HUBBLE OBSERVES THE LOST ANCESTORS TO OUR MILKY WAY GALAXY



PHOTO RELEASE NO.: STScI-PR94-25   

                                                     December 6, 1994



This NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the central portion of a

remote cluster of galaxies (CL 0939+4713) as it looked when the universe

was two-thirds of its present age.  Hubble's high resolution allows

astronomers to study, for the first time, the shapes of galaxies as they

were long ago. 



The Space Telescope pictures are sharp enough to distinguish between

various forms of spiral galaxies. Most of the spiral, or disk, galaxies

have odd features, suggesting they were easily distorted within the

environment of the rich cluster. Hubble reveals a number of mysterious

"fragments" of galaxies interspersed through the cluster. 



The HST picture confirms that billions of years ago, clusters of galaxies

contained not only the types of galaxies dominating their descendant

clusters today, but also several times as many spiral galaxies. These

spiral galaxies have since disappeared through mergers and disruptions, as

evident in the Hubble image. 



This visible light image was taken with HST's Wide Field Planetary Camera

2 in Wide Field Camera mode, on January 10 and 12, 1994. 



Credit:  Alan Dressler (Carnegie Institution) and NASA

