February 18, 2019 - Lion’s Share of Hot Young Stars

Lion’s Share of Hot Young Stars Using the unparalleled sharpness and ultraviolet observational capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have created the most comprehensive high-resolution ultraviolet-light survey of star-forming galaxies. The Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS) contains about 8,000 clusters and 39 million hot blue stars occurring in 50 local galaxies within 60 million light-years of Earth, in both visible and ultraviolet light. This LEGUS image shows spiral galaxy M66, about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo (the Lion). Like all the galaxies in LEGUS, M66 is undergoing vigorous star and star-cluster formation. These hot young stars, which shine brightly in ultraviolet light, are key to understanding galactic evolution.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the LEGUS team

Weekly Calendar

February 18 - 24, 2019

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 18

Presidents' Day

Venus 1.1° north of Saturn

1930: Pluto discovered by Clyde Tombaugh
1970: HL-10 sets lifting body speed record
1977: First captive flight of space shuttle Enterprise

Tuesday 19

Moon at perigee
Full Moon 10:54 AM ET

1473: Nicholas Copernicus born
1986: Mir space station launched

Wednesday 20

1962: Friendship 7 launched; John Glenn becomes first American to orbit Earth
1965: Ranger 8 impacts the Moon, returns photographs
1994: Clementine enters lunar orbit

Thursday 21

1931: Germany's first liquid-fuel rocket launched by VfR flies 3m (10 ft)
2019: Hayabusa2 makes touchdown on asteroid Ryugu and captures sample

Friday 22

1966: Cosmos 110 launched, sets record for dogs in space (22 days)
1978: First Navstar GPS satellite launched
1996: STS-75 Columbia launched