Evidence for existence of a black hole: Medium-size black holes actually do exist, according to the latest findings from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, but scientists had to look in some unexpected places to find them. The previously undiscovered black holes provide an important link that sheds light on the way black holes grow. Even more odd, these new black holes were found in the cores of glittering, "beehive" swarms of stars — called globular star clusters — that orbit our Milky Way and other galaxies

Name: Messier 15, NGC 7078
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: IllustrationsQuasars and Black Holes
Distance: 35000 light years
Release date: 17 September 2002, 18:00
Credit: NASA/ESA, A. Feild, and R. Van Der Marel (STScI)

A Cosmic Hamburger: Hold the pickles; hold the lettuce. Space is serving up giant hamburgers. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a photograph of a strange object that bears an uncanny resemblance to a hamburger. The object, nicknamed Gomez's Hamburger, is a sun-like star nearing the end of its life. It already has expelled large amounts of gas and dust and is on its way to becoming a colorful, glowing planetary nebula. The ingredients for the giant celestial hamburger are dust and light. The hamburger buns are light reflecting off dust and the patty is the dark band of dust in the middle.

Name: Gomez Nebula, Gomez's Hamburger, IRAS 18059-3211
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Sagittarius
Distance: 1600 light years
Release date: 1 August 2002, 06:00
Credit: NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Through the Eyes of JWST (simulation): This is a simulated view of the far universe as seen through the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The photograph shows a simulated 20-hour observation with NGST of a random patch of the sky, located far from the plane of our Milky Way, that is cluttered with stars. NASA has selected TRW to build the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. This space-based observatoryis called the James Webb Space Telescope, named after James E. Webb, NASA's second administrator. While Webb is best known for leading Apollo and a series of lunar exploration programs that landed the first humans on the Moon, he also initiated a vigorous space science program, responsible for more than 75 launches during his tenure, including America's first interplanetary explorers.

Name: James Webb Space Telescope, JWST
Type: Early Universe : Cosmology : Morphology : Deep Field
Category: CosmologyJames Webb Space Telescope
Release date: 11 September 2002, 06:00
Credit: NASA/ESA, Andrew Benson (University of Durham, United Kingdom), and the JWST Science Team (STScI)

A Wheel within a Wheel: A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a face-on view of the galaxy's ring of stars, revealing more detail than any existing photo of this object. A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a face-on view of the galaxy's ring of stars, revealing more detail than any existing photo of this object. The entire galaxy is about 120, 000 light-years wide, which is slightly larger than our Milky Way Galaxy. The blue ring, which is dominated by clusters of young, massive stars, contrasts sharply with the yellow nucleus of mostly older stars. What appears to be a 'gap' separating the two stellar populations may actually contain some star clusters that are almost too faint to see. Curiously, an object that bears an uncanny resemblance to Hoag's Object can be seen in the gap at the one o'clock position. The object is probably a background ring galaxy.

Name: Hoag's Object
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Ring
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Serpens Caput
Distance: 550 million light years
Release date: 5 September 2002, 06:00
Credit: NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Cosmic dance of destruction: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is witnessing a grouping of galaxies engaging in a slow dance of destruction that will last for billions of years. The galaxies are so tightly packed together that gravitational forces are beginning to rip stars from them and distort their shapes. Those same gravitational forces eventually could bring the galaxies together to form one large galaxy. The name of this grouping, Seyfert's Sextet, implies that six galaxies are participating in the action. But only four galaxies are on the dance card. The small face-on spiral with the prominent arms [center] of gas and stars is a background galaxy almost five times farther away than the other four. Only a chance alignment makes it appear as if it is part of the group. The sixth member of the sextet isn't a galaxy at all but a long 'tidal tail' of stars [below, right] torn from one of the galaxies.

Name: Seyfert's Sextet
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Serpens Caput
Distance: 200 million light years
Release date: 12 December 2002, 06:00
Credit: NASA/ESA, J. English (U. Manitoba), S. Hunsberger, S. Zonak, J. Charlton, S. Gallagher (PSU), and L. Frattare (STScI)