Views From Space

This galaxy, M87, above, might hold a key to understanding our universe. Scientists found the black hole there to be two to three times more massive than previously thought. Adjusting how other black holes are measured could help scientists better understand how galaxies form.

JHU / NASA

The bombardment of Earth by asteroids 3.9 billion years ago may have enhanced early life, according to a new University of Colorado study.

REUTERS/NASA/JPL/Handout

This planetary nebula, named Kohoutek 4-55, was photographed May 4 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The nebula contains the outer layers of a red giant star that died. The camera, which is the size of a baby grand piano, has captured several memorable images since it was installed in 1993.

NASA / ESA / JPL

Scientists said they discovered the most distant object in space, according to a Space.com report on April 28. The gamma-ray burst, seen above inside the white circle, is roughly 13 billion light-years away. "The burst most likely arose from the explosion of a massive star," said astrophysicist Derek Fox.

NSF / NASA

The same camera captured this image, dubbed 'Pillars of Creation,' on April 1, 1995. It shows columns of cool hydrogen gas in the Eagle nebula. The columns serve as incubators for new stars.

NASA / ESA

In March 2004, scientists unveiled this image from the camera. It was the longest and deepest picture of the universe at that time. The million-second exposure image shows the first galaxies to emerge from the universe's Dark Ages, the period after the Big Bang in which stars began reheating the universe.

NASA / ESA

New photographs released by NASA have captured images of a vast stellar formation resembling a human hand reaching across space. The image, taken by NASA's space-based Chandra Observatory telescope, shows an X-ray nebula 150 light years across. (Source: CNN)

NASA

A telescope in Chile captured this spectacular image of the Helix planetary nebula, nicknamed the "Eye of God." The object lies 700 light years away in the constellation Aquarius. The brilliant colors are created as a star releases gas and dust as it dies into a white dwarf.

ESO

This image provided by NASA Tuesday Feb. 10, 2009 shows the spiral galaxy Messier 101 and is a composite of views from the Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory. The red color shows Spitzer's view in infrared light. It highlights the heat emitted by dust lanes in the galaxy where stars can form. The yellow color is Hubble's view in visible light. Most of this light comes from stars, and they trace the same spiral structure as the dust lanes. The blue color shows Chandra's view in X-ray light. Such composite images allow astronomers to see how features seen in one wavelength match up with those seen in another wavelength.

AP Photo / NASA

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of three galaxies playing a game of gravitational tug-of-war that could destroy one of them. The galaxies -- NGC 7173, middle left, NGC 7174, middle right, and NGC 7176, lower right -- are about 100 million light-years away. The photo was released March 3.

ESA / NASA / AP