996-15 22. Hubble Captures Detailed Image of Uranus's Atmosphere The Hubble telescope has peered deep into Uranus's atmosphere to see clear and hazy layers created by a mixture of gases. Using infrared filters, Hubble captured detailed... (More)
• 4/24/1996 STScI-1996-16 23. Edge-On View of Saturn's Rings The Hubble telescope has captured snapshots of Saturn with its rings nearly edge-on to our view. (More)
• 4/24/1996 STScI-1996-17 24. Swirling Galaxy Parents Generations of Stars in Its Center The Hubble telescope has snapped a view of several generations of stars in the central region of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), located 23 million light-years... (More)
• 4/24/1996 STScI-1996-11 25. Hubble Spies Globular Cluster in Neighboring Galaxy The Hubble telescope has captured a view of a globular cluster called G1, a large, bright ball of light in the center of the photograph. (More)
• 4/17/1996 STScI-1996-19 26. 1996 Hubble Fellows to Study HST Discoveries The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has selected nine young scientists for the 1996 Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected... (More)
• 4/15/1996 STScI-1996-13 27. Hubble Finds Thousands of Gaseous Fragments Surrounding a Dying Star Resembling a bizarre setting from a science fiction movie, dramatic images sent back by the Hubble telescope have surprised astronomers by uncovering... (More)
• 3/27/1996 STScI-1996-14 28. Hubble Probes Inner Region of Comet Hyakutake The Hubble telescope snapped pictures of comet Hyakutake March 25, 1996, when the comet was just 9.3 million miles from Earth. ... (More)
• 3/7/1996 STScI-1996-09 29. Hubble Reveals Surface of Pluto for First Time For the first time since Pluto's discovery 66 years ago, astronomers have at last directly seen details on the surface of the solar system's farthest known planet. (More)
• 2/21/1996 STScI-1996-12 30. Hubble Opens Doorway to Systematic Search for Black Holes Hubble Space Telescope's ongoing black hole hunt has bagged yet another supermassive black hole in the universe. The compact... (More)
• 2/12/1996 STScI-1996-08 31. For First Time Ever, K-12 Students Get Hands on the Hubble Space Telescope as Part of Innovative "Passport to Knowledge" Project The planets Neptune and Pluto have been selected as targets for original... (More)
• 1/17/1996 STScI-1996-02 32. Disk around Star May Be Warped by Unseen Planet The Hubble telescope has provided strong evidence for the existence of a roughly Jupiter-sized planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris. (More)
• 1/16/1996 STScI-1996-05 33. Hubble Telescope Photo Reveals Stellar Death Process This Hubble telescope picture of planetary nebula NGC 7027 reveals remarkable new details of the process by which a star like the Sun dies. The nebula is a glowing... (More)
• 1/16/1996 STScI-1996-07 34. Hubble Finds an Hourglass Nebula around a Dying Star This Hubble telescope snapshot of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula, reveals that the object has an hourglass shape with an intricate pattern of "etchings"... (More)
• 1/16/1996 STScI-1996-03 35. Hubble Finds Searchlight Beams and Multiple Arcs around a Dying Star This Hubble telescope picture of the Egg Nebula, also known as CRL2688, shows a pair of mysterious "searchlight" beams emerging... (More)
• 1/15/1996 STScI-1996-01 36. Hubble's Deepest View of the Universe Unveils Bewildering Galaxies across Billions of Years One peek into a small part of the sky, one giant leap back in time. The Hubble telescope has provided mankind's deepest, most detailed... (More)
• 1/10/1995 STScI-1996-06 37. Hubble Discovers Powerful Laser Beamed from Chaotic Star Darth Vader take heart. Astronomers have discovered a powerful ultraviolet laser beam, several times brighter than our Sun, shooting toward Earth from a super-hot... (More)