In the direction of the constellation Canis Major, two spiral galaxies pass by each other like majestic ships in the night. The near-collision has been caught in images taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
Gem in the Sky
In its first glimpse of the heavens following the successful December 1999 servicing mission, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a majestic view of the Eskimo Nebula, a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a dying, Sun-like star.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Andrew Fruchter (STScI), and the ERO team (STScI + ST-ECF)
Cat?s Eye Nebula
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the Cat?s Eye Nebula on September 9, 2004. The Cat's Eye Nebula looks like the penetrating eye of the disembodied sorcerer Sauron from the film adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings."
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and the Hubble Heritage Team
Hourglass Nebula
This Hubble telescope snapshot of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula, reveals that the object has an hourglass shape with an intricate pattern of "etchings" in its walls. A planetary nebula is the glowing relic of a dying, Sun-like star.
Image Credit: Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger (JPL), the WFPC2 science team, and NASA
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