Carina Nebula (ground-based image): This image shows a giant star-forming region in the southern sky known as the Carina Nebula and combines the light from three different filters, which traces emission from oxygen (blue), hydrogen (green), and sulfur (red). The colour is also representative of the temperature in the ionized gas: blue is relatively hot and red is cooler. The picture is a composite of several exposures made in February 2000 with the Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile.

Name: Eta Carinae
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Carina
Release date: 20 February 2012, 13:21
Credit: NOAO, AURA, NSF, and N. Smith (University of Arizona)

Galaxy cluster IDCS J1426.5+3508 and giant arc: These images, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, show an arc of blue light behind an extremely massive cluster of galaxies residing 10 billion light-years away. The giant arc is the stretched shape of a more distant star-forming galaxy whose light is distorted by the monster cluster's powerful gravity, an effect called gravitational lensing. The "lensed" galaxy existed 10 billion to 13 billion years ago. The arc, located within the small box, is barely visible in the Hubble image of the cluster, named IDCS J1426.5+3508. A close-up image of the arc is shown in the inset. The images were taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 in 2010. The cluster is the most massive found at that epoch, weighing as much as 500 trillion suns. The assemblage is 5 to 10 times larger than other clusters found at such an early time in the Universe's history. This unique system constitutes the most distant cluster known to "host" a giant gravitationally lensed arc.

Name: IDCS J1426.5+3508
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Cosmology
Release date: 27 June 2012, 13:50
Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble, and A. Gonzalez (University of Florida, Gainesville, USA), A. Stanford (University of California, Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA) and M. Brodwin (University of Missouri-Kansas City and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA)

Galaxy cluster IDCS J1426.5+3508: Galaxy cluster IDCS J1426.5+3508

Name: IDCS J1426.5+3508
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Bootes
Release date: 27 June 2012, 13:50
Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble, and A. Gonzalez (University of Florida, Gainesville, USA), A. Stanford (University of California, Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA) and M. Brodwin (University of Missouri-Kansas City and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA).

Compass and scale image of IDCS J1426.5+3508: The galaxy cluster IDCS J1426.5+3508 is more than 10 billion light years away and the most massive galaxy cluster ever discovered at this distance. The total mass of the cluster is as much as 500 tillion times the Sun and it is 10 times larger than other clusters found in a similar epoch of the early universe. The cluster is so heavy that it is functioning as a gigantic gravitational lense: A faint elongated, blue arc can be seen in the upper left oft the image. It is the light of en even more distant galaxy which is only visible because of the IDCS J1426.5+3508 cluster in front of it.

Name: IDCS J1426.5+3508
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Cosmology
Release date: 27 June 2012, 13:50
Credit: NASA, ESA/Huuble, and A. Gonzalez (University of Florida, Gainesville, USA), A. Stanford (University of California, Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA) and M. Brodwin (University of Missouri-Kansas City and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA). Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI, USA).

Nighttime Sky View of Future Galaxy Merger: Present Day: This is a nighttime view of the current sky, with the bright belt of our Milky Way. The Andromeda galaxy lies 2.5 million light-years away and looks like a faint spindle, several times the diameter of the full Moon.

Name: Andromeda Galaxy, Galaxy Collisions, M 31, Messier 31, Milky Way
Type: Unspecified : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Milky WayLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralMilky Way
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 6 May 2014, 15:48
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger

Nighttime Sky View of Future Galaxy Merger: 2 Billion Years: The disk of the approaching Andromeda galaxy is noticeably larger.

Name: Andromeda Galaxy, Galaxy Collisions, M 31, Messier 31, Milky Way
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : InteractingLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralMilky Way
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 6 May 2014, 15:47
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger

Nighttime Sky View of Future Galaxy Merger: 3.75 Billion Years: Andromeda fills the field of view. The Milky Way begins to show distortion due to tidal pull from Andromeda.

Name: Andromeda Galaxy, M 31, Messier 31, Milky Way
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : InteractingLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralMilky Way
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 6 May 2014, 15:46
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger

Nighttime Sky View of Future Galaxy Merger: 3.85-3.9 Billion Years: During the first close approach, the sky is ablaze with new star formation, which is evident in a plethora of emission nebulae and open young star clusters.

Name: Galaxy Collisions
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : InteractingLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralMilky Way
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 6 May 2014, 15:45
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger

Nighttime Sky View of Future Galaxy Merger: 3.85-3.9 Billion Years: During the first close approach, the sky is ablaze with new star formation, which is evident in a plethora of emission nebulae and open young star clusters.

Name: Galaxy Collisions
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : InteractingLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralMilky Way
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 6 May 2014, 15:43
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger

Nighttime Sky View of Future Galaxy Merger: 4 Billion Years: After its first close pass, Andromeda is tidally stretched out. The Milky Way, too, becomes warped.

Name: Andromeda Galaxy, Galaxy Collisions, M 31, Messier 31, Milky Way
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : InteractingLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralMilky Way
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 6 May 2014, 15:45
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger

Nighttime Sky View of Future Galaxy Merger: 5.1 Billion Years: During the second close passage, the cores of the Milky Way and Andromeda appear as a pair of bright lobes. Star-forming nebulae are much less prominent because the interstellar gas and dust has been significantly decreased by previous bursts of star formation.

Name: Andromeda Galaxy, Galaxy Collisions, M 31, Messier 31, Milky Way
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : InteractingLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralMilky Way
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 6 May 2014, 15:44
Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger