news.com.au Final Frontier Gallery, Space Images

[g8crasher]

Star trails

Distance from Earth: Four to 1000 light years

The stars appear to move across the sky as the Earth rotates. This exposure of about six hours was recorded at Siding Spring Observatory in NSW.

Picture: Anglo-Australian Observatory/David Malin Images - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

The Horsehead nebula

Distance from Earth: 1500 light years

The horse-like shape is a partly transparent column of dust seen against a vivid red curtain of glowing hydrogen.

Picture: NASA - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

The Bug Nebula

Distance from Earth: 3500 light years

The fiery, dying star at the centre of the nebula has a temperature of 250,000C yet is shrouded by a blanket containing iron minerals and icy hailstones.

Picture: NASA, ESA and A.Zijlstra (UMIST, Manchester, UK) - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

[g8crasher]

Tycho's supernova

Distance from Earth: 7500 light years

In 1572 Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe noted a bright new star that became known as Tycho's supernova. More than four centuries later an X-ray image of the remnant of the exploded star shows an expanding high temperature turmoil.

Picture: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J.Warren & J.Hughes - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

Light Echo

Distance from Earth: 20,000 light years

In early 2002 the unusual variable star V838 Monocerotis briefly increased in brightness to become 600,000 times brighter than the Sun. Light spreading out from this sudden eruption now illuminates details of the dust in the region surrounding the star.

Picture: NASA, ESA, and H. Bond (STScI) - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

Tarantula nebula

Distance from Earth: 160,000 light years

This spider-shaped gas cloud in the Large Magellanic Cloud is buffeted and blasted by the outbursts of millions of newly-born stars.

Picture: NASA, ESA, ESO and Danny LaCrue - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

[g8crasher]

Andromeda Galaxy

Distance from Earth: 2,500,000 light years

Best seen from the Northern Hemisphere, the largest of the galaxies visible to the naked eye is a vast Milky Way-like spiral in the constellation of Andromeda.

Picture: GALEX team, NASA/JPL - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

Messier 74

Distance from Earth: 32,000,000 light years

A face-on spiral galaxy with winding spiral arms that are rippling with pink star-forming regions and clumps of young, blue stars.

Picture: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

The Antennae

Distance from Earth: 45,000,000 light years

Two galaxies smashing together with their dust and gas colliding to create billions of new stars.

Picture: NASA/ESA/ Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

[g8crasher]

NGC 4921

Distance from Earth: 320,000,000 light years

This unusual galaxy in the nearby Coma galaxy cluster is classified as "anemic" because of the slow rate it forms stars.

Picture: NASA, ESA, K. Cook (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA) - Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum

To learn more about the Powerhouse Museum's new exhibition From Earth to the Universe, opening on September 12, Click here

[Guest angela]

its so beautiful to find such things in "space."

[Guest fruitcakepablohoney]

Damn nice! :thumbsup:

[Guest jameslhm]

:punk1: :punk1: :punk1: :punk1: :punk1: :punk1: NICE :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: