Hubble studies sequences of star formation in neighbouring galaxy [full WFPC2 frame]: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the iridescent tapestry of star birth in a neighbouring galaxy in this panoramic view of glowing gas, dark dust clouds, and young, hot stars. The star-forming region, catalogued as N11B lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), located only 160,000 light-years from Earth. With its high resolution, the Hubble Space Telescope is able to view details of star formation in the LMC as easily as ground-based telescopes are able to observe stellar formation within our own Milky Way galaxy. Our neighbourhood galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) lies in the Constellation of Dorado and is sprinkled with a number of regions harbouring recent and ongoing star formation. One of these star-forming region, N11B, is shown in this Hubble image. It is a subregion within a larger area of star formation called N11. N11 is the second largest star-forming region in LMC. It is only surpassed in the size and activity by "the king of stellar nurseries", 30 Doradus, located at the opposite side of LMC. This image shows the full Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 frame.

Name: LHA 120-N 11B, N11B
Type: Local Universe : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 150000 light years
Release date: 1 July 2004, 15:00
Credit: NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)/HEIC

The Large Magellanic Cloud: This ground-based image of the Large Magellanic Cloud was taken by the German astrophotographer Eckhard Slawik. It spans 10 x 10 degrees. Just to the left of the middle of this image the largest star-forming region in the Local Group of galaxies, 30 Doradus, is seen as a red patch. N11B itself is seen in the upper right part of the LMC.

Name: Large Magellanic Cloud, LHA 120-N 11B, N11B
Type: Local Universe : Nebula : Type : Star FormationLocal Universe : Galaxy : Size : DwarfLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Irregular
Category: GalaxiesNebulae
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 150000 light years
Release date: 1 July 2004, 15:00
Credit: ÷ Eckhard Slawik (e.slawik@gmx.net)

Close-up on N11B (ground-based image): This is a ground-based view of the N11B in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The image spans a square of one degree and was constructed from two images from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 taken through infrared and red filters (shown as blue and red respectively).

Name: LHA 120-N 11B, N11B
Type: Local Universe : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 150000 light years
Release date: 1 July 2004, 15:00
Credit: NASA/ESA and Digitized Sky Survey 2

The planetary nebula NGC 5979: This previously unreleased colour image of the planetary nebula NGC 5979 is a composite of raw FITS files made with the ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator. The image was composed from four individual exposures taken through: A blue narrow-band filter (502 nm, 460 seconds showing the forbidden OIII line), A green wide-band filter (555 nm, 240 seconds), An orange-red narrow-band filter (658 nm, 1200 seconds showing the forbidden NII line), A red, or near-infrared, wide-band filter (814 nm, 480 seconds). Stars like the Sun spend most of their life quietly converting hydrogen into helium. However when the hydrogen in the stellar core is exhausted, they start a short phase of much more rapid evolution, growing in size and brightness, to become cooler red giants that begin to eject large amounts of gas and dust as a slow stellar wind. When the star has lost most of its mass, it heats up again and brightens so that the ejected material begins to glow. At the same time a faster wind sweeps through to clear out the cocoon of obscuring material and so a planetary nebula is born.

Name: IRAS Z15434-6103, NGC 5979
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Distance: 9000 light years
Release date: 8 July 2004, 15:00
Credit: ESA, ESO and NASA

Hubble peers inside a celestial geode: In this unusual image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the celestial equivalent of a geode - a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet radiation from a young hot star. Real geodes are handball-sized, hollow rocks that start out as bubbles in volcanic or sedimentary rock. Only when these inconspicuous round rocks are split in half by a geologist, do we get a chance to appreciate the inside of the rock cavity that is lined with crystals. In the case of Hubble's 35 light-year diameter "celestial geode" the transparency of its bubble-like cavity of interstellar gas and dust reveals the treasures of its interior.

Name: LHA 120-N 44F, N44F
Type: Local Universe : Nebula : Appearance : Emission : H II Region
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 150000 light years
Release date: 12 August 2004, 15:00
Credit: ESA/NASA, Yäel Nazé (University of Liège, Belgium) and You-Hua Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana, USA)

Dying star creates fantasy-like sculpture of gas and dust: In this detailed view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the so-called Cat's Eye Nebula looks like the penetrating eye of the disembodied sorcerer Sauron from the film adaptation of "Lord of the Rings." The nebula, formally catalogued NGC 6543, is every bit as inscrutable as the J.R.R. Tolkien phantom character. Although the Cat's Eye Nebula was among the first planetary nebula ever to be discovered, it is one of the most complex planetary nebulae ever seen in space. A planetary nebula forms when Sun-like stars gently eject their outer gaseous layers to form bright nebulae with amazing twisted shapes.

Name: Cat's Eye Nebula, NGC 6543
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Draco
Distance: 3000 light years
Release date: 9 September 2004, 15:00
Credit: ESA, NASA, HEIC and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

The Cat's Eye Nebula imaged with the Nordic Optical Telescope: An enormous but extremely faint halo of gaseous material surrounds the Cat's Eye Nebula and is over three light-years across. Within the past years some planetary nebulae been found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material ejected during earlier active episodes in the star's evolution - most likely some 50,000 to 90,000 years ago. This image was taken by Romano Corradi with the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands. The image is constructed from two narrow-band exposures showing oxygen atoms (1800 seconds, in blue) and nitrogen atoms (1800 seconds, in red).

Name: Cat's Eye Nebula, IRAS 17584+6638A, NGC 6543
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Draco
Distance: 3000 light years
Release date: 9 September 2004, 15:00
Credit: Nordic Optical Telescope and Romano Corradi (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Spain)

Cat's Eye Nebula image imaged with Digitized Sky Survey 2 (ground-based image): The image of the area around the Cat's Eye Nebula was composed from three Digitized Sky Survey 2 images taken through blue, red and infrared filters. The image spans 1 x 1 degree.

Name: Cat's Eye Nebula, IRAS 17584+6638A, NGC 6543
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Draco
Distance: 3000 light years
Release date: 9 September 2004, 15:00
Credit: ESA and Digitized Sky Survey 2