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NGC 1275, Elliptical Galaxy: A dusty spiral galaxy appears to be rotating on edge, like a pinwheel, as it slides through the larger, bright galaxy NGC 1275, in this Hubble image. The image shows traces of spiral structure accompanied by dramatic dust lanes and bright blue regions that mark areas of active star formation. Its about 235 million light-years away. — See next image....
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NGC 1275, Elliptical Galaxy, another view: Detailed observations of NGC 1275 indicate that the dusty material belongs to a spiral system seen nearly edge-on in the foreground. The second galaxy, lying beyond the first, is actually a giant elliptical with peculiar faint spiral structure in its nucleus. These galaxies are believed to be colliding at over 6 million miles per hour. — More....
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NGC 1316: This beautiful, eerie silhouette of dark dust clouds against the glowing nucleus of the elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 may represent the aftermath of a 100 million year old cosmic collision between the elliptical and a smaller companion galaxy. A number of faint objects are scattered across the image, including reddish galaxies in the distant background. — More....
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NGC 1365: This image reveals how the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is feeding material into its central region, igniting massive star birth and probably causing its bulge of stars to grow. The material also is fueling a black hole in the galaxy's core. A galaxy's bulge is a central, football-shaped structure composed of stars, gas, and dust. — More....
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NGC 1365 (cont.): A barred spiral is characterized by a lane of stars, gas, and dust slashing across a galaxy's central region. It has a small bulge that is dominated by a disk of material. The spiral arms begin at both ends of the bar. The bar is funneling material into the hub, which triggers star formation and feeds the bulge. — More....
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NGC 1409 / NGC 1410: This visible-light picture by HST reveals an intergalactic "pipeline" of material flowing between two battered galaxies that bumped into each other about 100 million years ago. The pipeline begins in NGC 1410 [left], crosses over 20,000 light-years of intergalactic space, and wraps around NGC 1409 like a ribbon around a package. — More....
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NGC 1512: In this view of a magnificent barred spiral galaxy, HST's vision reveals the galaxy at all wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared. It is located in the southern constellation of Horologium, 30 million light-years away, and is bright enough to be seen with amateur telescopes. The galaxy spans 70,000 light-years, nearly as much as our own Milky Way galaxy. — More....
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NGC 1569 dwarf:
This nearby dwarf galaxy is a hotbed of vigorous star birth activity which blows huge bubbles that riddle the main body of the galaxy. The galaxy's "star factories" are also manufacturing brilliant blue star clusters. There was a sudden onset of star birth about 25 million years ago, which subsided about the time human ancestors appeared on Earth. — More....
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NGC 1705, Irregular Dwarf Galaxy: At 17 million light-years away, the individual stars are out of range of all but the sharp eye of Hubble. Young, blue, hot stars are strongly concentrated toward the galaxy's center, while older, red, cooler stars are more spread out. This galaxy has been forming new stars throughout its lifetime, but a recent burst occurred 26 to 31 million years ago. — More....
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NGC 1808: On the left are two images, one superimposed over the other. The black-and-white picture is a ground-based view of the entire galaxy, NGC 1808. The color inset image, taken with the Hubble telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), provides a close-up view of the galaxy's center, the hotbed of vigorous star formation. — More....
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NGC 1850: This double cluster found in one of our neighboring galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is an eye-catching object. It is a young, "globular-like" star cluster — a type of object unknown in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Moreover, it is surrounded by a filigree pattern of diffuse gas, which scientists believe was created by the explosion of massive stars. — More....
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NGC 1999, Reflection Nebula: Like fog around a street lamp, a reflection nebula shines only because the light from an embedded source illuminates its dust; the nebula does not emit any visible light of its own. NGC 1999 lies close to the famous Orion Nebula, about 1,500 light-years from Earth, in a region of our Milky Way galaxy where new stars are being formed actively. — More....
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NGC 2080, Star forming region: Looking like a colorful holiday card, this image from HST reveals a green and red nebula far from Earth, where nature seems to have put on the traditional colors of the season. These colors, produced by the light emitted by oxygen and hydrogen, help astronomers investigate the star-forming processes in nebulas such as NGC 2080. — More....
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NGC 2207/IC 2163: In the direction of the constellation Canis Major, two spiral galaxies pass by each other like majestic ships in the night. Strong tidal forces from NGC 2207 have distorted the shape of IC 2163, flinging out stars and gas into long streamers stretching out a hundred thousand light-years toward the right-hand edge of the image. — More....
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NGC 2264, Cone Nebula: A craggy-looking mountaintop of cold gas and dust that is a cousin to Hubble's iconic "pillars of creation" in the Eagle Nebula. Inside a celestial maternity ward called the Omega Nebula or M17, is a watercolor fantasy-world of glowing gases, where stars and perhaps embryonic planetary systems are forming. This giant pillar is in Monoceros.
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NGC 2300 & Dark Matter: Astronomer John S. Mulchaey, of STSCI and fellow team members announced the discovery of a huge concentration of mysterious "dark matter" with the ROSAT X-ray observatory satellite. The discovery implies that most of the dark matter in the universe is concentrated in and around small groups of galaxies, according to Mulchaey. — More....
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NGC 2346, Butterfly Nebula: The nebula is about 2,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros. Its diameter is about one-third of a light-year, or 2 trillion miles. The B/W photo was made in 1997 as part of the re-commissioning of Hubble's previously installed scientific instruments and shows the spectacular last gasp of a dying double-star system. — More....
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NGC 2366, Star-Forming Region: Clusters of stars and a fishhook-shaped cloud of luminescent gases glow brilliantly in a giant star-forming region in a nearby galaxy. Even though the nebula is 10 million light-years away, HST resolves details comparable to such nebulae in our own galaxy. The brightest star visible is 30 to 60 times more massive than the Sun. — More....
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NGC 2392, Eskimo Nebula: Resembles a face inside a furry parka. In Hubble's sharp view, the furry features resemble giant comets all pointing away from the central star, like the spokes of a wheel. The clumps that form the comet heads all seem to be located at a similar distance from the star; a fact that will be important in developing a theory of why the clumps formed. — More…
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NGC 2403, Supernova in Nearby Galaxy: The explosion of a massive star blazes with the light of 200 million Suns in this image. The arrow at top right points to the stellar blast, called a supernova. The supernova, SN 2004dj, is so bright that it could be mistaken for a foreground star in our Milky Way Galaxy, yet, it is 11 million light-years from Earth. — More…
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NGC 2440, Hot Stuff!: HST provides the first clear view of one of the hottest known stars, the central star of the NGC 2440 nucleus, in our Milky Way galaxy. The superhot star is the bright white dot in the center of this photograph. Astronomers have been able to make the most accurate estimate yet for the star temperature: a torrid 360,000 degree F. or more. — More....
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NGC 253 is a large, almost edge-on spiral galaxy, and is one of the nearest galaxies beyond our local neighborhood of galaxies. This dramatic galaxy shows complex structures such as clumpy gas clouds, darkened dust lanes, and young, luminous central star clusters; elements typical of spiral galaxies. The galaxy's closeness to Earth makes it ideal for amateur astronomers. — More....
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NGC 2736, Pencil Nebula: Remnants from a star that exploded thousands of years ago created a celestial abstract portrait, as captured in this HST image, part of the huge Vela supernova remnant. Its shape suggests that it is part of the supernova shock wave that recently encountered a region of dense gas. It is this interaction that causes the nebula to glow. — More....
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NGC 2787, barred lenticular galaxy: Tightly wound, almost concentric, arms of dark dust encircle the bright nucleus of galaxy NGC 2787 in this HST image. NGC 2787 is classified as an SB0. This lens-shaped galaxy shows little or no evidence of the grand spiral arms that occur in its more photogenic cousins, though it does sport a faint bar, not apparent in this image. — More....
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NGC 3079: These HST shots reveal dramatic activities within the core of the galaxy, where a lumpy bubble of hot gas is rising from a cauldron of glowing matter. The picture at left shows the bubble in the center of the galaxy's disk. The structure is more than 3,000 light-years wide and rises 3,500 light-years above the galaxy's disk. — More....
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NGC 3079 (cont.): This is a close-up of the bubble. Astronomers suspect that the bubble is being blown by "winds" (high-speed streams of particles) released during a burst of star formation. Gaseous filaments at the top of the bubble are whirling around in a vortex and are being expelled into space. — More....
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NGC 3132, Planetary Nebula: This expanding cloud of gas, surrounding a dying star, is known to amateur astronomers in the southern hemisphere as the "Eight-Burst" or the "Southern Ring" nebula. The name "planetary nebula" refers only to the round shape that many of these objects show when examined through a small visual telescope. — More....
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NGC 3310, starburst galaxy: This galaxy is forming clusters of new stars at a prodigious rate. There are several hundred clusters visible as the bright blue diffuse objects that trace the galaxy's spiral arms. Each cluster represents about a million stars, a process that takes less than 100,000 years. In addition, hundreds of individual young, luminous stars can be seen. — More....
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NGC 3314: This new image shows the unique galaxy pair called NGC 3314. Through an extraordinary chance alignment, a face-on spiral galaxy lies precisely in front of another larger spiral. This line-up provides us with the rare chance to visualize dark material within the front galaxy, seen only because it is silhouetted against the object behind it. — More....
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NGC 3370: Amid a backdrop of far-off galaxies, a majestic dusty spiral galaxy looms in the foreground of this NASA HST image. Recent observations taken with the ACS show intricate spiral arm structure spotted with hot areas of new star formation. But this galaxy is more than just a pretty face. Nearly 10 years earlier NGC 3370, in the constellation Leo, hosted a bright exploding star. — More....
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NGC 3372, Keyhole Nebula: Details of a mysterious, complex structure within the Carina Nebula are revealed by this image of the "Keyhole Nebula." The pic is dominated by a large, almost circular feature, which is part of the keyhole. The region, about 8,000 light-years from Earth, is located adjacent to the famous explosive variable star, Eta Carinae. More....
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