Yesterday you saw strange and incomprehensible crop circles, which may have been left by aliens :-), but today we will look into space ...
The Hubble Telescope, launched by NASA in 1990, is, unlike most telescopes, not on Earth, but directly in orbit, so the images taken by it are 7-10 times better quality due to the lack of an atmosphere. Maintenance is carried out by astronauts during special flights, every three years.
Anyone can theoretically get access to observations through the Hubble, you just need to submit an application and justify the need to look through the telescope. But, alas, not everything is so simple - there are a huge number of applications, so the competition is very tough, and most of those who wish have to be content with photographs.
However, looking at the photographs taken with this telescope, one cannot even believe that this is reality, and not a frame from some fantastic film. Truly, the Universe is infinite, and miracles are also countless in it. Today I bring you a selection of 50 of the most interesting photos taken from Hubble, in standard and large sizes, which you can download from the links and set as your desktop background.
01 Two galaxies merge into one. At this time, billions of stars and constellations are born
02 In the photo, the Crab Nebula is an object with a very complex structure and the ability to change extremely quickly. 
03 Explosion of gas and dust in the diffuse nebula M-16 Eagle in the Serpent. The height of the column of dust and gas emerging from the nebula is about 90 trillion kilometers, which is twice the distance from our Sun to the nearest star. 
04 Galaxy M-51 in the constellation Canine Hounds, or a whirlpool galaxy. Next to it is another smaller galaxy. The distance to them is 31 million light years. 
05 Planetary nebula NGS 6543, similar to the All-Seeing Eye from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Such nebulae are very rare. 
06 Planetary Nebula Helix, in the center of which is a slowly fading star. 
07 Meet newborn stars in N90, the Small Magellanic Cloud. 
08 Gas explosion in the planetary nebula Ring, constellation Lyra. The distance from the nebula to our Earth is 2000 light years. 
09 Spiral galaxy NGS 52, the birth of new stars 
10 View of the Orion Nebula. This is the area closest to Earth where new stars are born - "only" 1500 light-years away. 
11 An explosion of gas in planetary nebula NGS 6302 formed what looked like butterfly wings. The temperature of the substance in each of the "wings" is about 20 thousand degrees Celsius, and the speed of movement of particles is 950 thousand kilometers per hour. At this speed, you can get from the Earth to the Moon in 24 minutes. 
12 And this is how quasars, or nuclei of the first galaxies looked like, several hundred million years after the Big Bang. Quasars are some of the brightest and oldest objects in the universe. 
13 A unique photograph of the narrow galaxy NGS 8856, turned to us "sideways". 
14 Iridescent tints in a fading star. 
15 Galaxy Centaurus A is one of the closest to us (12 million light years). 
16 The appearance of new stars in the Monsieur galaxy, the Orion nebula. 
17 The birth of a star in the Orion nebula, cosmic vortex. 
18 A pillar of gas and dust about 7 light-years high in the constellation Monoceros, 2,500 light-years from our planet. 
19 One of the best photographs taken with the Hubble telescope is the crossed spiral galaxy NGS 1300. 
20 The Sombrero Galaxy, located 28 million light-years from Earth, is one of the most interesting and beautiful in the Universe. 
21 This is not a bas-relief depicting ancient heroes, but just a column of dust and gas 7,500 light years away. 
22 Birth of new stars in the Milky Way 
23 A play of light and shadow in the constellation Carina, 7,500 light-years from Earth. 
24 Gas ejection from a fading star, a white dwarf the size of our Sun 
25 Clearance in the Orion Nebula 
26 Stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located 168 thousand light years from us. 
27 Monsieur Galaxy, in which new stars appear 10 times more often than in the Milky Way. 
28 A cloud of dust and gas in the constellation Carina 
29 Young stars in a relatively new galaxy. The mass of the smallest star is half that of our Sun. 
30 Nebula in the constellation Carina 
31 Black hole 
32 Amazingly beautiful spiral galaxy in the constellation Ophiuchus, near the center of the Milky Way 
33 Solar system. Although this is not a photograph from the Hubble telescope, I really liked it and it will look very beautiful as a desktop background ;-) 
34 Planetary Nebula "Necklace" 
35 Red giant is a star in the constellation Unicorn 
36 Spiral galaxy, 85 million light-years distant. 
37 Cosmic Dust Clouds in the Milky Way 
38 Very beautiful spiral galaxy 11.6 million light years from Earth 
39 Center of our Galaxy 
(the average: 4,83
out of 5)
This report is available in high definition.
Mysterious nebulae, millions of light years away, the birth of new stars and the collision of galaxies. A selection of the best photos from the Hubble Space Telescope.
In the Great Magellanic Cloud. It is one of the brightest star formations in this galaxy. The two components of the cluster are also extremely hot young stars. The cluster in the center is about 50 million years old, and the lower one is about 4 million years old:
It contains one of the hottest white dwarfs known and is probably part of a binary star system. The speed of internal winds emanating from the stars in the center of the system, according to measurements, exceeds 1,000 kilometers per second. The Red Spider Nebula is located in the constellation Sagittarius. The distance to it is not exactly known, but according to some estimates, it is about 4,000 light years:
B in the constellation Dorado.
formation of a system of clouds of gas and dust:
New image from the Hubble telescope: star system formation:
A storm of turbulent gases in the Cygnus nebula, constellation Sagittarius... Among celestial objects, nebulae are the most diverse. Galaxies take spiral shapes, stars are spherical. And only the law is not written to nebulae. They come in any shape, and the variety of nebulae is endless. Nebulae are, in fact, accumulations of dust and gas in interstellar space. Their shape is influenced by supernova explosions, magnetic fields, stellar winds.
In a nearby galaxy:
Or NGC 2070. It is an emission nebula in the constellation Dorado. Belongs to a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way - the Large Magellanic Cloud:
In the constellation Canis Hounds, which is 37 million light years from Earth:
One of several "dust columns" nebula M16 Eagle, in which the image of a mythical creature can be guessed. It is approximately ten light years across:
New stars and gas clouds:
in the constellation Taurus, located about 6,500 light years from Earth, has a diameter of 6 light years and is expanding at a speed of 1,000 km / s. At the center of the nebula is a neutron star:
Or NGC 1976. It lies about 1,600 light years from Earth and is 33 light years across. It is one of the most famous objects in deep space. This is perhaps the most attractive winter object in the northern sky for astronomy lovers. Through field binoculars, the nebula is already clearly visible as a rather bright elongated cloud:
Largest star in orion nebula:
Spiral Galaxy NGC 5457 "Pinwheel". A large and very beautiful galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major:
Open Cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation Toucan. It is located at a distance of about 200,000 light years from us and has a diameter of about 65 light years:
In the constellation Ursa Major. At the center of the galaxy is a supermassive black hole, around which two less massive black holes revolve, weighing 12 thousand and 200 suns. Now M 82 has become the most "fashionable" galaxy, as it first showed the existence of explosions on the scale of galaxies:
Many galaxies have barriers near their centers. Even our Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a small central bar. It takes light about 60 million years to cover the distance that separates us from NGC 1672. This galaxy is about 75 thousand light years across:
The birth of new stars in Carina Nebula NGC 3372. Located between 6,500 and 10,000 light years from Earth:
In the constellation Cygnus is a huge and relatively faint supernova remnant. The star exploded about 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. The distance to it is estimated at 1400 light years:
The open cluster in the constellation Carina, about 20,000 light-years from the Sun. The center of the cluster contains thousands of stars, more massive than the Sun, which emerged 1-2 million years ago in a single burst of star formation:
In the constellation Pisces:
Located from us at a distance of about 235 million light years (72 megaparsecs) in the constellation Perseus. Each cluster NGC 1275 contains from 100 thousand to 1 million stars:
Another photo galaxies NGC 1275:
Planet of the solar system:
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(the average: 4,62
out of 5)
Mysterious nebulae, millions of light years away, the birth of new stars and the collision of galaxies. Part 2 of a selection of the best photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. The first part is located.
This is part Carina nebula... The total diameter of the nebula is over 200 light years. Located 8,000 light-years from Earth, the Carina Nebula can be seen in the southern sky with the naked eye. It is one of the brightest regions in the Galaxy:
Hubble ultra-long range (WFC3 camera). Consisting of gas and dust:
Another photo Carina Nebula:
By the way, let's get acquainted with the culprit of today's report. it Hubble telescope in space... Placing the telescope in space makes it possible to register electromagnetic radiation in the ranges in which the earth's atmosphere is opaque; primarily in the infrared range. Due to the absence of the influence of the atmosphere, the resolution of the telescope is 7-10 times higher than that of a similar telescope located on Earth.
The shuttle Discovery, launched on April 24, 1990, put the telescope into its calculated orbit the next day. The total cost of the project was estimated for 1999 at $ 6 billion from the US side and € 593 million was paid by the European Space Agency.
Globular cluster in the constellation Centaurus. It lies 18,300 light years away. Omega Centauri belongs to our Milky Way galaxy and is the largest globular cluster currently known. It contains several million stars. Omega Centauri is 12 billion years old:
The Butterfly Nebula ( NGC 6302) - planetary nebula in the constellation Scorpio. It has one of the most complex structures among the known polar nebulae. Central star of the nebula one of the hottest in the galaxy... The central star was discovered by the Hubble Telescope in 2009:
The largest in the solar system. Along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, Jupiter is classified as a gas giant. Jupiter has at least 63 moons. Jupiter mass 2.47 times the total mass of all the other planets of the solar system taken together, 318 times the mass of our Earth and about 1,000 times less than the mass of the Sun:
A few more images Carina Nebula:
Part of the galaxy - a dwarf galaxy located at a distance of about 50 kiloparsecs from our Galaxy. This distance is less than twice the diameter of our Galaxy:
And yet the photographs Carina Nebula some of the most beautiful:
Spiral Galaxy Whirlpool. It is located at a distance of about 30 million light years from us in the constellation of the Hounds of the Dogs. The diameter of the galaxy is about 100 thousand light years:
With the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, an amazing image of the planetary retina nebula, which was formed from the remnants of the dying star IC 4406. Like most nebulae, the Retina nebula is almost perfectly symmetrical, its right half is almost mirror-like to the left. After a few million years, only a slowly cooling white dwarf will remain of IC 4406:
M27 is one of the brightest planetary nebulae in the sky and can be seen with binoculars in the constellation Chanterelle. The light goes to us from M27 for about a thousand years:
It looks like a puff of smoke and sparks from a fireworks display, but it is actually debris from a star explosion in a nearby galaxy. Our Sun and the planets of the solar system were formed from similar debris that appeared after a supernova explosion billions of years ago in the Milky Way galaxy:
In the constellation Virgo, at a distance of 28 million light years from Earth. The Sombrero Galaxy gets its name from the protruding central part (bulge) and the edge of dark matter, which gives the galaxy a resemblance to a sombrero hat:
The exact distance to it is unknown; according to various estimates, it may be from 2 to 9 thousand light years. It is 50 light years across. The name of the nebula means "divided into three petals":
Helix Nebula NGC 7293 in the constellation Aquarius, 650 light years from the Sun. One of the closest planetary nebulae and was discovered in 1824:
Located in the constellation Eridanus, 61 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy itself is 110,000 light-years in size, slightly larger than our own galaxy, the Milky Way. NGC 1300 is unlike some spiral galaxies, including our Galaxy, in that there is no massive black hole in its core:
Dust clouds in our Milky Way galaxy. Our Milky Way galaxy, also called simply the Galaxy (with a capital letter), is a giant spiral star system that houses our solar system. The diameter of the Galaxy is about 30 thousand parsecs (about 100,000 light years) with an estimated average thickness of about 1,000 light years. The Milky Way contains, at its lowest estimate, about 200 billion stars. In the center of the Galaxy, apparently, there is a supermassive black hole:
On the right, at the top, these are not fireworks, this is a dwarf galaxy - a satellite of our Milky Way. Located at a distance of about 60 kiloparsecs in the constellation Toucan:
Formed during the collision of four massive galaxies. This is the first time this phenomenon has been visualized using a combination of images. Galaxies are surrounded by hot gas, which is shown in different colors in the image, depending on its temperature: reddish purple is the coldest, cyan is the hottest:
It is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System after Jupiter. Today, all four gaseous giants are known to have rings, but Saturn has the most prominent. Saturn's rings are very thin. With a diameter of about 250,000 km, their thickness does not even reach a kilometer. The mass of the planet Saturn is 95 times the mass of our Earth:
In the constellation Pisces. The nebula belongs to the Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud:
Measuring 100,000 light years and 35 million light years from the Sun:
And a bonus shot. From the Baikonur cosmodrome at 00 hours 12 minutes 44 seconds Moscow time today, June 8, 2011, ship launched successfully "Soyuz TMA-02M"... This is the second flight of the spacecraft of the new "digital" series Soyuz-TMA-M. Nice start:
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The Hubble Space Telescope, named after its inventor Edwin Hubble, is in low Earth orbit. Today it is the most modern and powerful telescope, worth about one billion dollars. Hubble takes stunning photographs of planets and their satellites, asteroids, distant galaxies, stars, nebulae ... High quality of images is ensured by the fact that the telescope is located above a thick layer of the Earth's atmosphere, which does not affect image distortion. With it, we also see the Universe in ultraviolet and infrared light for the first time. This section presents the best telescope photographs of galaxies.
NGC 4038 is a galaxy in the constellation Raven. Galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 are interacting galaxies called "antenna galaxies":
Whirlpool galaxy (M51) in the constellation Canis Hounds. It consists of a large spiral galaxy NGC 5194, at the end of one of the arms of which there is a companion galaxy NGC 5195:
Galaxy Tadpole (Tadpole Galaxy) in the direction of the constellation Draco. In the recent past, the Tadpole galaxy experienced a collision with another galaxy, resulting in a long tail of stars and gas. The long tail gives the galaxy a tadpole-like appearance, which is where its name comes from. If we follow the terrestrial analogy, then as the tadpole grows up, its tail will die off - stars and gas will form into dwarf galaxies, which will become satellites of the great spiral:
Stephen's Quintet is a group of five galaxies in the constellation Pegasus. Four of the five galaxies in Stephen's Quintet are in constant interaction:
The barred galaxy NGC 1672 is located in the constellation Dorado, 60 million light-years from Earth. The picture was taken in 2005 using the Advanced Camera for Surveys:
The Sombrero Galaxy (Messier 110) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo at a distance of 28 million light years from Earth. As shown by the latest studies of this object with the Spitzer telescope, it is two galaxies: a flat spiral is located inside an elliptical. A very strong X-ray emission is due, according to many astronomers, to the presence of a black hole with a mass of a billion solar masses at the center of this galaxy:
Pinwheel Galaxy. This is the largest and most detailed image of the galaxy taken by the Hubble Telescope to date. The snapshot was composed of 51 separate frames:
Lens-shaped galaxy NGC 7049 in the constellation Indus:
Spindle Galaxy (NGC 5866) in the constellation Draco. The galaxy is observed almost edge-on, which allows you to see the dark regions of cosmic dust, located in the galactic plane. The Spreteno Galaxy is approximately 44 million light years distant. It takes light about 60 thousand years to traverse the entire galaxy:
A barred galaxy NGC 5584. The galaxy is only slightly smaller than the Milky Way. It has two dominant, clearly defined spiral arms and several deformed ones, the nature of which is possibly associated with interaction with neighboring galactic structures:
NGC 4921 is a galaxy in the constellation Coma Veronica. The facility was discovered on April 11, 1785 by William Herschel. This image is compiled from 80 photographs:
Barred galaxy NGC 4522 in the constellation Virgo:
Galaxy NGC 4449. During the study of the galaxy with the Hubble telescope, astronomers managed to capture a picture of active star formation. It is assumed that the process was caused by the absorption of a smaller satellite galaxy. The photographs show thousands of young stars in various ranges, and there are also massive gas and dust clouds in the galaxy:
NGC 2841 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major:
The lenticular galaxy Perseus A (NGC 1275) consists of two interacting galaxies:
Two spiral galaxies NGC 4676 (Mice Galaxies) in the constellation Coma Veronica, picture taken in 2002:
The Cigar Galaxy (NGC 3034) is a star-forming galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. In the center of the galaxy there is supposedly a supermassive black hole, around which two less massive black holes with a mass of 12 thousand and 200 suns revolve:
Arp 273 is a group of interacting galaxies in the constellation Andromeda, located at a distance of 300 million light years from Earth. The largest of the spiral galaxies is known as UGC 1810 and is about five times heavier than its neighbor:
NGC 2207 is a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Big Dog, 80 million light-years from Earth:
NGC 6217 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Minor. Taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) of the Hubble Telescope in 2009:
Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Centaurus. It is one of the brightest and closest neighboring galaxies to us, only 12 million light years apart. The galaxy ranks fifth in brightness (after the Magellanic clouds, the Andromeda nebula and the Triangle galaxy). The radio galaxy is the most powerful source of radio emission:
NGC 1300 is a barred spiral galaxy about 70 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. It spans 110,000 light years, slightly larger than our Milky Way galaxy. A characteristic feature of this galaxy is the absence of an active nucleus, which indicates the absence of a central black hole. Image taken from the Hubble Space Telescope in September 2004. It is one of the largest Hubble telescope images showing the entire galaxy:
Progress does not stand still, and the Hubble telescope is planned to be replaced by a technically more advanced observatory called James Webb. This truly historic event will take place according to various sources in 2016-2018. The James Webb Space Telescope will have a mirror 6.5 meters in diameter (the diameter of the Hubble is 2.4 meters) and a solar shield the size of a tennis court.
The best photos of the Hubble telescope. Part 1. Galaxies (22 photos)
Original taken from osmiev v
Original taken from osmiev v
The Hubble Space Telescope is an automatic observatory in orbit around the Earth, named after Edwin Hubble. The Hubble Telescope is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency; it is one of NASA's Large Observatories. Placing the telescope in space makes it possible to register electromagnetic radiation in the ranges in which the earth's atmosphere is opaque; primarily in the infrared range. Due to the absence of the influence of the atmosphere, the resolving power of the telescope is 7-10 times higher than that of a similar telescope located on Earth. We now invite you to see the best images from this unique telescope over the past few years. Photo: The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest giant galaxy to our Milky Way. Most likely, our Galaxy looks about the same as the Andromeda galaxy. These two galaxies dominate the Local Group of Galaxies.
The hundreds of billions of stars that make up the Andromeda galaxy collectively produce a visible diffuse glow. The individual stars in the image are actually stars in our Galaxy, located much closer to the distant object. The Andromeda Galaxy is often referred to as M31, as it is the 31st object in Charles Messier's catalog of diffuse celestial objects.
At the center of Dorado's star-forming region is a gigantic cluster of the largest, hottest, and most massive stars we know of. These stars form the R136 cluster shown in this image.
NGC 253. Brilliant NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies that we see, and at the same time one of the most dusty. Some call it the "Silver Dollar Galaxy" because it is shaped appropriately in a small telescope. Others simply call it “the galaxy in the Sculptor” because it lies within the southern constellation Sculptor. This dusty galaxy is 10 million light years away.
Galaxy M83 is one of the closest spiral galaxies to us. From a distance that separates us from it, equal to 15 million light years, it looks completely normal. However, if we take a closer look at the center of M83 with the help of the largest telescopes, this area appears to be a turbulent and noisy place.
The group of galaxies is Stephen's quintet. However, only four galaxies from the group, located three hundred million light-years from us, participate in the cosmic dance, sometimes approaching, then moving away from each other. The four interacting galaxies - NGC 7319, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, and NGC 7317 - are yellowish in color and have curved loops and tails shaped by destructive tidal gravitational forces. The bluish galaxy NGC 7320, pictured above on the left, is much closer than the rest, just 40 million light-years away.
A giant cluster of stars distorts and splits the galaxy's image. Many of them are images of a single unusual, bead-like, blue ring-shaped galaxy, which, by chance, turned out to be located behind a giant cluster of galaxies. According to recent studies, in total, at least 330 images of individual distant galaxies can be found in the picture. This stunning photograph of the CL0024 + 1654 galaxy cluster was taken in November 2004.
Spiral galaxy NGC 3521 lies only 35 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Leo. It possesses features such as torn, irregular spiral arms decorated with dust, pinkish star-forming regions, and clusters of young bluish stars.
Spiral galaxy M33 is a medium-sized galaxy in the Local Group. M33 is also called the Galaxy in the Triangle after the constellation in which it is located. M33 is not far from the Milky Way, its angular dimensions are more than twice the size of the full Moon, i.e. it is perfectly visible with good binoculars.
The Lagoon Nebula. The bright Lagoon Nebula is home to many different astronomical objects. Objects of particular interest include the bright open cluster and several active star-forming regions. When viewed visually, the light from the cluster is lost against the general red glow caused by hydrogen emission, while the dark filaments are due to the absorption of light by dense layers of dust.
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky.
The small constellation Chameleon is located near the South Pole of the World. The picture reveals the amazing features of the modest constellation, which contains many dusty nebulae and colorful stars. Blue reflection nebulae are scattered across the field.
The dark dusty Horsehead Nebula and the luminous Orion Nebula contrast in the sky. They are located at a distance of 1,500 light years from us in the direction of the most recognizable celestial constellation. The familiar Horsehead Nebula is a small dark cloud, shaped like a horse's head, against the background of glowing red gas in the lower left corner of the picture.
The Crab Nebula. This confusion remained after the explosion of the star. The Crab Nebula is the result of a supernova explosion that was observed in 1054 AD. At the very center of the nebula is a pulsar, a neutron star with a mass equal to the mass of the Sun, which fits into an area the size of a small town.
It is a mirage from a gravitational lens. The bright red galaxy (LRG) pictured here has distorted light from a more distant blue galaxy with its gravity. Most often, such a distortion of light leads to the appearance of two images of a distant galaxy, but in the case of a very accurate superposition of the galaxy and the gravitational lens, the images merge into a horseshoe - an almost closed ring. This effect was predicted by Albert Einstein 70 years ago.
Star V838 Mon. For unknown reasons, in January 2002, the outer shell of the star V838 Mon suddenly expanded, making it the brightest star in the entire Milky Way. Then she became weak again, just as suddenly. Astronomers have never seen such flares before.
The Ring Nebula. It really looks like a ring in the sky. Therefore, hundreds of years ago, astronomers named this nebula according to its unusual shape. The Ring Nebula is also designated M57 and NGC 6720.
Pillar and jets in the Carina Nebula. This cosmic column of gas and dust is two light years across. The structure is located in one of the largest star-forming regions in our Galaxy. The Carina Nebula is visible in the southern sky and is 7,500 light-years distant from us.
Trifid nebula. The beautifully multi-colored Trifid Nebula lets you explore cosmic contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. The nebula is about 40 light years across.
Known as NGC 5194, this large galaxy with a well-developed spiral structure may have been the first spiral nebula to be discovered. It is clearly seen that its spiral arms and dust lanes pass in front of its companion galaxy - NGC 5195 (left). This pair is about 31 million light-years distant and officially belongs to the small constellation of the Hounds of the Dogs.
Centaurus A. A fantastic array of young blue star clusters, giant glowing gas clouds and dark dust veins surround the central region of the active galaxy Centaurus A.
The Butterfly Nebula. Bright clusters and nebulae in planet Earth's night sky are often named after flowers or insects, and NGC 6302 is no exception. The central star of this planetary nebula is extremely hot: its surface temperature is about 250 thousand degrees Celsius.
Image of a supernova that exploded in 1994 on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy.
Sombrero Galaxy. Galaxy M104 resembles a hat, which is why it was named the Sombrero Galaxy. The picture shows distinct dark dust streaks and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. The reasons the Sombrero Galaxy looks like a hat are due to the unusually large central stellar bulge and dense dark dust lanes in the galaxy's disk, which we see almost edge-on.
M17: Close-up view. Formed by stellar winds and radiation, these fantastic, wave-like formations are found in nebula M17 (Omega Nebula). The Omega Nebula lies in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius and is 5500 light-years distant. Clumps of dense, cold gas and dust are illuminated by radiation from the stars at the top right in the image and may become star-forming sites in the future.
What does the nebula IRAS 05437 + 2502 illuminate? There is no exact answer. Particularly mysterious is the bright upside-down V arc that traces the top edge of the mountain-like clouds of interstellar dust near the center of the picture.