PIX4608932: Andromede Galaxy - Detail - The Andromede galaxy is located about 2.3 million years ago - light from Earth. On this composite image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), one hundred million stars are visible. M31, the Great galaxy in Andromeda, is a gigantic collection of more than 300 billion stars and is located about 2 million light years from Earth. This image, captured with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the largest and sharpest image ever taken of the Andromeda galaxy - - otherwise known as M31. It is the biggest Hubble image ever released and shows over 100 million stars and thousands of star clusters embedded in a section of the galaxy's pancake - shaped disc stretching across over 40,000 light - years / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609140: Spiral Galaxy NGC 253 in Sculptor - Spiral galaxy NGC 253 in Sculptor - NGC 253 is the brightest galaxy of the Sculptor's group, the closest galaxy group to the Local Group. It is about 13 million light years away. Image obtained with the 2,2m MPG/ESO telescope of La Silla. Measuring 70 000 light - years across and lying 13 million light - years away, the nearly edge - on spiral galaxy NGC 253 is revealed here in an image from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) of the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope at the La Silla Observatory. The image is based on data obtained through four different filters (R, V, H - alpha and OIII). North is up and East to the left. The field of view is 30 arcminutes / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609158: Spiral galaxy NGC 300 in the Sculptor - Galaxy NGC 300 in Sculptor - Located about 7 million years ago - light from Earth, the spiral galaxy NGC 300 belongs to the Sculptor's group. It appears to us as a great object in the sky since its apparent diameter is almost that of the full moon. This photo was obtained by the MPG/ESO telesope of 2.2 - m in La Silla in Chile in 2000. Located some 7 million light - years away, the spiral galaxy NGC 300 is a beautiful representative of its class, a Milky - Way - like member of the prominent Sculptor group of galaxies in the southern constellation of that name. NGC 300 is a big object in the sky - being so close, it extends over an angle of almost 25 arcmin, only slightly less than the size of the full moon. It is also relative bright, even a small pair of binoculars will unveil this magnificent spiral galaxy as a hazy glowing patch on a dark sky background. The comparatively small distance of NGC 300 and its face - on orientation provide astronomers with a wonderful opportunity to study in great detail its structure as well as its various stellar populations and interstellar medium. This image was obtained with the Wide - Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2 - m telescope at the La Silla Observatory in 2000 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609299: Spiral galaxy M33 in the Triangle - Spiral galaxy M33 in Triangulum - M33, (NGC 598), the galaxy of the Triangle, is located about 2 million years ago - light from Earth. It belongs to the local group, just like our galaxy or Andromede galaxy. In red the star-forming regions appear. Also known as M33 or NGC 598, the Triangulum Galaxy is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and our galaxy, the Milky Way. M33 is over thirty thousand light - years across, and more than two million light - years away. The data in this image show the many stars within the galaxy as well as reddish star forming regions that are filled with hot hydrogen gas. Hot, massive stars which recently formed in M33 give the galaxy its bluish color. The reddish areas are nebulae in the galaxy in which stars are rapidly forming / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609326: Spiral galaxy M33 in the Triangle - Spiral galaxy M33 in Triangulum - M33, (NGC 598), the galaxy of the Triangle, is located about 2 million years ago - light from Earth. It belongs to the local group, just like our galaxy or Andromede galaxy. Also known as M33 or NGC 598, the Triangulum Galaxy is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and our galaxy, the Milky Way. M33 is over thirty thousand light - years across, and more than two million light - years away. Hot, massive stars which recently formed in M33 give the galaxy its bluish color. The reddish areas are nebulae in the galaxy in which stars are rapidly forming / Bridgeman Images
PIX4623552: Planetary nebula NGC 7027 in the Swan/HST - This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of planetary nebula NGC 7027 shows remarkable new details of the process by which a star like the Sun dies. New features include: faint, blue, concentric shells surrounding the nebula; an extensive network of red dust clouds throughout the bright inner region; and the hot central white dwarf, visible as a white dot at the center. The nebula is a record of the star's final death throes. Initially the ejection of the star's outer layers, when it was at its red giant stage of evolution, occurred at a low rate and was spherical. The Hubble photo reveals that the initial ejections occurred episodically to produce the concentric shells. This culminated in a vigorous ejection of all of the remaining outer layers, which produced the bright inner regions. At this later stage the ejection was non - spherical, and dense clouds of dust condensed from the ejected material. NGC 7027 is located about 3,000 light - years from Earth in the direction of the summer constellation Cygnus. When a star like the Sun nears the end of its life, it expands to more than 50 times its original diameter, becoming a red giant star. Then its outer layers are ejected into space, exposing the small, extremely hot core of the star, which cools off to become a white dwarf. Although stars like the Sun can live for up to 10 billion years before becoming a red giant and ejecting a nebula, the actual ejection process takes only a few thousand years. The NGC 7027 photograph is a composite of two Hubble images, taken in visible and infrared light, and is shown in “” pseudo - color. / Bridgeman Images
PIX4623669: Planetary nebula Helix (NGC 7293) in Aquarius - Planetary nebula Helix (NGC 7293) - The planetary nebula of Helice, located in Aquarius, is one of the closest to Earth (about 690 years - light) and is also one of the most extended; its apparent diameter is about half of the full moon. Image made with the 1.5m Danish telescope of La Silla in Chile in 2009. Helix is our closest planetary nebula at about 690 light years distance. Image taken with the ESO/Danish 1.5m telescope at La Silla observatory in Chile / Bridgeman Images
PIX4623916: Planetary nebula ESO 166 - 21 dans les Voiles - The faint planetary nebula ESO 166 - 21 - This planetary nebula was discovered in the rich southern constellation of Vela in 1966, which is why it does not have an NGC number. The 'Ack' designation refers to its identification in the catalogue of planetary nebulae edited by Agnes Acker. This beautifully structured delicate sphere of glowing gas is about 2 arc minutes in diameter and is extremely faint. Both these characteristics have contributed to the conspicuous grain 'noise' in the photograph, and attempts to emphasise the faint nebulosity also bring out the many faint stars in this direction, including the markedly blue central star of visual magnitude 18 which is seen here sandwiched between two other, brighter stars / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609396: Spiral galaxy M74 in Pisces - Spiral galaxy M74 in Pisces - Image of the spiral galaxy M74 (NGC 628). This galaxy is about 80,000 light years and is 30 million light years apart. M74 (NGC 628) is located roughly 30 million light - years away in the direction of the constellation Pisces, the Fish. It is the dominant member of a small group of about half a dozen galaxies, the M74 galaxy group. In its entirety, it is estimated that M74 is home to about 100 billion stars, making it slightly smaller than our Milky Way / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609570:
Spiral galaxy M77 in the Whale - Active galaxy M77 (NGC 1068) in Cetus - M77 (NGC 1068). This active galaxy is the typical example of a Seyfert II galaxy. It has an active core and houses a massive black hole. She is the object of intense star formation in her spiral arms. NGC 1068 is around 50 million years of light from Earth. Image obtained by Siding Spring's 3.9m telescope. M77 is a Seyfert galaxy, a class of galaxy named for Karl Seyfert who first identified galaxies with emission lines superimposed on the normal radiation from their nuclei in 1943. Such galaxies are a subset of an ill - defined species generally known as 'active galaxies' whose nuclei emit radio - and X - radiation as well as visible light. The least active of the active galaxies are the Seyferts, the most active are the quasars which are mostly so distant that they can only be distinguished from stars by their spectrum.
The common feature of these galaxy types is a small, very bright nucleus thought to host a massive black hole. In Seyferts we see this black hole (or more likely its surrounding shroud of ultra - luminous gas) more or less pole - on. In other active galaxy types at different inclinations the spectrum of the nucleus changes as we see other manifestations of the black hole's influence on its surroundings. M77 is a member of a small group of galaxies at a distance of about 40 million light years / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609836: Barree spiral galaxy NGC 1365 in the Furnace - Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 in Fornax - NGC 1365 is a barree spiral galaxy that extends over 200,000 years - light. Located 60 million years ago - light, it belongs to the cluster of galaxies of the Furnace. Image obtained in 1999 by the European telescope Antu of the VLT in Chile. NGC 1365 is one of the most prominent “” barred”” galaxies in the sky. It is a supergiant galaxy with a diameter of about 200,000 light - years, seen in the direction of the southern constellation Fornax. It is a major member of the Fornax Cluster of Galaxies. The distance is about 60 million light - years. A massive straight bar runs through this galaxy and contains the nucleus at the centre. It consists mostly of older stars that give a reddish colour to the bar.The gravitational perturbation from the bar causes interstellar gas and dust clouds to form a pair of spiral arms that extend from the ends of the bar. Young luminous hot stars, born out of the interstellar clouds, give these arms a prominent appearance and a blue colour. The bar and spiral pattern rotates clockwise, as seen from us. One full turn takes about 350 million years. Image combined from three exposures with the FORS1 multi - mode instrument at VLT UT1, ANTU / Bridgeman Images
PIX4624313: Pluto - Hubble's Full Photomap of Pluto - The dwarf planet Pluto seen by the Hubble space telescope. These images, recomposed by computer from cliches obtained in 2002 and 2003, are not sufficiently precise to show Pluto's surface in detail but reveal color differences. This is the most detailed view to date of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003. Hubble's view isn't sharp enough to see craters or mountains, if they exist on the surface, but Hubble reveals a complex - looking and variegated world with white, dark - orange, and charcoal - black terrain. The overall color is believed to be a result of ultraviolet radiation from the distant Sun breaking up methane that is present on Pluto's surface, leaving behind a dark, molasse - colored, carbon - rich residue. The center disk (180 degrees) has a mysterious bright spot that is unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. This region will be photographed in the highest possible detail when Nasa's New Horizons probe flies by Pluto in 2015. The Hubble images are a few pixels wide. But through a technique called dithering, multiple, slightly offset pictures can be combined through computer - image processing to synthesize a higher - resolution view than could be seen in a single exposure. This series of pictures took four years and 20 computers operating continuously and simultaneously to accomplish / Bridgeman Images
PIX4624318: New Pluto satellites seen by the Hubble Space Telescope - View of Pluto, its Charon satellite and two new satellites obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope on 15 February 2006; These satellites, S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2, are approximately 64,000 and 48,000 km of Pluto. Since August 2006, Pluto is now called 134340 Pluto and is no longer considered a planet but designed as a dwarf planet. / Bridgeman Images