PIX4568125: Open cluster M44 in cancer - Open star cluster M44 in Cancer - M44 is a cluster of stars located only 600 years - light from Earth, in the constellation Cancer. Image obtained with a 106 mm bezel, composite of different poses. M44 (NGC 2632), the Beehive Cluster, also known as Praesepe, is an easy naked eye object more than twice the size across of the full moon, and has thus been noted since prehistoric times. It was one of the first objects on which Galileo trained his newly acquired telescope. M44 is one of the nearest open clusters, close to 600 light - years away / Bridgeman Images

PIX4568210: Open cluster NGC 3293 in Carene - Open star cluster NGC 3293 in Carina - Star cluster located in the constellation Carene about 8500 years ago - light from Earth. This cluster is in the constellation of Carina at a distance of about 8500 light years / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565453: Galaxies Group: Stephan Quintet in Pegase - Stephan's Quintet group of galaxies - Image obtained with the northern Gemini telescope. This group of five galaxies is located about 300 million light years away from Earth. However the galaxy NGC 7320 (top in the center) would be 8 times closer to us. It contains numerous hydrogen clouds in which stars form. Stephan's Quintet is located 300 million light years away. The galaxies shapes are warped by gravitational interactions occurring over millions of years. The ongoing dance deformed their structures while spawning a prolific fireworks display of star formation fueled by clouds of hydrogen gas that were shocked into clumps to form stellar nurseries. Image made with Gemini North telescope / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565466: Galaxies Group: Stephan's Quintet in Pegase - Stephan's Quintet group of galaxies - Image obtained with the Hubble space telescope. This group of 5 galaxies is located about 270 million light years away from Earth. In this image three star-forming regions are visible: in the long arm of NGC 7319 (near the center); the gas debris of two galaxies, NGC 7318B and NGC 7318A (upper right); and in the upper left. Blue indicates that these stars are young. The NASA Hubble Space Telescope photo shows three regions of star birth: the long, sweeping tail and spiral arms of NGC 7319 [near center]; the gaseous debris of two galaxies, NGC 7318B and NGC 7318A [top right]; and the area north of those galaxies, dubbed the northern starburst region [top left]. The clusters' bluish color indicates that they're relatively young. Their ages span from about 2 million to more than 1 billion years old. The brilliant star clusters in NGC 7318B's spiral arm (about 30,000 light - years long) and the northern starburst region are between 2 million and more than 100 million years old. NGC 7318B instigated the starburst by barreling through the region. The bully galaxy is just below NGC 7318A at top right. Although NGC 7318B appears dangerously close to NGC 7318A, it's traveling too fast to merge with its close neighbor. The partial galaxy on the far right is NGC 7320, a foreground galaxy not physically bound to the other galaxies in the picture. About 20 to 50 of the clusters in the northern starburst region reside far from the coziness of galaxies. The clusters were born about 150,000 light - years from the nearest galaxy. A galaxy that is no longer part of the group triggered another collision that wreaked havoc. NGC 7320C [not in the photo] plowed through the quintet several hundred million years ago, pulling out the 100,000 light - year - long tail of gaseous debris from NGC 7319. The clusters in NGC 7319's streaming tail are 10 million to 500 mi / Bridgeman Images

TEC4568492: The port of Rotterdam, Netherlands (Netherlands) is the first European port and is located at the mouth of the Meuse and the Rhine. / Bridgeman Images

PIX4568671: Open cluster NGC 7789 in Cassiopee - Open cluster NGC 7789 in Cassiopeia - The cluster of stars NGC 7789 is located about 7600 years - light from Earth. It contains about 300 stars, including a number of giant red stars. His age is estimated at 1.6 billion years. The open cluster NGC 7789 in Cassiopeia is a bright and richly populated cluster comprised of approximately 300 member stars which are evenly distributed and well detached from the background sky. This cluster lies at a distance of 7620 light - years away with an apparent diameter of 25 '. As indicated by the various red giants in the image, the cluster is advanced in age and which has been estimated to be approximately 1.6 billion years - old / Bridgeman Images

TEC4568756: Dowtown Los Angeles Central Library 630 West 5th Street, Los Angeles, California, USA. / Bridgeman Images

PIX4566773: Astronomy meeting in an inflatable planetarium - Inside an inflatable planetarium - Club d'astronomes amateurs Lyon Ampere (CALA) 02/05/2005 CALA amateur observatory near Lyon. France / Bridgeman Images

TEC4566776: The Park of the Republics of the former Sovietic Union (VDNKH) in Moscow (Russia) / Bridgeman Images

LBY4566867: Moscow (Russia) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4566888: Sorbonne Observatory - Old Observatory of Paris university / Bridgeman Images

TEC4566335: Elegant gentleman greeting, for the workshop Moliere, trade sign in Paris. / Bridgeman Images

TEC4566353: Nicolskaia to Moscow (Russia) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565462: Galaxies Group: Stephan's Quintet in Pegase - Stephan's Quintet group of galaxies - Image obtained with the Hubble space telescope. This group of 5 galaxies is located about 270 million light years away from Earth. In this image three star-forming regions are visible: in the long arm of NGC 7319 (near the center); the gas debris of two galaxies, NGC 7318B and NGC 7318A (upper right); and in the upper left. Blue indicates that these stars are young. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a close - up view of the central part of Stephan's Quintet, giving a magnificent view of a gigantic cosmic collision. Stephan's Quintet, as its name implies, is a group of five galaxies (NGC7317, 7318A, 7318B, 7319 and 7320) and lies about 270 million light - years away in the constellation of Pegasus (North - west of the Great Square of Pegasus). A sixth galaxy (NGC 7320C) lies south - east of the other five (upper left - hand corner of the overview image). The galaxy group was the first of its kind to be discovered and was found by the French astronomer Edouard Stephan in 1877, using the Foucault 80 - cm reflector at the Marseille Observatory. Today we know of hundreds of similar groupings, but few are as spectacular as Stephan's Quintet. This image is a mosaic of two pointings with the WFPC2 instrument made in December 1998 and June 1999 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565630: Galaxy clusters 1ES 0657 - 55 in the Carene - Gravitational lens in galaxy cluster 1ES 0657 - 55 - False color image of the distant galaxy cluster 1ES 0657 - 55 in the southern constellation of Carene obtained by the VLT. A gravitational mirage is visible in the form of a green arc at the top right of the image; it is the image of an even farther away galaxy curved and amplified by the gravity of this cluster. An Arc at z = 3.23 in galaxy cluster 1ES 0657 - 55. The galaxy cluster 1ES 0657 - 55 is located in the southern constellation Carina (The Keel), south of the Milky Way band. Its redshift has been measured as z = 0.29. It is a source of strong and very hot X - ray emission and has an asymmetric galaxy distribution, indicating a large mass and recent formation / Bridgeman Images

LBY4565676: Housing real estate in the park of Maisons Laffite (Yvelines). / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565712: Abell 383 galaxy cluster and primitive galaxy - Abell 383 cluster of galaxies with gravitational arcs - Abell 383 is a cluster of galaxies located in the constellation Eridan. This image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 2011 shows gravitational arcs among galaxies. These mirages are deformed images of farther galaxies located behind the cluster. Thanks to this magnifying effect, the resulting image revealed the presence of a primitive galaxy, nee 200 million years after the big blow. Astronomers have uncovered one of the youngest galaxies in the distant universe, with stars that formed 13.5 billion years ago, a mere 200 million years after the Big Bang. The finding addresses questions about when the first galaxies arose, and how the early universe evolved. Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope was the first to spot the newfound galaxy. Detailed observations from the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii revealed the observed light dates to when the universe was only 950 million years old; the universe formed about 13.7 billion years ago. Infrared data from both Hubble and Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope revealed the galaxy's stars are quite mature, having formed when the universe was just a toddler at 200 million years old. The galaxy's image is being magnified by the gravity of a massive cluster of galaxies (Abell 383) parked in front of it, making it appear 11 times brighter. This phenomenon is called gravitational lensing. Hubble imaged the lensing galaxy Abell 383 with the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys in November 2010 through March 2011 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565461: Central part of the Virgo cluster - Central part of the Virgo cluster - The Virgin cluster contains several thousand galaxies. It is located about 70 million light years from Earth. To the right are the galaxies M84 (NGC 4374) and M86 (NGC 4406) (to the left) dominate the image. Lower left is the elliptical galaxy M87. Located about 70 million light years away, the Virgo cluster is a gigantic collection of several thousand galaxies that dominate our local part of the universe. Markarian's Chain of galaxies is in the center, including giant elliptical galaxies M86 and M84. M87 is another giant elliptical galaxy at lower left in the photo / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565503: Group of Galaxies: Stephan Quintet in Pegase - This group of 5 galaxies is located about 260 million light years away from Earth. These galaxies are interacting, however the NGC 7320 galaxy (down in the middle) would be 8 times closer to us. This group of galaxies is located about 260 million light - years away in Pegasus constellation. They are gravitationally interacting with the exception of the interloper NGC 7320 (bottom center) which is a foreground galaxy. Image made with a 32 inches telescope / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565586: Galaxy Clusters Abell 1689 - details - Gravitational lenses in Abell 1689 galaxy cluster - Close-up of the various gravitational mirages observed in the Abell 1689 galaxy cluster. Near infrared and visible image obtained by the Hubble space telescope in June 2002. 13 hours of installation. A selection of cropped images from a NASA Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys view of one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, called Abell 1689. These close - ups show “” lensed”” images of background galaxies that have been brightened and smeared by the gravitational bending of light by the foreground cluster. The yellow - white objects are the cluster galaxies located 2.2 billion light - years away. The blue arcs are the distorted images of background galaxies located billions of light - years farther away than Abell 1689. The distribution of both “” normal”” and dark matter, and the alignment of the background galaxies determine the amount of distortion. In a perfectly aligned gravitational lens the background object would be smeared into an “” Einstein ring.”” Instead, there are numerous ring sections or arcs corresponding to individual galaxies. Though the galaxy images are distorted, numerous structural details such as star clusters and dust lanes are magnified. These would not normally be resolved without the lensing effect of the foreground cluster. Red objects in the field may be nearby cool stars, or galaxies at great distances. Images of the same galaxies are also mirrored on either side of the cluster. These distortions yield clues to dark matter in space, and the curvature of the universe. They also beautifully demonstrate Einstein's theory of general relativity that predicted that gravity warps space. This representative color image is a composite of visible - light and near - infrared exposures taken in June 2002 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565601: Clusters of distant galaxies CL0024+1654 - Distant cluster of galaxies CL0024+1654 - False color image of cluster CL0024+1654 obtained with the 12k camera of CFHT (Canada France Hawaii Telescope) in Hawaii. This cluster is 4.5 billion light years away. This is a colour image of the galaxy cluster CL0024+1654 obtained with the CFHT12k camera at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea (Hawaii). Distance of 4.5 thousand million light - years (about one third of the look - back time to the Big Bang) from Earth. The cluster clearly appears as a concentration of yellow galaxies in the centre of this image although cluster galaxies actually extend at least to the edge of this image. This image measures 21 x 21 arc - minutes / Bridgeman Images

LBY4565629: The park of Maisons Laffite (Yvelines). / Bridgeman Images

LBY4565652: Detached house in the park of Maisons Laffite (Yvelines). / Bridgeman Images

LBY4565681: The park of Maisons Laffite (Yvelines). / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565707: Galaxy clusters LCDCS - 0829 - Galaxy cluster LCDCS - 0829 - Gravitational lenses in the galaxy cluster LCDCS - 0829. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope usually works as a solo artist to capture awe - inspiring images of the distant Universe. For this picture, though, Hubble had a helping hand from the subject of the image, a galaxy cluster called LCDCS - 0829, as the huge mass of the galaxies in the cluster acted like a giant magnifying glass. This strange effect is called gravitational lensing. The object was discovered during the Las Campanas Distant Clusters Survey, which explains the cluster's unusual name. This survey was carried out in March 1995 using a 1 - metre telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. More than one thousand clusters of galaxies, most of them previously unknown, were found in a dedicated survey of a long, but narrow, section of the southern sky. The bizarre phenomenon of gravitational lensing is a consequence of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which says that the huge mass of the galaxy cluster bends the fabric of the Universe, and the light from one of the distant galaxies will then travel along this bend in the fabric. In addition to making some objects appear bigger and brighter, gravitational lensing can produce multiple images of distant galaxies and stretch them into strange arcs. Many such arcs can be seen in this image. This deep image of the cluster was created from a total of 36 exposures taken using the Wide Field Channel of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys / Bridgeman Images

ITR4562138: The groves, the Enceladus basin. Chateau de Versailles (Les Yvelines), 1660-1700. Gardens of Andre Le Notre (1613-1700) and principal architects: Louis Le Vau (1612-1670) and Jules Hardouin Mansart (1646-1708). / Bridgeman Images

LBY4562234: Belem Tower in Lisbon (Portugal), built in 1521. / Bridgeman Images

TEC4562362: Kowloon Street, at night, Hong Kong, China. / Bridgeman Images

TEC4562377: Kowloon District in Hong Kong (China). / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565539: Group of galaxies HCG 87 in Capricorn - Hickson Compact Group 87 in Capricornus - Group of galaxies in interaction situated 400 million years ago - light from Earth. The largest of these galaxies (HCG 87a) is a spiral galaxy seen by the slice; it and its neighbor the elliptical galaxy HCG 87b probably have a central black hole. The third member of this group, the spiral galaxy HCG 87c appears to be in an active phase of star formation. Group of interacting galaxies located at about 400 million light - years. The largest galaxy member (HCG 87a), which is actually disk - shaped, but tilted so that we see it nearly edge - on and its elliptically shaped nearest neighbor (87b) have active galactic nuclei which are believed to harbor black holes that are consuming gas. A third group member, the nearby spiral galaxy 87c, may be undergoing a burst of active star formation. These three galaxies are so close to each other that gravitational forces disrupt their structure and alter their evolution / Bridgeman Images

TEC4565565: Saint Cloud, general view (Hauts de Seine). / Bridgeman Images

LRI4565671: Portrait of Giovan Battista Viotti (engraving) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565700: Galaxy cluster Abell 2667 - Galaxy cluster Abell 2667 - In this image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2667, a spiral galaxy, at the top left of the image, seems to leave a trail of gas and stars in its wake. Attracted by the high gravity of Abell 2667, this “galaxy - comete” plunges into the cluster at a speed of 3.5 million km/h, losing its gas and young stars. This phenomene may explain the presence of isolated stars in the centre of galaxy clusters. On the right, a further galaxy appears as a gravitational arc. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in October 2001. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, in collaboration with several other ground - and space - based telescopes, has captured a galaxy being ripped apart by a galaxy cluster's gravitational field and harsh environment. The finding sheds light on the mysterious process by which gas - rich spiral - shaped galaxies might evolve into gas - poor irregular - or elliptical - shaped galaxies over billions of years. The new observations also show one mechanism to form the millions of 'homeless' stars seen scattered throughout galaxy clusters. While looking at the galaxy cluster Abell 2667, astronomers found an odd - looking spiral galaxy (shown here in the upper left hand corner of the image) that ploughs through the cluster after being accelerated to at least 3.5 million km/h by the enormous combined gravity of the cluster's dark matter, hot gas and hundreds of galaxies. As the galaxy speeds through, its gas and stars are being stripped away by the tidal forces exerted by the cluster just as the tidal forces exerted by the moon and Sun push and pull the Earth's oceans. Also contributing to this destructive process is the pressure of the cluster's hot gas plasma reaching temperatures as high as 10 - 100 million degrees. Both processes the tidal forces and the aptly named 'ram pressure stripping' resulting from the action of the hot clust / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565786: Observation night - Sky watchers - Observation night between amateur astronomers. Three amateur astronomers observe the sky and set up for a night of astrophotography / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565820: Observation of the sky - Amateur astronomers - Observation with the naked eye / Bridgeman Images

PIX4565851: Observation night - Amateur astronomer / Bridgeman Images