Composite image of supernova 1987A: Astronomers combined observations from three different observatoriesto produce this multiwavelength image of the remnants of SN 1987A. The red colour shows newly formed dust in the centre of the supernova remnant, taken at submillimeter wavelengths by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile. The green represents the glow of visible light, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The blue color reveals the hottest gas and is based on data from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray observatory. The green and blue hues reveal where the expanding shock wave from the explosion is colliding with a ring of material around the supernova. This ring was initially illuminated by the ultraviolet flash from the explosion, but over the past few years the ring material has brightened considerably as it collides with the expanding shock wave.

Name: SN 1987A
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Category: Stars
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 24 February 2017, 16:00
Credit: ALMA: ESO/NAOJ/NRAO/A. Angelich Hubble: NASA, ESA, R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) and P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) Chandra: NASA/CXC/Penn State/K. Frank et al.

New Hubble image of Kleinmann-Low Nebula: This composite image of the Kleinmann-Low Nebula, part of the Orion Nebula complex, is composed of several pointings of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in optical and near-infrared light. Infrared light allows to peer through the dust of the nebula and to see the stars therein. The revealed stars are shown with a bright red colour in the image. With this image, showing the central region of the Orion Nebula, scientists were looking for rogue planets and brown dwarfs. As side-effect they found a fast-moving runaway star.

Name: Orion Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Orion
Distance: 1400 light years
Release date: 17 March 2017, 18:00
Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble

Galaxy with an ejected supermassive black hole: The galaxy 3C186, located about 8 billion years from Earth, is most likely the result of a merger of two galaxies. This is supported by arc-shaped tidal tails, usually produced by a gravitational tug between two colliding galaxies, identified by the scientists. The merger of the galaxies also led to a merger of the two supermassive black holes in their centres, and the resultant black hole was then kicked out of its parent galaxy by the gravitational waves created by the merger. The bright, star-like looking quasar can be seen in the centre of the image. Its former host galaxy is the faint, extended object behind it.

Name: 3C186
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Lynx
Distance: 8 billion light years
Release date: 23 March 2017, 18:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Chiaberge (STScI/ESA)

Gravitational waves eject black hole from galaxy: This illustration shows how two supermassive black holes merged to form a single black hole which was then ejected from its parent galaxy. Panel 1: Two galaxies are interacting and finally merging with each other. The supermassive black holes in their centres are attracted to each other. Panel 2: As soon as the supermassive black holes get close they start orbiting each other, in the process creating strong gravitational waves. Panel 3: As they radiate away gravitational energy the black holes move closer to each other over time and finally merge. Panel 4: If the two black holes do not have the same mass and rotation rate, they emit gravitational waves more strongly along one direction. When the two black holes finally collide, they stop producing gravitational waves and the newly merged black hole then recoils in the opposite direction to the strongest gravitational waves and is shot out of its parent galaxy.

Type: Unspecified : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: Quasars and Black Holes
Release date: 23 March 2017, 18:00
Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble, and A. Feild/STScI

Supernova remnant N103B: This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the supernova remnant SNR 0509-68.7, also known as N103B (top of the image). N103B was a Type Ia supernova, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud — a neighbouring galaxy of the Milky Way. Owing to its relative proximity to Earth, astronomers observe the remnant to search for a potential stellar survivor of the explosion. The orange-red filaments visible in the image show the shock fronts of the supernova explosion. These filaments allow astronomers to calculate the original centre of the explosion. The filaments also show that the explosion is no longer expanding as a sphere, but is elliptical in shape. Astronomers assume that part of material ejected by the explosion hit a denser cloud of interstellar material, which slowed its speed. The shell of expanding material being open to one side supports this idea. The gas in the lower half of the image and the dense concentration of stars in the lower left are the outskirts of the star cluster NGC 1850, which has been observed by Hubble in the past [heic0108].

Name: SNR 0509-68.7
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Supernova Remnant
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 150000 light years
Release date: 30 March 2017, 16:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

A close galactic pair: This image displays the galaxies NGC 4302 — seen edge-on — and NGC 4298, both located 55 million light-years away. They were observed by Hubble to celebrate its 27th year in orbit. The galaxy NGC 4298 is seen almost face-on, allowing us to see its spiral arms and the blue patches of ongoing star formation and young stars. In the edge-on disc of NGC 4302 huge swathes of dust are responsible for the mottled brown patterns, but a burst of blue to the left side of the galaxy indicates a region of extremely vigorous star formation. The image is a mosaic of four separate captures from Hubble, taken between 2 and 22 January 2017, that have been stitched together to give this amazing field of view. Two different types of light emitted by the galaxies — visible and near-infrared — have been combined to give a rich and colourful image. This light was captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, one of the telescope’s most advanced imaging instruments.

Name: NGC 4298, NGC 4302
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: AnniversaryGalaxies
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 20 April 2017, 16:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI)

A sea of galaxies: While one instrument of Hubble observed the target for its 27th anniversary — the galaxies NGC 4302 and NGC 4298 — another instrument simultaneously observed a nearby patch of the sky. These so-called parallel field observations increase the efficiency of how the telescope is used when making observations. This specific parallel field shows an area of the sky, awash largely with spiral galaxies like our Milky Way. Most of the prominent galaxies look different only because they are tilted at various orientations with respect to Earth — from edge-on to face-on. A few others are currently interacting or in the process of a merger. The objects with diffraction spikes are foreground stars in our own galaxy.

Type: Local Universe : Galaxy
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Release date: 20 April 2017, 16:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI)

Wide-field image of NGC 4298 and NGC 4302 (ground-based image): This ground-based image shows the two galaxies NGC 4298 and NGC 4302 and their surroundings.

Name: NGC 4298, NGC 4302
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Release date: 20 April 2017, 16:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2; Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin