'Death spiral' around Cygnus XR-1: The Hubble telescope may have, for the first time, provided direct evidence for the existence of black holes by observing how matter disappears when it falls beyond the 'event horizon', the boundary between a black hole and the outside universe. Astronomers found their evidence by watching the fading and disappearance of pulses of ultraviolet light from clumps of hot gas swirling around a massive, compact object called Cygnus XR-1. This activity suggests that the hot gas fell into a black hole.

Name: Cygnus X-1
Type: Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Black HoleMilky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Disk : Accretion
Category: Quasars and Black Holes
Distance: 7000 light years
Release date: 11 January 2001, 18:30
Credit: Ann Feild (STScI)

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3310: The central region of the 'star-burst' spiral galaxy NGC 3310 shows young and old stars evenly distributed. If this were the case with most galaxies, astronomers would be able to recognize faraway galaxies fairly easily. In most galaxies, however, the stars are segregated by age, making classifying the distant ones more difficult.

Name: IRAS 10356+5345, NGC 3310
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Activity : Starburst
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 11 January 2001, 18:30
Credit: Rogier Windhorst (Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ), the Hubble mid-UV team and NASA/ESA

Spiral Galaxy ESO 0418-008: This image is an example of a tiny, youthful spiral galaxy. ESO 418-008 is representative of the myriad of dwarf galaxies astronomers have seen in deep surveys. These galaxies are much smaller than typical ones like our Milky Way.

Name: ESO0418-008, IRAS 03294-3022
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Fornax
Distance: 50 million light years
Release date: 11 January 2001, 18:30
Credit: Rogier Windhorst (Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ), the Hubble mid-UV team and NASA/ESA

Merging Galaxies UGC06471 and UGC06472: The picture at right shows a cosmic collision between two galaxies, UGC 06471 and UGC 06472. These collisions occurred frequently in the early universe, producing galaxies of unusual shapes. The Hubble telescope has spied many such galaxies in the deep field surveys.

Name: UGC 06471, UGC 06472
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: 140 million light years
Release date: 11 January 2001, 18:30
Credit: Rogier Windhorst (Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ), the Hubble mid-UV team and NASA/ESA

Edge-On view of NGC 4013: The Hubble telescope has snapped this remarkable view of a perfectly 'edge-on' galaxy, NGC 4013. This new Hubble picture reveals with exquisite detail huge clouds of dust and gas extending along, as well as far above, the galaxy's main disk. NGC 4013 is a spiral galaxy, similar to our Milky Way, lying some 55 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major. Viewed face-on, it would look like a nearly circular pinwheel, but NGC 4013 happens to be seen edge-on from our vantage point. Even at 55 million light-years, the galaxy is larger than Hubble's field of view, and the image shows only a little more than half of the object, albeit with unprecedented detail.

Name: IRAS 11559+4413, NGC 4013
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: 60 million light years
Release date: 1 March 2001, 07:00
Credit: NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA )