“This is the first in a sequence of four pictures from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys that dramatically demonstrates the echoing of light through space caused by an unusual stellar outburst in January 2002.” Picture: NASA

“The Hubble telescope captured a display of starlight, glowing gas, and silhouetted dark clouds of interstellar dust in this 4-foot-by-8-foot image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300.” Picture: NASA

“Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this celestial object is actually just a pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (in NGC 2264) - so named because in ground-based images it has a conical shape - this monstrous pillar resides in a turbulent star-forming region.” Picture: NASA

“The Hubble Space Telescope’s image of the star V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures.” Picture: NASA

“Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius.” Picture: NASA

“Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighbouring dwarf galaxies, this young globular-like star cluster is surrounded by a pattern of filamentary nebulosity that is thought to have been created during supernova blasts.” Picture: NASA

“Hubble’s view of the Carina Nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail.” Picture: NASA

“This Hubble image is among the largest ever produced with the Earth-orbiting observatory - gives the most detailed view of the entire Crab Nebula ever.” Picture: NASA

“In the new Hubble image of the galaxy M74 we can also see a smattering of bright pink regions decorating the spiral arms.” Picture: NASA

“This Hubble Space Telescope view shows one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space, located 210,000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.”Picture: NASA

“The subject of this image is NGC 6861, a galaxy discovered in 1826 by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop. Almost two centuries later we now know that NGC 6861 is the second brightest member of a group of at least a dozen galaxies called the Telescopium Group.” Picture: NASA

“Arp 148 is the staggering aftermath of an encounter between two galaxies, resulting in a ring-shaped galaxy and a long-tailed companion.” Picture: NASA

“This spectacular image was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).” Picture: NASA

The image shows a pair of colossal stars, WR 25 and Tr16-244, located within the open cluster Trumpler 16. Picture: NASA

“This 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).” Picture: NASA