Ground-based view of the area around star-forming region S 106: This image shows a ground-based telescope image of the region around star forming region Sh 2-106, or S106 for short. S106 is a compact star-forming region in the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan).

Name: Sh 2-106
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Cygnus
Distance: 3300 light years
Release date: 15 December 2011, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2 (Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin)

Hubble spies building blocks of most distant galaxy cluster: The composite image at left, taken in visible and near-infrared light, reveals the location of five galaxies clustered together just 600 million years after the Universe’s birth in the Big Bang. The circles pinpoint the galaxies. The sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spied the galaxies in a random sky survey. The developing cluster is the most distant ever observed. The average distance between them is comparable to that of the galaxies in the Local Group, consisting of two large spiral galaxies, the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy, and a few dozen small dwarf galaxies. The close-up images at right, taken in near-infrared light, show the galaxies. Simulations show that the galaxies will eventually merge and form the brightest central galaxy in the cluster, a giant elliptical similar to the Virgo cluster’s Messier 87. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the Universe, comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The developing cluster presumably will grow into a massive galactic city, similar in size to the nearby Virgo Cluster, a collection of more than 2000 galaxies.

Name: BoRG-58
Type: Early Universe : Star : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Star Clusters
Distance: z=8.0 (redshift)
Release date: 10 January 2012, 17:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Trenti (University of Cambridge, UK and University  of Colorado, Boulder, USA), L. Bradley (STScI), and the BoRG team

Hubble image of NGC 1073: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, which is found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is thought to be a similar barred spiral, and the study of galaxies such as NGC 1073 can help astronomers learn more about our celestial home.

Name: IXO 5, J024333.6+012222, NGC 1073, PKS 0241+011, QSO B0240+011, VV96
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Cetus
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 3 February 2012, 10:00
Credit: NASA & ESA

Labelled Hubble image of NGC 1073, showing quasars and IXO 5: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, which is found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). The three star-like objects labelled here, PKS 0241+011, QSO B0240+011 and [VV96] J024333.6+012222, are actually not part of the galaxy. They are not even stars. They are quasars, incredibly bright sources of light caused by matter heating up and falling into supermassive black holes in galaxies literally billions of light-years from us. From our distant perspective, they look like faint stars, but they are in fact some of the brightest objects in the Universe. Another object in this field which has been studied by astronomers is a source of X-rays catalogued as IXO 5. X-ray sources are a tell-tale sign of high-energy phenomena. In this case, it is likely to be a binary system featuring a star and a black hole. As X-ray telescopes have less resolution than Hubble does, pinpointing the specific star in Hubble’s image that corresponds to the X-ray emissions is tough. In this case, it could be either one of two faint stars at the centre of the circle.

Name: IXO 5, J024333.6+012222, NGC 1073, PKS 0241+011, QSO B0240+011, VV96
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 3 February 2012, 10:00
Credit: NASA & ESA

Wide-field view of NGC 1073 and its surroundings (ground-based image): This image from a ground-based telescope shows the location of and region surrounding NGC 1073.Several other galaxies are also visible here, most obviously NGC 1055, seen side-on, and Messier 77, seen face-on, both near the bottom of the frame.

Name: NGC 1073
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Cetus
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 3 February 2012, 10:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2 (Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin)

Star cluster surrounds wayward black hole in cannibal galaxy ESO 243-49 (labelled): This spectacular edge-on galaxy, called ESO 243-49, is home to an intermediate-mass black hole that may have been purloined from a cannibalised dwarf galaxy. The black hole, with an estimated mass of 20 000 Suns, lies above the galactic plane. This is an unlikely place for such a massive back hole to exist, unless it belonged to a small galaxy that was gravitationally torn apart by ESO 243-49. The circle identifies a unique X-ray source that pinpoints the black hole. The X-rays are believed to be radiation from a hot accretion disc around the black hole. The blue light not only comes from a hot accretion disc, but also from a cluster of hot young stars that formed around the black hole. The galaxy is 290 million light-years from Earth. Hubble can’t resolve the stars individually because the suspected cluster is too far away. Their presence is inferred from the colour and brightness of the light coming from the black hole’s location.

Name: ESO 243-49, ESO 243-49 HLX-1
Type: Local Universe : Star : Grouping : ClusterLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Distance: 300 million light years
Release date: 15 February 2012, 16:45
Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Farrell (University of Sydney, Australia and University of Leicester, UK)