NASA Space Observatories Glimpse Faint Afterglow of Nearby Stellar Explosion: Intricate wisps of glowing gas float amid a myriad of stars in this image created by combining data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. The gas is a supernova remnant, cataloged as N132D, ejected from the explosion of a massive star that occurred some 3,000 years ago. This titanic explosion took place in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby neighbor galaxy of our own Milky Way.

Name: Large Magellanic Cloud, LMC, N 132D
Type: Local Universe : Nebula : Type : Supernova Remnant
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 4 October 2005, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA )

Einstein Ring Gravitational Lens: SDSS J073728.45+321618.5: The thin blue bull's-eye patterns in these eight Hubble Space Telescope images appear like neon signs floating over reddish-white blobs. The blobs are giant elliptical galaxies roughly 2 to 4 billion light-years away. The bull's-eye patterns are created as the light from galaxies twice as far away is distorted into circular shapes by the gravity of the giant elliptical galaxies. This phenomenon is called gravitational lensing, first predicted by Albert Einstein almost a century ago. Gravitational lensing occurs when the gravitational field from a massive object warps space and deflects light from a distant object behind it.

Name: SDSS J073728.45+321618.5
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally Lensed
Category: CosmologyGalaxies
Constellation: Gemini
Distance: z=0.322 (redshift)
Release date: 17 November 2005, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Bolton (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) and the SLACS Team

Einstein Ring Gravitational Lens: SDSS J095629.77+510006.6: This object is named SDSS J095629.77+510006.6. It is one of eight similar objects found by combining two powerful astronomical assets, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The objects are know as ‘Eienstein rings’ and are perhaps the most elegant manifestations of the gravitational lensing phenomina. Gravitational lensing occurs when the gravitational field from a massive object warps space and deflects light from a distant object behind it, allowing the distant object to be seen. Einstein rings are produced when two galaxies are almost perfectly aligned, one behind the other, giving an image like this with a reddish-white elliptical galaxy in the foreground and a thin ring of blue surrounding it — which is in fact the distorted light from another galaxy twice as far away.

Name: SDSS J095629.77+510006.6
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally Lensed
Category: CosmologyGalaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: z=0.24 (redshift)
Release date: 17 November 2005, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Bolton (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) and the SLACS Team

Einstein Ring Gravitational Lens: SDSS J120540.43+491029.3: This object is named SDSS J120540.43+491029.3. It is one of eight similar objects found by combining two powerful astronomical assets, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The objects are know as ‘Eienstein rings’ and are perhaps the most elegant manifestations of the gravitational lensing phenomina. Gravitational lensing occurs when the gravitational field from a massive object warps space and deflects light from a distant object behind it, allowing the distant object to be seen. Einstein rings are produced when two galaxies are almost perfectly aligned, one behind the other, giving an image like this with a reddish-white elliptical galaxy in the foreground and a thin ring of blue surrounding it — which is in fact the distorted light from another galaxy twice as far away.

Name: SDSS J120540.43+491029.3
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally Lensed
Category: CosmologyGalaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: z=0.214 (redshift)
Release date: 17 November 2005, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Bolton (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) and the SLACS Team