This comparison image of the core of galaxy M100 shows the dramatic improvement in the Hubble telescope's view of the universe. The new image (right) was taken with the second generation Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC2), which was installed during the STS-61 Hubble Servicing Mission.

The picture beautifully demonstrates that the corrective optics incorporated within WFPC2 compensate fully for Hubble's near-sightedness. The new camera will allow Hubble to probe the universe with unprecedented clarity and sensitivity. The picture clearly shows faint structure as small as 30 light-years across... Read more

In one of the deepest celestial surveys yet made by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a small group of previously unknown, interacting galaxies estimated to be three billion light-years away.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided the most detailed look yet at the comet hurtling toward a July 1994 collision with the giant planet Jupiter. Hubble's high resolution shows that the approximately 20 objects that comprise comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 -- giving it the resemblance of a "string of pearls" -- are much smaller than originally estimated from observations with ground-based telescopes. According to Dr. Harold Weaver of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Baltimore, MD, the Hubble observations show that the cometary nuclei are probably no bigger than three miles across, as opposed to earlier estimates of nine miles.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has given astronomers their earliest look at a rapidly ballooning bubble of gas blasted off a star. The shell surrounds Nova Cygni 1992, which erupted February 19, 1992. A nova is a thermonuclear explosion that occurs on the surface of a white dwarf star in a double star system. Nova Cygni 1992 was one of the brightest novae in 20 years, reaching naked-eye visibility for a brief period.

The Green (V band) image (left) shows the field around the quasar 3c 273 (courtesy Matthew Colless, David Schade and the CFHT). The optical jet can be seen southwest of the quasar. The blue (B band) image (right) shows the optical jet as seen by the Faint Object Camera (FOC) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. For comparison, the 11X11 arcsec FOC field of view is marked on the ground based CFHT image. The insert (right) is a Maximum Entropy reconstruction of the FOC image. This FOC image is derived from three linearly polarized images which show that the brightest knots are highly polarized... Read more

This is a comparison of pictures of the core of the globular cluster NGC 6624, as imaged with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This comparison image demonstrates that Hubble's high resolution and ultraviolet sensitivity allow astronomers to pick out the faint blue counterpart to an X-ray burster buried in the globular cluster. (An X-ray burster is a class of unusual double star that is a source of violent bursts of X-rays.) HST clearly distinguishes the star from others crammed together in the dense core of the cluster.

A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a "double nucleus" in the center of the neighboring spiral galaxy M31, located in the constellation Andromeda.

A team of astronomers reports that recent NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of the nearest Seyfert galaxy, NGC 4395, further support the theory that active galaxies are fueled by a massive black hole at the center. The researchers say the HST results rule out vigorous star formation as the alternative explanation for the mysterious power source behind quasars and extremely bright galactic nuclei.

After NASA Hubble Space Telescope's refurbishment to correct spherical aberration, its resolution for imaging stars is expected to increase by a factor of 10-15 over ground-based, and a factor of 2-3 over the pre-reburbished Hubble. The expected improvement in resolution is demonstrated by comparing a Hubble WFPC2 Thermal Vacuum globular cluster-mask (right panel) to a simulated view of the same globular cluster as viewed with Hubble's WFPC1 (left panel).

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has provided astronomers with their clearest look yet at a vast cloud of gas being heated by the birth of a new star.

Called Herbig-Haro object #2 (HH-2), the cloud is heated by shock waves from jets of high speed gas being ejected from a newborn star. Because the star itself is embedded in a dusty cocoon, HH-2 provides the only visible clues to physical processes occurring in the young star.