Hubble Space Telescope photos

Astronomers Select Top Ten Most Amazing Pictures Taken by Hubble Space Telescope in Last 16 Years

'..they illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful.'

Michael Hanlon/AH (Nov 25th , 2006)

After correcting an initial problem with the lens, when the Hubble Space Telescope was first launched in 1990, the floating astro-observatory began to relay back to Earth, incredible snapshots of the 'final frontier' it was perusing.

Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by Hubble, in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos 'illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful.'

I'll say "mind-blowing".

Hubble telescope's top ten greatest space photographs

THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE CAPTIONED SERIALLY.

1. The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken

by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104,

are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns

and is 50,000 light years across.

2. The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3,

resembles

an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our

galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.

3. In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called Eskimo because it looks like a face

surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped

objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.

4. At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula

5. The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a pinched-in-the-middle look

because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre.

6. The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away,

described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts

of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.

7. Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers

of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.

8. The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of

two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163

in the distant Canis Major constellation.

9. The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here,

it is where new stars are being born.