The Dust Skeleton of M51

With most of the starlight removed from this Hubble image, the sharpest view ever of the narrow spiraling dust lanes of the Whirlpool Galaxy is revealed.

Near-infrared image of the Whirlpool Galaxy

Hubble image of the Whirlpool Galaxy in visible light.

Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Regan and B. Whitmore (STScI), R. Chandar (University of Toledo), S. Beckwith (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Hanny's Voorwerp (Hanny's object in Dutch)

Hanny's Voorwerp is named after its discoverer Hanny van Arkel who, in 2007, was participating in the Galaxy Zoo project when she noticed the Voorwerp--a supergiant cloud of glowing green gas--but couldn't classify it, and so brought it to the attention of the Galaxy Zoo forum. There it caught the attention of other Galaxy Zoo volunteers, the Galaxy Zoo team and eventually professional astronomers.

Credit: NASA, ESA, William Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa), and the Galaxy Zoo team



This diagram explains the formation of the strange green object known as Hanny’s Voorwerp. Astronomers believe that it is part of the long streamer of gas that extends from galaxy IC 2497, lit up brightly by the searchlight beam of a recently extinguished quasar. Credit: NASA, ESA

Henize 2-10

This composite image of the dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2-10 combines X-ray data (purple) from Chandra, radio data (yellow) from the NRAO's Very Large Array and optical data (red, green and blue) from Hubble.


Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/Virginia/A.Reines et al); Radio (NRAO/AUI/NSF); Optical (NASA/STScI)



The Open Star Cluster NGC 6611

Hubble image of the open star cluster NGC 6611, part of the Eagle Nebula, and together known as Messier 16.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Mapping Dark Matter

This map of dark matter (tinted blue) in the massive galaxy cluster Abell 1689 was created by inferring the invisible matter's location and mass based on the degree of gravitational lensing Abell 1689 produces.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Coe (NASA JPL/Caltech and STScI)

NGC 4452

Hubble edge-on image of the galaxy NGC 4452.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

NGC 1806

The globular cluster NGC 1806 within the Large Magellanic Cloud as observed by Hubble.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

NGC 3982

Hubble's view of the spiral galaxy NGC 3982.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Herbig-Haro 502

Hubble's view deep inside the Orion Nebula reveals the colorful but turbulent early stages of a young star's life as it ejects material at shock wave speeds into the surrounding gas and dust of the nebula, creating a Herbig-Haro object denoted by curved bow shock features to the lower-left and upper-right and a narrow jet extending from the star itself.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Lagoon Nebula

Hubble close-up of the heart of the Lagoon Nebula.
Credit: NASA, ESA

Pillars

Hubble close-up of light-year-tall hydrogen and dust pillars within the Carina Nebula.
Credit/Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Project (STScI/AURA), M. Livio (STScI) and N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley)

Abell 1689 Galaxy Cluster

Hubble image of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689 whose massive gravity acts like a lens distorting and magnifying the light of galaxies behind it into the arcs of light surrounding the cluster in this image.
Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Jullo (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), P. Natarajan (Yale University), and J.-P. Kneib (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, CNRS, France)

NGC 4696

Featured prominently in this Hubble image is the elliptical galaxy NGC 4696 with its atypical single long dust lane sweeping 30,000 light-years across its face.
Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA

Spiral Galaxy NGC 4911

This is a long exposure (28 hours) natural-color image from Hubble Space Telescope of the NGC 4911 galaxy located 320 million light-years in the Coma Cluster of galaxies.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Antennae Galaxies

Composite Image of the Antennae galaxies: Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), the Hubble Space Telescope (gold and brown), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (red).


Credit: NASA, ESA, SAO, CXC, JPL-Caltech, and STScI

Hot Young Stars

That's what you get when you take a huge cloud of mostly hydrogen gas (call it NGC 2467), subject it to the laws of our universe, and stir.
Credit: NASA, ESA and Orsola De Marco (Macquarie University)

Close Up Of The Milky Way's Most Massive Known Stars

The gas and dust of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603 have been swept aside by the ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds of the star cluster at its heart. This is what's called a starburst region and is home to thousands of stars, include 3 Wolf-Rayet type stars, one of which was recently confirmed by observations from the VLT as the Milky Way's most massive known.
Credit: NASA, ESA, R. O'Connell (University of Virginia), F. Paresce (National Institute for Astrophysics, Bologna, Italy), E. Young (Universities Space Research Association/Ames Research Center), the WFC3 Science Oversight Committee, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Images In The Raw #3

This shot of Saturn's moon Enceladus was captured by Cassini on April 26, 2010.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Spiral Galaxy M51 and companion galaxy NGC 5195.
Credit: S. Beckwith (STScI), Hubble Heritage Team, (STScI/AURA), ESA, NASA

Within The Carina Nebula

Hubble has released a spectacular series of images of a section of the Carina Nebula in commemoration of its 20th Anniversary. This single pillar of gas and dust measures three light years in height and is being blown apart by infant stars buried within it and eaten away by the light from the stars that surround it.

Images Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

Hubble's View Of Messier 66's Dust Lanes, Bright Star Clusters And Spiral Arms

Messier 66 is the largest of the Leo Triplets (a trio of spiral galaxies) and is distinguished by its asymmetric spiral arms which appear to climb above M 66's main disc and its seemingly displaced core. Both distortions are believed to be the result of the gravitational pull of its two galactic siblings, M 65 and NGC 3628. Further, with three supernovae since 1989, including one as recently as 2009, M 66 is host to a relatively exceptional number of supernovae explosions.

Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration.

Wide-field view of Messier 66. Credit: NASA, ESA and and Digitized Sky Survey 2.