Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                     
June 29, 1992
(Phone:  202/453-1547)

Jim Elliott
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone:  301/286-6256)

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
(Phone:  410/338-4514)


RELEASE:  92-98

HUBBLE TELESCOPE SKY SURVEY REVEALS EMBRYONIC GALAXIES 

   A serendipitous survey of the heavens with NASA's Hubble 
Space Telescope (HST) is uncovering remote and unusual galaxies 
never before resolved by optical telescopes on Earth.   

   HST reveals an unusual variety of shape and structure in 
these distant galaxies, which previously appeared as fuzzy 
blobs in ground-based sky surveys.  These early results may 
lead to a much clearer understanding of the formation and 
evolution of galaxies.  

   These results are being reported by Dr. Richard Griffiths of 
the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., at the 
international workshop, Science with the Hubble Space Telescope 
being held in Sardinia, Italy, June 29 through July 9.  

   Some of the remote galaxies, estimated to be between 5 and 
20 billion light-years away, do not have the familiar spiral 
and elliptical shapes characteristic of galaxies in the nearby 
universe, according to Griffiths.

   One cosmological model is that galaxies in the early 
universe interact dynamically and grow bigger by cannibalizing 
smaller regions of star formation.  If so, the objects resolved 
by HST may be "building  blocks" for today's large galaxies. 

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   "We have seen several examples of what appear to be 
interacting or merging galaxies," says Griffiths, the principal 
investigator on this key, long-term HST project.  

   The HST's Medium-Deep "Parallel'' survey is carried out 
using HST's Wide Field Camera to take pictures in a random 
field while a "primary'' instrument, such as a spectrograph, is 
performing an observation on a preselected target about 
one-sixth the moon's diameter away.   

   "By operating two instruments simultaneously, the overall 
efficiency of the telescope is greatly improved," says 
Griffiths.  "During the course of the Survey, several thousand 
images will be recorded."  

   Pictures are taken in multiple colors -- including the 
ultraviolet, visual and infrared -- and searched for the 
unknown and unexpected.  

   Mission planners at the Space Telescope Science Institute 
developed the techniques necessary to schedule these 
observations without affecting the HST's primary science 
projects.  The survey is led by Johns Hopkins University and 
STScI in collaboration with a dozen astronomers in the USA and 
the United Kingdom. 

   The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the 
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. for 
NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, 
Greenbelt, Md.  The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of 
international cooperation between NASA and the European Space 
Agency. 
                            - end -

EDITORS NOTE:  One HST image to illustrate this release is 
available to the news media by calling NASA's Broadcast and 
Imaging Branch on 202/453-8375.

        Color:      92-HC-389      B&W:      92-H-439