What has appeared as a mild-mannered elliptical galaxy in previous studies is revealing its wild side in new images taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble photos show shells of stars around a bright quasar, known as MC2 1635+119, which dominates the center of the galaxy. The shells' presence indicates a titanic clash with another galaxy in the relatively recent past. picked by AutumnLotus 10 months ago

A collection of Hubble Space Telescope images shows distant supernovas, the death explosions of massive stars. The top photos show each region before the explosion. The bottom row shows the explosions' aftermaths. picked by AutumnLotus 10 months ago

In the early 1900s, Edwin Hubble made the startling discovery that our Milky Way galaxy is not alone. It is just one of many galaxies, or "island universes," as Hubble dubbed them, swimming in the sea of space. Now, a century later, NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer is helping piece together the evolution of these cosmic species. picked by AutumnLotus 10 months ago

The sharpest image ever taken of the large grand design spiral galaxy Messier 81 is being released. The image, constructed from a series of images taken with NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is among the largest ever released. Messier 81 is one of the brightest galaxies that can be seen from the Earth. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

Beyond snapping extraordinary pictures of faraway nebulas, the revolutionary Hubble Space Telescope has completely transformed our view of the universe since it was launched in 1990. By capturing the clearest, deepest images of the cosmos ever, Hubble has shed light on some long-standing mysteries perplexing scientists-while uncovering far deeper ones that have yet to be solved. picked by AutumnLotus 12 months ago

The Hubble Space Telescope has found a large galaxy 10.6 billion light-years away from Earth that is stuffing itself with smaller galaxies caught like flies in a web of gravity. The galaxy is so far away that astronomers are seeing it as it looked in the early formative years of the Universe, only 2 billion years after the Big Bang. picked by 2manyusernames 2 years ago

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have compiled a large catalogue of gravitational lenses in the distant Universe. The catalogue contains a staggering 67 new gravitationally lensed images found around massive elliptical and lenticular-shaped galaxies. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

The colorful, intricate shapes in these NASA Hubble Space Telescope images reveal how the glowing gas ejected by dying Sun-like stars evolves dramatically over time. picked by AutumnLotus 12 months ago

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has found out the true nature of a dwarf galaxy that astronomers had for a long time identified as one of the youngest galaxies in the Universe. Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have made observations of the galaxy I Zwicky 18 which seem to indicate that it is in fact much older and much farther away than previously thought. picked by AutumnLotus 11 months ago

Galaxies tend to give birth to their stars on the road, while travelling down intergalactic highways towards cosmic cities called galaxy clusters, new Spitzer Space Telescope observations reveal. Galaxies in relatively empty regions of the universe flock towards densely populated galaxy clusters, attracted there by the clusters' gravity. picked by AutumnLotus 7 months ago

Two galaxies perform an intricate dance in this new Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxies, containing a vast number of stars, swing past each other in a graceful performance choreographed by gravity. picked by AutumnLotus 10 months ago

An Anglo-American team of astronomers have used the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to obtain the first direct optical images of the aftermath of a recent titanic explosion that took place in a star system 5,000 light years from Earth. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new image of the galaxy NGC 1132 which is, most likely, a cosmic fossil – the aftermath of an enormous multi-galactic pile-up, where the carnage of collision after collision has built up a brilliant but fuzzy giant elliptical galaxy far outshining typical galaxies. picked by AutumnLotus 7 months ago

A moth-like structure with a 22-billion-mile wingspan is hovering out in space. This giant is actually a massive cloud of dust surrounding a nearby, young star imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope that has shown astronomers that these dust disks can take on unexpectedly unusual shapes. picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago

A blog post suggests that Hubble could be kept in a high-orbit 'museum' rather than being made to crash into the Earth's atmosphere. picked by sparky 2 years ago

A global project aimed to map a distant strip of the universe is releasing its data today. The new information will be released to scientists and the public to be used as part of Google Sky – a new application added to Google Earth. Images are available here. picked by AutumnLotus 11 months ago

Newborn stars shine like celestial sparklers in a new portrait of the nearby Triangulum Galaxy – the most detailed ultraviolet image of a galaxy ever taken. Astronomers will use the image, taken by NASA's Swift telescope, to create an "age map" of the galaxy's components to understand how galaxies evolve over time. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

Just a quick post to augment AutumnLotus's post about stars...

Just wanted to throw this out there since it's by far the best Hubble pic ever taken.

For those seeing it for the first time, know that everyone of the specs is a different GALAXY, not a star... picked by moNet 1 year ago

The antennae galaxies starting colliding 500 million years ago, and today's image, hot off the Hubble's presses, shows what our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy may look like a few billion years from now.

This picture shows the sharpest view yet of this pair, including the birthing grounds for billions of new stars. Link to bigger picture in article. picked by Fanatic 2 years ago

Astronomers from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research have discovered a new cluster of galaxies, hidden behind a previously identified cluster of galaxies. The recently exposed cosmic giant is apparently just as bright as the first group, but is six times further away. The astronomers made the discovery as part of an international team using the space telescope XMM-Newton. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago