Towers of sculpted gas in the Eagle nebula (M16) are actually cocoons for embryonic stars.
FUNNEL CLOUDS IN SPACE
Giant funnel-shaped clouds of gas (upper left) were captured
in another stellar "maternity ward," the Lagoon nebula (M8).
Rings of gas surround the dying star NGC 6543, nicknamed the Cat's Eye.
The dying star M2-9 is nicknamed the Twin Jet nebula because the two tubes of gas streaming from it behave like exhaust from a jet engine.
The arc-like pattern spread across the picture like a spider web is an illusion caused by the gravitational field of a cluster of galaxies called Abell 2218. This process, called gravitational lensing, magnifies, brightens, and distorts images of objects that lie far beyond the cluster, providing a powerful "zoom lens" for viewing galaxies that are so far away they could not normally be observed with the largest available telescopes.
A collision between two spiral galaxies has spawned brilliant bursts of star birth.
A pair of billowing dust and gas clouds have been cast off by the massive dying star Eta Carinae.
A large pair of gaseous rings frame a glowing halo of gas surrounding the massive dying star Supernova 1987A.
Hubble peers back more than 10 billion years to reveal at least 1,500 galaxies at various stages of development.
Saturn's north and south poles display spectacular oval-shaped curtains of light, called auroras, which were captured in ultraviolet light by Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS).
Hubble has been used to monitor weather conditions on Mars.
A spiral-shaped disk of dust is feeding a massive black hole in the galaxy, NGC 4261.