JLJ4613006: Breda's surrender, 1625 (oil on canvas), Velazquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y (1599-1660) / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4613052: “Portuguese" screen: a representation of the arrival of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in Japan in the 16th century (painting), Japanese School (16th century) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613077: Spiral galaxy NGC 6946 in Cephee - Spiral galaxy NGC 6946 in Cepheus - Spiral galaxy NGC 6946 located about 10 million years ago - light in Cephee. Composite image obtained from observations made by different telescopes / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613114: Spiral galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegase - Spiral galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegasus - The galaxy NGC 7331 is located about 50 million years away - light from Earth. The small galaxies around them form a cluster much farther away. Image obtained with a 50 cm telescope, composite of several images. NGC 7331 is located 49 million light years away. The smaller galaxies visible are much farer / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613160: Spiral galaxy NGC 7424 in the Crane - Galaxy NGC 7424 in Grus - The barree spiral galaxy NGC 7424 is located about 40 million years away from Earth. NGC 7424 extends over nearly 100,000 light years, like our galaxy. Numerous bright blue clusters of massive young stars are visible along the spiral arms. Image obtained by the telescope MELIPAL of the VLT on October 9, 2004 Composite colour - coded image of spiral galaxy, NGC 7424, at a distance of 40 million light - years. This galaxy is classified as “” SAB (rs) cd””, meaning that it is intermediate between normal spirals (SA) and strongly barred galaxies (SB) and that it has rather open arms with a small central region. It also shows many ionised regions as well as clusters of young and massive stars. Ten young massive star clusters can be identified whose size span the range from 1 to 200 light - years. The galaxy itself is roughly 100,000 light - years across, that is, quite similar in size to our own Milky Way galaxy. Images obtained with the multi - mode VIMOS instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) / Bridgeman Images

LRI4645473: View of the Islamic school (1258), Seljuq Dynasty (1016-1307) / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4645534: Blanche de Castille, Queen of France (1188-1252), directing the education of her son Louis IX (1214-1270), 1320 (miniature), Unknown Artist, (14th century) / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4645652: View of Place du Chatelet in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century (watercolour) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4645755: James Webb Space Telescope Mirrors (JWST) - Testing of the JWST's mirrors - Six of the 18 JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) mirrors seen at Nasa's Marshall Space Center. These mirrors will be tested there to ensure they will withstand the extreme temperatures of space vacuum. The JWST will replace the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014. Equipped with a 6.5 m mirror, he will observe the universe mainly in infrared. Six of the 18 James Webb Space Telescope mirror segments are being moved into the X - ray and Cryogenic Facility, or XRCF, at Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to eventually experience temperatures dipping to a chilling - 414 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure they can withstand the extreme space environments. The test chamber takes approximately five days to cool a mirror segment to cryogenic temperatures. Marshall's X - ray & Cryogenic Facility is the world's largest X - ray telescope test facility and a unique, cryogenic, clean room optical test location. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared - optimized space telescope scheduled for launch in 2014. Equipped with a large mirror 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter, it will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy and will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4645776: Soldiers, Detail of the bas reliefs of the tomb of Francois I (1494-1547), 16th century (stone), Bontemps, Pierre (1505-68) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4645846: Darwin Space Telescope - Illustration - Space Telescope Project consists of four telescopes measuring 3m in diameter observing infrared and operating interferometry. The objective of this project is to detect planets outside our solar system, similar to Earth / Bridgeman Images

LRI4645886: Islamic Art: Silver and copper candlestick of the 13th century. A rider with a bow is represented on the object. Cairo, Museum of Islamic Art, Islamic School, (13th century) / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4678686: “The well of the mine”, 1915 (watercolour), Lytton, Neville Stephen (1879-1951) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4678823: Urubu a head rouge - Turkey vulture - Urubu a head rouge (Cathartes aura) seen in flight. Peninsule de Valdes, Argentina. Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura). Valdes Peninsula, Argentina / Bridgeman Images

PIX4678834: Grand Duke of Magellania - Magellanic horned owl - Grand Duke of Magellania (Bubo Magellanicus). Chile - Patagonia - Torres del Paine. Magellanic horned owl (Bubo Magellanicus). Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile / Bridgeman Images

PIX4678842: Grand Duke of Magellania - Magellanic horned owl - Grand Duke of Magellania (Bubo Magellanicus). Chile - Patagonia - Torres del Paine. Magellanic horned owl (Bubo Magellanicus). Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4678854: Arabe d'El-Aghouat en burnous, 1857 (porphyry, bronze and onyx), Cordier, Charles-Henri-Joseph (1827-1905) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4678929: Green iguana - Green iguana - Green iguana (Iguana Iguana). Costa Rica, March 2009. Green iguana (Iguana Iguana), Costa Rica, March 2009 / Bridgeman Images

LRI4679035: Stele 5, 706 AD, Mayan, (8th century AD) / Bridgeman Images

LRI4679071: Goa Gajah, or Elephant Cave, 9th century, Indonesian, (9th century) / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4679080: Portrait Of Madame Edmond Caillard Nee Sipierre, 1842 (oil on canvas), Scheffer, Ary (1795-1858) / Bridgeman Images

LRI4679116: Details of reliefs, Javanese School, (9th Century) / Bridgeman Images

LRI4679122: Paddy fields / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4613236: Knights Combat Miniature from Master Charles of Maine's Manuscript "The Novel of Tristan", 1450-1460 (miniature), French School, (15th century) / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4613251: Hunting in honor of Charles V at Torgau Castle in Germany The emperor is representative on the left probably, 16th century (oil on canvas), Cranach, Lucas the Elder (1472-1553) / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4613278: Well of Moses, 1396 (sculpture), Sluter, Claus (fl.1379-1405/06) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613299: Irregular Galaxy IC 5152 in the Indian - A nearby galaxy, IC 5152 - IC 5152 is an irregular galaxy located about 5.8 million years ago - light. In the foreground, a star in our galaxy of 8th magnitude. Image made in 1982 with the 3.9m telescope of Siding Spring. This small blue galaxy is resolved into stars in this deep AAT picture, which means that it is relatively nearby. However despite its proximity, it is probably just beyond the Local Group, which is a loose collection of 30 or so galaxies within 2 or 3 million light years of the Milky Way. Apart from the Milky Way and the similarly massive M31 galaxy in Andromeda, most of our immediate extra - galactic neighbours are light - weight collections of stars and gas like IC 5152, though few (except the Large Magellanic Cloud) show such strong evidence of recent star formation The bright object which appears at the eastern end of the galaxy is an 8th magnitude blue star in the Milky Way / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4613325: Loing Detail Canal, 1884 (painting), Sisley, Alfred (1839-99) / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4613335: Hercules stifling Ante in Euphronios crater, a red-figure Greek art piece, 515-510 BC (ceramic), Greek school, (6th century BC) / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4613387: Jesse's Tree. Page of the mansucrit " Lectiaire de Citeaux" ", 12th century (miniature), Unknown Artist, (12th century) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613581: Galaxy UGC 10214 in the Dragon - Galaxy UGC 10214 in Draco - The galaxy UGC 10214 is about 420 million years away - light from Earth. The shape of this galaxy is due to a collision with another galaxy, the small galaxy, blue, visible in the upper left corner of the image. Powerful gravitational forces are responsible for the formation of the tail, consisting of stars of dust and gas, which stretches over nearly 28,000 light years and is composed of recently formed and extremely bright blue stars. In the background, more than 6000 galaxies are visible, some more than 12 billion years apart - light. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in April 2002. This picture of the galaxy UGC 10214 was taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which was installed aboard Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope in March during Servicing Mission 3B. Its distorted shape was caused by a small interloper, a very blue, compact galaxy visible in the upper left corner of the more massive Tadpole. The Tadpole resides about 420 million light - years away in the constellation Draco. Seen shining through the Tadpole's disk, the tiny intruder is likely a hit - and - run galaxy that is now leaving the scene of the accident. Strong gravitational forces from the interaction created the long tail of debris, consisting of stars and gas that stretch out more than 280,000 light - years. Numerous young blue stars and star clusters, spawned by the galaxy collision, are seen in the spiral arms, as well as in the long “” tidal”” tail of stars. Each of these clusters represents the formation of up to about a million stars. Their color is blue because they contain very massive stars, which are 10 times hotter and 1 million times brighter than our Sun. Once formed, the star clusters become redder with age as the most massive and bluest stars exhaust their fuel and burn out. These clusters will eventually become old globula / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613612: Barree spiral galaxy UGC 12158 - Galaxy UGC 12158 - The galaxy UGC 12158, is about 400 million light years away from Earth in the constellation Pegase. In this image obtained by the Hubble space telescope, a blue star is visible near the center of the galaxy (lower left), it is a supernova, SN 2004ef. The galaxy captured in this image, called UGC 12158, certainly isn't camera - shy: this spiral stunner is posing face - on to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, revealing its structure in fine detail. UGC 12158 is an excellent example of a barred spiral galaxy in the Hubble sequence - - a scheme used to categorise galaxies based on their shapes. Barred spirals, as the name suggest, feature spectacular swirling arms of stars that emanate from a bar - shaped centre. Such bar structures are common, being found in about two thirds of spiral galaxies, and are thought to act as funnels, guiding gas to their galactic centres where it accumulates to form newborn stars. These aren't permanent structures: astronomers think that they slowly disperse over time, so that the galaxies eventually evolve into regular spirals. The appearance of a galaxy changes little over millions of years, but this image also contains a short - lived and brilliant interloper - - the bright blue star just to the lower left of the centre of the galaxy is very different from the several foreground stars seen in the image. It is in fact a supernova inside UGC 12158 and much further away than the Milky Way stars in the field - - at a distance of about 400 million light - years! This stellar explosion, called SN 2004ef, was first spotted by two British amateur astronomers in September 2004 and the Hubble data shown here form part of the follow - up observations. This picture was created from images taken with the Wide Field Channel of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images through blue (F475W, colored blue), yellow (F606W, c / Bridgeman Images

JLJ4613629: Portrait of Edouard Manet, c.1860 (China ink wash), Degas, Edgar (1834-1917) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613665: Markarian Galaxy 817 - Galaxy Markarian 817 - The spiral galaxy Markarian 817 is located 430 million light years ago in the constellation Dragon. This galaxy houses in its heart a supermassive black hole. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope on August 2, 2009. Rings of brilliant blue stars encircle the bright, active core of this spiral galaxy, whose monster black hole is blasting material into space at over 14 million kilometers per hour. Viewed nearly face - on, the galaxy, called Markarian 817, shows intense star - forming regions and dark bands of interstellar dust along its spiral arms. Observations by the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured the powerful outflow of material from this galaxy. The COS spectrum of Markarian 817 highlights the outflow's dynamic nature. A gas cloud containing hydrogen that was detected in Hubble data taken in 1997 does not appear in the COS observation because the cloud has apparently been driven out by an outflow of material from the galaxy. This discharge is being powered by a huge disc of matter encircling the supermassive black hole, which is 40 million times more massive than our Sun. The disc is driving the material out of the galaxy through powerful winds, produced by streams of charged particles. Some of the outflow rains back onto the galaxy. The rest settles into the intergalactic gas. Markarian 817 is 430 million light - years away in the northern constellation of Draco. The Hubble image was taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on 2 August 2009. The composite image was made by using filters that isolate light from the blue, green and infrared portions of the spectrum, as well as emission from glowing hydrogen / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613733: Elliptical Galaxy ESO 306 - 17 - Elliptical galaxy ESO 306 - 17 - The galaxy ESO 306 - 17 is an isolated elliptical galaxy located about 500 million years ago - light from Earth. In the background, many distant galaxies are visible. This image from the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope highlights the large and bright elliptical galaxy called ESO 306 - 17 in the southern sky. In this image, it appears that ESO 306 - 17 is surrounded by other galaxies but the bright galaxies at bottom left are thought to be in the foreground, not at the same distance in the sky. In reality, ESO 306 - 17 lies fairly abandoned at half a billion light - years from Earth in an enormous sea of dark matter and hot gas / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613775: GOODS Chandra Deep Field South (CDF - S) - Image of distant galaxies obtained by the Hubble space telescope in the constellation of the furnace. Several thousand galaxies, some of which are more than 10 billion light years old, are visible in this image. Some closer galaxies also appear, including two colliding galaxies (middle left). This image is a detail (1/10th) of the complete field observed by Hubble (which contains about 25,000 galaxies) in the framework of the GOODS programme, an extensive program of study of primordial galaxies in a field of the Boreal Constellation of the Great Bear and in a field of the southern hemisphere in the constellation of the furnace. This image, taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, shows several thousand galaxies, many of which appear to be interacting or in the process of forming. Some of these galaxies existed when the cosmos was less than about 2 billion years old. The foreground galaxies, however, are much closer to Earth. Two of them [the white, elongated galaxies, left of center] appear to be colliding. This image represents less than one - tenth of the entire field surveyed by Hubble. The full field, consisting of about 25,000 galaxies, is part of a larger survey called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), the most ambitious study of the early universe yet undertaken with the Hubble telescope. This survey targeted two representative spots in the sky - one in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere. This image represents the southern field, located in the constellation Fornax. The entire GOODS survey reveals roughly 50,000 galaxies. Astronomers have identified more than 2,000 of them as infant galaxies, observed when the universe was less than about 2 billion years old. This image of the southern field was assembled from observations taken between July 2002 and February 2003. 5 days exposure / Bridgeman Images