Star Birth in the Trifid Nebula

HUBBLE IDENTIFIES SOURCE OF ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT IN AN OLD GALAXY Video File October 26, 1999

Contents 1) VIDEO ZOOM INTO M32: Video sequence begins with a ground-based image of M32 (seen just above the large central galaxy M31), ZOOM to ground-based image of M32, continue the ZOOM to the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) image of M32's core.

2) HUBBLE IMAGE OF M32'S CORE: Hubble Space Telescope's exquisite resolution has allowed astronomers to resolve, for the first time, hot blue stars deep inside an elliptical galaxy. The swarm of nearly 8,000 blue stars resembles a blizzard of snowflakes near the core (lower right) of the neighboring galaxy M32, located 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda.

The observations, taken in October 1998, were made with the camera mode of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) in ultraviolet light.

3) GROUND-BASED COLOR IMAGE OF M31 and M32

4) BLACK AND WHITE GROUND-BASED IMAGE OF M32 (with the STIS field outlined)