Hubble’s colourful view of the Universe: Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have captured the most comprehensive picture ever assembled of the evolving Universe — and one of the most colourful. The study is called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UVUDF) project.

Name: Universe
Type: Unspecified : Cosmology
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Fornax
Release date: 3 June 2014, 20:15
Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI)

GOODS field containing distant dwarf galaxies forming stars at an incredible rate: This image shows a region of space containing a sample of dwarf galaxies studied by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to unlock the secrets of star formation in the early Universe. Hiding amongst these thousands of galaxies are faint dwarf galaxies that reside in the early Universe, between two and six billion years after the Big Bang, an important time period when most of the stars in the Universe were formed. Some of these galaxies are undergoing starbursts and have been studied by astronomers to deduce their contribution to star formation in this crucial era of the Universe’s history. The image is part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), and this image shows only one section that the survey covered.

Name: GOODS field
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Size : Dwarf
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Fornax
Release date: 19 June 2014, 14:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, the GOODS Team and M. Giavalisco (STScI/University of Massachusetts)

GOODS field containing distant dwarf galaxies forming stars at an incredible rate (annotated): This image shows the area containing a sample of dwarf galaxies studied to unlock secrets of star formation in the early Universe. Highlighted are faint dwarf galaxies that reside in the early Universe, between two and six billion years after the Big Bang, an important time period when most of the stars in the Universe were formed. Some of these galaxies are undergoing starbursts and have been studied by astronomers to deduce their contribution to star formation in this crucial era of the Universe’s history. The image is part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), and this image shows only one section that the survey covered.

Name: GOODS field
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Size : Dwarf
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 19 June 2014, 14:00
Credit: Image credit: NASA, ESA, the GOODS Team and M. Giavalisco (STScI/University of Massachusetts) Acknowledgement: H.Atek (EPFL, Switzerland) and J-P.Kneib (EPFL, Switzerland)

Supermassive black hole at the heart of NGC 5548: This is the galaxy known as NGC 5548. At its heart, though not visible here, is a supermassive black hole behaving in a strange and unexpected manner. Researchers detected a clumpy gas stream flowing quickly outwards and blocking 90 percent of the X-rays emitted by the black hole. This activity could provide insights into how supermassive black holes interact with their host galaxies.

Name: NGC 5548
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: GalaxiesQuasars and Black Holes
Constellation: Bootes
Distance: 250 million light years
Release date: 19 June 2014, 20:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA. Acknowledgement: Davide de Martin.

Artist’s impression of gas filament eclipsing a black hole: This artist’s impression illustrates the finding, by an international team of astronomers, of a clumpy gas stream flowing quickly outward from the supermassive black hole at the centre of active galaxy NGC 5548. The gas filament is blocking 90 percent of the X-rays emitted by the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy. This activity may provide new insights into the interaction between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. The arrow in the image shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s line of sight.

Name: NGC 5548
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: Quasars and Black Holes
Release date: 19 June 2014, 20:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

Droplets of star formation and two merging galaxies in SDSS J1531+3414: This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows two galaxies from the cluster SDSS J1531+3414. The two galaxies have been found to be merging into one and a "chain" of young stellar superclusters are seen winding around the galaxies’ nuclei. The galaxies are surrounded by an egg-shaped blue ring caused by the immense gravity of the cluster bending light from other galaxies beyond it.

Name: [HGO2008]SDSS J1531+3414
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : EllipticalEarly Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Corona Borealis
Release date: 10 July 2014, 16:00
Credit: Image credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and Grant Tremblay (European Southern Observatory) Acknowledgement: M. Gladders & M. Florian (University of Chicago, USA), S. Baum, C. O'Dea & K. Cooke (Rochester Institute of Technology, USA), M. Bayliss (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA), H. Dahle (University of Oslo, Norway), T. Davis (European Southern Observatory), J. Rigby (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA), K. Sharon (University of Michigan, USA), E. Soto (The Catholic University of America, USA) and E. Wuyts (Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany).

Wide field image of the region around two merging galaxies in SDSS J1531+3414 (ground based telescope): This digitized sky survey image shows the region around the galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414. In this cluster two galaxies have been found to be merging into one and a "chain" of young stellar superclusters are seen winding around the galaxies’ nuclei.

Name: [HGO2008]SDSS J1531+3414
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : EllipticalEarly Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Corona Borealis
Release date: 10 July 2014, 16:00
Credit: Image credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and Digitized Sky Survey (DSS)Acknowledgement: Davide de Martin

Centaurus A halo: This image shows the stunning elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. Recently, astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to probe the outskirts of this galaxy to learn more about its dim halo of stars. The galaxy’s halo of stars has been found to reach much further than expected, extending across 4 degrees in the sky — equivalent to eight times the apparent width of the Moon, or almost twice the width of this image. This image is a composite of images from Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The areas probed by Hubble are identified in the annotated version of this image. Hubble’s unique capabilities allowed astronomers to analyse the faint stars in the halo.

Name: Centaurus A
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Elliptical
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Centaurus
Release date: 22 July 2014, 16:00
Credit: Image credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, Digitized Sky Survey, MPG/ESO Acknowledgement: Davide de Martin