Saturn Aurora

Saturn Aurora

A large amount of solar wind activity from the sun creates a bright aurora around the south pole of the planet Saturn, rising more than a thousand miles above its cloud tops.

Butterfly Nebula

Butterfly Nebula

Also known as the Bug Nebula, the butterfly-shaped nebula consists of heated gas made up of oxygen and nitrogen, the whole of which tears through space at speeds in excess of 60,000 miles an hour. The dying star in the center is not unlike our sun.

Crab Nebula

Crab Nebula
In 1054 AD, Chinese astronomers witnessed a stellar explosion in the constellation Taurus. One thousand years later, the tattered remnants of the super dense neutron star's explosion, also known as a supernova, are still visible, sweeping up gas as they expand at a rate of 1,500 kilometers per second and rotating about 30 times per second.

Centaurus A

Centaurus A

By looking deep into space, the Hubble has been able to photograph the past. Incredibly, with the help of Hubble, astronomers have been able to see what the universe looked like 600 million years after the Big Bang. It is believed that the firestorm of starbirth along the dark dust rift of Centaurus A is a result of a violent collision. Over 100 star formations have been identified here, mostly young stars in blue. The older, more evolved stars reside in the bulge of the galaxy, which also contains a super massive black hole at its center that is swallowing up a spiral galaxy containing millions of stars.

Antennae Galaxies

Antennae Galaxies 

Approximately 500 years ago, two galaxies collided together to form the Antennae galaxies in the constellation Corvus. They are the nearest and youngest example of galaxies fusing together to form what astronomers call interacting galaxies. In this process, billions of stars and star clusters are formed.

V838 Monocerotis

V838 Monocerotis

In the beginning of 2002, a dull star floating some 20,000 light-years away from the sun, in the constellation Monceros, experienced a major outburst that threw illuminating dust or 'light echos' into space, temporarily making it the brightest star in the Milky Way galaxy. Since its explosion, this mysterious star's apparent brightness has changed to mere obscurity.

Pluto

Pluto

Taken in 2002 and 2003, this is the most detailed and highest resolution image of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, a member of the population of bodies that reside in a part of our Solar System known as the Kuiper Belt. It is believed that the methane on Pluto's surface is broken up by the ultraviolet radiation from the sun, leaving behind a dark, carbon-rich residue.