Compass and scale image of HUDF infrared: Compass and scale image of HUDF Infrared

Name: Hubble Ultra Deep Field
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 5 January 2010, 16:30
Credit: NASA, ESA and Z. Levay (STScI)

ACS image of ESO 306-17: This image from the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope highlights the large and bright elliptical galaxy called ESO 306-17 in the southern sky. In this image, it appears that ESO 306-17 is surrounded by other galaxies but the bright galaxies at bottom left are thought to be in the foreground, not at the same distance in the sky. In reality, ESO 306-17 lies fairly abandoned in an enormous sea of dark matter and hot gas. Researchers are also using this image to search for nearby ultra-compact dwarf galaxies. Ultra-compact dwarfs are mini versions of dwarf galaxies that have been left with only their core due to interaction with larger, more powerful galaxies. Most ultra-compact dwarfs discovered to date are located near giant elliptical galaxies in large clusters of galaxies, so it will be interesting to see if researchers find similar objects in fossil groups.

Name: ESO 306-17
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Elliptical
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Columba
Distance: 500 million light years
Release date: 4 March 2010, 16:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and Michael West (ESO)

Mass distribution in the COSMOS field: This image shows a smoothed reconstruction of the total (mostly dark) matter distribution in the COSMOS field, created from data taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes. It was inferred from the weak gravitational lensing distortions that are imprinted onto the shapes of background galaxies. The colour coding indicates the distance of the foreground mass concentrations as gathered from the weak lensing effect. Structures shown in white, cyan, and green are typically closer to us than those indicated in orange and red. To improve the resolution of the map, data from galaxies both with and without redshift information were used. The new study presents the most comprehensive analysis of data from the COSMOS survey. The researchers have, for the first time ever, used Hubble and the natural "weak lenses" in space to characterise the accelerated expansion of the Universe.

Name: COSMOS FIELD
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : ClusterEarly Universe : Cosmology : Phenomenon : Dark Matter
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Sextans
Release date: 25 March 2010, 12:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Simon (University of Bonn) and T. Schrabback (Leiden Observatory)

The field around the COSMOS survey (ground-based image): This image shows the COSMOS field and is a colour composite made from Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2) exposure. The field of view is 3.3 x 3.3 degrees.

Name: COSMOS FIELD
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Sextans
Release date: 25 March 2010, 12:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Hubble snaps heavyweight of the Leo Triplet: Hubble has snapped a spectacular view of M 66, the largest "player" of the Leo Triplet, and a galaxy with an unusual anatomy: it displays asymmetric spiral arms and an apparently displaced core. The peculiar anatomy is most likely caused by the gravitational pull of the other two members of the trio. The unusual spiral galaxy, Messier 66, is located at a distance of about 35 million light-years in the constellation of Leo. Together with Messier 65 and NGC 3628, Messier 66 is the member of the Leo Triplet, a trio of interacting spiral galaxies, part of the larger Messier 66 group. Messier 66 wins in size over its fellow triplets — it is about 100 000 light-years across. This is a composite of images obtained through the following filters: 814W (near infrared), 555W (green) and H-alpha (showing the glowing of the hydrogen gas). They have been combined so to represent the real colours of the galaxy.

Name: Messier 66
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Leo
Distance: 35 million light years
Release date: 8 April 2010, 16:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler

Wide-field view of Messier 66 (ground-based image): This wide-field image of the sky around the spiral galaxy Messier 66 was created from photographs forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Located about 35 million light-years away from Earth, this galaxy is about 100 000 light-years across. The field of view is approximately 3.0 by 2.2 degrees across.

Name: Messier 66
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Leo
Distance: 35 million light years
Release date: 8 April 2010, 16:00
Credit: NASA, ESA and and Digitized Sky Survey 2 . Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Hubble captures view of “Mystic Mountain”: This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, which is even more dramatic than fiction, captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks. This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. The image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble's launch and deployment into an orbit around the Earth. Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from super-hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of hot ionised gas can be seen flowing off the ridges of the structure, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks. The denser parts of the pillar are resisting being eroded by radiation. Nestled inside this dense mountain are fledgling stars. Long streamers of gas can be seen shooting in opposite directions from the pedestal at the top of the image. Another pair of jets is visible at another peak near the centre of the image. These jets, (known as HH 901 and HH 902, respectively, are signposts for new star birth and are launched by swirling gas and dust discs around the young stars, which allow material to slowly accrete onto the stellar surfaces. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 observed the pillar on 1-2 February 2010. The colours in this composite image correspond to the glow of oxygen (blue), hydrogen and nitrogen (green), and sulphur (red).

Name: Carina Nebula, HH 901, HH 902
Type: Milky Way : NebulaMilky Way : Nebula : Type : Jet
Category: AnniversaryNebulae
Constellation: Carina
Distance: 7500 light years
Release date: 23 April 2010, 10:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)