Central regions of 47 Tucanae seen in the ultraviolet: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the central region of a globular cluster known as NGC 104 — or, more commonly, 47 Tucanae, since it is part of the constellation of Tucana (The Toucan) — seen in ultraviolet light. Using the ultraviolet capabilities of Hubble’s sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3, the astronomers traced populations of white dwarfs with a range of ages and positions. This made it possible, for the first time, to collect a census of young white dwarf stars beginning their migration from the crowded centre of an ancient star cluster to its less populated outskirts.

Name: 47 Tucanae, NGC 104
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Tucana
Distance: 15000 light years
Release date: 14 May 2015, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and H. Richer and J. Heyl (University of British Columbia, Vancouver)

Artist’s illustration of galaxy with jets from a supermassive black hole: This artist’s impression illustrates how high-speed jets from supermassive black holes would look. These outflows of plasma are the result of the extraction of energy from a supermassive black hole’s rotation as it consumes the disc of swirling material that surrounds it. These jets have very strong emissions at radio wavelengths.

Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGNEarly Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 28 May 2015, 15:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble, L. Calçada (ESO)

Galaxies with relativistic jets: This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a selection of galaxies used in a survey to confirm the link between mergers and high-speed jets from supermassive black holes. These galaxies have very strong emissions at radio wavelengths, implying that the supermassive black holes they host are feeding huge outflows of plasma. On the left (top to bottom) are the galaxies 3C 297 and 3C 454.1, on the right is 3C 356.

Name: 3C 297, 3C 356, 3C 454.1
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGNEarly Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: GalaxiesQuasars and Black Holes
Release date: 28 May 2015, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Chiaberge (STScI)

Radio galaxy 3C 297: This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy 3C 297, which was part of a large survey of galaxies. The survey confirmed the link between mergers and galaxies hosting relativistic jets from supermassive black holes. These galaxies have very strong emissions at radio wavelengths implying that the supermassive black holes they host are feeding huge outflows of plasma.

Name: 3C 279
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGNEarly Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: GalaxiesQuasars and Black Holes
Constellation: Virgo
Release date: 28 May 2015, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Chiaberge (STScI)

Radio galaxy 3C 454.1: This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy 3C 454.1 which was part of a large survey of galaxies. The survey confirmed the link between mergers and galaxies hosting jets travelling near the speed of light from supermassive black holes. These galaxies have very strong emissions at radio wavelengths implying that the supermassive black holes they host are feeding huge outflows of plasma.

Name: 3C 454.1
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGNEarly Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: GalaxiesQuasars and Black Holes
Constellation: Cepheus
Release date: 28 May 2015, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Chiaberge (STScI)

Radio galaxy 3C 356: This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy 3C 356 which was part of a large survey of galaxies. The survey confirmed the link between mergers and galaxies hosting relativistic jets from supermassive black holes. These galaxies have very strong emissions at radio wavelengths implying that the supermassive black holes they host are feeding huge outflows of plasma.

Name: 3C 356
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGNEarly Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: GalaxiesQuasars and Black Holes
Constellation: Draco
Release date: 28 May 2015, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Chiaberge (STScI)

The chaotic spin of Pluto’s moon Nix: This set of illustrations of Pluto’s moon Nix shows how the orientation of the moon changes unpredictably as it orbits the Pluto-Charon system. This illustration is based on a computer simulation which calculated the chaotic movement of the four smaller moons in the Pluto-Charon system. Astronomers used this simulation to try and understand the unpredictable changes in reflected light from Nix as it orbits Pluto-Charon. They also found that Pluto’s moon Hydra undergoes a chaotic spin as well. The football-shape of both moons contributes to their wild motion.

Name: Nix
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Dwarf planet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 3 June 2015, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Showalter (SETI Inst.), G. Bacon (STScI)

Pluto’s moons: This illustration shows the scale and comparative brightness of Pluto’s small satellites, as discovered by Hubble over the past years. Pluto’s binary companion, Charon — discovered in 1978 — is placed at the bottom for scale. The image illustrates that two of the moons are highly oblate and that the reflectivity among the moons varies from dark charcoal to the brightness of sand. As Hubble cannot resolve surface features on the moons the textures seen here are purely for illustration purposes.

Name: Charon, Hydra, Kerberos, Nix, Styx
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Dwarf planet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 3 June 2015, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Field (STScI)

NGC 6503: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows galaxy NGC 6503. The galaxy, which lies about 18 million light-years away is at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void. This new image shows a very rich set of colours, adding to the detail seen in previous images.

Name: NGC 6503
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Size : Dwarf
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Draco
Distance: 18 million light years
Release date: 10 June 2015, 16:00
Credit: NASA, ESA

The area around NGC 6503 (ground-based image): This image shows the area around galaxy NGC 6503. The galaxy, which lies about 18 000 000 light-years away is at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void.

Name: NGC 6503
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Size : Dwarf
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Draco
Distance: 18 million light years
Release date: 10 June 2015, 16:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2 (Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin)

Hubble views bizarre cosmic quartet HCG 16: This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows four of the seven members of galaxy group HCG 16. This quartet is composed of (from left to right) NGC 839, NGC 838, NGC 835, and NGC 833 — four of the seven galaxies that make up the entire group. They shine brightly with their glowing golden centres and wispy tails of gas, set against a background dotted with much more distant galaxies. This new image uses observations from Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 combined with data from the ESO Multi-Mode Instrument, installed on the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope in Chile.

Name: HCG 16, NGC 833, NGC 835, NGC 838, NGC 839
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : InteractingLocal Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGN : LinerLocal Universe : Galaxy : Activity : StarburstLocal Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : ClusterLocal Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGN : Seyfert
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Cetus
Distance: 110 million light years
Release date: 18 June 2015, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, ESO Acknowledgement: Jane Charlton (Pennsylvania State University, USA)