Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 June 6 
Posted on 06/06/2002 8:31:06 PM PDT by petuniasevan
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 June 6
Explanation: After astronauts repaired NICMOS - the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer - during the latest Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, astronomers were quick to turn the sophisticated instrument on the photogenic stellar nursery known as the Cone Nebula. This remarkable NICMOS close-up of the Cone Nebula dramatically confirms that the Hubble's infrared vision has been restored. Gas and dust clouds at the blunted tip of the cone-shaped star-forming region are seen here in false-color covering an area about half a light-year across. Toward the left hand side of the picture, the four bright stars with diffraction spikes are also present in visible light images and are in front of the Cone Nebula, itself 2,500 light-years away. But the fainter stars to their right are embedded in or behind the nebula's obscuring dust clouds and are revealed only in this penetrating infrared view.
Get on the APOD PING list! 
Surface details captured with Keck adaptive optics in the K-band (upper left) show a comparable level of detail to visible light picture taken with the NASA Galileo orbiter (upper right). The L-band image (lower left) is dominated by active volcanic hot spot emissions, such as Loki, located near the center of the disk. These spots can now be monitored from the ground. An image of Io without adaptive optics (lower right) shows what the keck telescope would see without adaptive optics. Note that no hot spots are detected in this image.
An incredibly powerful telescope, when it's full interferometery setup is in operation it should be able to get decent surface maps of Pluto and several main belt asteroids. I can't wait!
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