The whirlpool galaxy: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has returned the most detailed images ever of supernova 1994I which is in the 'Whirlpool Galaxy' (M51) located 20 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici.

Name: IRAS 13277+4727, M 51, Messier 51, NGC 5194, Whirlpool Galaxy
Type: Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : SupernovaLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Distance: 25 million light years
Release date: 19 May 1994, 06:00
Credit: Robert P. Kirshner/Harvard-Smithsonian Center forAstrophysics, NASA/ESA

The String of Pearls: This is the famous 'String of Pearls' image, where all the fragments of Shoemaker-Levy 9 is visible.

Name: Shoemaker-Levy 9
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 18 May 1994, 06:00
Credit: N/A

Supernova 1987A Rings: This striking NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope picture shows three rings of glowing gas encircling the site of supernova 1987A, a star which exploded in February 1987.

Name: IRAS 05240-6948, Large Magellanic Cloud, LMC, SN 1987A
Type: Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Category: Stars
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 19 May 1994, 06:00
Credit: Dr. Christopher Burrows, ESA/STScI and NASA

Active galaxy M87: A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a spiral-shaped disk of hot gas in the core of active galaxy M87. HST measurements show the disk is rotating so rapidly it contains a massive black hole at its hub.

Name: IRAS 12282+1240, M 87, Messier 87, NGC 4486, Virgo Galaxy
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: Quasars and Black Holes
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 25 May 1994, 06:00
Credit: Holland Ford,  Space Telescope Science Institute/Johns Hopkins University; Richard Harms, Applied Research Corp.; Zlatan Tsvetanov, Arthur Davidsen, and Gerard Kriss at Johns Hopkins; Ralph Bohlin and GeorgeHartig at  Space Telescope Science Institute; Linda Dressel and Ajay K.Kochhar at Applied Research Corp. in Landover, Md.; and Bruce Margon fromthe University of Washington in Seattle NASA/ESA

Spectrum of gas disc in active galaxy M87: A schematic diagram of velocity measurements of a rotating disk of hot gas in the core of active galaxy M87. The measurement was made by studying how the light from the disk is redshifted and blueshifted -- as part of the swirling disk spins in earth's direction and the other side spins away from earth.

Name: IRAS 12282+1240, M 87, Messier 87, NGC 4486, Virgo Galaxy
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: CosmologyQuasars and Black Holes
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 25 May 1994, 06:00
Credit: Holland Ford,  Space Telescope Science Institute/Johns Hopkins University; Richard Harms, Applied Research Corp.; Zlatan Tsvetanov, Arthur Davidsen, and Gerard Kriss at Johns Hopkins; Ralph Bohlin and GeorgeHartig at  Space Telescope Science Institute; Linda Dressel and Ajay K.Kochhar at Applied Research Corp. in Landover, Md.; and Bruce Margon fromthe University of Washington in Seattle NASA/ESA

The Orion Nebula: This is one of the nearest regions of very recent star formation (300, 000 years ago). The nebula is a giant gas cloud illuminated by the brightest of the young hot stars at the top of the picture. Many of the fainter young stars are surrounded by disks of dust and gas that are slightly more than twice the diameter of the Solar System.

Name: M 42, Messier 42, NGC 1976, Orion Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Orion
Distance: 1400 light years
Release date: 13 June 1994, 06:00
Credit: C.R. O'Dell/Rice University NASA/ESA

Hubble observes the lost ancestors to our Milky Way galaxy: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the central portion of a remote cluster of galaxies (CL 0939+4713) as it looked when the universe was two-thirds of its present age. Hubble's high resolution allows astronomers to study, for the first time, the shapes of galaxies as they were long ago. The Space Telescope pictures are sharp enough to distinguish between various forms of spiral galaxies. Most of the spiral, or disk, galaxies have odd features, suggesting they were easily distorted within the environment of the rich cluster. Hubble reveals a number of mysterious "fragments" of galaxies interspersed through the cluster.

Name: CL 0939+4713
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: CosmologyGalaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: z=0.406 (redshift)
Release date: 6 December 1994, 19:00
Credit: Alan Dressier (Carnegie Institution) and NASA/ESA

Starbirth in the Early Universe: This Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image shows rich detail, previously only seen in neighboring star birth regions, in a pair of star clusters 166,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), in the southern constellation Doradus. The field of view is 130 light-years across and was taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.

Name: Large Magellanic Cloud, NGC 1850
Type: Local Universe : Star : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 17 October 1994, 05:00
Credit: R. Gilmozzi,  Space Telescope Science Institute/European Space Agency;Shawn Ewald, JPL; and NASA

Dark Matter Search: The unmodified HST image shows the region is actually so devoid of stars that far more distant background galaxies can easily be seen.

Name: Constellation Eridanus, Galactic halo
Type: Unspecified : Cosmology : Phenomenon : Dark Matter
Category: CosmologyGalaxies
Release date: 17 October 1994, 05:00
Credit: J. Bahcall, Institute for Advance Study, Princeton and NASA/ESA

NGC 6397: A ground-based sky survey photograph of the globular cluster NGC 6397, one of the nearest and densest agglomerations of stars to Earth. The cluster is located 7, 200 light-years away in the southern constellation Ara, and is one of 150 such objects which orbit our Milky Way Galaxy.

Name: NGC 6397
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Ara
Distance: 9000 light years
Release date: 17 October 1994, 05:00
Credit: F. Paresce, ST ScI & ESA and NASA

Globular Cluster NGC 6397: This is an image of the globular cluster NGC 6397, one of the nearest and densest agglomerations of stars to Earth. The cluster is located 7.200 light-years away in the southern constellation Ara, and is one of 150 such objects which orbit our Milky Way Galaxy.

Name: NGC 6397
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Distance: 9000 light years
Release date: 17 October 1994, 18:00
Credit: Guido de Marchi, ESA, F. Paresce and NASA

Shoemaker-Levy 9: This series of eight NASA Hubble Space Telescope "snapshots" shows the evolution of  the P-Q complex, also called the "gang of four' region, of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9. The eight individual frames chronicle changes in the comet during the 12 months before  colliding with Jupiter. The sequence shows that the relative separations of the various  cometary fragments, thought to range in size from about 500 meters to almost 4 km (2.5  miles) across, changed dramatically over this period. The apparent separation of Q1 and  Q2 was only about 1100 kilometers (680 miles) on 1 July 1993 and increased to 28,000  kilometers (17,400 miles) by 20 July 1994.

Name: Shoemaker-Levy 9
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Category: Solar System
Release date: 29 September 1994, 05:00
Credit: Dr. H. A. Weaver, Mr. T. E. Smith, and Mr. K. B. Jones (STScI), and NASA