RECENT RESULTS FROM THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

Abstract

ABSTRACT A selection of recent findings from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) are presented as a supplement to the earlier review by Kinney & Maran (1991). In stellar astrophysics, noteowrthy results include the first ultraviolet science from the High Speed Photometer, as well as spectroscopic studies of black hole and neutron star binaries and a flare star. The interstellar medium in the Galaxy and in an intervening galaxy along the line of sight to a quasar have been sampled, and new information gained on intergalactic absorption clouds along hte same, and other, lines of sight. Imaging observations of planetary nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds are eye-openers; prior findings from speckle interferometry are seen to be sometimes unreliable. A "movie" composed of images depicting the evolution of a rare great storm on Saturn should stand as the best obtainable for decades to come. A distant weak radio galaxy appears to be a newly formed elliptical galaxy, in which star formation was essentially coincident with the initial collapse that produced the galaxy. And, the percentage of spiral galaxies in the acluster seen at it was several billion years ago appears to be much higher than in comparably rich clusters at recent epochs, providing new evidence for evolution in galaxy systems. Ultraviolet spectropolarimetry helps to identify the physics at work at the center of a blazar, and snapshots taken in gyroscopic pointing mode reveal that closely spaced gravitationally lensed images are hard to find. This is a modest sample of the tremendous outpouring of new research results from the HST over the past year or so.