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Region around black-hole system GRO J1655-40  Four-degree field is centerd on the black-hole system GRO J1655-40. The image is from the Digitized Sky Survey II. Colorful Saturn, Getting Closer  As Cassini coasts into the final month of its nearly seven-year trek, the serene majesty of its destination looms ahead. The spacecraft's cameras are functioning beautifully and continue to return stunning views from Cassini's position, 1.2 billion kilometers (750 million miles) from Earth and now 15.7 million kilometers (9.8 million miles) from Saturn.<BR><BR>In this narrow angle camera image from May 21, 2004, the ringed planet displays subtle, multi-hued atmospheric bands, colored by yet undetermined compounds. Cassini mission scientists hope to determine the exact composition of this material.<BR><BR>This image also offers a preview of the detailed survey Cassini will conduct on the planet's dazzling rings. Slight differences in color denote both differences in ring particle composition and light scattering properties. Globular Cluster M4  Peering deep inside a cluster of several hundred thousand stars, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope uncovered the oldest burned-out stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. Located in the globular cluster M4, these small, dying stars called white dwarfs  are giving astronomers a fresh reading on one of the biggest questions in astronomy: How old is the universe? The ancient white dwarfs in M4 are about 12 to 13 billion years old. After accounting for the time it took the cluster to form after the big bang, astronomers found that the age of the white dwarfs agrees with previous estimates for the universe's age.
Distant Supernova 3 - After Outburst   Sedna mystery deepens as Hubble offers best look at farthest planetoid  Hubble took a total of 35 images of Sedna on March 16, 2004. The planetoid appeared to move slightly between exposures, due to the motion of Hubble around Earth and the motion of the Earth around the Sun. Sedna, too, is moving through space, but too slowly for that to be seen in these images. The fact that the object shows this parallax shift between exposures demonstrates that Sedna is a member of the solar system, and hence is far closer to the Earth than the background star (at right) in the same field of view. Hot White Dwarf Shines in Young Star Cluster  A dazzling 'jewel-box' collection of over 20, 000 stars can be seen in crystal clarity in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The young (40 million year old) cluster, called NGC 1818, is 164, 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The LMC, a site of vigorous current star formation, is an ideal nearby laboratory for studying stellar evolution.
Digitized Sky Survey 2 wide-angle image of Abell 2218  This image is composited from blue, red and infrared exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 and shows 1.5 x 1.5 degrees centered on galaxy cluster Abell 2218. A ground-based wide-angle image of Abell 2218  This wide-angle image spans 0.4 by 0.4 degrees and was taken by the 12k camera on Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, United States. The image is composited by three exposures through blue (B), red (R), and infrared (I) filters. Distant Supernova 3 - Before Outburst  
Sequences of Star Formation in Nneighboring Galaxy  Our neighbourhood galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) lies in the Constellation of Dorado and is sprinkled with a number of regions harbouring recent and ongoing star formation. One of these star-forming region, N11B, is shown in this Hubble image. It is a subregion within a larger area of star formation called N11. N11 is the second largest star-forming region in LMC. It is only surpassed in the size and activity by ?the king of stellar nurseries?, 30 Doradus, located at the opposite side of LMC. Stormy Clouds of Star Birth  Hidden behind a shroud of dust in the constellation Cygnus is an exceptionally bright source of radio emission called DR21. Visible light images reveal no trace of what is happening in this region because of heavy dust obscuration. In fact, visible light is attenuated in DR21 by a factor of more than 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000 (ten thousand trillion heptillion).<BR><BR>New images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope allow us to peek behind the cosmic veil and pinpoint one of the most massive natal stars yet seen in our Milky Way galaxy. The never-before-seen star is 100,000 times as bright as the Sun. Also revealed for the first time is a powerful outflow of hot gas emanating from this star and bursting through a giant molecular cloud.<BR><BR>This image shows a 24-micron image mosaic, obtained with the Multiband Imaging Photometer aboard Spitzer (MIPS). This image maps the cooler infrared emission from interstellar dust found throughout the interstellar medium. The DR21 complex is clearly seen near the center of the strip, which covers about twice the area of the IRAC image.<BR><BR>Perhaps the most fascinating feature in this image is a long and shadowy linear filament extending towards the 10 o'clock position of DR21. This jet of cold and dense gas, nearly 50 light-years in extent, appears in silhouette against a warmer background. This filament is too long and massive to be a stellar jet and may have formed from a pre-existing molecular cloud core sculpted by DR21's strong winds. Regardless of its true nature, this jet and the numerous other arcs and wisps of cool dust signify the interstellar turbulence normally unseen by the human eye. Distant Supernova 2 - After Outburst  
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