This massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
The natural-color image of the galaxies was taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii.
This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows Sh 2-106, or S106 for short. This is a compact star forming region in the constellation Cygnus (The Swan). The image was released on Dec. 15, 2011.
This 1995 Hubble Space Telescope image of the 'Pillars of Creation' is probably the most famous astronomical image of the 20th Century. Taken in visible light using a combination of SII/H-alpha and OIII filters, it shows a part of the Eagle Nebula where new stars are forming. The tallest pillar is around 4 light-years high.
Three images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal the birth of a Type 1a supernova, a “standard candle” for measuring the expansion of the universe. Nicknamed SN Primo, this supernova is the most distant of its type ever discovered.
This image of Type Ia Supernova Remnant 0509-67.5 was made by combining data from two of NASA’s Great Observatories. The result shows soft green and blue hues of heated material from the X-ray data surrounded by the glowing pink optical shell, which shows the ambient gas being shocked by the expanding blast wave from the supernova.
Hubble pinpoints farthest protocluster of galaxies ever seen.
A new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows globular cluster NGC 1846, a spherical collection of hundreds of thousands of stars in the outer halo of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring dwarf galaxy of the Milky Way that can be seen from the southern hemisphere.
This Hubble picture shows a quasar that has been gravitationally lensed by a galaxy in the foreground, which can be seen as a faint shape around the two bright images of the quasar.
This Hubble Space Telescope photo shows the galaxy cluster MACS J1206, which is warped by gravitational lensing.
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope infrared mosaic image represents the sharpest survey of the Galactic Center to date.
This image of the star HR 8799 was taken by Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) in 1998. A mask within the camera (coronagraph) blocks most of the light from the star. Scattered light from HR 8799 dominates the image, obscuring the faint planets.
A combined view of the Antennae Galaxies, taken by the ALMA radio telescope array and the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Hubble Space Telescope snapped this shot of the galaxy Holmberg II blowing huge bubbles of gas, which were created by supernova explosions.
The Necklace Nebula is located 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta (the Arrow). This composite image was taken on July 2, 2011 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3.
The Hubble Space Telescope got one last overhaul in May 2009 by NASA astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis and has been sending home stunning new photos ever since. Seen here, the iconic space telescope orbits high above the Earth, after it was released at the close of the STS-125 servicing mission to once more gaze deep into the universe.
To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers pointed Hubble's eye at an especially photogenic pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273.
Hubble has taken this stunning close-up shot of part of the Tarantula Nebula. This star-forming region of ionised hydrogen gas is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy which neighbours the Milky Way.
This Hubble picture, taken on July 23, 2009, is the sharpest visible-light picture taken of the atmospheric debris from a comet or asteroid that collided with Jupiter on 19 July. This is Hubble's first science observation following its repair and upgrade in May. The image was taken with the new Wide Field Camera 3.
The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a new camera aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, snapped this image of the planetary nebula, catalogued as NGC 6302, but more popularly called the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula. WFC3 was installed by NASA astronauts in May 2009, during the servicing mission to upgrade and repair the then 19-year-old Hubble telescope.
This image of the two galaxies that form Arp 147 shows a vast cosmic ring of stars (blue) and black holes (pink) as seen by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. Another galaxy is also visible (vertical at left), as well as a bright star and quasar (pink object at upper left). This image was released on Feb. 9, 2011.
The image at right is Hubble's close-up view of the myriad stars near the core of galaxy M83, the bright whitish region at far right. An image of the entire galaxy, taken by the European Southern Observatory's Wide Field Imager on the ESO/MPG 2.2-meter telescope at La Silla, Chile, is shown at left. The white box outlines Hubble's view.
This portrait of Stephan’s Quintet, also known as Hickson Compact Group 92, was taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope as one of the first images since its May 2009 overhaul. Stephan’s Quintet, as the name implies, is a group of five galaxies.
Plumes of glowing hydrogen blast from the center of M82, a well known galaxy undergoing a torrent of star formation. This mosaic of six images taken in 2006 by the Hubble Space Telescope is the sharpest ever obtained of the entire galaxy.
The Hubble Space Telescope's newly repaired Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) has peered nearly 5 billion light-years away to resolve intricate details in the galaxy cluster Abell 37, one of the first galaxy clusters where astronomers observed the phenomenon of gravitational lensing. Hubble's final service call by astronauts occurred in May 2009.
This image of barred spiral galaxy NGC 6217 is the first image of a celestial object taken with the newly repaired Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. The camera was restored to operation during the STS-125 servicing mission in May 2009 to upgrade Hubble. The barred spiral galaxy NGC 6217 was photographed on June 13 and July 8, 2009 during initial testing.
This Hubble Space Telescope image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4710 shows a faint, ethereal "X"-shaped bulge at the galaxy's center.
A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope close-up image of part of NGC 7023, or the Iris Nebula, shows that the area is clogged with cosmic dust.
This "space jellyfish" is one of several new protoplanetary discs, or proplyds discovered in the Orion Nebula, 181-825 is one of the bright proplyds that lies relatively close to the nebula’s brightest star, Theta 1 Orionis C. Resembling a tiny jellyfish, this proplyd is surrounded by a shock wave that is caused by stellar wind from the massive Theta 1 Orionis C interacting with gas in the nebula. The objects are so far away that even with Hubble's keen eye, they appear blurry.
This new atlas features 30 proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, that were recently discovered in the majestic Orion Nebula using the Hubble Space Telescope.
This Hubble photo of 30 Doradus was taken Oct. 20-27, 2009. The blue color is light from the hottest, most massive stars; the green from the glow of oxygen; and the red from fluorescing hydrogen.
This montage of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in Aug. 2009 is the deepest image of the universe ever taken in near-infrared light by the observatory.
This image is just part of a larger Hubble Space Telescope vista that includes some of the most distant, earliest galaxies to form in the Universe. The image was released Jan. 5, 2010.
A Hubble Space Telescope picture of a comet-like object called P/2010 A2 shows a bizarre X-pattern of filamentary structures near the point-like nucleus of the object and trailing streamers of dust. Scientists think the object is the remnant of an asteroid collision. This image was released in February 2010.
This is the most detailed view to date of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003. The center disk (180 degrees) has a mysterious bright spot that is unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. The image was released in February 2010. See the dwarf planet turn in a video based on these images.
In this spectacular image, observations using infrared light and X-ray light see through the obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core of the Milky Way. The image, released in November 2009, combines pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Astronaut John Grunsfeld - who flew on three missions to repair the Hubble Space Telescope - stands with several Hubble telescope artifacts at the National Air and Space Museum.
Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on display under a full scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope.
The crewmembers for the STS-125 mission pose for a photo on the middeck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis on May 21, 2009 during their mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope for the last time. Pictured on the front row are astronauts Scott Altman (center), commander; Gregory C. Johnson, pilot; and Megan McArthur, mission specialist. Pictured on the back row (left to right) are astronauts Andrew Feustel, John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino and Michael Good, all mission specialists
