Hubble Deep Field South--Multiple windows on the Universe: The deepest visible/ultraviolet light image of the universe ever taken, revealing galaxies down to 30th magnitude. Glaring fiercely across 12 billion light-years of space is the brilliant beacon of a distant quasar (z=2.2). Most of the galaxies in this view lie between us and the quasar.  The image was taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Light from the galaxies was also analysed with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS

Name: HDF-S, Hubble Deep Field South
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Tucana
Release date: 23 November 1998, 21:00
Credit: R. Williams (STScI), the HDF-S Team, and NASA/ESA

Hubble Deep Field South--Multiple Windows on the Universe: Hubble's Near Infrared and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) captures the 'invisible light' coming from stars hidden in dusty galaxies, and galaxies that are so far away their light has been stretched beyond the red end of the visible spectrum.

Name: HDF-S, Hubble Deep Field South
Type: Early Universe : Cosmology : Morphology : Deep Field
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Tucana
Release date: 23 November 1998, 21:00
Credit: R. Williams (STScI), the HDF-S Team, and NASA/ESA

Behind a dusty veil lies a cradle of star birth: NGC 253 is a large, almost edge-on spiral galaxy, and is one of the nearest galaxies beyond our local neighborhood of galaxies. This dramatic galaxy shows complex structures such as clumpy gas clouds, darkened dust lanes, and young, luminous central star clusters. These elements are typical of spiral galaxies. Caroline Herschel discovered NGC 253 in 1783 while looking for comets. The galaxy's closeness to Earth makes it an ideal target for amateur astronomers who can see the southern sky and for astronomers interested in learning more about the makeup of these stunning cities of stars.

Name: IRAS 00450-2533, NGC 253
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Sculptor
Distance: 10 million light years
Release date: 3 December 1998, 06:00
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA/ESA)

Looking down a barrel of gas at a doomed star: One of the most famous of all planetary nebulae. A dying star has thrown off some of its outer material thousands of years ago. The nebula is situated 2.000 light years away in the constellation Lyra. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the sharpest view yet of the most famous of all planetary nebulae: the Ring Nebula (M57). In this October 1998 image, the telescope has looked down a barrel of gas cast off by a dying star thousands of years ago. This photo reveals elongated dark clumps of material embedded in the gas at the edge of the nebula; the dying central star floating in a blue haze of hot gas. The nebula is about a light-year in diameter and is located some 2, 000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Lyra.

Name: Ring Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Lyra
Distance: 2500 light years
Release date: 6 January 1999, 06:00
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA/ESA )

Combined Deep View of Infrared and Visible Light Galaxies: This narrow, deep view of the universe reveals a plethora of galaxies (reaching fainter than 28th magnitude), as seen in visible and infrared light by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The reddish galaxies are glowing in infrared light, and the bluish galaxies are glowing in visible light. Several distinctive types of galaxies can be seen in these views: blue dwarf galaxies, disk galaxies, and very red elliptical galaxies. A bright, nearby face-on spiral galaxy appears at upper right. Some of the brightest objects in the field are foreground stars in the halo of our own Milky Way galaxy. By combining views in infrared light and visible light astronomers have a better idea of the shapes of galaxies in the remote universe, and of the fraction which are old or dust-obscured at early epochs.

Name: HDF, Hubble Deep Field
Type: Early Universe : Cosmology : Morphology : Deep Field
Category: Cosmology
Constellation: Tucana
Release date: 7 January 1999, 16:00
Credit: R. Williams (STScI) and the HDF-South team, and NASA/ESA

SN 1987a in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Glittering stars and wisps of gas create a breathtaking backdrop for the self-destruction of a massive star, called supernova 1987A, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy. Astronomers in the Southern hemisphere witnessed the brilliant explosion of this star on Feb. 23, 1987. Shown in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, the supernova remnant, surrounded by inner and outer rings of material, is set in a forest of ethereal, diffuse clouds of gas. This three-color image is composed of several pictures of the supernova and its neighboring region taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in Sept. 1994, Feb. 1996 and July 1997.

Name: SN 1987A
Type: Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : SupernovaLocal Universe : Nebula : Type : Supernova Remnant
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 4 February 1999, 06:00
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA/ESA )

SN 1987a in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Glittering stars and wisps of gas create a breathtaking backdrop for the self-destruction of a massive star, called supernova 1987A, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy. Astronomers in the Southern hemisphere witnessed the brilliant explosion of this star on Feb. 23, 1987. Shown in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, the supernova remnant, surrounded by inner and outer rings of material, is set in a forest of ethereal, diffuse clouds of gas. This three-color image is composed of several pictures of the supernova and its neighboring region taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2in Sept. 1994, Feb. 1996 and July 1997.

Name: IRAS 05240-6948, Large Magellanic Cloud, LMC, SN 1987A
Type: Local Universe : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Category: Quasars and Black HolesStars
Constellation: Dorado
Distance: 170000 light years
Release date: 4 February 1999, 06:00
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA/ESA)

Hubble Finds More Evidence of Galactic Cannibalism: This beautiful, eerie silhouette of dark dust clouds against the glowing nucleus of the elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 may represent the aftermath of a 100 million year old cosmic collision between the elliptical and a smaller companion galaxy.

Name: Fornax A, NGC 1316
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Lenticular
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Fornax
Distance: 60 million light years
Release date: 18 February 1999, 06:00
Credit: Carl Grillmair (California Institute of Technology) and NASA/ESA

A Mote in Hubble's Eye: On April 6, 1994 the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was performing a detailed study of the Sun's nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, using the Fine Guidance Sensors to search for small deviations in the position of Proxima Centauri that could reveal the presence of an unseen planetary companion. Rather than sit idle while this study went on, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) was activated using the observing strategy set out in a program initiated by Dr. Ed Groth (Princeton University) designed to make use of this otherwise wasted time. The image captured by this WFPC2 parallel observation is a typical Milky Way star field in the constellation Centaurus. Such images can be used to study the evolution of stars that make up our galaxy.

Name: IRAS 14260-6227, Proxima Centauri
Type: Milky Way : StarMilky Way : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Trail
Category: Stars
Constellation: Centaurus
Release date: 4 March 1999, 06:00
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA/ESA)