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WR 136 - the Star behind the Crescent Nebula  WR 136 created this web of luminous material during the late stages of its life. As a bloated, red super-giant, WR 136 gently puffed away some of its bulk, which settled around it. When the star passed from a super-giant to a Wolf-Rayet, it developed a fierce stellar wind - a stream of charged particles released from its surface - and began expelling mass at a furious rate. A Glimpse into the Heart of a Dying Star  This image, shows the young planetary nebula Henize 3-401, one of the most elongated planetary nebulae found so far. The image shows two very long cylindrical outflows with intricate thread-like structures and tattered ends. We are seeing the central star responsible for the beautiful display for the first time in this image. Henize 3-401 is located in the constellation of Carina (the Keel) at an approximate distance of 10,000 light-years. Stellar 'Fireworks Finale' Came First in the Young Universe  he deepest views of the cosmos from the Hubble Space Telescope yield clues that the very first stars may have burst into the universe as brilliantly and spectacularly as a fireworks finale. Except in this case, the finale came first, long before Earth, the Sun and the Milky Way Galaxy formed.
HD141569 Circumstellar Disk  NASA Hubble Space Telescope's new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) has given astronomers their clearest view yet of the dust disk around a young, 5-million-year-old star. Such disks are expected to be the birthplace of planets. The star, called HD 141569A, lies 320 light-years away in the constellation Libra and appears to be a member of a triple-star system. The image at left shows the star and disk as it appears in space. The system is slightly tilted when viewed from Earth. The photo at right portrays the system if astronomers could view it from above. Hubble Snapshot Captures Life Cycle of Stars  In this stunning picture of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603, the crisp resolution of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures various stages of the life cycle of stars in one single view. STIS Chemically Analyzes the Ring Around SN 1987a  The ring formed 30,000 years before the star exploded and so is a fossil record of the final stages of the star's existence. The light from the supernova heated the gas in the ring so that it now glows at temperatures from 5,000 to 25,000 degrees Kelvin
Globular Cluster M4  This panoramic view of the globular cluster M4 was captured by The Kitt Peak National Observatory's 0.9-meter telescope in March 1995. The cluster hosts some highly interesting white dwarfs that can be used to age-date the Universe. Shocking Secrets of the Crab Pulsar  Multiple observations made over several months with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope captured the spectacle of matter and antimatter propelled to near the speed of light by the Crab pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star the size of Manhattan. Supernova 1987A  Seventeen years ago, astronomers spotted the brightest stellar explosion ever seen since the one observed by Johannes Kepler 400 years ago. Called SN 1987A, the titanic supernova explosion blazed with the power of 100,000,000 suns for several months following its discovery on Feb. 23, 1987. Although the supernova itself is a million times fainter than 17 years ago, a new light show in the space surrounding it is just beginning.<BR><BR>This image, taken Nov. 28, 2003 by the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows many bright spots along a ring of gas, like pearls on a necklace. These cosmic
A Dying Star in Globular Cluster M15  The globular cluster M15 is shown in this color image obtained with the Hubble telescope. Lying some 40, 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus, M15 is one of nearly 150 known globular clusters that form a vast halo surrounding our Milky Way galaxy. Each of these spherically shaped clusters contains hundreds of thousands of ancient stars. The stars in M15 and other globular clusters are estimated to be about 12 billion years old. They were among the first generations of stars to form in the Milky Way. Globular Cluster NGC 6397  This is an image of the globular cluster NGC 6397, one of the nearest and densest agglomerations of stars to Earth. The cluster is located 7.200 light-years away in the southern constellation Ara, and is one of 150 such objects which orbit our Milky Way Galaxy. Jet from Young Star (HH-47)  This view of a three trillion mile-long jet called HH-47 reveals a very complicated jet pattern that indicates the star (hidden inside a dust cloud near the left edge of the image) might be wobbling, possibly caused by the gravitational pull of a companion star.
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