Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, STScI, David Thilker (JHU); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken its first new images since changing to an alternate operating mode that uses one gyro.

The spacecraft returned to science operations June 14 after being offline for several weeks due to an issue with one of its gyroscopes (gyros), which help control and orient the telescope.

This new image features NGC 1546, a nearby galaxy in the constellation Dorado. The galaxy's orientation gives us a good view of dust lanes from slightly above and backlit by the galaxy's core. This dust absorbs light from the core, reddening it and making the dust appear rusty-brown. The core itself glows brightly in a yellowish light indicating an older population of stars. Brilliant-blue regions of active star formation sparkle through the dust. Several background galaxies also are visible, including an edge-on spiral just to the left of NGC 1546.

Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 captured the image as part of a joint observing program between Hubble and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The program also uses data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, allowing scientists to obtain a highly detailed, multiwavelength view of how stars form and evolve.

The image represents one of the first observations taken with Hubble since transitioning to the new pointing mode, enabling more consistent science operations. The NASA team expects that Hubble can do most of its science observations in this new mode, continuing its groundbreaking observations of the cosmos.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-026

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/