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Press Releases 2008

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Also see our press releases on eso.org, iau.org, astronomy2009.org.

heic0823 — Science Release

Hubble finds carbon dioxide on an extrasolar planet

9 December 2008: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This is an important step along the trail of finding the chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life, as we know it.

heic0822 — Photo Release

Hubble captures outstanding views of mammoth stars

25 November 2008: Two of our Galaxy's most massive stars have been scrutinised in an impressive view by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. They have, until recently, been shrouded in mystery, but the new image shows them in greater detail than ever before.

heic0821 — Science Release

Hubble directly observes planet orbiting Fomalhaut

13 November 2008: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible light snapshot of a planet circling another star.

heic0820 — Photo Release

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is back in business

30 October 2008: The Hubble Space Telescope is back in business with a snapshot of the fascinating galaxy pair Arp 147.

heic0819 — Science Release

When it comes to galaxies, diversity is everywhere

30 September 2008: A group of galaxies in our cosmic backyard has given astronomers clues about how stars form. A thorough survey using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed around 14 million stars in 69 galaxies. Some galaxies were found to be full of ancient stars, while others are like sun-making factories.

heic0818 — Science Release

Clash of clusters provides new dark matter clue

27 August 2008: A powerful collision between galaxy clusters has been captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This clash of clusters provides striking evidence for dark matter and insight into its properties.

heic0817 — Science Release

Hubble sees magnetic monster in erupting galaxy

20 August 2008: The Hubble Space Telescope has found the answer to a long-standing puzzle by resolving giant but delicate filaments shaped by a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275. It is the most striking example of the influence of these immense tentacles of extragalactic magnetic fields, say researchers.

heic0816 — Photo Release

Hubble unveils colourful star birth region on 100 000th orbit milestone

11 August 2008: In commemoration of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope completing its 100 000th orbit around the Earth in its 18th year of exploration and discovery, scientists have aimed Hubble to take a snapshot of a dazzling region of celestial birth and renewal.

heic0815 — Science Release

Globular clusters tell tale of star formation in nearby galaxy metropolis

5 August 2008: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has identified thousands of more than 5 billion year-old globular clusters in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. One of the results of these discoveries led astronomers to understand more about the life and evolution of cannibal galaxies.

heic0814 — Science Release

Lenses galore - Hubble finds large sample of very distant galaxies

24 July 2008: New Hubble Space Telescope observations of six spectacular galaxy clusters acting as gravitational lenses have given significant insights into the early stages of the Universe. Scientists have found the largest sample of very distant galaxies seen to date: ten promising candidates thought to lie at a distance of 13 billion light-years (~redshift 7.5).

heic0813 — Photo Release

Hubble's sweeping view of the Coma Galaxy Cluster

10 June 2008: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the magnificent starry population of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies, one of the densest known galaxy collections in the Universe.

heic0812 — Science Release

The Antennae Galaxies move closer

9 May 2008: New research on the Antennae Galaxies using the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows that this benchmark pair of interacting galaxies is in fact much closer than previously thought - 45 million light-years instead of 65 million light-years.

heic0811 — Science Release

Compact galaxies in early Universe pack a big punch

29 April 2008: Using the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer onboard of the Hubble NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have made observations of young, surprisingly compact galaxies, each only 5,000 light-years across, but weighing 200 billion times the mass of the Sun.

heic0810 — Photo Release

Galaxies gone wild!

24 April 2008: Fifty nine new images of colliding galaxies make up the largest collection of Hubble images ever released together. As this astonishing Hubble atlas of interacting galaxies illustrates, galaxy collisions produce a remarkable variety of intricate structures.

heic0809 — Science Release

Black hole found in enigmatic Omega Centauri

2 April 2008: Omega Centauri has been known as an unusual globular cluster for a long time. A new result obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Observatory reveals that the explanation behind Omega Centauri's peculiarities may be a black hole hidden in its centre. One implication of the discovery is that it is very likely that Omega Centauri is not a globular cluster at all, but a dwarf galaxy stripped of its outer stars, as some scientists have suspected for a few years.

heic0808 — Photo Release

Exploding star in NGC 2397

31 March 2008: The latest image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a sharp view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2397. This image also shows a rare Hubble view of the late stages of a supernova - SN 2006bc, discovered in March 2006.

heic0807 — Science Release

Hubble finds first organic molecule on extrasolar planet

19 March 2008: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough is an important step in eventually identifying signs of life on a planet outside our Solar System.

heic0806 — Science Release

Hubble discovers 67 gravitationally lensed galaxies in the distant Universe

19 February 2008: Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have compiled a large catalogue of gravitational lenses in the distant Universe. The catalogue contains a staggering 67 new gravitationally lensed images found around massive elliptical and lenticular-shaped galaxies. This sample demonstrates the rich diversity of strong gravitational lenses. If this sample is representative, there would be nearly half a million similar gravitational lenses in total over the whole sky.

heic0805 — Science Release

Hubble finds strong contender for galaxy distance record

12 February 2008: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with a boost from a natural "zoom lens", has found the strongest evidence so far for a galaxy with a redshift significantly above 7. It is likely to be one of the youngest and brightest galaxies ever seen right after the cosmic "dark ages", just 700 million years after the beginning of our Universe (redshift ~7.6).

heic0804 — Photo Release

Gargantuan galaxy NGC 1132 - a cosmic fossil?

5 February 2008: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new image of the galaxy NGC 1132 which is, most likely, a cosmic fossil -- the aftermath of an enormous multi-galactic pile-up, where the carnage of collision after collision has built up a brilliant but fuzzy giant elliptical galaxy far outshining typical galaxies.

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