Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard

Science - Hubble Space Telescope

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Images - 2

Mayall's Object
Mayall's Object (Arp 148) is the result of a collision between two galaxies. The collision produced a shockwave that first drew matter into the center and then caused it to propagate outwards in a ring. The elongated companion perpendicular to the ring suggests that Arp 148 is an ongoing collision. It is in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, approximately 500 million light-years away.
Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University), K. Noll (STScI), and J. Westphal (caltech) taken on April 24th 2008.
Eta Carinae & Homunculus Nebula
Hubble image showing the supermassive star Eta Carinae and the bipolar Homunculus Nebula which surrounds it. The Homunculus was partly created in a "supernova imposter" event of Eta Carinae, the light from which reached Earth in 1843, when it became one of the brightest stars in the southern sky.  Eta Carinae itself appears as the white patch near the center of the image, where the 2 lobes of the Homunculus touch.  Although the star released as much visible light as a supernova
explosion, it survived, producing two lobes and a large, thin equatorial disk, all moving outward at more than half a million miles per hour. 
There is also a stunning picture of the Eta Carinae Nebula, with the star's position market by the blue arrow. 

It is about 7,500 to 8,000 light-years away, and the star is between 85 and 195 times the radius of the Sun, and 100 to 150 times as massive.  It is less than 3 million years old, and will not survive much longer. 
Eagle Nebula
Two beautiful images from the Hubble of some of the huge pillars within the Eagle Nebula (M16).  These  are regions where stars are forming in huge numbers, many much larger than the Sun.  On the left is the famous picture of the "pillars of Creation", which are several light-years tall.  On the right is the column called "the Spire" That one is about ten light-years tall.  The nebula is about 7,000 light-
years away, so we are seeing it as it was 7,000 years ago.   Its size is estimated to be some 70 by 55 light-years, and it is about 5.5 million years
years old.  Sadly, the Pillars were probably destroyed by a nearby supernova explosion some 6,000 years ago, so we will only be able to enjoy them for another thousand years as it will take the light from the modified nebula that much longer to reach us! 
This image is not from the Hubble, but it shows the nebula, and the positions of the above features within the nebula. 
Credit & Copyright:  T. A. Rector & B. A. Wolpa, NOAO, AURA, NSF
Nebula NGC 604 in M33 (Triangulum)
NGC 604 is a huge nebula located in one of the spiral arms of our neighboring galaxy M33, Triangulum, which is about 2.7 to 3 million light-years away.  The nebula is nearly 1,500 light-years across, making it many times larger than even the entire Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Placed at the same distance as the Orion Nebula,  which is visible to the naked eye, NGC 604 would be brighter than Venus.  A spectacular object. 

It contains more than 200 large (from 15 to 60 solar masses) hot stars, that heat gas around the nebula making it fluoresce.