Stellar views of a few of the most spectacular sights within the universe

Scarlet plumes of hydrogen emanate from the full of life cosmic portrait of the galaxy Messier 82 (M82) proven above. Also referred to as the cigar galaxy, it sits within the constellation Ursa Main, round 12 million gentle years away.

It’s what is named a starburst galaxy on account of its remarkably excessive fee of star formation. In reality, for each star born within the Milky Method, 10 burst into existence in M82. The rationale for this a lot better exercise lies in M82’s gravitational interactions with a neighbouring galaxy often known as M81.

The improbable picture right here is the sharpest wide-angle view of M82 ever captured. It was assembled utilizing pictures taken by NASA’s Hubble House Telescope in each infrared and visual wavelengths of sunshine.

Glowing with an ethereal magnificence is the Cat’s Eye Nebula, or NGC 6543, (pictured above) which was additionally imaged by Hubble. It’s a planetary nebula. Regardless of the title, these are nothing to do with planets, however type when sun-like stars vigorously expel their outer layers of fuel to type a spectacular show. This nebula’s concentric, pastel-coloured rings are shells of fabric emitted in a collection of pulses, with round 1500 years between every occasion.

Each these magnificent scenes function within the upcoming e-book Cosmos: Discover the Wonders of the Universe, out on 3 October.

“I hope readers will take away both a sense of wonder at how incredible, vast and beautiful our universe is,” says astrophysicist Becky Smethurst, who wrote the e-book’s foreword, “but also a sense of how much there is that we still don’t know about our universe.”