WR 136 - the Star behind the Crescent Nebula: WR 136 created this web of luminous material during the late stages of its life. As a bloated, red super-giant, WR 136 gently puffed away some of its bulk, which settled around it. When the star passed from a super-giant to a Wolf-Rayet, it developed a fierce stellar wind - a stream of charged particles released from its surface - and began expelling mass at a furious rate.

Name: Crescent Nebula, IRAS 20102+3812, WR 136
Type: Milky Way : Star : Type : Wolf-Rayet
Category: NebulaeStars
Constellation: Cygnus
Release date: 13 July 2000, 07:00
Credit: Brian D. Moore, Jeff Hester, Paul Scowen, Reginald Dufour and NASA/ESA

Hen 2-90: This Hubble picture shows a centrally bright object with jets, appearing like strings of beads, emanating from both sides of center. (The other streaks of light running diagonally from He2-90 are artificial effects of the telescope's optical system.) Each jet possesses at least six bright clumps of gas, which are speeding along at rates estimated to be at least 375, 000 miles an hour (600, 000 kilometers an hour).

Name: Hen 2-90
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : PlanetaryMilky Way : Nebula : Type : Jet
Category: MiscellaneousStars
Distance: 6500 light years
Release date: 31 August 2000, 07:00
Credit: NASA/ESA, Raghvendra Sahai (NASA/ESA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Lars-Ake Nyman (European Southern Observatory, Chile & Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden).

A Dying Star in Globular Cluster M15: The globular cluster M15 is shown in this colour image obtained with the Hubble telescope. Lying some 40, 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus, M15 is one of nearly 150 known globular clusters that form a vast halo surrounding our Milky Way galaxy. Each of these spherically shaped clusters contains hundreds of thousands of ancient stars. The stars in M15 and other globular clusters are estimated to be about 12 billion years old. They were among the first generations of stars to form in the Milky Way.

Name: M 15, Messier 15, NGC 7078
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Black HoleMilky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Pegasus
Distance: 35000 light years
Release date: 3 August 2000, 07:00
Credit: The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) and NASA/ESA

Comet Linear Fragments (Hubble View): In one stunning Hubble picture the fate of the mysteriously vanished solid nucleus of Comet LINEAR has been settled. The Hubble picture shows that the comet nucleus has been reduced to a shower of glowing 'mini-comets' resembling the fiery fragments from an exploding aerial firework.

Name: C/1999 S4, Comet Linear
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 7 August 2000, 17:00
Credit: Hawaii University

Comet Linear Fragments (Ground-Based View): A ground-based telescopic view (2.2-meter telescope) of Comet LINEAR taken on August 5. The comet appears as a diffuse elongated cloud of debris without any visible nucleus. Based on these images, some astronomers had concluded that the ices in the nucleus had completely vaporized, leaving behind a loose swarm of dust. Hubble's resolution was needed to pinpoint the remaining nuclei. A ground-based telescopic view (2.2-meter telescope) of Comet LINEAR taken on August 5, at nearly the same time as the Hubble observations.

Name: C/1999 S4, Comet Linear
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 7 August 2000, 17:00
Credit: NASA/ESA, Harold Weaver (the Johns Hopkins University), and the HST Comet LINEAR Investigation Team.

Comet Linear Fragments (Close-Up Version): In one stunning Hubble picture the fate of the mysteriously vanished solid nucleus of Comet LINEAR has been settled. The Hubble picture shows that the comet nucleus has been reduced to a shower of glowing 'mini-comets' resembling the fiery fragments from an exploding aerial firework.

Name: C/1999 S4, Comet Linear
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet : Nucleus
Category: Solar System
Release date: 7 August 2000, 17:00
Credit: NASA/ESA, Harold Weaver (the Johns Hopkins University), and the HST Comet LINEAR Investigation Team.