The Mirror Galaxy, M100 // Rolf Olsen
Clearly the Mirror Galaxy is in an area of the sky rich with other galaxies. M100 is a member of the Virgo Cluster, and is about 55 million light years away.
This galaxy was discovered by Méchain in 1781, and played a role in the first observations of the Hubble Space Telescope. Within weeks of launch of the HST in 1990, operators noticed a flaw in the optical system causing the images to be blurrier than expected. This was caused by the fact that the optical mirror had been polished to the wrong shape: the outer perimeter of the mirror was too flat by about 2,200 nanometers (1/11,000 of an inch)!
To fix the issue, NASA sent up a servicing mission in December 1993 and installed what are effectively corrective glasses. In January 1994, NASA declared the mission a complete success and showed the first sharper images. Below, you can see what a difference corrective optics makes!
Left: M100 in 1993 before corrective optics.
Middle: M100 in 1994 after corrective optics.
Right: M100 in 2018 with a new camera.
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James Webb Space Telescope JWST
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