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PIA04281: GALEX 1st Light Near and Far Ultraviolet -100
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer took this image on May 21 and 22, 2003. The image was made from data gathered by the two channels of the spacecraft camera during the mission's 'first light' milestone.
 Mission:  Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) 
 Spacecraft:  GALEX Orbiter
 Instrument:  GALEX Telescope 
 Product Size:  534 x 528 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  California Institute of Technology 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA04281.tif (390.4 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA04281.jpg (22.84 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer took this image on May 21 and 22. The image was made from data gathered by the two channels of the spacecraft camera during the mission's "first light" milestone. It shows about 100 celestial objects in the constellation Hercules. The reddish objects represent those detected by the camera's near ultraviolet channel over a 5-minute period, while bluish objects were detected over a 3-minute period by the camera's far ultraviolet channel.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer's first light images are dedicated to the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The Hercules region was directly above Columbia when it made its last contact with NASA Mission Control on February 1, over the skies of Texas.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer launched on April 28 on a mission to map the celestial sky in the ultraviolet and determine the history of star formation in the universe over the last 10 billion years.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2003-05-28