Diagram illustrating the relative direction and orientation of the spacecraft with respect to the Solar System, Milky Way, and nearby galaxies.: Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), was launched in 1989.

Name: COBE, Cosmic background explorer, Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment, DIRBE
Type: Unspecified
Category: IllustrationsMiscellaneous
Release date: 9 January 1998, 06:00
Credit: NASA & ESA

Diagram illustrating the relative distances involved with the detection.: NASA conducted the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) using the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) from December 1989 to September 1999. The goal of the experiment was a survey of the diffuse infrared sky to get deeper knowledge on the population and evolution of early galaxies. As the illustration shows we have already know a great detail of the modern universe, as well as of the Cosmic Microwave Background. However we still lack the deeper understanding of the Universe in the time period after the Cosmic Microwave Background.

Name: COBE, Cosmic background explorer, Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment, DIRBE
Type: Unspecified
Category: IllustrationsMiscellaneous
Release date: 9 January 1998, 06:00
Credit: NASA & ESA

Supernova 1997ap: False-color images from observations by the Supernova Cosmology Project of one of the two most distant spectroscopically confirmed supernova. From the left: the first two images, from the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory 4-meter telescope, show a small region of sky just before and just after the the appearance of a type-Ia supernova that exploded when the universe was about half its present age. The third image shows the same supernova as observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. This much sharper picture allows a much better measurement of the apparent brightness and hence the distance of this supernova. Because their intrinsic brightness is predictable, such supernovae help to determine the deceleration, and so the eventual fate, of the universe.

Name: SN 1997AP
Type: Early Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Category: Stars
Release date: 8 January 1998, 06:00
Credit: S. Perlmutter (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and NASA/ESA

Circumstellar Disk Around Beta Pictoris: These two Hubble Space Telescope visible-light views of the edge- on disk of dust around the star Beta Pictoris yield telltale evidence for the existence of planets, and possibly the gravitational tug of a companion brown dwarf or bypassing star. Both views reveal warps in the disk that might be caused by the gravitational pull of one or more unseen companions. Since its discovery, Beta Pictoris has long been considered one of the nearest examples of an extrasolar planetary system still forming.

Name: Beta Pictoris, IRAS 05460-5104
Type: Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Planetary System
Category: ExoplanetsMiscellaneousStars
Distance: 70 light years
Release date: 7 January 1998, 06:00
Credit: A. Schultz (Computer Sciences Corp.), S. Heap (NASA/ESA Goddard Space FlightCenter) and NASA/ESA

A three-ringed circus: This Hubble Space Telescope image, taken in February 1994 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, shows the full system of three rings of glowing gas surrounding supernova 1987A. Located in a small galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, the supernova is a massive star that exploded in about 165, 000 BC, but its light didn't arrive here until February 1987.

Name: Large Magellanic Cloud, SN 1987A
Type: Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Category: Stars
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 10 February 1998, 06:00
Credit: P. Challis (CfA)

STIS spectrum showing Interaction regions: SN 1987A was a supernova within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion dwarf galaxy of the Milky Way. Observations made several months after the supernova showed a ring surrounding the remnants of the progenitor stars. This ring consists of material from the stellar wind of the star which was ionized by the explosion of the supernova. In 2001 the expanding material from the supernova collided with this ionized gas, whereby the material was heated up.

Name: SN 1987A
Type: Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Category: Stars
Release date: 10 February 1998, 06:00
Credit: P. Garnavich & R. Kirshner (CfA)

Broken Asteroid Trail in NGC 4548: This is a broken asteroid trail crossing the outer regions of galaxy NGC 4548 in Coma Berenices. Five trail segments (shown in white) were extracted from individual exposures and added to a cleaned colour image of the galaxy. The asteroid enters the image at top center and moves down toward the lower left. Large gaps in the trail occur because the telescope is orbiting the Earth and cannot continuously observe the galaxy.

Name: Asteroid, M 91, Messier 91, NGC 4548
Type: Solar System : Interplanetary Body : AsteroidLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : Barred
Category: Solar System
Release date: 6 May 2022, 09:00
Credit: R. Evans and K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and NASA/ESA

Planetary Nebula NGC 7027: This composite colour image of NGC 7027 is among the first data of a planetary nebula taken with NICMOS. This picture is actually composed of three separate images taken at different wavelengths. The red colour represents cool molecular hydrogen gas, the most abundant gas in the universe.

Name: NGC 7027
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Cygnus
Distance: 3000 light years
Release date: 19 March 1998, 06:00
Credit: William B. Latter (SIRTF Science Center/Caltech) and NASA/ESA

Planetary Nebula NGC 7027: This visible and infrared light picture of NGC 7027 provides a more complete view of how this planetary nebula is being shaped, revealing steps in its evolution.

Name: NGC 7027
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Cygnus
Distance: 3000 light years
Release date: 19 March 1998, 06:00
Credit: William B. Latter (SIRTF Science Center/Caltech) and NASA/ESA

The Silkworm Nebula: The Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2has captured images of the birth of two planetary nebulae as they emerge from wrappings of gas and dust, like butterflies breaking out of their cocoons.

Name: IRAS 17441-2411, Silkworm Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Sagittarius
Distance: 6500 light years
Release date: 19 March 1998, 06:00
Credit: Sun Kwok and Kate Su (University of Calgary), Bruce Hrivnak (Valparaiso University), and NASA/ESA

Planetary nebula NGC 6818: This Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2image of NGC 6818 shows two distinct layers of gas (with dust): a spherical outer region and a brighter, vase-shaped interior 'bubble.' Astronomers believe that a fast wind - material propelled by radiation from the hot central star - is creating the inner elongated shape. The central star of the planetary nebula appears as a tiny blue dot. The material in the wind is traveling so fast that it smashes through older, slower-moving stellar debris, causing a 'blowout' at both ends of the bubble (lower right and upper left).

Name: IRAS 19411-1416, Little Gem Nebula, NGC 6818
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Sagittarius
Release date: 19 March 1998, 06:00
Credit: Robert Rubin (NASA/ESA Ames Research Center), Reginald Dufour and Matt Browning (Rice University), Patrick Harrington (University of Maryland), and NASA/ESA