New Hubble CANDELS image of most distant known galaxy z8_GND_5296: This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope CANDELS survey highlights the most distant galaxy in the Universe with a definitively measured distance, dubbed z8_GND_5296. The galaxy's red colour alerted astronomers that it was likely extremely far away, and thus seen at an early time after the Big Bang. A team of astronomers measured the exact distance using the Keck I telescope with the new MOSFIRE spectrograph. They found that this galaxy is seen at about 700 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was just 5 percent of its current age of 13.8 billion years.

Name: CANDELS/GOODS-N field, z8_GND_5296
Type: Early Universe : GalaxyEarly Universe : Cosmology
Category: CosmologyGalaxies
Distance: z=7.51 (redshift)
Release date: 24 October 2013, 10:06
Credit: NASA, ESA, V. Tilvi (Texas A&M University), S. Finkelstein (University of Texas, Austin), and C. Papovich (Texas A&M University)

Artist's illustration of the present Milky Way: This graphic of today's Milky Way was based on an all-sky image from Axel Mellinger and the Finkbeiner all-sky H-alpha survey. The current night sky is dominated by the white glow of myriad middle-aged stars along the lane of the Milky Way. Interstellar "pollution" from thick dust lanes can be seen threading through the long band of stars. They are interspersed with a few pinkish emission nebulae from ongoing star formation. Thousands of stars appear as pinpricks of light throughout the sky.

Name: Milky Way
Type: Milky Way
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 15 November 2013, 11:45
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI/AURA)

Artist's illustration of the early Milky Way: This illustration shows the Milky Way as it may have appeared 11 billion years ago. It was constructed from the all-sky image from Axel Mellinger and Robert Gendler's image of the M33 galaxy. This imaginary view of our young Milky Way shows the galaxy as it may have appeared 11 billion years ago, as seen from the surface of a hypothetical planet. The night sky looks markedly different than the view today. The Milky Way's disc and central bulge of stars are smaller and dimmer because the galaxy is in an early phase of construction. The heavens are ablaze with a firestorm of new star formation, seen in the pinkish nebulae glowing from stars still wrapped inside their natal cocoons. The handful of stars visible in the night sky are blue and bright because they are young.

Name: Milky Way
Type: Milky Way
Category: Galaxies
Release date: 15 November 2013, 11:45
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI/AURA)

Hubble's last look at Ccomet ISON before perihelion: As of mid-November, ISON is officially upon us. Hubble has taken its closest look yet at the innermost region of the comet, where geysers of sublimating ice are fueling a spectacular tail. Made from observations on 2 November 2013, the image combines pictures of ISON taken through blue and red filters. The round coma around ISON's nucleus is blue and the tail has a redder hue. Ice and gas in the coma reflect blue light from the Sun, while dust grains in the tail reflect more red light than blue light. This is the most colour separation seen so far in ISON and the comet, nearer than ever to the Sun, is brighter and more structured than ever before. Comet ISON will come closest to the Sun on November 28, a point in its orbit known as perihelion. Comet ISON was fairly quiet until 1 November 2013, when it experienced an outburst that doubled the amount of gas the comet emitted. After this image was taken, a second outburst shook the comet, increasing its activity by a factor of ten. Over the past couple of nights, the comet has stabilised at its new level of activity. It is now bright enough to be seen with a good pair of binoculars from a dark site, in the morning skies towards the East.

Name: C/2012 S1, Comet ISON
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 19 November 2013, 14:57
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Hubble view of Himiko: This image shows the field around a giant primordial bubble of gas dubbed "Himiko" (after the queen of ancient Japan), as viewed by Hubble. Astronomers using the combined power of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have discovered that a trio of primitive galaxies are actually nestled inside this enormous gas blob. The rare triple system existed when the Universe was only 800 million years old. The trio may eventually merge into a single massive galaxy, researchers predict.

Name: Himiko
Type: Early Universe : GalaxyEarly Universe : Cosmology
Category: CosmologyGalaxies
Constellation: Cetus
Distance: 13 billion light years
Release date: 22 November 2013, 13:36
Credit: NASA, ESA, ESO, NRAO, NAOJ, JAO, M. Ouchi (University of Tokyo), R. Ellis (California Institute of Technology), Y. Ono (University of Tokyo), K. Nakanishi (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) and Joint ALMA Observatory), K. Kohno and R. Momose (University of Tokyo), Y. Kurono (Joint ALMA Observatory), M. Ashby (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), K. Shimasaku (University of Tokyo), S. Willner and G. Fazio (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Y. Tamura (University of Tokyo), and D. Iono (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

Himiko (Hubble close-up view): This image shows a giant primordial bubble of gas dubbed "Himiko" (after the queen of ancient Japan), as viewed by Hubble. Astronomers using the combined power of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have discovered that a trio of primitive galaxies are actually nestled inside this enormous gas blob. The rare triple system existed when the Universe was only 800 million years old. The trio may eventually merge into a single massive galaxy, researchers predict.

Name: Himiko
Type: Early Universe : GalaxyEarly Universe : Cosmology
Category: CosmologyGalaxies
Constellation: Cetus
Distance: 13 billion light years
Release date: 22 November 2013, 13:37
Credit: NASA, ESA, ESO, NRAO, NAOJ, JAO, M. Ouchi (University of Tokyo), R. Ellis (California Institute of Technology), Y. Ono (University of Tokyo), K. Nakanishi (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) and Joint ALMA Observatory), K. Kohno and R. Momose (University of Tokyo), Y. Kurono (Joint ALMA Observatory), M. Ashby (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), K. Shimasaku (University of Tokyo), S. Willner and G. Fazio (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Y. Tamura (University of Tokyo), and D. Iono (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)