An odd celestial duo, the spiral galaxy NGC 4319 [center] and a quasar called Markarian 205 [upper right], appear to be neighbours. In reality, the two objects are hugely separated by time and space.

The Omega nebula (M17) appears with a bubbly ocean of glowing hydrogen gas and small amounts of other elements such as oxygen and sulfur. The nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula, is a hotbed of newly born stars residing 5,500 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

The planetary nebula NGC 6369. This object is known to amateur astronomers as the “Little Ghost Nebula”, because it appears as a small, ghostly cloud surrounding the faint, dying central star.

The Wide Field Camera reveals the structure of a thin sheet of gas located at the edge of the famous “Great Nebula” in Orion, an estimated 1500 light years from Earth.

A colour photograph of the planet Jupiter. The photograph was generated in a computer by combining three separate WFIPC exposures, which were made in red, green and blue light at 4:34 am EDT on May 28, 1991.

The Spiral Galaxy M100, a galaxy that lies several tens of millions of light years away, is viewed with clarity from the Hubble.

Hubble observes a star on the brink of destruction. The star, Eta Carinae, has a mass of approximately 150 times that of the sun, and is about 4 million times brighter than our local star, making it one of the most massive and most luminous stars known.

Hubble’s infrared camera captures Cone Nebula (NGC 2264), a gaseous pillar in the Milky Way.

A planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a dying, Sun-like star. This stellar relic, first spied by William Herschel in 1787, is nicknamed the “Eskimo” Nebula (NGC 2392) because, when viewed through ground-based telescopes, it resembles a face surrounded by a fur parka. In this Hubble telescope image, the “parka” is really a disk of material embellished with a ring of comet-shaped objects, with their tails streaming away from the central, dying star.