Some awe-inspiring Hubble pictures!

Most of these images, are courtesy of the Space Telescope Science Institute, and are available through their public images site (see link below). If I have infringed copyright, please let me know and I will remove this page. I just copied the images onto my computer for my own use. Any other pics I use are curtesy of Spaceflightnow.com.


Space Telescope Science Institute

Spaceflightnow.com
white storm racing across Saturn, captured by Hubble
white storm racing across Saturn, captured by Hubble
 galaxy in true colour
a spiral galaxy in true colour
 one of the clearest Hubble images of Mars ever taken
One of the clearest pictures of Mars ever seen, thanks to the HST
galaxies in a cosmic ballet
Galaxies in a cosmic gravitational ballet
 Known as the Cat's Eye Nebula, this is a planetary nebula - the moment when a star runs out of nuclear fuel and gradually blows itself apart, ejecting material away at high speeds, leaving behind a dense white core called a 'white dwarf' They're called 'planetary nebulae' not because they are associated with planets, but because in the early days of astronomy, in primitive telescopes, these objects looked like the little patchy discs of planets. Only as telescopes and viewing techniques became more advanced, did astronomers realise what they were seeing. We have seen stars as they are born, live, and now die.
The 'Cat's Eye' planetary nebula, a star at the end of it's life.
30 Doradus is one of the brightest and firery places of starburst in the nearby universe. A cluster of unimaginably hot stars at its centre are 'burning' the gases around them, making them light up and re-emit the light as the red colour we see (hydrogen gas). This type of nebula is also known as an emmision nebula, where stars within make the gas emit light which we see.
A cluster of luminous stars burning away the gases around them.
Earth seen from billions of miles away Not sure if this was taken by Hubble, or where it came from as I found it on my computer. The Andromeda Galaxy, M31, 2.2 million light-years away. Some calculations show that Andromeda and our own galaxy will eventually collide, in perhaps a few hundred million years. What a ride!!
Our closest intergalactic neighbour, M31, the Andromeda galaxy
Dubbed 'The Perfect Spiral' this Hubble pic of a galaxy in the constellation Gemini, is believed to be the best view of a spiral galaxy ever recorded
A great view of 'The Perfect' spiral galaxy
The little blue dot in this image is Earth (the stripe is just the enhancement they made so that you can see the dot)!.When you look at this you realise how fragile and insignificant we are. Our problems vanish into nothingness. A sobering, yet comforting picture. Click the picture for some words from the late great astronomer, Carl Sagan, who wrote the book "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space", inspired by this image. This is how our own star, the Sun, may one day die: a planetary nebula, when a start slowly dies and blows itself apart
Very much like the Cat's Eye nebula picture, this is another planetary nebula. See how different it is :)
 A bow-wave moves ahead of a young hot star, caused by the interaction of its intense stellar winds, and the slow colder gas surrounding it. Many young hot stars are surrounded by such shockwaves.
A petulent young star upsets the gasses around it, forming a shockwave.