NASA’s Great Observatories Celebrate the International Year of Astronomy With a National Unveiling of Spectacular Images
In 1609, Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens and gave birth to modern astronomy. To commemorate four hundred years of exploring the universe, 2009 is designated the International Year of Astronomy.
NASA’s Great Observatories – the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory – are marking the occasion with the release of a suite of images at over 100 planetariums, museums, nature centers, and schools across the country in conjunction with Galileo’s birthday on February 15.
The selected sites will unveil a large 9-square-foot print of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 that combines the optical view of Hubble, the infrared view of Spitzer, and the X-ray view of Chandra into one multi-wavelength picture. “It’s like using your eyes, night vision goggles, and X-ray vision all at the same time,” says Dr. Hashima Hasan, lead scientist for the International Year of Astronomy at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Participating institutions also will display a matched trio of Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra images of Messier 101. Each image shows a different wavelength view of the galaxy that illustrates not only the different science uncovered by each observatory, but also just how far astronomy has come since Galileo.