The Hubble April 1, 2005

Introduction If you missed the July Fourth fireworks, you still have a chance to see a fireworks display -- one that comes from deep in space. The Hubble Space Telescope captured these pictures of stars in the throes of death. Looking down a tunnel of gas from a star dying thousands of years ago, the telescope delivered the best view yet of M57, the Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra.

Keck galaxy Astrophysicists said February 15 they have detected a tiny galaxy that is the farthest known object from Earth. The researchers used the Hubble telescope in space and the Keck Observatory's telescopes in Hawaii to make their findings. They also were aided by the natural magnification provided by galaxy cluster Abell 2218, which acts as a powerful lens magnifying galaxies beyond it.

Black Eye galaxy Messier 64 (M64) is also known as the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy because of a dark band of dust that stands out vividly in front of its bright nucleus.

Supernova Remnant/Celestial Fireworks The streaks in this image are what's left of a star 15 times more massive than our sun. They could eventually be the beginning of new star formations.

Little Ghost Amateur astronomers call this dying star Little Ghost Nebula. It is 2,000-5,000 light years away and is about the size of our sun. In its last gasps, this star will expand and become what's called a red giant.

NEBULA MZ3/Ant Nebula This dying star looks something like an ant, giving us another idea of what our sun might look like in billions of years, when it runs out of gas.

Crab Nebula This star burned out -- becoming a supernova -- as astronomers in China watched almost a thousand years ago. An explosion in space and another fireworks display marked the beginning of the end of another star.

Egg Nebula The Egg Nebula gives us a look at the dust shells around an aging star -- which are normally invisible and resemble a rippling pool highlighted by underwater lights.

Planetary Nebula It glows in the constellation Aquila and looks something like a giant eye. This unusual planetary nebula, NGC 6751, was formed thousands of years ago when a cloud of gas spewed from a fiery star in its core.

Dying star A November 2003 image of Supernova 1987A, a dying star in a nearby galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, shows a gaseous "ring of fire" around the star getting brighter, while the central star grows dimmer. Hubble first snapped a photo of the event, which actually happened 160,000 years ago, in 1987.