Wide-field view of the Andromeda Galaxy: This ground-based image shows the full extent of the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31 or M 31. The Andromeda Galaxy appears very large in the sky — several times the size of the full Moon (although much fainter). Hubble is designed to make highly detailed observations of much smaller patches of sky: the space telescope’s observations of the Andromeda Galaxy show individual stars and clusters rather than the broad spiral structure visible here. Wide-field images like this one give a broad overview.

Name: Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Andromeda
Distance: 2 million light years
Release date: 21 July 2011, 10:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Stellar jets HH 47, HH 34 and HH 2: The glowing, clumpy streams of material shown in these NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images are the signposts of star birth. Ejected  episodically by young stars like cannon salvos, the blobby material  zips along at more than 700 000 kilometres per hour. The speedy jets are  confined to narrow beams by the powerful stellar magnetic field. Called  Herbig-Haro or HH objects, these outflows have a bumpy ride through  space. When  fast-moving blobs collide with slower-moving gas, bow shocks arise as  the material heats up. Bow shocks are glowing waves of material similar  to waves produced by the bow of a ship ploughing through water. In  HH 2, at lower right, several bow shocks can be seen where several  fast-moving clumps have bunched up like cars in a traffic jam. In HH 34,  at lower left, a grouping of merged bow shocks reveals regions that  brighten and fade over time as the heated material cools where the  shocks intersect. In  HH 47, at top, the blobs of material look like a string of cars on a  crowded motorway, which ends in a chain-reaction accident. The smash up  creates the bow shock, left. These  images are part of a series of time-lapse movies astronomers have made  showing the outflows’ motion over time. The movies were stitched  together from images taken over a 14-year period by Hubble’s Wide Field  Planetary Camera 2. Hubble followed the jets over three epochs: HH 2  from 1994, 1997, and 2007; HH 34 from 1994, 1998, and 2007; and HH 47  from 1994, 1999, and 2008. The  outflows are roughly 1350 light-years from Earth. HH 34 and HH 2 reside  near the Orion Nebula, in the northern sky. HH 47 is located in the  southern constellation of Vela.

Name: HH 2, HH 34, HH 47
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Young Stellar ObjectMilky Way : Nebula : Type : Jet
Category: NebulaeStars
Release date: 31 August 2011, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and P. Hartigan (Rice University)

Close-up views of stellar jet HH 34: These  images taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show how a bright,  clumpy jet, ejected from a young star, has changed over time. The  jet, called Herbig-Haro 34 (or HH 34), is a signpost of star birth.  Several bright regions in the clumps signify where material is slamming  into other patches of material, heating up, and glowing. The images show  that a couple of bright areas on the right faded over time, as heated  material cooled. Two regions at left, however, brightened over the  14-year span of observations, pinpointing fresh collision sites. Ejected  episodically by a young star like cannon salvos, the blobby material in  HH 34 zips along at more than 700 000 kilometres per hour. The speedy  jet is confined to narrow beams by the powerful stellar magnetic field. These  images are part of a series of time-lapse movies astronomers have made  showing the motion of several Herbig-Haro jets over time. The movies  were stitched together from images taken over a 14-year period by  Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Hubble followed the HH 34 jets  over three epochs, 1994, 1998, and 2007. HH 34 is roughly 1350 light-years from Earth, near the Orion Nebula.

Name: HH 34
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Young Stellar ObjectMilky Way : Nebula : Type : Jet
Category: Stars
Distance: 1400 light years
Release date: 31 August 2011, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and P. Hartigan (Rice University)

Herbig-Haro objects in the Orion Complex (ground-based image): This  image from the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) 4-metre telescope  shows a roughly 1/2-degree square region of the sky in the constellation  of Orion (about the same size as the diameter of the full Moon). This  is a small part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a giant region of  gas and dust undergoing active star formation some 1500 light-years  away. Numerous  small knots known as Herbig-Haro Objects, labelled in white on the  illustration, are signatures of recently formed stars ejecting material  into space. The three HH objects labelled in green have been subjects of  intense study by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope over several  years, resulting in a better understanding of how the material ejected  from stars interacts with the surrounding medium.

Name: Orion Complex
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Young Stellar ObjectMilky Way : Nebula : Type : Jet
Category: NebulaeStars
Distance: 1400 light years
Release date: 31 August 2011, 15:00
Credit: Z. Levay (STScI), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), and H. Schweiker (NOAO/AURA/NSF)

Hubble image of irregular galaxy Holmberg II: The  NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this image of dwarf  irregular galaxy Holmberg II. The galaxy is dominated by huge bubbles of  glowing gas, which are sites of ongoing star formation. As  high-mass stars form in dense regions of gas and dust they expel strong  stellar winds that blow away the surrounding material. The cavities are  also blown clear of gas by the shock waves produced in supernovae, the  violent explosions that mark the end of the lives of massive stars.

Name: Holmberg II
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : IrregularLocal Universe : Galaxy : Size : Dwarf
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: 11 million light years
Release date: 29 September 2011, 14:30
Credit: NASA & ESA

Wide-field image of irregular galaxy Holmberg II (ground-based image): This  image from a ground-based telescope shows a wide view around galaxy  Holmberg II. Holmberg II is dominated by huge glowing bubbles of gas  which are sites of ongoing star formation.

Name: Holmberg II
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : IrregularLocal Universe : Galaxy : Size : Dwarf
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: 11 million light years
Release date: 29 September 2011, 14:30
Credit: NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2 (Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin)

Hubble image of galaxy cluster MACS J1206: This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster MACS J1206. Galaxy clusters like these have enormous mass, and their gravity is powerful enough to visibly bend the path of light, somewhat like a magnifying glass. These clusters are useful tools for studying very distant objects, because this lens-like behaviour amplifies the light from faraway galaxies in the background. They also contribute to a range of topics in cosmology, as the precise nature of the lensed images encapsulates information about the properties of spacetime, the expansion of the cosmos and the distribution of dark matter within the cluster. This is one of 25 clusters being studied as part of the CLASH (Cluster Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble) programme, a major project to build a library of scientific data on lensing clusters.

Name: MACS J1206.2-0847
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 4 billion light years
Release date: 13 October 2011, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Postman (STScI) and the CLASH Team