Ground-based view of NGC 1512 (WFPC2 overlay): This ground-based image is 0.15 degrees wide and shows where Hubble pointed its cameras. The horizontal bar in this spiral galaxy is visible and so is an outer ring of star formation. This image is issued jointly by NASA and ESA.

Name: IRAS 04022-4329, NGC 1512
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Barred
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Horologium
Distance: 40 million light years
Release date: 31 May 2001, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, Dan Maoz (Tel-Aviv University, Israel, and Columbia University, USA)

Ground-based view of NGC 1512: This ground-based image is 0.15 degrees wide and shows a ground-based view of the galaxy NGC 1512. The image is from the Digitized Sky Survey II. This image is issued jointly by NASA and ESA.

Name: IRAS 04022-4329, NGC 1512
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Barred
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Horologium
Distance: 40 million light years
Release date: 31 May 2001, 15:00
Credit: Digitized Sky Survey.

Hint of planet-sized drifters bewilders Hubble scientists (WFPC2 view): This image shows the globular cluster M22 as seen with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's workhorse instrument, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. A team of American and European astronomers has studied the cluster in search for traces of short-lived brightening, due to an effect called microlensing, of faint stars in the background (too faint to be seen in this representation). Seven microlensing events were seen: one 'normal' event where a dwarf star in M22 passed in front of a background star, and six short events strongly suggesting the existence of 'free-floating' planet-sized objects in M22. If confirmed these planets would be the smallest detected which are not orbiting any star. M22, also known as NGC 6656, is the brightest globular cluster visible from the Northern hemisphere and it is an easy naked eye object. The 12 to 14 billion year old cluster is about 8, 500 light years distant and about 65 light years across. Its angular diameter is 24 arc minutes or almost the size of the full Moon. This Hubble view measures about 3 light years across.

Name: Messier 22, NGC 6656
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Sagittarius
Distance: 10000 light years
Release date: 27 June 2001, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA & K. Sahu (STScI)

Hint of planet-sized drifters bewilders Hubble scientists (ground-based view): This is a ground-based view of the globular cluster M22 made from CCD images taken in June 1995 at the Burrell Schmidt telescope of the Warner and Swasey Observatory of the Case Western Reserve University, located on Kitt Peak in Southwestern Arizona, USA.

Name: Messier 22, NGC 6656
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Sagittarius
Distance: 10000 light years
Release date: 27 June 2001, 15:00
Credit: N.A.Sharp, REU program/AURA/NOAO/NSF

The constellation Sagittarius (Annotated ground-based view): The constellation Sagittarius (the Archer), home to the globular cluster M22, is one of the best known constellations in the sky. Sagittarius contains a large number of famous nebulae and star clusters due to the presence of some of the richest star fields of the Milky Way. The very centre of the Milky Way lies in the direction of Sagittarius. Some of the brighter stars in Sagittarius are known as the Teapot, the shape of which is indicated by the lines here (handle to the left, spout to the right).

Name: Constellation Sagittarius, Messier 22
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : GlobularMilky Way : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Constellation
Category: Stars
Distance: 10000 light years
Release date: 27 June 2001, 15:00
Credit: ESA, NASA & Akira Fujii

The constellation Sagittarius (ground-based image): The constellation Sagittarius (the Archer), home to the globular cluster M22, is one of the best known constellations in the sky. Sagittarius contains a large number of famous nebulae and star clusters due to the presence of some of the richest star fields of the Milky Way. The very centre of the Milky Way lies in the direction of Sagittarius. Some of the brighter stars in Sagittarius are known as the Teapot, the shape of which is indicated by the lines here (handle to the left, spout to the right). The constellation Sagittarius (the Archer), home to the globular cluster M22 (in the centre), is one of the best known constellations in the sky. Sagittarius contains a large number of famous nebulae and star clusters due to the presence of some of the richest star fields of the Milky Way. The very centre of the Milky Way lies in the direction of Sagittarius. Some of the brighter stars in Sagittarius are known as the Teapot.

Name: Messier 22, Sagittarius Region
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : GlobularMilky Way : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Constellation
Category: Star Clusters
Distance: 10000 light years
Release date: 27 June 2001, 15:00
Credit: ESA, NASA & Akira Fujii

Hubble images remarkable double cluster: Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighbouring dwarf galaxies, this young globular-like star cluster is surrounded by a pattern of filamentary nebulosity that is thought to have been created during supernova blasts. It consists of a main globular cluster in the centre and a younger, smaller cluster, seen below and to the right, composed of extremely hot, blue stars and fainter, red T-Tauri stars. This wide variety of stars allows a thorough study of star formation processes.

Name: NGC 1850
Type: Local Universe : Star : Grouping : Cluster
Category: NebulaeStar Clusters
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 180000 light years
Release date: 10 July 2001, 15:00
Credit: ESA, NASA and Martino Romaniello (European Southern Observatory, Germany)

The Red Spider Nebula: surfing in Sagittarius - not for the faint-hearted!: Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbours one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.

Name: NGC 6537, Red Spider Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Sagittarius
Distance: 6000 light years
Release date: 24 July 2001, 15:00
Credit: ESA & Garrelt Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands)

2001 KX76 - the record-breaking asteroid observed with Astrovirtel: This image is a colour composite image, based on three exposures with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory. The exposures were made through V, R and I-band filters. On the image another (closer) asteroid reveals itself - the coloured dots to the left reveal that this object moved between the three exposures.

Name: Asteroid 2001 KX76
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Asteroid
Category: Solar System
Release date: 23 August 2001, 15:00
Credit: ESA, ESO, Astrovirtel & Gerhard Hahn (German Aerospace Center, DLR)