*Description*:> Zooming through the nighttime sky into the constellation Corvus the crow, deeper into the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys image of the Antennae galaxies. The "stellar fireworks" contain brilliant young clusters of tens of thousands of stars. Orange blobs to the left and right of center are the two cores of the original galaxies, criss-crossed by dark filaments of dust seen in silhouette. Brilliant blue star clusters, born in the collision, pepper the galaxies. Pinkish glowing hydrogen gas surround star birth regions glowing under the intense energy from newborn stars. Technical facts about this news release: About the Object Object Name: NGC 4038/4039, Antennae Galaxy Object Description: Interacting Galaxy Position (J2000): R.A. 12h 01m 53s.18 Dec. -18° 52' 52 ".4 Constellation: Corvus Distance: 62 million light-years (19 Megaparsecs) About the Data Data Description: This image was created from HST data from proposal 10188: B. Whitmore (STScI), M. Rieke (University of Arizona), F. Schweizer (Carnegie Institution of Washington), W. Blair (Johns Hopkins University), G. Rieke (University of Arizona), C. Leitherer (STScI), A. Alonso-Herrero (Spanish National Research Council), and S. Mengel (European Southern Observatory, Germany). Instrument: ACS/WFC Exposure Date(s): July 21, 2004 and February 16, 2005 Exposure Time: 4.9 hours Filters: F435W ("B"), F550M ("y"), F658N (Halpha+[N II]), and F814W ("I") About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and B. Whitmore (STScI) Release Date: October 17, 2006 Color This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using several different filters. Four filters were used to sample broad and narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: F435W ("B") blue F550M ("y") green F658N (Halpha+[N II]) pink F814W ("I") red Orientation: The Antennae Galaxies/NGC 4038-4039 [ http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2006/46/images/a/formats/compass_large_web.jpg ] What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Antennae galaxies is the sharpest yet of this merging pair of galaxies. During the course of the collision, billions of stars will be formed. The brightest and most compact of these star birth regions are called super star clusters. The new image allows astronomers to better distinguish between the stars and super star clusters created in the collision of two spiral galaxies.
