Pluto System: March 2, 2006 (Red Filter): This image (with filter applied) taken from the original black and white photo, and represents the range of brightness recorded by the ACS/HRC camera.

Name: Charon, Hydra, Nix, Pluto
Type: Solar System : Planet : SatelliteSolar System : Interplanetary Body : Dwarf planet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 10 March 2006, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Lab), A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team

Schematic of the Pluto system: The new HST/ACS observations made on March 2nd reveal that all three of Pluto's satellites are neutrally colored, unlike reddish Pluto itself. Pluto's reddish colour is believed to be due to reddening agents created by the effects of sunlight acting on its nitrogen and methane surface ices. Charon's surface is known to consist primarily of water ice; the similar colour of P1 and P2 may indicate they too have water ice surfaces. The colour similarity of Pluto's two small satellites to one another and to Charon is consistent with their all having been born as a result of a single giant impact, as previously indicated by their orbits and Charon's large mass.

Name: Charon, Pluto
Type: Solar System : Planet : SatelliteSolar System : Interplanetary Body : Dwarf planet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 10 March 2006, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Stern (SwRI) and Z. Levay (STScI)

Artist's concept of Kuiper Belt Object 2003 UB313 (non-annotated): This is an artist's concept of Kuiper Belt object 2003 UB313 (nicknamed Xena) and its satellite Gabrielle. Ground-based observations suggested that Xena was about 30 percent greater in diameter than Pluto, but Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys images, taken on Dec. 9 and 10, 2005, yielded a diameter of 1,490 miles with an uncertainty of 60 miles (about 2400 kilometres with an uncertainty of 100 kilometres) for Xena. Pluto's diameter, as measured by Hubble, is 1,422 miles.

Name: 2003 UB313, Dysnomia, Eris
Type: Solar System : Planet : SatelliteSolar System : Interplanetary Body : Dwarf planet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 11 April 2006, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Schaller (for STScI)

Fast & Slow GRB Models: Long-duration gamma-ray bursts are powerful flashes of high-energy radiation that are sometimes seen coming from certain types of supernovae.

Name: GRB
Type: Unspecified : Cosmology : Phenomenon : Gamma Ray Burst
Category: Cosmology
Release date: 10 May 2006, 19:00
Credit: NASA and A. Feild (STScI)

ACS image of NGC 5866: This is a unique NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope view of the disk galaxy NGC 5866 tilted nearly edge-on to our line-of-sight. Hubble's sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two halves. The image highlights the galaxy's structure: a subtle, reddish bulge surrounding a bright nucleus, a blue disk of stars running parallel to the dust lane, and a transparent outer halo. Some faint, wispy trails of dust can be seen meandering away from the disk of the galaxy out into the bulge and inner halo of the galaxy. The outer halo is dotted with numerous gravitationally bound clusters of nearly a million stars each, known as globular clusters. Background galaxies that are millions to billions of light-years farther away than NGC 5866 are also seen through the halo.

Name: NGC 5866
Type: Unspecified : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Draco
Distance: 45 million light years
Release date: 8 June 2006, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Full ACS image of NGC 5866: NGC 5866 is an edge-on galaxy that is tilted to our line-of-sight. It is classified as an S0 lenticular, due to its flat stellar disk and large ellipsoidal bulge. NGC 5866 lies in the Northern constellation Draco, at a distance of 44 million light-years (13.5 Megaparsecs). It has a diameter of roughly 60,000 light-years (18,400 parsecs). This Hubble image of NGC 5866 is a combination of blue, green and red observations taken with the Hubble Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys in November 2005.

Name: NGC 5866
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Lenticular
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Draco
Distance: 45 million light years
Release date: 8 June 2006, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Beta Pictoris - Star with Disk - Not Annotated: Detailed images of the nearby star Beta Pictoris, taken by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, confirm the existence of not one but two dust disks encircling the star. The images offer tantalizing new evidence for at least one Jupiter-size planet orbiting Beta Pictoris. The finding ends a decade of scientific speculation that an odd warp in the young star's debris disk may actually be another inclined disk. The recent Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys view - the best visible-light image of Beta Pictoris - clearly shows a distinct secondary disk that is tilted by about 4 degrees from the main disk. The secondary disk is visible out to roughly 24 billion miles (almost 40 billion kilometres) from the star, and probably extends even farther, said astronomers. This Hubble image of Beta Pictoris clearly shows a primary dust disk and a much fainter secondary dust disk. Astronomers used the Advanced Camera's coronagraph to block out the light from the bright star.

Name: Beta Pictoris
Type: Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Planetary System
Category: ExoplanetsStars
Distance: 70 light years
Release date: 27 June 2006, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Golimowski (Johns Hopkins University), D. Ardila (IPAC), J. Krist (JPL), M. Clampin (GSFC), H. Ford (JHU), and G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick) and the ACS Science Team

Beta Pictoris - Star with Disk - Annotated: Detailed images of the nearby star Beta Pictoris, taken by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, confirm the existence of not one but two dust disks encircling the star. The images offer tantalizing new evidence for at least one Jupiter-size planet orbiting Beta Pictoris. The finding ends a decade of scientific speculation that an odd warp in the young star's debris disk may actually be another inclined disk. The recent Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys view - the best visible-light image of Beta Pictoris - clearly shows a distinct secondary disk that is tilted by about 4 degrees from the main disk. The secondary disk is visible out to roughly 24 billion miles (almost 40 billion kilometres) from the star, and probably extends even farther, said astronomers. This Hubble image of Beta Pictoris clearly shows a primary dust disk and a much fainter secondary dust disk. Astronomers used the Advanced Camera's coronagraph to block out the light from the bright star.

Name: Beta Pictoris
Type: Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Planetary System
Category: ExoplanetsStars
Distance: 70 light years
Release date: 27 June 2006, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Golimowski (Johns Hopkins University), D. Ardila (IPAC), J. Krist (JPL), M. Clampin (GSFC), H. Ford (JHU), and G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick) and the ACS Science Team