Digitized Sky Survey Image of NGC 4402 (ground-based image): A wide-field image of the region around NGC 4402 constructed from the images in the Digitized Sky Survey. The field-of-view is approximately 4.2 degrees x 4.2 degrees.

Name: NGC 4402
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 30 September 2009, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Digitized Sky Survey Image of NGC 4402 (ground-based image): A wide-field image of the region around NGC 4402 constructed from the images in the Digitized Sky Survey. The field-of-view is approximately 4.2 degrees x 4.2 degrees.

Name: NGC 4402
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 30 September 2009, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Digitized Sky Survey Image of NGC 4402 (ground-based image): A wide-field image of the region around NGC 4402 constructed from the images in the Digitized Sky Survey. The field-of-view is approximately 4.2 degrees x 4.2 degrees.

Name: NGC 4402
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 30 September 2009, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Hubble views results of NGC 2623 merger: Not surprisingly, interacting galaxies have a dramatic effect on each other. Studies have revealed that as galaxies approach one another massive amounts of gas are pulled from each galaxy towards the centre of the other, until ultimately, the two merge into one massive galaxy. NGC 2623 is in the late stages of the merging process, with the centres of the original galaxy pair now merged into one nucleus, but stretching out from the centre are two tidal tails of young stars, a strong indicator that a merger has taken place. During such a collision, the dramatic exchange of mass and gases initiates star formation, seen here in both the tails. The prominent lower tail is richly populated with bright star clusters — 100 of them have been found in these observations. These star clusters may have formed as part of a loop of stretched material associated with the northern tail, or they may have formed from debris falling back onto the nucleus. In addition to this active star-forming region, both galactic arms harbour very young stars in the early stages of their evolutionary journey.

Name: NGC 2623
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Cancer
Distance: 300 million light years
Release date: 13 October 2009, 10:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Evans (Stony Brook University, New York, University of Virginia & National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, USA)

Wide-field view of the region around NGC 2623 (ground-based image): A wide-field image of the region around NGC 2623 constructed from Digitized Sky Survey 2 images. The field of view is approximately 3.0 degrees x 3.0 degrees.

Name: NGC 2623
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Cancer
Distance: 300 million light years
Release date: 13 October 2009, 10:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

A wide-field view of the constellation of Cancer (ground-based image): The constellation of Cancer (the Crab) is shown in the centre-left in this picture of the northern sky, taken with a small ground-based camera.

Name: Cancer
Type: Milky Way : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Constellation
Category: Stars
Release date: 13 October 2009, 10:00
Credit: A. Fujii

A Hubble gem: the Jewel Box: This image is a "close-up' view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 4755, or the Jewel Box cluster. Several very bright, pale blue supergiant stars, a solitary ruby-red supergiant and a variety of other brilliantly coloured stars are visible in the image, as well as many much fainter ones, often with intriguing colours. The huge variety in brightness exists because the brighter stars are 15 to 20 times the mass of the Sun, while the dimmest stars are less than half the mass of the Sun. This is the first image of an open galactic cluster with imaging extending from the far ultraviolet to the near-infrared.

Name: NGC 4755
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Open
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Crux
Distance: 6500 light years
Release date: 29 October 2009, 10:00
Credit: NASA/ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)

A snapshot of the Jewel Box cluster with the ESO VLT: The FORS1 instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO's Paranal Observatory was used to take this exquisitely sharp close up view of the colourful Jewel Box cluster, NGC 4755. The telescopes huge mirror allowed very short exposure times: just 2.6 seconds through a blue filter, 1.3 seconds through a yellow/green filter and 1.3 seconds through a red filter. The field of view spans about seven arcminutes.

Name: NGC 4755
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Open
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Crux
Distance: 6500 light years
Release date: 29 October 2009, 10:00
Credit: ESO

Wide field image of the Jewel Box (ground-based image): This image of the well-known NGC 4755 cluster or Jewel Box was taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory. It highlights the cluster and its rich surroundings in all their multicoloured glory. The field of view is 20 arcminutes across. The picture is based on images obtained through B, V and I filters.

Name: NGC 4755
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Open
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Crux
Distance: 6500 light years
Release date: 29 October 2009, 10:00
Credit: ESO

Digitized Sky Survey Image of NGC 4755 (ground-based image): A wide-field image of the region around NGC 4755 constructed from the data from Digitized Sky Survey 2. The bright star is Mimosa, one of the main four stars in the Southern Cross. The darkness towards the bottom of the image is part of the Coal Sack, a vast area of obscuring dust easily visible to the unaided eye. The field of view is approximately 2.8 degrees x 2.9 degrees.

Name: NGC 4755
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Open
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Crux
Distance: 6500 light years
Release date: 29 October 2009, 10:00
Credit: ESO, ESA/Hubble and Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)