September 1997 Press and Photo releases

Press release STScI-PR97-27 discusses the discovery of a giant impact crater on the asteroid Vesta. Photo release STScI-PRC97-27 features three images of the asteroid Vesta, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The left image was taken in May 1996, when the asteroid was 110 million miles from Earth; the asymmetry of the asteroid and "nub" and the south pole is suggestive that it suffered a large impact event. The center image is a color-encoded elevation map of Vesta that clearly shows the giant 285-mile diameter impact basin and "bull's-eye" central peak. The right image is a 3-D computer model of Vesta synthesized from Hubble topographical data. Press release STScI-PR97-28 discusses Hubble's never-before-seen view of a warped disk/ring of dust caught in a blazing torrent of ultraviolet light from a suspected massive black hole. Photo release STScI-PRC97-28a; NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided a never-before-seen view of a warped disk flooded with a torrent of ultraviolet light from hot gas. Trapped around a suspected massive black hole. On the right is a composite image of the core of the galaxy, while the image on the left is a ground-based telescopic view of the core of the elliptical galaxy NGC 6251. Photo release STScI-PRC97-31 features two images of Mars, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The image on the right was taken September 12, one day after the arrival of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft and only five hours before the beginning of autumn in the Martian northern hemisphere. The left image, an image of the Pathfinder landing site taken in June 1997, is shown for comparison. Press release STScI-PR97-30 discusses new Hubble observations of the ever-fading fireball from a gamma-ray burst. Photo release STScI-PRC97-30; A Hubble Space Telescope mage of the fading fireball from one of the universe's most mysterious phenomena, a gamma-ray burst. Press release STScI-PR97-29 discusses new observations of nova eruptions taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope that may challenge current theories on nova eruptions. Photo release STScI-PRC97-29; The prolific number of eruptions by the recurrent nova T Pyxidis has attracted the attention of many telescopes. The image on the left, taken by a ground-based telescope, shows shells of gas around the star that were blown off during several eruptions. Closter inspection by the Hubble Space Telescope (right-hand image), however, reveals that the shells are not smooth at all. Photo release STScI-PRC97-32; This is the first direct look, in visible light, at a lone neutron star, as seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.