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Hubble's Historic Shots

ESO 77-14

This Hubble image of ESO 77-14 is a stunning snapshot of a celestial dance performed by a pair of similar sized galaxies. Two clear signatures of the gravitational tug of war between the galaxies are the bridge of material that connects them and the disruption of their main bodies. The galaxy on the right has a long, bluish arm while its companion has a shorter, redder arm. This interacting pair is in the constellation of Indus, the Indian, some 550 million light-years away from Earth. The dust lanes between the two galaxy centers show the extent of the distortion to the originally flat disks that have been pulled into three-dimensional shapes.

(Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration)

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(AP Photo/NASA-ESA)

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(AP Photo/HO/NASA)

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(AP Photo/NASA)

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(AP Photo/NASA)

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(AP Photo/NASA/JPL)

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(AP Photo/NASA)

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(AP Photo/NASA)

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Carina Nebula This 2007 image, released by NASA for the Hubble Space Telescope's 17th anniversary, shows a region of star birth and death in the Carina Nebula looking much like an abstract painting. The nebula contains at least a dozen brilliant stars that are 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun, according to the NASA description.

(AP Photo/NASA)v

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Hubble Ultra Dee... This 2004 image provided by NASA shows what the space agency scientists call the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. In this composite image, the Hubble Space Telescope looks the farthest we can into the universe, capturing light from 13 billion years ago when the universe was only 700 million years old.

(AP Photo/NASA)

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Orion Nebula This 2006 composite image provided by NASA shows thousands of stars forming in the cloud of gas and dust known as the Orion nebula, as viewed by the Hubble Space Telescope. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image assembled from 100 different images sent back by the Hubble Space Telescope. The original Hubble pictures are black and white photos, which are then carefully colorized.

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Kohoutek 4-55 This image has been released by NASA as the last "pretty" image made by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The image made May 4, 2009 is of the planetary nebula known as Kohoutek 4-55. It is one of a series of planetary nebulae that were named after their discoverer, Czech astronomer Lubos Kohoutek. A planetary nebula contains the outer layers of a red giant star that were expelled into interstellar space when the star was in the late stages of its life. Ultraviolet radiation emitted from the remaining hot core of the star ionizes the ejected gas shells, causing them to glow. The Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 will be replace during the space shuttle mission scheduled to launch Monday May 11, 2009.

(AP Photo/NASA)

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(AP Photo/ NASA, ESA - R. Sharples)

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(AP Photo/NASA, ESA)

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NGC 6050 vs. IC ... NGC 6050/IC 1179 (Arp 272) is a remarkable collision between two spiral galaxies, NGC 6050 and IC 1179, and is part of the Hercules Galaxy Cluster, located in the constellation of Hercules. The galaxy cluster is part of the Great Wall of clusters and superclusters, the largest known structure in the universe. The two spiral galaxies are linked by their swirling arms. Arp 272 is located some 450 million light-years away from Earth and is the number 272 in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.

(Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage)

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(Photo: University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

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(AP Photo/NASA, ESA)

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UGC 8335 UGC 8335 is a strongly interacting pair of spiral galaxies resembling two ice skaters. The interaction has united the galaxies via a bridge of material and has yanked two strongly curved tails of gas and stars from the outer parts of their bodies . Both galaxies show dust lanes in their centers. UGC 8335 is located in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, about 400 million light-years from Earth. It is the 238th galaxy in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.

(Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration)

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ESO 77-14 This Hubble image of ESO 77-14 is a stunning snapshot of a celestial dance performed by a pair of similar sized galaxies. Two clear signatures of the gravitational tug of war between the galaxies are the bridge of material that connects them and the disruption of their main bodies. The galaxy on the right has a long, bluish arm while its companion has a shorter, redder arm. This interacting pair is in the constellation of Indus, the Indian, some 550 million light-years away from Earth. The dust lanes between the two galaxy centers show the extent of the distortion to the originally flat disks that have been pulled into three-dimensional shapes.

(Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration)

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NGC 5754 vs. NGC... This image made by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA Thursday, April 24, 2008 shows a pair of interacting galaxies consisting of NGC 5754, the large spiral on the top and NGC 5752, the smaller companion in the bottom left corner of the image. The contrasting reactions of the two galaxies to their interaction are due to their differing masses and sizes. The photos were released to mark the Hubble Space Telescope's 18th launch anniversary.

(AP Photo/NASA, ESA)

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VV 340A vs. VV 3... This image made by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA Thursday, April 24, 2008, shows Arp 302, which consists of a pair of very gas-rich spiral galaxies in their early stages of interaction: VV 340A is seen edge-on to the left and VV 340B face-on to the right. An enormous amount of infrared light is radiated by the gas from massive stars that are forming at a rate simila to the most vigorous giant star-forming regions in our own Milky Way.

(AP Photo/NASA; ESA)

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LEDA 62867 vs. N... This image made by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA Thursday, April 24, 2008, displays a beautiful pair of interacting spiral galaxies with swirling arms. The smaller of the two, dubbed LEDA 62867 and positioned to the left of the frame, seems to be safe for now, but will probably be swallowed by the larger spiral galaxy; NGC 6786, right, eventually. There is already some disturbance visible in both components. A supernova was seen to explode in the large spiral in 2004. NGC 6786 is located in the constellation of Draco; the Dragon; about 350 million light-years away.

(AP Photo/ NASA, ESA)

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NGC 520 This image made by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA Thursday, April 24, 2008 , shows NGC 520, the product of a collision between two disc galaxies that started 300 million years ago. It exemplifies the middle stages of the merging process: the discs of the parent galaxies have merged together, but the nuclei have not yet coalesced. NGC 520 is one of the brightest galaxy pairs on the sky, and can be observed with a small telescope toward the constellation of Pisces, the Fish, having the appearance of a comet. It is about 100 million light-years away and about 100,000 light-years across.

(AP Photo/NASA, ESA)

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Arp 272 This image made by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA Thursday, April 24, 2008 , shows a Hubble view of Arp 272, a remarkable collision between two spiral galaxies, NGC 6050 and IC 1179, and is part of the Hercules Galaxy Cluster, located in the constellation of Hercules. The galaxy cluster is part of the Great Wall of clusters and superclusters, the largest known structure in the Universe. The two spiral galaxies are linked by their swirling arms. Arp 272 is located some 450 million light-years away from Earth.

(AP Photo/NASA, ESA)

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NGC 6621 vs. NGC... This image made by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA Thursday, April 24, 2008 , shows a Hubble view of Arp 81 is a strongly interacting pair of galaxies, seen about 100 million years after their closest approach. It consists of NGC 6621, to the left, and NGC 6622, to the right. NGC 6621 is the larger of the two, and is a very disturbed spiral galaxy. The encounter has pulled a long tail out of NGC 6621 that has now wrapped behind its body. The collision has also triggered extensive star formation between the two galaxies. Scientists believe that Arp 81 has a richer collection of young massive star clusters than the notable Antennae galaxies, which are much closer than Arp 81. The pair is located in the constellation of Draco, approximately 300 million light-years away from Earth.

(AP Photo/NASA, ESA)

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NGC 6670 This image made by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA Thursday, April 24, 2008 shows the NGC 6670 pair of overlapping edge-on galaxies. Scientists believe that NGC 6670 has already experienced at least one close encounter and is now in the early stages of a second. The nuclei of the two galaxies are approximately 50,000 light-years apart. NGC 6670 glows in the infrared with more than a hundred billion times the luminosity of our Sun and is thought to be entering a starburst phase. The pair is located some 400 million light-years away from Earth.

(AP Photo/NASA, ESA)

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IC 1623 This image made by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA Thursday, April 24, 2008, shows a Hubble view of IC 1623, an interacting galaxy system that is very bright when observed in the infrared. One of the two galaxies, the infrared-bright, but optically obscured galaxy VV 114E, has a substantial amount of warm and dense gas. Warm and dense gas is also found in the overlap region connecting the two nuclei. Observations further support the notion that IC 1623 is approaching the final stage of its merger, when a violent central inflow of gas will trigger intense starburst activity that could boost the infrared luminosity above the ultraluminous threshold. IC 1623 is located about 300 million light-years away from Earth.

(AP Photo/NASA, ESA)

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