Intergalactic Vista From A Lonely Star (artist's impression): This is an artist's concept of the view of the nighttime sky from the surface of a hypothetical planet orbiting an "intergalactic" star in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, based on recent research with the Hubble Space Telescope. This is an artist's concept of the view of the nighttime sky from the surface of a hypothetical planet orbiting an 'intergalactic' star in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, based on recent research with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Name: Virgo Cluster
Type: Local Universe : Star : Circumstellar Material : Planetary SystemLocal Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Illustrations
Release date: 14 January 1997, 19:00
Credit: James Gitlin (STScI)

Hubble Reveals Structure Of Supernova 1987a Explosion Debris: This Hubble Space Telescope picture shows Supernova 1987A and its neighborhood. The series of four panels shows the evolution of the SN 1987A debris from February 1994 to February 1996. Material from the stellar interior was ejected into space during the supernova explosion in February 1987. The explosion debris is expanding at nearly 6 million miles per hour (about 2680 kilometres per second).

Name: Large Magellanic Cloud, SN 1987A
Type: Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Category: Stars
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 14 January 1997, 06:00
Credit: Chun Shing Jason Pun (NASA/ESA/GSFC), Robert P. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), and NASA/ESA

Hubble Camera Resumes Science Operation With Picture Of 'Butterfly' In Space: The Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2(WFPC2) is back at work, capturing this black-and-white image of the 'butterfly wing'-shaped nebula, NGC 2346. The nebula is about 2, 000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros. It represents the spectacular 'last gasp' of a binary star system at the nebula's center.

Name: IRAS 07068-0043, NGC 2346
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Monoceros
Release date: 14 March 1997, 15:00
Credit: Massimo Stiavelli (STScI), and NASA/ESA

Galaxy M84 Nucleus: This image, taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary and Camera 2, shows the core of the galaxy where the suspected black hole dwells. Astronomers mapped the motions of gas in the grip of the black hole's powerful gravitational pull by aligning the STIS's spectroscopic slit across the nucleus in a single exposure.

Name: IRAS 12224+1309, M 84, Messier 84, NGC 4374
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : LenticularLocal Universe : Galaxy : Component : Center/Core
Category: Quasars and Black Holes
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 12 May 1997, 17:00
Credit: Gary Bower, Richard Green (NOAO), the STIS Instrument Definition Team, and NASA/ESA

The Orion Nebula OMC-1 Region: Light from a few foreground stars seen in the WFPC2 image provides only a hint of the many other stars embedded in this dense cloud.

Name: Messier 42, NGC 1976, Orion Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Orion
Distance: 1400 light years
Release date: 12 May 1997, 17:00
Credit: C. Robert O'Dell, Shui Kwan Wong (Rice University) and NASA/ESA

The Orion Nebula OMC-1 Region: NICMOS's infrared vision reveals a chaotic, active star birth region (as seen in the right-hand image). Here, stars and glowing interstellar dust, heated by and scattering the intense starlight, appear yellow-orange. Emission by excited hydrogen molecules appears blue. The image is oriented with north up and east to the left. The diagonal extent of the image is about 0.4 light-years. Some details are as small as the size of our solar system.

Name: Messier 42, NGC 1976, Orion Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Orion
Distance: 1400 light years
Release date: 12 May 1997, 17:00
Credit: Rodger Thompson, Marcia Rieke, Glenn Schneider, Susan Stolovy (University of Arizona); Edwin Erickson (SETI Institute/Ames Research Center); David Axon (STScI); and NASA/ESA

STIS Chemically Analyzes the Ring Around SN 1987a: The ring formed 30, 000 years before the star exploded and so is a fossil record of the final stages of the star's existence. The light from the supernova heated the gas in the ring so that it now glows at temperatures from 5, 000 to 25, 000 degrees Kelvin.

Name: IRAS 05240-6948, Large Magellanic Cloud, LMC, SN 1987A
Type: Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Category: Stars
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 12 May 1997, 17:00
Credit: Jason Pun (NOAO) and SINS Collaboration

Fireworks near galaxy NGC 4151 (STIS ultraviolet): This STIS spectral image shows the velocity distribution of the carbon emission from the gas in the core of NGC 4151. It requires more energy to make the carbon gas glow (CIV at 1549 Angstroms) than it does to ionize the oxygen gas seen in the other images. This means we expect that the carbon emitting gas is closer to the heart of the energy source.

Name: IRAS 12080+3941, NGC 4151
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGN : Seyfert
Category: CosmologyQuasars and Black Holes
Distance: 40 million light years
Release date: 9 June 1997, 18:45
Credit: John Hutchings (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory), Bruce Woodgate (GSFC/NASA/ESA), Mary Beth Kaiser (Johns Hopkins University), Steven Kraemer(Catholic University of America), and the STIS Team

Fireworks near galaxy NGC 4151 (STIS optical): In this false colour image the two emission lines of oxygen gas (the weaker one at 4959 Angstroms and the stronger one at 5007 Angstroms) are clearly visible. The horizontal line passing through the image is from the light generated by the powerful black hole at the center of NGC 4151.

Name: IRAS 12080+3941, NGC 4151
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGN : Seyfert
Category: Quasars and Black Holes
Distance: 40 million light years
Release date: 9 June 1997, 18:45
Credit: John Hutchings (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory), Bruce Woodgate (GSFC/NASA/ESA), Mary Beth Kaiser (Johns Hopkins University), Steven Kraemer(Catholic University of America), and the STIS Team

Mysterious fireball from a cataclysmic explosion: The visible fireball from a titanic explosion in deep space, called a gamma-ray burst, blazes in the center of this image, taken with the CCD camera (Charge Coupled Device) on the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, a new instrument on Hubble Space Telescope.

Name: Gamma Ray Burst, GRB970508
Type: Early Universe : Cosmology : Phenomenon : Gamma Ray Burst
Category: CosmologyMiscellaneous
Constellation: Camelopardalis
Distance: z=0.835 (redshift)
Release date: 10 June 1997, 17:00
Credit: Elena Pian (ITESRC), Andrew Fruchter (STScI), and NASA/ESA

Gravitationally Lensed Image of Highest Redshift Galaxy: A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster CL1358+62 has uncovered a gravitationally-lensed image of a more distant galaxy located far beyond the cluster. The gravitationally-lensed image appears as a red crescent to the lower right of center. The galaxy's image is brightened, magnified, and smeared into an arc-shape by the gravitational influence of the intervening galaxy cluster, which acts like a gigantic lens.

Name: ClG 1358+62, ZwCl 6429
Type: Early Universe : GalaxyEarly Universe : Galaxy : Type : Gravitationally Lensed
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Draco
Release date: 30 July 1997, 06:00
Credit: Marijn Franx (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), Garth Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), and NASA/ESA