A String of 'Cosmic Pearls' Surrounds an Exploding Star: Two decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years. Since that first sighting, the doomed star, called Supernova 1987A, has continued to fascinate astronomers with its spectacular light show. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is one of many observatories that has been monitoring the blast's aftermath. This image shows the entire region around the supernova. The most prominent feature in the image is a ring with dozens of bright spots. A shock wave of material unleashed by the stellar blast is slamming into regions along the ring's inner regions, heating them up, and causing them to glow. The ring, about a light-year across, was probably shed by the star about 20,000 years before it exploded. Astronomers detected the first bright spot in 1997, but now they see dozens of spots around the ring. Only Hubble can see the individual bright spots. In the next few years, the entire ring will be ablaze as it absorbs the full force of the crash. The glowing ring is expected to become bright enough to illuminate the star's surroundings, providing astronomers with new information on how the star expelled material before the explosion. The pink object in the centre of the ring is debris from the supernova blast. The glowing debris is being heated by radioactive elements, principally titanium 44, created in the explosion. The debris will continue to glow for many decades. The origin of a pair of faint outer red rings, located above and below the doomed star, is a mystery. The two bright objects that look like car headlights are a pair of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The supernova is located 163,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The image was taken in December 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Name: SN 1987A
Type: Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Category: Stars
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 22 February 2007, 16:55
Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

The "Comet Galaxy" as seen with Hubble: While looking at the galaxy cluster Abell 2667, astronomers found an odd-looking spiral galaxy (shown here in the upper left hand corner of the image) that ploughs through the cluster after being accelerated to at least 3.5 million km/h by the enormous combined gravity of the cluster's dark matter, hot gas and hundreds of galaxies.

Name: Abell 2667
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralEarly Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Sculptor
Distance: z=0.23 (redshift)
Release date: 2 March 2007, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, Jean-Paul Kneib (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille)

Wide field image of Abell 2667 region (ground-based image): Part of the constellation Sculptor centred on galaxy cluster. This image is a colour composite taken by the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), the field of view is 3.0x3.0 degrees.

Name: Abell 2667
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Sculptor
Distance: z=0.23 (redshift)
Release date: 2 March 2007, 15:00
Credit: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble), the ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator & Digitized Sky Survey 2

Stellar nursery in the arms of NGC 1672: The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, showing up clusters of hot young blue stars along its spiral arms, and clouds of hydrogen gas glowing in red. Delicate curtains of dust partially obscure and redden the light of the stars behind them. NGC 1672's symmetric look is emphasised by the four principal arms, edged by eye-catching dust lanes that extend out from the centre.

Name: NGC 1672
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Barred
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 60 million light years
Release date: 3 April 2007, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA

NGC 1672 in Dorado (ground-based image): A 2.7 x 2.9 degree wide field ground-based image of NGC 1672's region in the Southern constellation of Dorado. This image is a colour composite taken by the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2).

Name: NGC 1672
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Barred
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 60 million light years
Release date: 3 April 2007, 15:00
Credit: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble), the ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator & Digitized Sky Survey 2