"The Universe is a beautiful place"
Here are some of our favorite images from the furthest reaches of space that you will remember the next time you look 'up'.
1) Butterfly Wings
These delicate structures were actually formed by the ejection of massive amounts of material from the dying central star. Who would have guessed that something so beautiful and delicate could be produced from such a violent event?
2) Stellar Birth And Death In The Carina Nebula
This assembly of photographs in different wavelengths looks more like a painting than a photograph!
3) V838 Monocerotis
This menacingly-named blast was observed over the course of a few months in 2002. It's rare to see this rapid dust and gas expansion within such a short period of time!
4) Tarantula Nebula
This sparkling photo shows stars that are being born in the flowing nebula region, and stars that are dying - the sparkling bright lights.
5) Mixture Of Stars And Galaxies
The brightest objects in this image are nearby stars in our own Milky Way galaxy, and the most faint objects are actually stars in Andromeda or even full-sized far-away galaxies.
6) Horsehead Nebula
This infrared image shows the vast mixture of interstellar dust and gas. NASA's new James Web Space Telescope will likely be pointed in this direction when it launches in 2018 and capture a similar photo at even higher resolution!
7) NGC 1300
The diverse set of bright blue young stars, and the whisky and rolling dust and gas combine to create a stunningly complex photograph
8) Celestial Monocle
At 23 light-years across, this is perhaps the largest 'lens'-shaped object in the visible Universe. The ghostly ring actually has no magnification properties, but the haunting image is enough to astound us.
9) Spiral Galaxies (Arp 273)
In about 300 million years, these two spiral galaxies will collide! Until then, they will continue to 'dance' around each other via the pull of their combined gravities.
10) Sombrero Galaxy
Many astronomers see this photo as one of their favorites, because of the spectacular and unique edge-on view.