Hubble watches light echo from mysterious erupting star (September 2002 image): This is the second in a sequence of four pictures from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys that dramatically demonstrates the echoing of light through space caused by an unusual stellar outburst in January 2002. The image was taken 2 September 2002. The image is combined from exposures taken through blue (B), green (V), and infrared (I) filters.

Name: IRAS 07015-0346, V838 Mon
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Red SupergiantMilky Way : Star : Type : Variable
Category: Stars
Constellation: Monoceros
Distance: 20000 light years
Release date: 26 March 2003, 15:00
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and H.E. Bond (STScI )

Hubble watches light echo from mysterious erupting star (October 2002 image): This is the third in a sequence of four pictures from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys that dramatically demonstrates the echoing of light through space caused by an unusual stellar outburst in January 2002. The image was taken 28 October 2002. The image is combined from exposures taken through blue (B), green (V), and infrared (I) filters.

Name: IRAS 07015-0346, V838 Mon
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Red SupergiantMilky Way : Star : Type : Variable
Category: Stars
Constellation: Monoceros
Distance: 20000 light years
Release date: 26 March 2003, 15:00
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and H.E. Bond (STScI )

Hubble watches light echo from mysterious erupting star (December 2002 image): This is the first in a sequence of four pictures from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys that dramatically demonstrates the echoing of light through space caused by an unusual stellar outburst in January 2002. The image was taken 17 December 2002. The image is combined from exposures taken through blue (B), green (V), and infrared (I) filters.

Name: IRAS 07015-0346, V838 Mon
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Red SupergiantMilky Way : Star : Type : Variable
Category: Stars
Constellation: Monoceros
Distance: 20000 light years
Release date: 26 March 2003, 15:00
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and H.E. Bond (STScI )

V838 Monocerotis in April 2002: Image showing star V838 Monocerotis in April 30, 2002, after the outburst.

Name: IRAS 07015-0346, V838 Mon
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Red SupergiantMilky Way : Star : Type : Variable
Category: Stars
Constellation: Monoceros
Distance: 20000 light years
Release date: 26 March 2003, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and H. E. Bond (STScI).

A perfect storm of turbulent gases: Like the fury of a raging sea, this anniversary image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a bubbly ocean of glowing hydrogen, oxygen, and sulphur gas in the extremely massive and luminous molecular nebula Messier 17. This Hubble photograph captures a small region within Messier 17 (M17), a hotbed of star formation. M17, also known as the Omega or Swan Nebula, is located about 5500 light-years away in the Sagittarius constellation. The release of this image commemorates the thirteenth anniversary of Hubble's launch on 24 April 1990. The wave-like patterns of gas have been sculpted and illuminated by a torrent of ultraviolet radiation from young, massive stars (which lie outside the picture to the upper left). The glow of these patterns highlights the 3D structure of the gases. The ultraviolet radiation is carving and heating the surfaces of cold hydrogen gas clouds. The warmed surfaces glow orange and red in this image. The intense heat and pressure cause some material to stream away from the surface, creating the glowing veil of even hotter green-coloured gas that masks background structures. The pressure on the tips of the waves may trigger new star formation within them. The image, roughly 3 light-years across, was taken on 29-30 May 1999, with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The colours in the image represent various gases. Red represents sulphur; green, hydrogen; and blue, oxygen.

Name: Messier 17
Type: Milky Way : Nebula
Category: AnniversaryNebulae
Constellation: Sagittarius
Distance: 5500 light years
Release date: 24 April 2003, 15:00
Credit: European Space Agency, NASA, and J. Hester (Arizona State University)

Messier 17, the Omega Nebula (NOAO image): This is a ground-based overview of the Omega or Swan Nebula. The outline of the field observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is shown.

Name: Lobster Nebula, M 17, Messier 17, NGC 6618, Omega Nebula, Swan
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Category: Nebulae
Distance: 5500 light years
Release date: 24 April 2003, 15:00
Credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF

Sagittarius constellation (ground-based image): This photo was taken by the Japanese astrophotographer Akira Fujii and shows a full view of the constellation of Sagittarius, also known as the 'Teapot'. In the bottom right corner, the Omega or Swan Nebula (also known as Messier 17) is marked. The box corresponds to the NOAO image of this nebula.

Name: Constellation Sagittarius
Type: Milky Way : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Constellation
Category: Stars
Release date: 24 April 2003, 15:00
Credit: Akira Fujii

Finding the ashes of the first stars [artist's impression]: Artist's impression of a quasar located in a primeval galaxy (or protogalaxy) a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to discover substantial amount of iron in three such quasars. This is the first time that anyone has found elements believed to have been created exclusively by the first generation of stars. Information about the very first generation of stars has been one of the Universe's best-kept secrets. When the first stars ended their lives as supernovae, the explosions expelled gas into space. These 'ashes' contained heavier elements such as oxygen, carbon, silicon, and iron created in the nuclear furnaces within the centres of stars. This new discovery allows astronomers to construct a revised timescale for the history of the Universe. About 13.7 thousand million years ago, the Universe is created in the Big Bang. In this cataclysmic hot explosion, hydrogen and helium are almost the only substances present. As the gases cool, the Universe becomes transparent and the gases start to gather. After 200 million years, the first generation of stars form. About 500 to 800 million years later, these first stars explode as supernovae, dispersing elements like iron and other elements into the surroundings. The new observations suggest that the first stars formed before the supermassive black holes that power the quasar engines in the centres of galaxies. The light from the quasars has travelled for 12.8 thousand million years before reaching Hubble and had left the quasars only 900 million years after the Big Bang.

Name: Quasar
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGN : Quasar
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 30 April 2003, 15:00
Credit: European Space Agency and Wolfram Freudling (Space Telescope-European Coordinating Facility/European Southern Observatory, Germany)