Ever since the Hubble upgrade a few months ago I've been waiting to see the results of it getting back to routine science observations... especially for the new Wide Field Camera 3, which promised to return gorgeous imagery. Well, the wait's over. The first image is out, and it's a nice one: star formation in the spiral arm nurseries of the nearby galaxy M83:
[You know the deal: click it to embiggen, or go here to grab a delicious 15 Mb 3900x3900 pixel version.] M83 is about 15 million light years away, making it practically a next door neighbor for the Milky Way, as well as a tempting target for telescopes. Proximity = clarity in most cases, and with M83 we have a great view of its lovely spiral arms. This new image from Hubble's WFC3 shows unprecedented detail, too. There are star clusters everywhere, factories cranking out baby stars ...
