11-Jan-2006: In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is offering an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula. This turbulent star-formation region   more...is one of astronomys most dramatic and photogenic celestial objects.


The crisp image reveals a tapestry of star formation, from the dense pillars of gas and dust that may be the homes of fledgling stars to the hot, young, massive stars that have emerged from their gas-and-dust cocoons and are shaping the nebula with their powerful ultraviolet light.

The new picture reveals large-scale structures never seen before, according to C. Robert O'Dell of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA "Only with the Hubble Space Telescope can we begin to understand them," ODell said.

This sequence zooms on three ground-based images and ends up with the new Hubble image of the Orion Nebula M42.

Credit: ESA/Hubble, Rob Gendler and Akira Fujii

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13-Feb-2007: A brand new image taken with Hubbles Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 shows the planetary nebula NGC 2440 - the chaotic structure of the demise of a star.

This image, just taken by the NASA/ESA   more...Hubble Space Telescope, shows the colourful “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 makes the material glow. The burned-out star, called a white dwarf, is the white dot in the centre. Our Sun will eventually burn out and shroud itself with stellar debris, but not for another 5 billion years.

Zomming on NGC 2440

Credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

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