We present you a selection of images taken using the orbital Hubble telescope. It has been in the orbit of our planet for more than twenty years and continues to this day to reveal to us the secrets of space.
1. NGC 5194
Known as NGC 5194, this large galaxy with a well-developed spiral structure may have been the first spiral nebula to be discovered. It is clearly seen that its spiral arms and dust lanes pass in front of its companion galaxy, NGC 5195 (left). This pair is about 31 million light-years away and officially belongs to the small constellation Canes Venatici.
2 Spiral Galaxy M33
Spiral galaxy M33 is a medium-sized galaxy from the Local Group. M33 is also called the Triangulum galaxy after the constellation in which it resides. About 4 times smaller (in radius) than our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), M33 is much larger than many dwarf galaxies. Due to its proximity to M31, M33 is thought by some to be a satellite of this more massive galaxy. M33 close to Milky Way, its angular dimensions are more than twice the dimensions full moon, i.e. it is perfectly visible with good binoculars.
3. Stephen's Quintet
The group of galaxies is Stefan's quintet. However, only four of the group of galaxies, located 300 million light-years away from us, participate in the cosmic dance, now approaching, then moving away from each other. It's pretty easy to find one. Four interacting galaxies - NGC 7319, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B and NGC 7317 - have a yellowish coloration and curved loops and tails, the shape of which is caused by the influence of destructive tidal gravitational forces. The bluish galaxy NGC 7320, above left, is much closer than the others, only 40 million light-years away.
4 Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest of the giant galaxies to our Milky Way. Most likely our galaxy looks about the same as the Andromeda galaxy. These two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The hundreds of billions of stars that make up the Andromeda galaxy together give a visible diffuse glow. The individual stars in the image are actually stars in our galaxy, much closer than the distant object. The Andromeda Galaxy is often referred to as M31, as it is the 31st object in Charles Messier's catalog of diffuse celestial objects.
5 Lagoon Nebula
The bright Lagoon Nebula contains many different astronomical objects. K especially interesting objects include a bright open star cluster and several active star-forming regions. In visual observation, the light from the cluster is lost against the background of a general red glow caused by the emission of hydrogen, while dark filaments arise from the absorption of light by dense layers of dust.
6. Nebula Cat's Eye (NGC 6543)
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky. Its hauntingly symmetrical shapes are visible in the center of this spectacular false-color image, specially manipulated to show a huge but very faint halo of gaseous matter, about three light-years in diameter, that surrounds a bright, familiar planetary nebula.
7. Small constellation Chameleon
The small constellation Chameleon is located near the south pole of the World. The picture reveals the amazing features of the humble constellation, which is full of dusty nebulae and colorful stars. Blue reflection nebulae are scattered across the field.
8. Nebula Sh2-136
Cosmic dust clouds faintly glowing with reflected starlight. Far from our familiar places on planet Earth, they hide on the edge of the Cepheus Halo molecular cloud complex, 1200 light-years away from us. Nebula Sh2-136, located near the center of the field, is brighter than other ghostly visions. It is over two light-years across and is visible even in infrared light.
9 Horsehead Nebula
The dark dusty Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula contrast in the sky. They are located at a distance of 1500 light years from us in the direction of the most recognizable celestial constellation. And in today's wonderful composite photo, the nebulae occupy opposite corners. The familiar Horsehead Nebula is a small dark cloud in the shape of a horse's head looming against the background of red glowing gas in the lower left corner of the picture.
10 Crab Nebula
This confusion remained after the explosion of the star. The Crab Nebula is the result of a supernova explosion that was observed in 1054 AD. The supernova remnant is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not just complicated to look at. The Crab Nebula is ten light-years across. At the very center of the nebula is a pulsar - neutron star with a mass equal to the mass of the Sun, which fits into an area the size of a small town.
11. Mirage from a gravitational lens
This is a mirage from a gravitational lens. The bright red galaxy (LRG) pictured here has its gravity warped light from a more distant blue galaxy. Most often, such a distortion of light leads to the appearance of two images of a distant galaxy, but in the case of a very precise superposition of the galaxy and the gravitational lens, the images merge into a horseshoe - an almost closed ring. This effect was predicted by Albert Einstein 70 years ago.
12. Star V838 Mon
For unknown reasons, in January 2002, the outer envelope of the star V838 Mon suddenly expanded, making it the brightest star in the entire Milky Way. Then she became weak again, also suddenly. Astronomers have never seen a stellar flare like this before.
13. Birth of planets
How are planets formed? To try to figure this out, the Hubble Space Telescope was tasked with taking a close look at one of the most interesting of all the nebulae in the sky, the Great Nebula of Orion. The Orion Nebula can be seen with the naked eye near the belt of the constellation Orion. The insets in this photo show numerous proplyds, many of which are stellar nurseries that likely host planetary systems in formation.
14. Star cluster R136
At the center of the star-forming region of 30 Doradus is a gigantic cluster of the largest, hottest, and most massive stars known to us. These stars form the R136 cluster in this visible-light image from the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope.
15. NGC 253
The brilliant NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies we see, and at the same time one of the dustiest. Some call it the "Silver Dollar Galaxy" because it is shaped like that in a small telescope. Others simply call it "The Sculptor Galaxy" because it lies within the southern constellation Sculptor. This dusty galaxy is 10 million light-years away.
16. Galaxy M83
M83 is one of the closest spiral galaxies to us. From a distance that separates us from 15 million light years, it looks completely ordinary. However, if we look closer at the center of M83 with the largest telescopes, this area appears to us as a turbulent and noisy place.
17. Ring Nebula
It really looks like a ring in the sky. Therefore, hundreds of years ago, astronomers named this nebula according to its unusual shape. The Ring Nebula also has the designations M57 and NGC 6720. The Ring Nebula is classified as a planetary nebula, a gas cloud that stars similar to the Sun throw out at the end of their lives. Its size exceeds the diameter. This is one of the earliest images of Hubble.
18. Pillar and jets in the Carina Nebula
This cosmic column of gas and dust is two light years wide. The structure is located in one of the largest star-forming regions in our Galaxy, the Carina Nebula, which is visible in the southern sky and is 7,500 light-years away.
19. Center of globular cluster Omega Centauri
In the center of the globular cluster Omega Centauri, the stars are packed ten thousand times denser than the stars in the vicinity of the Sun. The image shows many faint yellow-white stars, smaller than our Sun, several orange red giants, as well as occasional blue stars. If suddenly two stars collide, then one more massive star can form, or they form a new binary system.
20. A giant cluster distorts and splits the image of the galaxy
Many of them are images of a single unusual, bead-like, blue ring galaxy that happens to be located behind a giant cluster of galaxies. According to recent research, in total, at least 330 images of individual distant galaxies can be found in the picture. This stunning photograph of the galaxy cluster CL0024+1654 was taken by the Space Telescope. Hubble in November 2004.
21. Trifid Nebula
The beautiful multicolored Trifid Nebula allows you to explore cosmic contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies some 5,000 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation of Sagittarius. The size of the nebula is about 40 light years.
22. Centaurus A
A fantastic bunch of young blue star clusters, giant glowing gas clouds and dark dust lanes surround the central region of the active galaxy Centaurus A. Centaurus A is close to Earth, at a distance of 10 million light years
23. Nebula Butterfly
Bright clusters and nebulae in planet Earth's night sky are often named after flowers or insects, and NGC 6302 is no exception. The central star of this planetary nebula is exceptionally hot, with a surface temperature of around 250,000 degrees Celsius.
25. Two colliding galaxies with merged spiral arms
This remarkable cosmic portrait shows two colliding galaxies with merging spiral arms. Above and to the left of the large spiral galaxy of the NGC 6050 pair, a third galaxy can be seen, which is also likely to be involved in the interaction. All of these galaxies are about 450 million light-years away in the Hercules cluster of galaxies. At this distance, the image spans over 150,000 light-years. And although this view seems quite unusual, scientists now know that collisions and subsequent mergers of galaxies are not uncommon.
26. Spiral galaxy NGC 3521
Spiral galaxy NGC 3521 lies just 35 million light-years away towards the constellation Leo. The galaxy, which spans 50,000 light-years, has features such as ragged, irregular spiral arms adorned with dust, pinkish star-forming regions, and clusters of young bluish stars.
27. Jet structure details
Although this unusual outlier was first seen in the early twentieth century, its origin is still a matter of debate. The picture above, taken in 1998 by the Hubble Space Telescope, clearly shows details of the jet's structure. The most popular hypothesis suggests that the source of the ejection was heated gas orbiting a massive black hole at the center of the galaxy.
28. Sombrero Galaxy
The appearance of the M104 galaxy resembles a hat, which is why it was called the Sombrero galaxy. The image shows distinct dark dust lanes and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. The reasons why the Sombrero Galaxy looks like a hat are an unusually large central stellar bulge and dense dark lanes of dust located in the disk of the galaxy, which we can see almost edge-on.
29. M17: view close-up
Shaped by stellar winds and radiation, these fantastic wave-like formations are found in the M17 Nebula (Omega Nebula) and are part of a star forming region. The Omega Nebula lies in the nebula-rich constellation of Sagittarius and is 5,500 light-years away. Ragged clumps of dense and cold gas and dust are illuminated by the radiation of the stars in the image at the top right, in the future they can become sites of star formation.
30. Nebula IRAS 05437+2502
What illuminates the nebula IRAS 05437+2502? So far, there is no definitive answer. Particularly puzzling is the bright, inverted V-shaped arc that marks the top edge of mountain-like interstellar dust clouds near the center of the image. All in all, this ghostly nebula contains a small star-forming region filled with dark dust. It was first seen in infrared images taken by the IRAS satellite in 1983. Shown here is a wonderful, recently published image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Although it shows a lot of new details, the reason for the appearance of a bright, clear arc could not be established.
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In early April, Taschen publishing house will put up for sale a new book with a collection of the most stunning images of deep space photographed with a telescope Hubble. It has been 25 years since the telescope was launched into orbit, and it still continues to inform us about what our universe looks like, in all its incredible beauty.
Barnard 33, or the Horsehead Nebula, is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion
Position: 05h 40m, –02°, 27", distance from Earth: 1,600 ly; instrument/year: WFC3/IR, 2012.
M83, or the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Hydra
Position: 13h 37m, –29°, 51", distance from Earth: 15,000,000 ly, instrument/year: WFC3/UVIS, 2009–2012.
Position: 18h 18m, –13°, 49", distance from Earth: 6,500 ly, instrument/year: WFC3/IR, 2014.
The book is called Expanding universe("The Expanding Universe") and timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Hubble launch. The Hubble photographs published in this book are not just breathtaking images, they are also an opportunity to learn more about space exploration. The book includes an essay by a photo critic, an interview with a specialist who explains exactly how these images are created, as well as two stories from astronauts about the role this unique telescope plays in space exploration.
RS Puppis is a variable star in the constellation Puppis
Position: 08h 13m, –34°, 34", distance from Earth: 6,500 ly, instrument/year: ACS/WFC, 2010.
M82, or the Cigar Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major
Position: 09h 55m, +69° 40", distance from Earth: 12,000,000 ly, instrument/year: ACS/WFC, 2006.
M16, or the Eagle Nebula, is a young open star cluster in the constellation Serpens
Position: 18h 18m, –13°, 49", distance from Earth: 6,500 ly, instrument/year: WFC3/UVIS, 2014.
Due to the fact that the telescope is in space, it can detect radiation in the infrared range, which is completely impossible to do from the surface of the Earth. Therefore, the resolution of Hubble is 7-10 times greater than that of a similar telescope located on the surface of our planet. So, for example, among other things, scientists first obtained maps of the surface of Pluto, learned additional data about planets outside the solar system, they managed to make significant progress in studying such mysterious black holes in the centers of galaxies, and also, which seems quite incredible, they were able to formulate a modern cosmological model and find out a more accurate age of the Universe (13.7 billion years).
Jupiter and its moon Ganymede
Sharpless 2-106, or the Snow Angel Nebula in the constellation Cygnus
Position: 20h 27m, +37°, 22", distance from Earth: 2,000 ly, instrument/year: Subaru, Telescope, 1999; WFC3/UVIS, WFC3/IR, 2011.
M16, or the Eagle Nebula, is a young open star cluster in the constellation Serpens
Position: 18h 18m, –13°, 49", distance from Earth: 6,500 ly, instrument/year: ACS/WFC, 2004.
HCG 92, or Stephen's Quintet, is a group of five galaxies in the constellation Pegasus.
Position: 22h 35m, +33°, 57", distance from Earth: 290,000,000 light years, instrument/year: WFC3/UVIS, 2009.
M81, NGC 3031, or the Bode Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major
(average: 4,62
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Mysterious nebulae that are millions of light years away, the birth of new stars and the collision of galaxies. Part 2 of a selection of the best photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. The first part is located.
This is the part carina nebulae. The total diameter of the nebula is over 200 light years. Located 8,000 light-years from Earth, the Carina Nebula can be seen in the southern sky with the naked eye. It is one of the brightest regions in the Galaxy:
Hubble ultra-long-range field (WFC3 camera). Composed of gas and dust:
Another photo Carina Nebulae:
By the way, let's get acquainted with the culprit of today's report. it Hubble telescope in space. Placing a telescope in space makes it possible to register electromagnetic radiation in the ranges in which the earth's atmosphere is opaque; primarily in the infrared range. Due to the absence of the influence of the atmosphere, the resolution of the telescope is 7-10 times greater than that of a similar telescope located on Earth.
The Discovery shuttle, which launched on April 24, 1990, launched the telescope into its intended orbit the next day. The total cost of the project, according to an estimate for 1999, amounted to 6 billion dollars from the American side and 593 million euros were paid by the European Space Agency.
Globular cluster in the constellation Centaurus. It is located at a distance of 18,300 light years. Omega Centauri belongs to our Milky Way galaxy and is its largest globular cluster known to this moment. It contains several million stars. The age of Omega Centauri is estimated at 12 billion years:
Nebula Butterfly ( NGC 6302) - planetary nebula in the constellation Scorpio. It has one of the most complex structures among the known polar nebulae. central star of the nebula one of the hottest in the galaxy. The central star was discovered by the Hubble telescope in 2009:
The largest in the solar system. Along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, Jupiter is classified as a gas giant. Jupiter has at least 63 moons. Mass of Jupiter 2.47 times the total mass of all the other planets of the solar system combined, 318 times the mass of our Earth and about 1,000 times less than the mass of the Sun:
Some more images Carina Nebulae:
Part of a galaxy - a dwarf galaxy located at a distance of about 50 kiloparsecs from our Galaxy. This distance is less than twice the diameter of our Galaxy:
And yet the photographs Carina Nebulae one of the most beautiful
Spiral Galaxy Whirlpool. It is located at a distance of about 30 million light years from us in the constellation Canis Hounds. The diameter of the galaxy is about 100 thousand light years:
The Hubble Space Telescope has taken amazing images of the planetary nebula retina, which was formed from the remains of the dying star IC 4406. Like most nebulae, the Retina Nebula is almost perfectly symmetrical, its right half is almost a mirror image of the left. In a few million years, only a slowly cooling white dwarf will remain of IC 4406:
M27 is one of the brightest planetary nebulae in the sky and can be seen with binoculars in the constellation Vulpecula. Light has been traveling to us from M27 for about a thousand years:
It looks like puffs of smoke and sparks from fireworks, but it's actually debris from a star exploding in a nearby galaxy. Our Sun and the planets in the solar system formed from similar debris that appeared after a supernova explosion billions of years ago in the Milky Way galaxy:
In the constellation Virgo at a distance of 28 million light years from Earth. The Sombrero Galaxy got its name from the protruding central part (bulge) and the rib of dark matter, giving the galaxy a resemblance to a sombrero hat:
The exact distance to it is unknown, according to various estimates can be from 2 to 9 thousand light years. Width 50 light years. The name of the nebula means "divided into three petals":
Nebula Snail NGC 7293 in the constellation Aquarius at a distance of 650 light years from the Sun. One of the closest planetary nebulae and was discovered in 1824:
Located in the constellation Eridanus, 61 million light-years from Earth. The size of the galaxy itself is 110,000 light years, which is slightly larger than our galaxy, the Milky Way. NGC 1300 is unlike some spiral galaxies, including our Galaxy, in that there is no massive black hole in its core:
Dust clouds in our Milky Way galaxy. Our Milky Way Galaxy, also known simply as the Galaxy (with a capital letter), is a giant spiral star system that contains our solar system. The diameter of the Galaxy is about 30,000 parsecs (about 100,000 light years) with an estimated average thickness of about 1,000 light years. The Milky Way contains, at the lowest estimate, about 200 billion stars. In the center of the Galaxy, apparently, there is a supermassive black hole:
On the right, above, these are not fireworks, this is a dwarf galaxy - a satellite of our Milky Way. It is located at a distance of about 60 kiloparsecs in the constellation Tucana:
Formed during the collision of four massive galaxies. This is the first case of visualization of this phenomenon, captured by combining images. Galaxies are surrounded by hot gas, which is shown in the image different color, depending on its temperature: reddish purple is the coldest, cyan is the hottest:
It is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter. Today, all four gaseous giants are known to have rings, but Saturn's are the most prominent. The rings of Saturn are very thin. With a diameter of about 250,000 km, their thickness does not reach even a kilometer. The mass of the planet Saturn is 95 times the mass of our Earth:
In the constellation Golden Fish. The nebula belongs to the satellite galaxy of the Milky Way - the Large Magellanic Cloud:
Measuring 100 thousand light years and located at a distance of 35 million light years from the Sun:
And a bonus shot. From the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 00 hours 12 minutes 44 seconds Moscow time today, June 8, 2011, ship successfully launched Soyuz TMA-02M. This is the second flight of the spacecraft of the new, "digital" series Soyuz-TMA-M. Nice start:
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The Hubble Space Telescope is an automatic observatory in Earth orbit named after Edwin Hubble. The Hubble telescope is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency; it is part of NASA's Large Observatories. Placing a telescope in space makes it possible to register electromagnetic radiation in the ranges in which the earth's atmosphere is opaque; primarily in the infrared range. Due to the absence of the influence of the atmosphere, the resolution of the telescope is 7-10 times greater than that of a similar telescope located on Earth. We invite you to see now the best shots from this unique telescope over the past few years. In the photo: The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest of the giant galaxies to our Milky Way. Most likely our galaxy looks about the same as the Andromeda galaxy. These two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies.
The hundreds of billions of stars that make up the Andromeda galaxy together give a visible diffuse glow. The individual stars in the image are actually stars in our galaxy, much closer than the distant object. The Andromeda Galaxy is often referred to as M31, as it is the 31st object in Charles Messier's catalog of diffuse celestial objects.
At the center of the "Doradus" star-forming region is a gigantic cluster of the largest, hottest, and most massive stars known to us. These stars form the R136 cluster shown in this image.
NGC 253. Brilliant NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies we see, and at the same time one of the dustiest. Some call it the "Silver Dollar Galaxy" because it is shaped like that in a small telescope. Others simply call it "The Sculptor Galaxy" because it lies within the southern constellation Sculptor. This dusty galaxy is 10 million light-years away.
M83 is one of the closest spiral galaxies to us. From a distance that separates us from 15 million light years, it looks completely ordinary. However, if we look closer at the center of M83 with the largest telescopes, this area appears to us as a turbulent and noisy place.
The group of galaxies is Stefan's quintet. However, only four of the group of galaxies, located 300 million light-years away from us, participate in the cosmic dance, now approaching, then moving away from each other. Four interacting galaxies - NGC 7319, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B and NGC 7317 - have a yellowish coloration and curved loops and tails, the shape of which is caused by the influence of destructive tidal gravitational forces. The bluish galaxy NGC 7320, above left, is much closer than the others, only 40 million light-years away.
A giant cluster of stars distorts and splits the image of the galaxy. Many of them are images of a single unusual, bead-like, blue ring galaxy that happens to be located behind a giant cluster of galaxies. According to recent research, in total, at least 330 images of individual distant galaxies can be found in the picture. This stunning photograph of the galaxy cluster CL0024+1654 was taken in November 2004.
Spiral galaxy NGC 3521 lies just 35 million light-years away towards the constellation Leo. It has features such as ragged, irregular spiral arms adorned with dust, pinkish star-forming regions, and clusters of young, bluish stars.
Spiral galaxy M33 is a medium-sized galaxy from the Local Group. M33 is also called the Triangulum galaxy after the constellation in which it resides. M33 is not far from the Milky Way, its angular dimensions are more than twice the dimensions of the full moon, i.e. it is perfectly visible with good binoculars.
Nebula Lagoon. The bright Lagoon Nebula contains many different astronomical objects. Objects of particular interest include a bright open star cluster and several active star forming regions. In visual observation, the light from the cluster is lost against the background of a general red glow caused by the emission of hydrogen, while dark filaments arise from the absorption of light by dense layers of dust.
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky.
The small constellation Chameleon is located near the south pole of the World. The picture reveals the amazing features of the humble constellation, which is full of dusty nebulae and colorful stars. Blue reflection nebulae are scattered across the field.
The dark dusty Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula contrast in the sky. They are located at a distance of 1500 light years from us in the direction of the most recognizable celestial constellation. The familiar Horsehead Nebula is a small dark cloud in the shape of a horse's head looming against the background of red glowing gas in the lower left corner of the picture.
Crab Nebula. This confusion remained after the explosion of the star. The Crab Nebula is the result of a supernova explosion that was observed in 1054 AD. At the very center of the nebula is a pulsar - a neutron star with a mass equal to the mass of the Sun, which fits in an area the size of a small town.
This is a mirage from a gravitational lens. The bright red galaxy (LRG) pictured here has its gravity warped light from a more distant blue galaxy. Most often, such a distortion of light leads to the appearance of two images of a distant galaxy, but in the case of a very precise superposition of the galaxy and the gravitational lens, the images merge into a horseshoe - an almost closed ring. This effect was predicted by Albert Einstein 70 years ago.
The star V838 Mon. For unknown reasons, in January 2002, the outer envelope of the star V838 Mon suddenly expanded, making it the brightest star in the entire Milky Way. Then she became weak again, also suddenly. Astronomers have never observed such stellar flares before.
The Ring Nebula. It really looks like a ring in the sky. Therefore, hundreds of years ago, astronomers named this nebula according to its unusual shape. The Ring Nebula is also designated M57 and NGC 6720.
Pillar and jets in the Carina Nebula. This cosmic column of gas and dust is two light years wide. The structure is located in one of the largest star-forming regions in our galaxy. The Carina Nebula is visible in the southern sky and is 7500 light-years away from us.
Trifid Nebula. The beautiful multicolored Trifid Nebula allows you to explore cosmic contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies some 5,000 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation of Sagittarius. The size of the nebula is about 40 light years.
Known as NGC 5194, this large galaxy with a well-developed spiral structure may have been the first spiral nebula to be discovered. It is clearly seen that its spiral arms and dust lanes pass in front of its companion galaxy, NGC 5195 (left). This pair is about 31 million light-years away and officially belongs to the small constellation Canes Venatici.
Centaurus A. A fantastic bunch of young blue star clusters, gigantic glowing gas clouds, and dark dust lanes surround the central region of the active galaxy Centaurus A.
Nebula Butterfly. Bright clusters and nebulae in planet Earth's night sky are often named after flowers or insects, and NGC 6302 is no exception. The central star of this planetary nebula is exceptionally hot, with a surface temperature of around 250,000 degrees Celsius.
An image of a supernova that exploded in 1994 on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy.
The Sombrero Galaxy. The appearance of the M104 galaxy resembles a hat, which is why it was called the Sombrero galaxy. The image shows distinct dark dust lanes and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. The reasons why the Sombrero Galaxy looks like a hat are an unusually large central stellar bulge and dense dark lanes of dust located in the disk of the galaxy, which we can see almost edge-on.
M17 close-up view. Shaped by stellar winds and radiation, these fantastic wave-like formations are found in the M17 Nebula (Omega Nebula). The Omega Nebula lies in the nebula-rich constellation of Sagittarius and is 5,500 light-years away. Ragged clumps of dense and cold gas and dust are illuminated by the radiation of the stars in the image at the top right, in the future they can become sites of star formation.
What illuminates the nebula IRAS 05437+2502? There is no exact answer. Particularly puzzling is the bright, inverted V-shaped arc that marks the top edge of mountain-like interstellar dust clouds near the center of the image.
Published: January 27, 2015 at 05:19
1. Abell 68's gravitational field surrounding this large group of galaxies serves as a natural cosmic lens that makes light coming from very distant galaxies behind the field brighter and larger. Reminiscent of the effect of a "distorted mirror", the lens creates a fantastic landscape of arc-shaped patterns and mirror reflections of the rear galaxies. The nearest group of galaxies is two billion light-years away, and the images reflected through the lens come from galaxies even further away. In this photo, top left, the image of the spiral galaxy has been stretched and mirrored. A second, less distorted image of the same galaxy is to the left of a large bright elliptical galaxy. In the upper right corner of the photo there is another amazing detail that is not related to the effect of gravitational lenses. What appears to be crimson liquid dripping from the galaxy is actually a phenomenon called "tidal stripping". When a galaxy passes through a field of dense intergalactic gas, the gas that accumulates inside the galaxy rises and heats up. (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage/ESA-Hubble Collaboration)
2. A bunch of interstellar gas and dust, located at a distance of one light year, resembles a huge caterpillar. Toward the right edge of the photograph are obstacles - these are 65 of the brightest and hottest class O stars known to us, located at a distance of fifteen light-years from the bunch. These stars, as well as another 500 less bright, but nonetheless bright class B stars, form the so-called "Association of Stars of the OB2 Cygnus Class". The caterpillar-like blob, called IRAS 20324+4057, is a protostar at its most early stage development. It is still in the process of collecting material from the enveloping gas. However, the radiation emanating from the "Swan OB2" destroys this shell. Protostars in this region will eventually become young stars with a total mass of about one to ten times that of our Sun, but if destructive radiation from nearby bright stars destroys the gaseous envelope before the protostars reach the required mass, then their final masses will be reduced. (NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team - STScI/AURA, and IPHAS)
3. This pair of interacting galaxies is collectively referred to as Arp 142. This includes the star forming spiral galaxy NGC 2936 and the elliptical galaxy NGC 2937. The orbits of the stars in NGC 2936 were once part of a flat spiral disk, but due to gravitational bonds with another galaxy fell into disarray. This disorder distorts the orderly spiral of the galaxy; interstellar gas swells into giant tails. Gas and dust from the interior of the galaxy NGC 2936 is compressed when it collides with another galaxy, which starts the process of star formation. The elliptical galaxy NGC 2937 resembles a dandelion of stars with some gas and dust left in it. The stars inside the galaxy are mostly old, as evidenced by their reddish color. There are no blue stars, which would prove the process of their recent formation. Arp 142 lies 326 million light-years away in the southern hemisphere constellation Hydra. (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team - STScI/AURA)
4. The region of star formation Carina Nebula. What appears to be a mountain peak shrouded in clouds is actually a three light-year-high column of gas and dust, gradually eaten away by light from nearby bright stars. The pillar, about 7,500 light-years away, is also collapsing from within, with young stars growing inside it releasing gas vapors. (NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team, STScI)
5. The beautiful petal-shaped steps of the galaxy PGC 6240 are captured in photographs taken by the Hubble telescope. They are set against a sky full of distant galaxies. PGC 6240 is an elliptical galaxy located 350 million years away in the southern hemisphere constellation Hydra. Spinning in its orbit a large number of globular clusters of both young and old stars. Scientists believe this is the result of a recent galactic merger. (ESA/Hubble and NASA)
6. Photo illustration of the brilliant spiral galaxy M106. This image of M106 contains only the internal structure around the ring and nucleus. (NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team - STScI/AURA, and R. Gendler for the Hubble Heritage Team)
7. The globular star cluster Messier 15 is located about 35,000 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. This is one of the oldest clusters, about 12 billion years old. In the photo you can see how very hot blue stars, as well as the cooler yellow stars that swirl together and gather most densely around the bright center of the cluster. Messier 15 is one of the densest globular clusters. It was the first known cluster to contain a planetary nebula with a rare type of black hole at its center. This image is compiled from images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in the ultraviolet, infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. (NASA, ESA)
8. The legendary Horsehead Nebula has been mentioned in astronomy books for over a century. In this panorama, the nebula appears in a new light, in the infrared. The nebula, obscure in optical light, now appears transparent and ethereal, but with a distinct shadow. The illuminated beams around the upper dome are illuminated by the constellation Orion, a young five-star system visible near the edge of the photograph. Powerful ultraviolet light from one of these bright stars is slowly dissipating the Nebula. Two forming stars peep from their birthplace near the upper ridge of the Nebula. (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team - STScI/AURA)
9. A snapshot of the young planetary nebula MyCn18 shows that this object has the shape hourglass with pictures on the walls. A planetary nebula is the luminous remnant of a dying sun-like star. These photos are very interesting, because they help to understand hitherto unknown details of the ejection of stellar matter that accompanies the slow destruction of stars. (Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger, JPL, the WFPC2 science team, and NASA)
10. A group of galaxies Stephen's Quintet is located in the constellation Pegasus at a distance of 290 million light years. Four out of five galaxies are very close to each other. The brightest galaxy, NGC 7320, on the bottom left, appears to be part of the group as well, but it's actually 250 million light-years closer than the rest. (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team)
11. The Hubble telescope captured Ganymede - a satellite of Jupiter before he disappeared behind a huge planet. Ganymede revolves around Jupiter in seven days. Ganymede, made up of rock and ice, is the largest moon in our planet. solar system; even larger than the planet Mercury. But compared to Jupiter, the largest planet, Ganymede looks like a dirty snowball. Jupiter is so large that only part of its southern hemisphere fits in this photo. The image from the Hubble telescope is so clear that astronomers can see details of Ganymede's surface, most notably the white Tros impact crater, and the ray system, bright streams of matter escaping from the crater. (NASA, ESA, and E. Karkoschka, University of Arizona)
12. Comet ISON circling around the Sun, before its destruction. In this photo, ISON seems to be flying around a huge number of galaxies behind and a small number of stars in front. Discovered in 2013, a small clump of ice and rock (2 km in diameter) was rushing towards the Sun to pass at a distance of about 1 million kilometers from the Sun. The forces of gravity were too strong for the comet, and it collapsed. (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team, STScI/AURA)
13. Light echo of the star V838 Unicorn. Shown here is the spectacular illumination of the surrounding dusty cloud, called a light echo, that brightened up for several years after the star suddenly shone for weeks in 2002. Illumination of interstellar dust comes from the red supergiant star in the middle of the image, which suddenly burst into light three years ago, similar to dark room light bulb. The dust surrounding V838 Unicornus may have been ejected from the star during a similar previous outburst in 2002. (NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI/AURA)
14. Abell 2261. The giant elliptical galaxy in the center is the brightest and most massive part of the Abell 2261 galaxy cluster. Located at a distance of just over one million light-years, the diameter of the galaxy is about 10 times that of the Milky Way galaxy. The bloated galaxy is representative unusual look galaxies with a scattered core filled with thick fog starlight. Usually, astronomers assume that the light is concentrated around the black hole in the center. Hubble observations have shown that the bulging galaxy base, estimated at about 10,000 light-years, is the largest ever seen. The gravitational influence on light coming from galaxies located behind can turn the image of photographs into a stretched or smeared one, creating the so-called “gravitational lens effect”. (NASA, ESA, M. Postman, STScI, T. Lauer, NOAO, and the CLASH team)
15. Antenna galaxies. Known as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, these two galaxies are in a close embrace. Once ordinary, calm spiral galaxies like the Milky Way, this pair has spent the last few million years in such a violent collision that the stars torn out in the process formed an arc between them. Bright pink and red clouds of gas surround bright flashes from blue star-forming regions, some of which are partially obscured by dark lanes of dust. The frequency of star formation is so high that antenna galaxies have been called a place of constant star formation - in which all the gas inside the galaxies goes to create stars. (ESA/Hubble, NASA)
16. IRAS 23166+1655 is an unusual pre-planetary nebula, a celestial spiral around the star LL Pegasus. The spiral shape means that the nebula is formed in the usual way. The substance forming the spiral is moving outward at a speed of 50,000 kilometers per hour; according to the calculation of astronomers, its steps will separate from each other in 800 years. There is a hypothesis that the spiral will revive, because. LL Pegasus is a binary system in which the star that is losing matter and the neighboring star begin to orbit each other. (ESA/NASA, R. Sahai)
17. The spiral galaxy NGC 634 was discovered in the 19th century by the French astronomer Edouard Jean-Marie Stephane. It is approximately 120,000 light years across and lies in the constellation Triangulum at a distance of 250 million light years. Other, more distant galaxies can be seen in the background. (ESA/Hubble, NASA)
18. A small part of the Carina Nebula, a star forming region located in the constellation of the southern hemisphere Carina at a distance of 7500 light years from Earth. Young stars glow with such brightness that the emitted radiation destroys the surrounding gas, creating bizarre shapes out of it. Dust is grouped towards the right top corner photographs, resembling a drop of ink in milk. The idea has been put forward that the forms of this dust are nothing more than cocoons for the formation of new stars. brightest stars in the photos closest to us are not parts of the Carina Nebula. (ESA/Hubble, NASA)
19. The bright Red Galaxy in the center has an unusually large mass, exceeding the mass of the Milky Way by 10 times. The blue horseshoe shape is a distant galaxy that has been enlarged and distorted into a near-closing ring by the strong pull of the large galaxy. This "Space Horseshoe" is one of best examples Einstein's rings - a "gravitational lens" effect ideally positioned to bend light from distant galaxies into a ring shape around large nearby galaxies. The distant blue galaxy is about 10 billion light-years away. (ESA/Hubble, NASA)
20. The planetary nebula NGC 6302, also known as the Butterfly Nebula, consists of seething pockets of gas heated to a temperature of 20,000 degrees Celsius. In the center is dying star, which was five times the mass of the Sun. She threw out her cloud of gases, and now emits ultraviolet radiation, from which the ejected substance glows. Located at a distance of 3800 light-years from us, the central star is hidden under a ring of dust. (NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team)
21. Disk galaxy NGC 5866 is located at a distance of about 50 million light years from Earth. The dust disk runs along the edge of the galaxy, its structure visible behind it: a faint reddish bulge surrounding the bright core; a blue disk of stars and a transparent outer ring. Galaxies that are millions of light years further away are also visible through the ring. (NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team)
22. In February 1997, Hubble separated from the shuttle Discovery, completing its work in orbit. This telescope, measuring 13.2 m and weighing 11 tons, had by that time spent about 24 years in Earth orbit, taking thousands of priceless photographs. (NASA)
23. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Virtually none of the objects in this photo are within our Milky Way galaxy. Almost every brushstroke, dot or spiral is an entire galaxy made up of billions of stars. In late 2003, scientists pointed the Hubble telescope at a relatively dim patch of sky, and simply opened the shutter, leaving it on for about one million seconds (roughly 11 days). The result was called Ultra Deep Field (Extremely deep field) - a snapshot of more than 10,000 galaxies, hitherto unknown, visible in our small sky. No other photograph before has demonstrated the unimaginable vastness of our universe. (NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith, STScI and the HUDF Team)
