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The planet we live on is extraordinarily beautiful. But who among us has not wondered, looking into the starry sky: what would life be like in other solar systems in our Milky Way galaxy or in others? So far, we don't even know if there is life there. But when you see this beauty, you want to think that it’s there for a reason, that everything makes sense, that if the stars light up, it means someone needs it. The Antennae Galaxy was formed as a result of the merger of two galaxies, which began several hundred million years ago. The antenna is located 45 million light years from our solar system. Two jets of energized gas flow are ejected from the poles of the young star.
You can indulge yourself immediately after watching these stunning photographs of cosmic phenomena in the Universe.1
Galaxy Antenna
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Young star
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Horsehead Nebula
Horsehead Nebula, dark in optical light, appears transparent and ethereal in the infrared range shown here, with visible tints.
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Bubble Nebula
The image was taken in February 2016 using the Hubble Space Telescope.The nebula is 7 light-years across—about 1.5 times the distance from our sun to its nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri—and lies 7,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.
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Helix Nebula
The Helix Nebula is a flaming envelope of gas formed by the death of a sun-like star. The helix consists of two gaseous disks almost perpendicular to each other, and is located 690 light years away, and is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth.
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Jupiter's moon Io
Io is Jupiter's closest satellite.Io is about the size of our Moon and orbits Jupiterase1.8 days, while our Moon orbits the Earth every 28 days.A striking black spot on Jupiter is the shadow of Io, whichfloats across the face of Jupiter at a speed of 17 kilometers per second.
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NGC 1300
Blocked spiral galaxy NGC 1300 odiffers from normal spiral galaxies in that the arms of the galaxy do not grow all the way into the center, but are connected to the two ends of a straight bar of stars containing the core at its center.The core of the major spiral structure of the galaxy NGC 1300 shows its own unique grand spiral structure design, which is about 3,300 light years away.The galaxy is distant from usapproximately 69 million light years in the direction of the constellation Eridanus.
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Cat's Eye Nebula
Cat's Eye Nebula- one of the first planetary nebulae discovered, and one of the most complex, in observable space.A planetary nebula forms when sun-like stars carefully extract their outer gaseous layers, which form bright nebulae with amazing and complex structures..
The Cat's Eye Nebula is located 3,262 light-years from our solar system.
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Galaxy NGC 4696
NGC 4696 is the largest Galaxy in the Centaurus cluster.New images from Hubble show the dust filaments around the center of this huge galaxy in more detail than ever before.These filaments curl inward in an intriguing spiral shape around the supermassive black hole.
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Omega Centauri star cluster
The globular star cluster Omega Centauri contains 10 million stars and is the largest of the approximately 200 globular clusters orbiting our Milky Way Galaxy. Omega Centauri is located 17,000 light years from Earth.
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Galaxy Penguin
Galaxy Penguin.From our Hubble perspective, this pair of interacting galaxies resembles a penguin guarding its egg. NGC 2936, once a standard spiral galaxy, is deformed and borders NGC 2937, a smaller elliptical galaxy.The galaxies lie about 400 million light years away in the constellation Hydra.
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Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula
The Pillars of Creation - the remnants of the central part of the gas-dust Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens, consist, like the entire nebula, mainly of cold molecular hydrogen and dust. The nebula is located 7,000 distant light years away.
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Abell Galaxy Cluster S1063
This Hubble image shows a very chaotic Universe filled with galaxies far and near.Some are distorted like a distorted mirror due to the curvature of space, a phenomenon first predicted by Einstein a century ago.At the center of the image is the enormous galaxy cluster Abell S1063, located 4 billion light-years away.
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Whirlpool Galaxy
The graceful, sinuous arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 appear like a great spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas, saturated with dust.
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Stellar nurseries in the Carina Nebula
Billowing clouds of cold interstellar gas and dust rise from the raging Stellar Nursery, located 7,500 light-years away in the Southern constellation Carina.This pillar of dust and gas serves as an incubator for new stars.Hot, young stars and eroding clouds create this fantastic landscape, sending out stellar winds and scorching ultraviolet light.
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Galaxy Sombrero
The distinctive feature of the Sombrero Galaxy is its brilliant white core, surrounded by a thick layer of dust, forming the spiral structure of the galaxy. Sombrero lies on the southern edge of the Virgo Cluster and is one of the most massive objects in the group, equivalent to 800 billion suns.The galaxy is 50,000 light years across and located 28 million light years from Earth.
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Butterfly Nebula
What resemble graceful butterfly wings are actually cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas rushes through space at more than 600,000 miles per hour. A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the center of this fury. The Butterfly Nebula is located in our Milky Way galaxy, approximately 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpio.
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Crab Nebula
Pulse at the core of the Crab Nebula. While many other images of the Crab Nebula have focused on filaments in the outer part of the nebula, this image shows the very heart of the nebula including the central neutron star - the rightmost of the two bright stars near the center of this image. A neutron star has the same mass as the sun, but is compressed into an incredibly dense sphere several kilometers in diameter. Rotating 30 times per second, the neutron star releases beams of energy that make it appear to pulsate. The Crab Nebula is located 6,500 light years away in the constellation Taurus.
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Preplanetary nebula IRA 23166+1655
One of the most beautiful geometric shapes created in space, this image shows the formation of an unusual preplanetary nebula known as IRA 23166+1655 around the star LL Pegasi in the constellation Pegasus.
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Retina Nebula
Dying star, IC 4406 shows high degree symmetry; the left and right halves of the Hubble image are almost mirror images of the other. If we could fly around IC 4406 in a spacecraft, we would see gas and dust forming a vast donut of substantial outflow from the dying star. From Earth, we view the donut from the side. This side view allows us to see tangled tendrils of dust that have been compared to the retina of the eye. The nebula is located about 2,000 light years away, near the southern constellation Lupus.
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Monkey Head Nebula
NGC 2174 is located 6,400 light years away in the constellation Orion. The colorful region is filled with young stars trapped in bright wisps of cosmic gas and dust. This part of the Monkey Head Nebula was captured in 2014 by Hubble Camera 3.
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Spiral Galaxy ESO 137-001
This galaxy looks strange. One side of it looks like a typical spiral galaxy, while the other side appears to be destroyed. The bluish stripes stretching down and to the sides from the galaxy are clusters of hot young stars trapped in jets of gas. These scraps of matter will never return to the bosom of the mother galaxy. Like a huge fish with its belly ripped open, the galaxy ESO 137-001 roams space, losing its insides.
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Giant tornadoes in the Lagoon Nebula
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows long interstellar 'tornadoes' - eerie tubes and twisted structures - at the heart of the Lagoon Nebula, which lies 5,000 light-years in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius.
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Gravity lenses in Abell 2218
This rich galaxy cluster consists of thousands of individual galaxies and is located about 2.1 billion light-years from Earth in the Northern constellation Draco. Astronomers use gravitational lenses to powerfully magnify distant galaxies. Strong gravitational forces not only magnify images of hidden galaxies, but also distort them into long, thin arcs.
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Hubble's farthest position
Each object in this image is an individual galaxy made up of billions of stars. This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is the deepest image of the cosmos yet. Dubbed Hubble's "Extreme Far Field" (or Hubble's Ultra-Deep Field), this image represents a "deep" core sample of the universe shrinking across billions of light years. The image includes galaxies of various ages, sizes, shapes and colors. The smallest, reddest galaxies may be among the most distant, existing since the universe was just 800 million years old. The closest galaxies—larger, brighter, well-defined spirals and ellipticals—thrived about 1 billion years ago, when the cosmos was 13 billion years old. In stark contrast, along with the many classic spiral and elliptical galaxies, there is a zoo of oddball galaxies littering the area. Some look like toothpicks; others are like a link on a bracelet.
In ground-based photographs, the area of the sky where the galaxies reside (merely one-tenth the diameter of a full moon) is mostly empty. The image required 800 exposures, taken over 400 Hubble orbits around the Earth. The total dwell time was 11.3 days spent between September 24, 2003 and January 16, 2004.
We present to you a selection of images taken using the Hubble orbital telescope. It has been in orbit of our planet for more than twenty years and continues to reveal to us the secrets of space to this day.
(Total 30 photos)
Known as NGC 5194, this large galaxy with a well-developed spiral structure may have been the first spiral nebula discovered. It is clearly visible that its spiral arms and dust lanes pass in front of its satellite galaxy, NGC 5195 (left). The pair are located about 31 million light years away and officially belong 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 is located. About 4 times smaller (in radius) than our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), M33 is much larger than many dwarf galaxies. Because M33 is close to M31, some think it is a satellite of this more massive galaxy. M33 is not far from the Milky Way, its angular dimensions are more than twice the size of the full Moon, i.e. it is perfectly visible with good binoculars.
3. Stefan Quintet
The group of galaxies is Stefan's Quintet. However, only four galaxies in the group, located three hundred million light years away, participate in the cosmic dance, moving closer and further away from each other. It's quite easy to find extra ones. The four interacting galaxies - NGC 7319, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B and NGC 7317 - have yellowish colors and curved loops and tails, the shape of which is caused by the influence of destructive tidal gravitational forces. The bluish galaxy NGC 7320, pictured above left, is much closer than the others, just 40 million light-years away.
4. Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest to ours Milky Way from giant galaxies. 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 combine to produce a visible, diffuse glow. The individual stars in the image are actually stars in our Galaxy, located much closer to the distant object. The Andromeda Galaxy is often called M31 because 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. Particularly interesting objects include a bright open star cluster and several active star forming regions. When viewed visually, the light from the cluster is lost against the background of the overall red glow caused by hydrogen emission, while the dark filaments arise from the absorption of light by dense layers of dust.
6. Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543)
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky. Its haunting, symmetrical shape is visible in the central portion of this dramatic false-color image, specially processed to reveal a huge but very faint halo of gaseous material, some three light-years in diameter, that surrounds the 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 modest constellation, which reveals many dusty nebulae and colorful stars. Blue reflection nebulae are scattered across the field.
8. Nebula Sh2-136
Cosmic dust clouds glowing faintly with reflected starlight. Far from familiar places on planet Earth, they lurk on the edge of the Cephei Halo molecular cloud complex, 1,200 light-years away. Nebula Sh2-136, located near the center of the field, is brighter than other ghostly apparitions. Its size is more than two light years, and it 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 1,500 light years away in the direction of the most recognizable celestial constellation. And in today's remarkable composite photograph, the nebulae occupy opposite corners. The familiar Horsehead Nebula is a small dark cloud in the shape of a horse's head, silhouetted against a background of red glowing gas in the lower left corner of the picture.
10. Crab Nebula
This confusion remained after the star exploded. The Crab Nebula is the result of a supernova explosion observed in 1054 AD. The supernova remnant is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not just complex to look at. The extent of the Crab Nebula is ten light years. At the very center of the nebula there is a pulsar - a neutron star with a mass equal mass 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) shown in this photograph has been distorted by its gravity to the light from a more distant blue galaxy. Most often, such distortion of light leads to the appearance of two images distant galaxy, however, 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 shell 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 find out, the Hubble Space Telescope was tasked with taking a closer look at one of the most interesting of all nebulae in the sky: the Great Orion Nebula. 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 them stellar nurseries that likely house forming planetary systems.
14. Star cluster R136
At the center of the star-forming region 30 Doradus lies a gigantic cluster of the largest, hottest, and most massive stars known to us. These stars form the R136 cluster, captured in this image taken in visible light by the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope.
Brilliant NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies we see, yet 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 located 10 million light years away.
16. Galaxy M83
Galaxy M83 is one of the closest spiral galaxies to us. From the distance that separates us from her, equal to 15 million light years, she looks completely ordinary. However, if we take a closer look at the center of M83 using the largest telescopes, the region appears to be a turbulent and noisy place.
17. Ring Nebula
She 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. The Ring Nebula belongs to the class of planetary nebulae; these are gas clouds that emit stars similar to the Sun at the end of their lives. Its size exceeds the diameter. This is one of Hubble's early images.
18. Column and jets in the Carina Nebula
This cosmic column of gas and dust is two light years wide. The structure is in one of the most large regions star formation in our Galaxy, the Carina Nebula, which is visible in the southern sky and is 7500 light years away from us.
19. Center of the Omega Centauri globular cluster
At the center of the globular cluster Omega Centauri, the stars are packed ten thousand times more densely 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, and the occasional blue star. If two stars suddenly collide, they can form one more massive star, or they can 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, beady, blue ring-shaped 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 NASA Space Telescope. Hubble in November 2004.
21. Trifid Nebula
The beautiful, multi-colored Trifid Nebula allows you to explore cosmic contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. The size of the nebula is about 40 light years.
22. Centaurus A
A fantastic array 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, 10 million light years away.
23. Butterfly Nebula
Bright clusters and nebulae in 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: its surface temperature is about 250 thousand degrees Celsius.
24. Supernova
An image of a supernova that exploded in 1994 on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy.
25. Two colliding galaxies with merging spiral arms
This remarkable cosmic portrait shows two colliding galaxies with merging spiral arms. Above and to the left of the large spiral galaxy pair NGC 6050 can be seen a third galaxy that is also likely involved in the interaction. All of these galaxies are located about 450 million light-years away in the Hercules cluster of galaxies. At this distance, the image covers an area of more than 150 thousand light years. And although this appearance 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 in the direction of the constellation Leo. The galaxy, which extends over 50,000 light-years, has features such as jagged, irregular spiral arms festooned with dust, pinkish star-forming regions and clusters of young bluish stars.
27. Jet structure details
Although this unusual emission was first noticed in the early twentieth century, its origin is still the subject of debate. The image shown 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. Galaxy Sombrero
Galaxy M104's appearance resembles a hat, which is why it is called the Sombrero Galaxy. The picture shows clear dark stripes dust and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. The reasons why the Sombrero Galaxy looks like a hat are the unusually large central stellar bulge and the dense dark lanes of dust located in the galaxy's disk, which we see almost edge-on.
29. M17: close-up view
Formed by stellar winds and radiation, these fantastic wave-like formations are found in the M17 (Omega Nebula) nebula and are part of a star-forming region. The Omega Nebula is located in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius and is 5,500 light-years away. The patchy clumps of dense, cold gas and dust are illuminated by radiation from the stars in the image at top right and could become sites of star formation in the future.
30. Nebula IRAS 05437+2502
What does the IRAS 05437+2502 nebula illuminate? There is no exact answer yet. Particularly puzzling is the bright, inverted V-shaped arc that outlines the top edge of the mountain-like clouds of interstellar dust near the center of the image. Overall, this ghost-like nebula includes a small star-forming region filled with dark dust. It was first spotted in infrared images taken by the IRAS satellite in 1983. Shown here is a remarkable, recently released image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Although it shows many new details, the cause of the bright, clear arc could not be determined.
Images taken at extremely long distances using the Hubble Space Telescope, which left Earth exactly 25 years ago. The deadline is no joke. In the first photo, the Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books since its discovery nearly a century ago. 
Jupiter's moon Ganymede is shown as it begins to disappear behind giant planet. Consisting of rock and ice, the satellite is the largest in solar system, even more planet Mercury.
Resembling a butterfly and appropriately called the Butterfly Nebula, it consists of hot gas with a temperature of about 20,000°C and moves through the universe at a speed of more than 950,000 km per hour. You can get from Earth to the Moon at this speed in 24 minutes.
The Cone Nebula, approximately 23 million high, travels around the Moon. The entire extent of the nebula is about 7 light years. It is believed to be an incubator for new stars.
The Eagle Nebula is a mixture of cooled gas and dust from which stars are born. The height is 9.5 light years or 57 trillion miles, twice as long as the distance from the Sun to the nearest star.
Bright Southern Hemisphere The star RS Puppis is surrounded by a reflective cloud of dust, counted like a lampshade. This star has 10 times the mass of the Sun and is 200 times larger.
The pillars of creation are located in the Eagle Nebula. They are made of stellar gas and dust and are located 7,000 light years from Earth.
This is the first time such a clear image has been taken from a wide-angle lens of the M82 galaxy. This galaxy is notable for its bright blue disk, network of scattered clouds, and fiery hydrogen jets emanating from its center.
Hubble captured a rare moment of two spiral galaxies positioned on the same line: the first, small one, abuts the center of a larger one.
The Crab Nebula is a trace of a supernova, which was recorded by Chinese astronomers back in 1054. Thus, this nebula is the first astronomical object associated with a historical supernova explosion.
This beauty is the spiral galaxy M83, located 15 million light years from the nearest constellation, Hydra.
Sombrero Galaxy: stars located on the surface of the “pancake” and clustered in the center of the disk.
A pair of interacting galaxies called the Antennae. As the two galaxies collide, new stars are born, mostly in groups and star clusters.
The light echo of V838 Monoceros, a variable star in the constellation Monoceros, located about 20,000 light years away. In 2002, she survived an explosion, the cause of which is still unknown.
The massive star Eta Carinae, located in our native Milky Way. Many scientists believe it will soon explode to become a supernova.
A giant star-bearing nebula with massive star clusters.
The four moons of Saturn, taken by surprise as they pass by their "parent".
Two interacting galaxies: on the right is the large spiral NGC 5754, on the left is its younger companion.
The luminous remains of a star that went out thousands of years ago.
Butterfly Nebula: walls of compressed gas, stretched filaments, bubbling flows. Night, street, lantern.
Galaxy Black Eye. It is named so because of the black ring with seething inside that was formed as a result of an ancient explosion.
An unusual planetary nebula, NGC 6751. Glowing like an eye in the constellation Aquila, this nebula formed several thousand years ago from a hot star (visible at the very center).
Boomerang Nebula. The light-reflecting cloud of dust and gas has two symmetrical “wings” radiating from the central star.
Spiral Galaxy "Whirlpool". Winding arcs in which newborn stars live. In the center, where the old stars are better and more impressive.
Mars. 11 hours before the planet was at a record close distance from Earth (August 26, 2003).
Traces of a dying star in the Ant Nebula
A molecular cloud (or "star cradle"; astronomers are unfulfilled poets) called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light years from Earth. Somewhere in the south of the constellation Carina
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Mysterious nebulae, which are millions of light years away, the birth of new stars and collisions of galaxies. Part 2 of a selection of the best photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope. The first part is located.
This is part Carina Nebula. The total diameter of the nebula is more than 200 light years. Located 8,000 light-years from Earth, the Carina Nebula can be seen in the southern sky with the naked eye. Is one of the brightest areas in the Galaxy:
Hubble's ultra-long-range viewing area (WFC3 camera). Composed of gas and dust:
Another photo Carina Nebula:
By the way, let's get to know the culprit of today's report. This Hubble telescope in space. Placing a telescope in space makes it possible to detect electromagnetic radiation in ranges in which the earth's atmosphere is opaque; primarily in the infrared range. Due to the absence of atmospheric influence, the resolution of the telescope is 7-10 times greater than that of a similar telescope located on Earth.
The Discovery shuttle, launched on April 24, 1990, launched the telescope into its intended orbit the next day. The total cost of the project, according to estimates in 1999, amounted to 6 billion dollars on the American side and 593 million euros were paid by the European Space Agency.
Globular cluster in the constellation Centaurus. It is located 18,300 light years away. Omega Centauri belongs to our Milky Way galaxy and is its largest globular cluster currently known. It contains several million stars. The age of Omega Centauri is determined to be 12 billion years:
Butterfly Nebula ( 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 gas giant. Jupiter has at least 63 satellites. Mass of Jupiter 2.47 times the total mass of all other planets in the Solar System taken together, 318 times the mass of our Earth and approximately 1,000 times less than the mass of the Sun:
A few more images Carina Nebula:
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 Nebula some of the most beautiful:
Spiral Whirlpool Galaxy. It is located at a distance of about 30 million light years from us in the constellation Canes Venatici. The diameter of the galaxy is about 100 thousand light years:
An amazing image of a planetary planet was captured using the Hubble Space Telescope. Retina Nebula, which was formed from the remnants of the dying star IC 4406. Like most nebulae, the Retina Nebula is almost perfectly symmetrical, its right half almost a mirror image of the left one. In a few million years, all that will remain of IC 4406 is a slowly cooling white dwarf:
M27 is one of the brightest planetary nebulae in the sky and can be seen with binoculars in the constellation Vulpecula. The light takes about a thousand years to reach us from M27:
It looks like smoke and sparks from fireworks, but it's actually debris from the explosion of a star in a nearby galaxy. Our Sun and the planets of the Solar System were 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 gets its name from its protruding central part (bulge) and ridge of dark matter, giving the galaxy the appearance of a sombrero hat:
The exact distance to it is unknown; according to various estimates, it can range from 2 to 9 thousand light years. Width 50 light years. The nebula's name means "divided into three petals":
Helix Nebula 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, at a distance of 61 million light years from Earth. The size of the galaxy itself is 110 thousand light years, which is slightly larger than our galaxy, the Milky Way. NGC 1300 is unlike some spiral galaxies, including our Galaxy, in that it does not have a massive black hole at its core:
Dust clouds in our Milky Way galaxy. Our Milky Way galaxy, also called simply the Galaxy (with capital letter) - giant spiral star system, in which our solar system is located. The diameter of the Galaxy is about 30 thousand parsecs (about 100,000 light years) with an estimated average thickness of about 1,000 light years. The Milky Way contains, according to the lowest estimate, about 200 billion stars. There appears to be a supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy:
On the right, above, these are not fireworks, this is a dwarf galaxy - a satellite of our Milky Way. Located at a distance of about 60 kiloparsecs in the constellation Tucana:
Formed during the collision of four massive galaxies. This is the first time this phenomenon has been visualized using a combination of images. Galaxies are surrounded by hot gas, which is shown in the image different colors, depending on its temperature: reddish-purple is the coldest, blue is the hottest:
It is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System after Jupiter. Today we know that all four gaseous giants have rings, but Saturn's is the most prominent. Saturn's rings 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 greater than the mass of our Earth:
In the constellation Dorado. The nebula belongs to the Milky Way's satellite galaxy - the Large Magellanic Cloud:
Measuring 100 thousand light years and located 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, the ship was successfully launched "Soyuz TMA-02M". This is the second flight of the ship of the new, “digital” Soyuz-TMA-M series. Nice start:
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The science
Space full of unexpected surprises and incredibly beautiful landscapes that today astronomers can capture in photographs. Sometimes space or ground-based spacecraft take such unusual photographs that scientists still They've been wondering for a long time what it is.
Space photos help make amazing discoveries, see the details of the planets and their satellites, draw conclusions regarding them physical properties, determine the distance to objects and much more.
1) Glowing gas of the Omega Nebula . This nebula, open Jean Philippe de Chaizeau in 1775, located in the area constellation Sagittarius Milky Way galaxy. The distance to us from this nebula is approximately 5-6 thousand light years, and in diameter it reaches 15 light years. Photo taken with a special digital camera during the project Digitized Sky Survey 2.
New images of Mars
2) Strange lumps on Mars . This photo was taken by the panchromatic context camera of the automatic interplanetary station Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which explores Mars.
Visible in the photo strange formations, which formed on lava flows interacting with water on the surface. Lava, flowing down the slope, encircled the bases of the mounds, then swelled. Lava Swelling- a process in which the liquid layer, which appears under the hardening layer of liquid lava, lifts the surface slightly, forming such a relief.
These formations are located on the Martian plain Amazonis Planitia- a huge territory that is covered with frozen lava. The plain is also covered a thin layer of reddish dust, which slides down steep slopes, forming dark stripes.
Planet Mercury (photo)
3) Beautiful colors of Mercury . This colorful image of Mercury was created by combining large number images taken by NASA's interplanetary station "Messenger" for a year of work in Mercury orbit.
Of course it is not the real colors of the planet closest to the Sun, but the colorful image reveals the chemical, mineralogical and physical differences in Mercury's landscape.
4) Space lobster . This image was taken by the VISTA telescope European Southern Observatory. It depicts a cosmic landscape, including a huge glowing cloud of gas and dust, which surrounds young stars.
This infrared image shows the nebula NGC 6357 in the constellation Scorpion, which is presented in a new light. The photo was taken during the project Via Láctea. Scientists are currently scanning the Milky Way in an attempt to map the more detailed structure of our galaxy and explain how it was formed.
Mysterious mountain of the Carina Nebula
5) Mysterious mountain . The image shows a mountain of dust and gas rising from the Carina Nebula. The top of a vertical column of cooled hydrogen, which is about 3 light years, is carried away by radiation from nearby stars. Stars located in the area of the pillars release jets of gas that can be seen at the tops.
Traces of water on Mars
6) Traces of an ancient water flow on Mars . This is a high resolution photo that was taken January 13, 2013 using a spacecraft European Space Agency Mars Express, offers to see the surface of the Red Planet in real colors. This is a shot of the area southeast of the plain Amenthes Planum and north of the plain Hesperia planum.
Visible in the photo craters, lava channels and valley, along which liquid water probably once flowed. The valley and crater floors are covered with wind-blown, dark deposits.
7) Dark space gecko . The picture was taken with a ground-based 2.2-meter telescope European Southern Observatory MPG/ESO in Chile. The photo shows a bright star cluster NGC 6520 and its neighbor - a strangely shaped dark cloud Barnard 86.
This cosmic couple is surrounded by millions of luminous stars in the brightest part of the Milky Way. The area is so filled with stars that you can hardly see the dark background of the sky behind them.
Star formation (photo)
8) Star Education Center . Several generations of stars are shown in an infrared image taken by NASA's space telescope. "Spitzer". In this smoky area known as W5, new stars are formed.
The oldest stars can be seen as blue bright dots. Younger stars highlight pinkish glow. In brighter areas, new stars form. Red indicates heated dust, while green indicates dense clouds.
Unusual nebula (photo)
9) Valentine's Day Nebula . This is an image of a planetary nebula, which may remind some of rosebud, was obtained using a telescope Kitt Peak National Observatory in USA.
Sh2-174- an unusual ancient nebula. It was formed during the explosion of a low-mass star at the end of its life. What remains of the star is its center - white dwarf.
Usually white dwarfs are located very close to the center, but in the case of this nebula, its the white dwarf is located on the right. This asymmetry is associated with the interaction of the nebula with the environment that surrounds it.
10) Heart of the Sun . In honor of the recent Valentine's Day, another one appeared in the sky. unusual phenomenon. More precisely it was done photo of an unusual solar flare, which is depicted in the photo in the shape of a heart.
Saturn's satellite (photo)
11) Mimas - Death Star . A photograph of Saturn's moon Mimas was taken spaceship NASA "Cassini" while it approaches the object at the closest distance. This satellite is something looks like the Death Star– a space station from a science fiction saga "Star Wars".
Herschel Crater has a diameter 130 kilometers and covers most of the right side of the satellite in the image. Scientists continue to explore this impact crater and its surrounding areas.
Photos were taken February 13, 2010 from a distance 9.5 thousand kilometers, and then, like a mosaic, assembled into one clearer and more detailed photo.
12) Galactic duo . These two galaxies, shown in the same photo, have absolutely different shapes. Galaxy NGC 2964 is a symmetrical spiral, and the galaxy NGC 2968(top right) – a galaxy that has enough close interaction with another small galaxy.
13) Mercury colored crater . Although Mercury does not boast a particularly colorful surface, some areas on it still stand out with contrasting colors. The pictures were taken during the spacecraft mission "Messenger".
Halley's Comet (photo)
14) Halley's Comet in 1986 . This famous historical photograph of the comet as it made its final approach to Earth was taken 27 years ago. The photo clearly shows how the Milky Way is illuminated on the right by a flying comet.
15) Strange hill on Mars . This image shows a strange, spiky formation near the Red Planet's South Pole. The surface of the hill appears to be layered and shows signs of erosion. Its height is estimated 20-30 meters. The appearance of dark spots and stripes on the hill is associated with the seasonal thawing of a layer of dry ice (carbon dioxide).
Orion Nebula (photo)
16) Orion's beautiful veil . This beautiful image includes cosmic clouds and stellar wind around the star LL Orionis, which interacts with the stream Orion Nebula. The star LL Orionis produces winds that are stronger than those of our own middle-aged star, the Sun.
Galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici (photo)
17) Spiral galaxy Messier 106 in the constellation Canes Venatici . NASA Space Telescope "Hubble" with the participation of an amateur astronomer, took one of the best photographs of a spiral galaxy Messier 106.
Located at a distance of about 20 million light years away, which is not that far away by cosmic standards, this galaxy is one of the brightest galaxies, and also one of the closest to us.
18) Starburst galaxy . Galaxy Messier 82 or Galaxy Cigar located at a distance from us 12 million light years in the constellation Big Dipper. The formation of new stars occurs quite quickly in it, which puts it at a certain phase in the evolution of galaxies, according to scientists.
Because the Cigar Galaxy is experiencing intense star formation, it 5 times brighter than our Milky Way. This photo was taken Mount Lemmon Observatory(USA) and required a holding time of 28 hours.
19) Ghost Nebula . This photo was taken using a 4 meter telescope (Arizona, USA). The object, called vdB 141, is a reflection nebula located in the constellation Cepheus.
Several stars can be seen in the nebula region. Their light gives the nebula an unattractive yellowish-brown color. Photo taken August 28, 2009.
20) Powerful hurricane of Saturn . This colorful photo taken by NASA "Cassini", depicts Saturn's strong northern storm, which at that moment reached its greatest power. The contrast of the image has been increased to show troubled areas (in white) that stand out from other details. The photo was taken March 6, 2011.
Photo of the Earth from the Moon
21) Earth from the Moon . Being on the surface of the Moon, our planet will look exactly like this. From this angle, the Earth too phases will be noticeable: Part of the planet will be in shadow, and part will be illuminated by sunlight.
Andromeda Galaxy
22) New images of Andromeda . In a new image of the Andromeda Galaxy, obtained using Herschel Space Observatory, the bright streaks where new stars are forming are visible in especially detail.
The Andromeda Galaxy or M31 is the closest large galaxy to our Milky Way. It is located at a distance of about 2.5 million years, and is therefore an excellent object for studying the formation of new stars and the evolution of galaxies.
23) Star cradle of the constellation Unicorn . This image was taken using a 4-meter telescope Inter-American Observatory of Cerro Tololo in Chile January 11, 2012. The image shows part of the Unicorn R2 molecular cloud. This is a site of intense new star formation, especially in the red nebula region just below the center of the image.
Satellite of Uranus (photo)
24) Ariel's scarred face . This image of Uranus's moon Ariel is made up of 4 different images taken by the spacecraft. "Voyager 2". The pictures were taken January 24, 1986 from a distance 130 thousand kilometers from the object.
Ariel has a diameter about 1200 kilometers, most of its surface is covered with craters with a diameter of 5 to 10 kilometers. In addition to craters, the image shows valleys and faults in the form of long stripes, so the landscape of the object is very heterogeneous.
25) Spring "fans" on Mars . In high latitudes every winter carbon dioxide condenses from the atmosphere of Mars and accumulates on its surface, forming seasonal polar ice caps. In the spring, the sun begins to heat the surface more intensely and the heat passes through these translucent layers of dry ice, heating the soil underneath.
Dry ice evaporates, immediately turning into gas, bypassing liquid phase. If the pressure is high enough, the ice cracks and gas escapes from the cracks, forming "fans". These dark "fans" are small fragments of material that are carried away by the gas escaping from the cracks.
Galactic merger
26) Stefan Quintet . This group is from 5 galaxies in the constellation Pegasus, located in 280 million light years from the earth. Four of the five galaxies are undergoing a violent merger phase and will crash into each other, eventually forming a single galaxy.
The central blue galaxy appears to be part of this group, but this is an illusion. This galaxy is much closer to us - at a distance only 40 million light years. The image was obtained by researchers Mount Lemmon Observatory(USA).
27) Soap Bubble Nebula . This planetary nebula was discovered by an amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich July 6, 2008 in the constellation Swan. The picture was taken with a 4-meter telescope Mayall National Observatory Kitt Peak V June 2009. This nebula was part of another diffuse nebula, and it is also quite faint, so it was hidden from the eyes of astronomers for a long time.
Sunset on Mars – photo from the surface of Mars
28) Sunset on Mars. May 19, 2005 NASA Mars rover MER-A Spirit I took this amazing photo of the sunset while being on the edge of Gusev crater. The solar disk, as you can see, is slightly smaller than the disk that is visible from Earth.
29) Hypergiant star Eta Carinae . In this incredibly detailed image taken by NASA's space telescope "Hubble", you can see huge clouds of gas and dust from the giant star Eta of Kiel. This star is located at a distance from us more than 8 thousand light years, and the overall structure is comparable in width to our Solar System.
Near 150 years ago a supernova explosion was observed. Eta Carinae became the second most luminous star after Sirius, but quickly faded away and ceased to be visible to the naked eye.
30) Polar Ring Galaxy . Amazing Galaxy NGC 660 is the result of the merger of two different galaxies. It is located at a distance 44 million light years from us in the constellation Pisces. On January 7, astronomers announced that this galaxy has powerful flash, which is most likely the result of the massive black hole at its center.