NASA'S Great Observatories Celebrate International Year of Astronomy

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

Ray Villard 410-338-4514
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
villard@stsci.edu

Megan Watzke 617-496-7998
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, Cambridge, Mass.
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

News release: 2009-019 Feb. 10, 2009

NASA'S Great Observatories Celebrate International Year of Astronomy

PASADENA, Calif. -- Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609, marking the dawn
of modern astronomy. To commemorate 400 years of exploring the universe, 2009 has been
designated the International Year of Astronomy.

In conjunction with Galileo's birthday on Feb. 15, NASA is releasing images from its Great
Observatories -- the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray
Observatory -- to more than 100 planetariums, museums, nature centers and schools across the
country.

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 colorful, multiwavelength picture. "It's like using your eyes, night vision goggles and X-
ray vision all at the same time," said Hashima Hasan, lead scientist for the International Year of
Astronomy at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Participating institutions 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 each observatory conducts, but also how far
astronomy has come since Galileo.

Messier 101 is a spiral galaxy about 22 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa
Major. It is larger than our own Milky Way galaxy, but similar in many ways.

Hubble's visible-light view shows off the swirls of bright stars and glowing gas that give Messier
101 its nickname "the Pinwheel Galaxy." In contrast, Spitzer's infrared-light image sees into the
spiral arms and reveals the glow of dust lanes where dense clouds can collapse to form new
stars. Chandra's X-ray view uncovers the high-energy features in the galaxy, such as remnants of
exploded stars or matter zooming around black holes. The juxtaposition of observations from
these three telescopes provides an in-depth view of the galaxy for both astronomers and the
public.

"The amazing scientific discoveries Galileo made four centuries ago are continued today by
scientists using NASA's space observatories," said Denise Smith, the unveiling's project manager
at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. "NASA's Great Observatories are
distributing huge prints of spectacular images so the public can share in the exploration and
wonder of the universe."

The unveilings will take place Feb. 14 to 28 at 76 museums and 40 schools and universities
nationwide, reaching both big cities and small towns. Sites are planning celebrations involving the
public, schools and local media.

The Astrophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate supports the International Year
of Astronomy Great Observatories image unveiling. The project is a collaboration among the
Space Telescope Science Institute, the Spitzer Science Center in Pasadena, Calif., and the
Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass.

The M01 images and a list of places exhibiting these images is online at:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2009/07
and
http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/events/iya/participants.php .

Find out more about NASA's contributions to the International Year of Astronomy at
http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov .

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted
at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology. Caltech manages JPL for
NASA.

More information about Spitzer is online at http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and
http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=bnJMKVNrEhKIKUL&s=kuK2K7MNIgKOK6MTIuG&m=kpLOIXPGKjKWH

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=eqLSK4ODKkJPI4K&s=kuK2K7MNIgKOK6MTIuG&m=kpLOIXPGKjKWH