NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unusual and fascinating new optical jet in the nucleus of the elliptical galaxy NOC 3862.

A NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) view of a 4,000 light-year long jet of plasma emanating from the bright nucleus of the giant elliptical galaxy M87. This ultraviolet light image was made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC), one of two imaging systems aboard HST.

Astronomers report today that they have found intriguing evidence that a black hole weighing over 2.6 billion times the mass of the Sun exists at the center of the giant elliptical galaxy M87, based upon images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The images show that stars become strongly concentrated towards the center of M87, as if drawn into the center and held there by the gravitational field of a massive black hole.

Astronomers reported today that recent ultraviolet observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope suggest that what were thought to be randomly distributed, nearby primordial clouds of hydrogen may actually be associated with galaxies or clusters of galaxies.

Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute have new evidence for explaining the mysterious X-ray background that permeates the universe. Astronomers Antonella Fruscione, Richard Griffiths and John Mackenty have found a number of "star-burst" galaxies which could help to account for the X- ray background. This at least rivals the contribution from quasars, which are known to account for about 30% of the background.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided a detailed view of a ten thousand light-year long jet of plasma which has been ejected from the core of a galaxy 270 million light-years away. Observations made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC) reveal that the jet has an unusual braided structure, like a twisted pair of wires. "This is the first time that such a structure has been seen in an optical jet," says F. Duccio Macchetto, ESA's Principal Investigator on the FOC and Head of the Science Programs Division at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has obtained the most detailed and highest resolution optical images of the radio galaxy PKS 0521-36. The observations were made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided an unprecedented, detailed view of highly energetic events in the core of a galaxy 30 million light-years away. The observations are a first step in HST's search for super-massive black holes at the nuclei of active galaxies.