10 stunning images snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope: From Sombrero, Star to Butterfly

The first one in the list is an image of the Sombrero galaxy, Messier 104 (M104), Hubble has trained its razor-sharp eye to capture this galaxy . The Sombrero lies at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies and is one of the most massive objects in that group, equivalent to 800 billion suns and it is 50,000 light-years across and is located 30 million light-years from Earth.  (NASA)

A "Butterfly" emerges from a stellar demise in planetary nebula NGC 6302. In this image what resembles wings of butterfly are roiling cauldrons of gas heated to nearly 20 000 degrees Celsius. NGC 6302 lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3800 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius. (NASA)

The image of the star V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) is third in the list , the image reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures; this effect is known as echo. (NASA)

In the list of stunning images, is the ghostly star-forming pillar of gas and dust. The object captured in the image is called the Cone Nebula (in NGC 2264).the image was taken by the installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the upper 2.5 light-years of the Cone, a height that equals 23 million roundtrips to the Moon. (NASA)

The fifth in the list is of a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction. The star, called AG Carinae, is surrounded by an expanding shell of gas and dust.  (NASA)

 The sixth position in the list is acquired by one of the stunning images captured by Hubble of The Southern Crab Nebula, its distance is 7000 light years. (NASA) 

The next in the list is the Hourglass Nebula, it is an image of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula located about 8,000 light-years away, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).  (NASA)

 Another one in the list is light echo from a mysterious erupting star, this image was taken 17 December 2002. The image is combined from exposures taken through blue (B), green (V), and infrared (I) camera filters. (NASA)

The Second last in the list is Cassiopeia A. It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova explosion in the Milky Way Galaxy. The image shows the complex and intricate structure of the star's shattered fragments. (NASA)

 Last in the list is a spiral galaxy. It has a bright core with patches of dark dust, and fuzzier, dimmer spiral arms in cooler colours, with spots of bright blue.  (NASA)

Click here