The Frontier

Cutting Edge images

Gomez's hamburger

HST

Cygnus Loop

HST

Planetary Nebula NGC

2440

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the colorful "last hurrah" of a star like our Sun. The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. Ultraviolet light from the dying star then makes the material glow. The burned-out star, called a white dwarf, appears as a white dot in the center. Our Milky Way Galaxy is littered with these stellar relics, called planetary nebulae. Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 captured this image of planetary nebula NGC 2440 on Feb. 6, 2007.

Columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust in M16, the Eagle Nebula

Closer view of the leftmost "pillar" of interstellar hydrogen gas and dust in M16, the Eagle Nebula.

Mosaic of 45 images taken between Jan. 1994 and March 1995 of M42, the Orion Nebula.

MyCn18, a young planetary nebula located about 8,000 light-years away.

Collision of two gasses ("cometary knots") in the Helix Nebula in the constellation Aquarius

Closer view of the "cometary knots" in the Helix Nebula

One-half light-year long interstellar "twisters" in the Lagoon Nebula (M8) in the constellation Sagittarius.

Closer view of the "twisters" in the Lagoon Nebula.

Image of the youngest known planetary nebula, the Stingray nebula (Hen-1357).

Stellar formation in NGC 3603.

Stellar formation in the Papillon Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Stellar formation in the Trifid Nebula (M20).

The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372).

The "Eskimo" Nebula (NGC 2392).

The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888).

Butterfly nebula

Spirograph nebula

Rotten egg nebula

Image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4414.

Higher-resolution color image of the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/4039).

True color image of faint blue galaxies.

Deep survey image of spiral and elliptical galaxies.

The Frontier

Cutting Edge images

Astronomers have used the Hubble space telescope to discover the faintest and most distant galaxies ever seen. A new camera fitted to the orbiting observatory in May by shuttle astronauts has captured dim red "star cities" that formed only 600-900 million years after the Big Bang. 2009

Coincidentally aligned spiral galaxies. (NGC 3314)

Black hole at the center of a galaxy. (NGC 4438)

Nebula surrounding the Wolf-Rayet star WR124 in the constellation Sagittarius. (Produced with the Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2, Hubble Space Telescope.)

Hubble Space Telescope Captures First Direct Image of a Star

The Frontier

Cutting Edge images

The Spitzer Space Telescope has pierced thick cosmic dust to reveal this embedded protostar, or embryonic star, in HH46-IR

The Frontier

Cutting Edge images

This Spitzer Space Telescope image shows, in its entirety, a disc of planet-forming debris encircling a nearby star called Fomalhaut.

The Frontier

Cutting Edge images

The Frontier

Cutting Edge images