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Milky Way's sister galaxy shines in new portrait CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS NEWS RELEASE Posted: June 14, 2006
The new photograph of the Triangulum galaxy showcases the dazzling capabilities of MMT's new Megacam instrument. Megacam was developed at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Mass., under the direction of astronomer Brian McLeod. This state-of-the-art camera consists of 36 CCD chips, each of which contains 9 million picture elements (pixels), making Megacam one of the largest digital cameras in the world "Megacam is like a turbocharged household digital camera," said SAO astronomer Nelson Caldwell. "While a typical digital camera might have eight or nine megapixels, Megacam has 340 megapixels." Caldwell and McLeod picked the Triangulum galaxy to be one of the first objects photographed by Megacam. This galaxy, also known as Messier 33 or M33 for its designation in the catalog compiled by Charles Messier, lies about 2.4 million light-years from Earth. It spans about twice the diameter of the full moon in the night sky. Although large, its light is diffuse, making it a challenging object to spot with the unaided eye. The view of M33 is best in binoculars or small telescopes at low magnification. Newly formed blue stars and dark dusty patches outline the spiral arms of M33. Pink filaments of hydrogen gas mark regions of active star formation similar to the Milky Way's Orion Nebula. The eye-catching nebula at upper left in this image, designated NGC 604, stretches across an impressive 1,500 light-years and holds more than 200 hot, young stars that light it from within. The Triangulum galaxy is the smallest of the three spirals in the local neighborhood, holding as much mass as 10-40 billion suns. In comparison, the Milky Way holds about 200 billion suns' worth of normal matter, while Andromeda is even heftier. "Triangulum is not a colossal giant like the Milky Way or Andromeda," said Caldwell. "But it has a charm and beauty of its own that belies its junior citizen status." The MMT telescope contains a primary mirror 256 inches (6.5 meters) in diameter, making it among the largest optical telescopes in the world. Astronomers use the MMT for various projects such as searching for extrasolar planets, making 3-d maps of galaxies in space, and finding quasars that existed when the universe was only one-tenth of its present age. SAO operates the MMT Observatory, located south of Tucson, Ariz., in partnership with the University of Arizona. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe. |
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Tony Ceccacci, the lead shuttle flight director for STS-121, provides a highly informative day-by-day preview of Discovery's mission using animation and other presentations. Then Rick LaBrode, the lead International Space Station flight director during STS-121, explains all of the activities occurring onboard and outside the outpost while Discovery visits.
Dial-up: 
Discovery's STS-121 mission to the International Space Station will feature two scheduled spacewalks and perhaps a third if consumables permit. Spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will test whether the 50-foot inspection boom carried on the shuttle could be used as a work platform for repairing the heatshield and conduct maintenance chores outside the space station. Tomas Gonzalez-Torres, the mission's lead spacewalk officer, details all the three EVAs in this pre-flight news briefing.
A comprehensive series of press briefings for space shuttle Discovery's upcoming STS-121 begins with a program overview conference by Wayne Hale, NASA's manager of the shuttle program, and Kirk Shireman, the deputy program manager of the International Space Station. The two men discuss the significance of Discovery's mission to their respective programs. The briefing was held June 8 at the Johnson Space Center.
NASA officials unveil the plan to distribute work in the Constellation Program for robotic and human moon and Mars exploration. This address to agency employees on June 5 was given by Administrator Mike Griffin, Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Scott Horowitz and Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley.
Following their announcement on the Exploration work assignments to the various NASA centers, Mike Griffin, Scott Horowitz and Jeff Hanley hold this news conference to answer reporter questions.