Stephan's Quintet - A mammoth cosmic collision (Hubble view): This spectacular new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the group of galaxies called Stephan's Quintet has provided a detailed view of one of the most exciting star forming regions in the local Universe. Stephan's Quintet is a favoured object for amateur astronomers and has earned a reputation as a challenging target for good hobby telescopes. The quintet is a prototype of a class of objects known as compact groups of galaxies and has been studied intensively for decades. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a close-up view of the central part of Stephan's Quintet, giving a magnificent view of a gigantic cosmic collision. Weird, highly distorted features, dust lanes crossing between galaxies and long filaments of stars and gas extending far beyond the central regions all suggest galaxies twisted by violent encounters. The galaxies float through space, distorted shapes moulded by tidal interactions, weaving together in the intricate figures of an immense cosmic dance, choreographed by gravity. This image comes from the large archive of scientific observations performed with the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a mosaic of two pointings with the WFPC2 instrument made in December 1998 and June 1999. The natural-colour composite has been constructed by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre from individual exposures in red light (814W filter, 2000 seconds), in green light (569W filter, 3200 seconds) and in blue light (450W filter, 6800 seconds). The image measures 3.7 x 2.5 arc-minute

Name: Stephan's Quintet
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Pegasus
Distance: 300 million light years
Release date: 25 October 2000, 15:00
Credit: ESA

Stephan's Quintet - A Mammoth Cosmic Collision (Ground-based view): Ground-based overview of Stephan's Quintet taken at the Kitt Peak National Observatory's 0.9-meter telescope in October of 1998 by Nigel Sharp. North is up, east is to the left.

Name: Stephan's Quintet
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Pegasus
Distance: 300 million light years
Release date: 25 October 2000, 15:00
Credit: N.A.Sharp/AURA/NOAO/NSF

Ants in space?: From ground-based telescopes, the so-called "ant nebula" (Menzel 3, or Mz 3) resembles the head and thorax of a garden-variety ant. This dramatic NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, showing 10 times more detail, reveals the "ant's" body as a pair of fiery lobes protruding from a dying, Sun-like star. The Hubble images directly challenge old ideas about the last stages in the lives of stars. By observing Sun-like stars as they approach their deaths, the Hubble Heritage image of Mz 3 - along with pictures of other planetary nebulae - shows that our Sun's fate probably will be more interesting, complex, and striking than astronomers imagined just a few years ago.

Name: Ant Nebula, Menzel 3, PN Mz 3
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Norma
Distance: 8000 light years
Release date: 1 February 2001, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Bar in spiral galaxy NGC 2903 (WFPC2): This colourful image, obtained by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a close-up of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2903. The galaxy bears a close resemblance to our Milky Way, which is also believed to be a barred spiral galaxy. Huge dust lanes appearing dark in the image and lots of young stars gathered in hot blue clusters, are sprinkled all over the spiral arms. Barred spirals are excellent laboratories with which to study the processes that trigger star formation. An international group of astronomers has used Hubble to study how the galaxys bar (seen as the reddish glow running diagonally through the image) feeds material to form new stars near the centre. The newly born stars show up partly in a so-called circumnuclear ring around the bright yellowish core of the galaxy and partly as bright star clusters (white knots in the circumnuclear ring). The image was combined from three separate exposures in visible light lasting 820 seconds. The red part of the image was exposed through a 820 nm filter, the green through a 520 nm filter and the blue through a 331 nm filter. Acknowledgements: The data that went into this Hubble image were originally obtained by: John Trauger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), John Hoessel (University of Wisconsin  Madison), Richard Griffiths (Carnegie Mellon University), Dave Crisp (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), John Clarke (University of Michigan), Christopher Burrows (Space Telescope Science Institute), J. Westphal (California Institute of Technology), Jeff Hester (Arizona State University), Jeremy Mould (National Optical Astronomy Observatories, AURA) and Jon Holtzman (New Mexico State University).

Name: IRAS 09293+2143, NGC 2903
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Barred
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Leo
Distance: 30 million light years
Release date: 27 February 2001, 15:00
Credit: ESA & NASA

Star Clusters and Circumnuclear Ring in the Centre of NGC 2903 (NICMOS): This image was obtained with the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (NICMOS) onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the region around the core of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2903. Several bright star clusters (white knots) are seen as well as the circumnuclear ring around the core. The reddish areas are regions of ionised hydrogen and regions where large amounts of dust partly obscure our view. The image was constructed from two infrared NICMOS exposures: 704 seconds through an 1870 nm filter (shown as red) and 192 seconds through a 1600 nm filter (shown as blue). The green colour in the image is a combination of these two exposures. Acknowledgement: The data that went into this Hubble image were originally obtained by William Sparks (Space Telescope Science Institute).

Name: IRAS 09293+2143, NGC 2903
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Barred
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Leo
Distance: 30 million light years
Release date: 27 February 2001, 15:00
Credit: ESA & NASA

Overview of NGC 2903 (ground-based): This ground-based overview image of NGC 2903 was taken with a 40 cm telescope (16 inch), and shows why this spiral galaxy is a favourite among amateur astronomers. The area viewed in detail by Hubble's WFPC2 camera is shown as an outline. Massive spiral arms are connected to the spiral's bar. The image is combined from 4 exposures totalling 88 minutes.

Name: IRAS 09293+2143, NGC 2903
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Barred
Category: Galaxies
Distance: 30 million light years
Release date: 27 February 2001, 15:00
Credit: Ryan Branch and Robin Milner/Adam Block/AURA/NOAO/NSF