Recurring Nova T Pyxidis: Closer inspection by the Hubble Space Telescope, however, reveals that the shells are not smooth at all. In fact, this high-resolution image shows that the shells are actually more than 2, 000 gaseous blobs packed into an area that is 1 light-year across. Resembling shrapnel from a shotgun blast, the blobs may have been produced by the nova explosion, the subsequent expansion of gaseous debris, or collisions between fast-moving and slow- moving gas from several eruptions. False colour has been applied to this image to enhance details in the blobs.

Name: T Pyxidis
Type: Milky Way : Star : Type : Variable : Nova
Category: MiscellaneousStars
Distance: 15000 light years
Release date: 18 September 1997, 06:00
Credit: Mike Shara, Bob Williams, and David Zurek ( Space Telescope Science Institute); Roberto Gilmozzi (European Southern Observatory); Dina Prialnik (Tel Aviv University); and NASA/ESA

Gamma Ray Burst 970228: A Hubble Space Telescope image of the fading fireball from one of the universe's most mysterious phenomena, a gamma-ray burst. Though the visible component has faded to 1/500th its brightness (27.7 magnitude) from the time it was first discovered by ground- based telescopes last March (the actual gamma-ray burst took place on February 28), Hubble continues to clearly see the fireball and discriminated a surrounding nebulosity (at 25th magnitude) which is considered a host galaxy.

Name: Gamma Ray Burst, GRB 970228
Type: Early Universe : Cosmology : Phenomenon : Gamma Ray Burst
Category: CosmologyMiscellaneous
Distance: z=0.59 (redshift)
Release date: 16 September 1997, 06:00
Credit: Andrew Fruchter (STScI), Elena Pian (ITSRE-CNR), and NASA/ESA

Colliding Galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039: This Hubble Space Telescope image provides a detailed look at a brilliant 'fireworks show' at the center of a collision between two galaxies. Hubble has uncovered over 1, 000 bright, young star clusters bursting to life as a result of the head-on wreck.

Name: Antennae, IRAS 11593-1835, NGC 4038, NGC 4039
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Distance: 75 million light years
Release date: 21 October 1997, 19:00
Credit: Brad Whitmore (STScI), and NASA/ESA

Colliding Galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 (ground-based image): A ground-based telescopic view of the Antennae galaxies (known formally as NGC 4038/4039) - so named because a pair of long tails of luminous matter, formed by the gravitational tidal forces of their encounter, resembles an insect's antennae. The galaxies are located 63 million light-years away in the southern constellation Corvus.

Name: Antennae, IRAS 11593-1835, IRAS F11593-1836, NGC 4038, NGC 4039
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Corvus
Distance: 75 million light years
Release date: 21 October 1997, 19:00
Credit: Brad Whitmore (STScI), and NASA/ESA

Colliding galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039: This is a close-up view of a head-on collision between two spiral galaxies, called the Antennae galaxies. The image is 1,500 light-years across. The image shows entrapped dust and gas funneled into the centre of the galaxy. The respective cores of the twin galaxies are the orange blobs, left and right of image center, crisscrossed by filaments of dark dust. A wide band of chaotic dust, called the overlap region, stretches between the cores of the two galaxies. The sweeping spiral- like patterns, traced by bright blue star clusters, shows the result of a firestorm of star birth activity which was triggered by the collision.

Name: Antennae Galaxies, NGC 4038, NGC 4039
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Corvus
Distance: 75 million light years
Release date: 21 October 1997, 19:00
Credit: Brad Whitmore (STScI), and NASA/ESA

Blue Stragglers in Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae: This ground-based telescope image shows the entire crowded core of 47 Tucanae, located 15, 000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana.

Name: 47 Tucanae, NGC 104
Type: Milky Way : Star : Type : Blue StragglerMilky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Tucana
Distance: 15000 light years
Release date: 29 October 1997, 06:00
Credit: Rex Saffer (Villanova University) and Dave Zurek (STScI), and NASA/ESA

Blue Stragglers in Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae: The core of globular cluster 47 Tucanae is home to many blue stragglers, rejuvenated stars that glow with the blue light of young stars. This ground-based telescope image shows the entire crowded core of 47 Tucanae, located 15, 000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana.

Name: 47 Tuc, 47 Tucanae, NGC 104
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: Star Clusters
Constellation: Tucana
Distance: 15000 light years
Release date: 29 October 1997, 06:00
Credit: Rex Saffer (Villanova University) and Dave Zurek (STScI), and NASA/ESA

Blue stragglers in globular cluster 47 Tucanae: A star's light yields clues about its identity which are not revealed in an image. That's why astronomers use spectrographs to decode the light. A spectrograph disperses light into its component colors, providing information on a star's rotation velocity, temperature, and surface gravity. The spectrum above compares a computer-generated spectrum of a blue straggler star with one from the observation of the blue straggler in 47 Tucanae, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Faint Object Spectrograph. The model spectrum predicts the shape and depth of a blue straggler's spectral lines. Based on this comparison, the Hubble telescope observation clearly matches the model.

Name: 47 Tucanae, NGC 104
Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Globular
Category: IllustrationsStars
Distance: 15000 light years
Release date: 29 October 1997, 06:00
Credit: R. Saffer (Villanova University) and NASA/ESA

Hubble sees supersonic exhaust from nebula: M2-9 is a striking example of a 'butterfly' or a bipolar planetary nebula. Another more revealing name might be the 'Twin Jet Nebula'. If the nebula is sliced across the star, each side of it appears much like a pair of exhausts from jet engines. Indeed, because of the nebula's shape and the measured velocity of the gas, in excess of 200 miles per second (approx. 322 kilometres per second), astronomers believe that the description as a super-super-sonic jet exhaust is quite apt. Ground-based studies have shown that the nebula's size increases with time, suggesting that the stellar outburst that formed the lobes occurred just 1, 200 years ago.

Name: M2-9, Twin Jet Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Jet
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Ophiuchus
Distance: 2000 light years
Release date: 17 December 1997, 06:00
Credit: Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Vincent Icke (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Garrelt Mellema (Stockholm University), and NASA/ESA

NGC 2440: This image is a part of the Hubble Gallery of Planetary Nebulae.

Name: IRAS 07396-1805, NGC 2440
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Puppis
Distance: 4000 light years
Release date: 17 December 1997, 06:00
Credit: Howard Bond (ST ScI) and NASA/ESA

NGC 2867: This image is a part of the Hubble Gallery of Planetary Nebulae.

Name: IRAS 09200-5805, NGC 2867
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Carina
Distance: 6000 light years
Release date: 17 December 1997, 06:00
Credit: Howard Bond (ST ScI) and NASA/ESA

NGC 3195: This image is a part of the Hubble Gallery of Planetary Nebulae.

Name: IRAS 10099-8036, NGC 3195
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Chamaeleon
Release date: 17 December 1997, 06:00
Credit: Howard Bond (ST ScI) and NASA/ESA