Top wallpapers - Top 33+ space wallpapers

Top 33+ space wallpapers

1. Bubble Nebula wallpaper (NGC 7635)

For the 26th birthday of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers are highlighting a Hubble image of an enormous bubble being blown into space by a super-hot, massive star. It is a spectacular image of a dynamic and exciting interaction of a young star with its environment.

The Bubble Nebula is 7 light-years across – about one-and-a-half times the distance from our sun to its nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri – and resides 7,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.

The seething star forming this nebula is 45 times more massive than our sun. Gas on the star gets so hot that it escapes away into space as a "stellar wind" moving at over 4 million miles per hour. This outflow sweeps up the cold, interstellar gas in front of it, forming the outer edge of the bubble much like a snowplow piles up snow in front of it as it moves forward.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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2. Splendid Planetary Nebula wallpaper

The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged striking details of the famed planetary nebula designated NGC 2818, which lies in the southern constellation of Pyxis (the Compass). The spectacular structure of the planetary nebula contains the outer layers of a star that were expelled into interstellar space.

The glowing gaseous shrouds in the nebula were shed by the central star after it ran out of fuel to sustain the nuclear reactions in its core. Our own sun will undergo a similar process, but not for another 5 billion years or so. Planetary nebulae fade gradually over tens of thousands of years. The hot, remnant stellar core of NGC 2818 will eventually cool off for billions of years as a white dwarf.

The colors in the image represent a range of emissions coming from the clouds of the nebula: red represents nitrogen, green represents hydrogen, and blue represents oxygen.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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3. Comets Kick up Dust in Helix Nebula wallpaper, Spitzer Space Telescope

This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed by amateur astronomers for its vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye.

In Spitzer's infrared view of the Helix nebula, the eye looks more like that of a green monster's. Infrared light from the outer gaseous layers is represented in blues and greens. The white dwarf is visible as a tiny white dot in the center of the picture. The red color in the middle of the eye denotes the final layers of gas blown out when the star died.

Source: Spitzer Science Center, NASA / JPL-Caltech, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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4. Cone Nebula, NGC 2264 - Star-Forming Pillar of Gas and Dust wallpaper

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

This picture, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the upper 2.5 light-years of the nebula, a height that equals 23 million roundtrips to the Moon. The entire nebula is 7 light-years long. The Cone Nebula resides 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros.

The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in blue, near-infrared, and hydrogen-alpha filters.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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5. Hubble Spies Spectacular Sombrero wallpaper

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has trained its sharp eye on one of the universe's most stately and photogenic galaxies, Messier 104. The galaxy's hallmark is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy. As seen from Earth, the galaxy is tilted nearly edge-on. We view it from just six degrees north of its equatorial plane. This brilliant galaxy was named the Sombrero because in visible light it resembles a broad rimmed and high-topped Mexican hat.

M104 is just beyond the limit of the naked eye, but is easily seen through small telescopes. It lies at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies. It is one of the most massive objects in that group, equivalent to 800 billion suns. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and is located 28 million light-years from Earth.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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6. Cool space wallpaper: hubble WFC3/UVIS Image of M16

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revisited the famous Pillars of Creation, revealing a sharper and wider view of the structures in this visible-light image.

Astronomers combined several Hubble exposures to assemble the wider view. The towering pillars about are 5 light-years tall. The new image was taken with Hubble's versatile and sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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7. Star forming region wallpaper, The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus), Hubble telescope

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a panoramic portrait of a vast, sculpted landscape of gas and dust where thousands of stars are being born. This fertile star-forming region, called the 30 Doradus Nebula, has a sparkling stellar centerpiece: the most spectacular cluster of massive stars in our cosmic neighborhood of about 25 galaxies.

The mosaic picture shows that ultraviolet radiation and high-speed material unleashed by the stars in the cluster, called R136 [the large blue blob left of center], are weaving a tapestry of creation and destruction, triggering the collapse of looming gas and dust clouds and forming pillar-like structures that are incubators for nascent stars.

The nebula resides in the Large Magellanic Cloud (a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way), 170,000 light-years from Earth.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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8. Light Echoes From Red Supergiant Star V838 Monocerotis - May 2002

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the star V838 Monocerotis reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures. The effect, called a light echo, unveiled never-before-seen dust patterns when the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002.

A light echo is light from a stellar explosion echoing off dust surrounding the star that produces enough energy in a brief flash to illuminate surrounding dust. The star presumably ejected the illuminated dust shells in previous outbursts. Light from the latest outburst travels to the dust and then is reflected to Earth.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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9. The Cat's Eye Nebula wallpaper. Dying Star Creates Fantasy-like Sculpture of Gas and Dust

In this detailed view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the so-called Cat's Eye Nebula looks like the penetrating eye of the disembodied sorcerer Sauron from the film adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings."

Though the Cat's Eye Nebula was one of the first planetary nebulae to be discovered, it is one of the most complex such nebulae seen in space. A planetary nebula forms when Sun-like stars gently eject their outer gaseous layers that form bright nebulae with amazing and confounding shapes.

In 1994, Hubble first revealed NGC 6543's surprisingly intricate structures, including concentric gas shells, jets of high-speed gas, and unusual shock-induced knots of gas.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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10. The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392) wallpaper

In its first glimpse of the heavens following the successful December 1999 servicing mission, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a majestic view of a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a dying, Sun-like star. This stellar relic, first spied by William Herschel in 1787, is nicknamed the "Eskimo" Nebula (NGC 2392) because, when viewed through ground-based telescopes, it resembles a face surrounded by a fur parka. In this Hubble telescope image, the "parka" is really a disk of material embellished with a ring of comet-shaped objects, with their tails streaming away from the central, dying star. The Eskimo's "face" also contains some fascinating details. Although this bright central region resembles a ball of twine, it is, in reality, a bubble of material being blown into space by the central star's intense "wind" of high-speed material.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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11. Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant wallpaper

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago.

Called the Veil Nebula, the debris is one of the best-known supernova remnants, deriving its name from its delicate, draped filamentary structures. The entire nebula is 110 light-years across, covering six full moons on the sky as seen from Earth, and resides about 2,100 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan.

This view is a mosaic of six Hubble pictures of a small area roughly two light-years across, covering only a tiny fraction of the nebula's vast structure.

This close-up look unveils wisps of gas, which are all that remain of what was once a star 20 times more massive than our sun.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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12. A "Rose" Made of Galaxies wallpaper, Highlights Hubbles 21st Anniversary

This is a especially photogenic group of interacting galaxies called Arp 273.

The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is tidally distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. A swath of blue jewels across the top is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot young blue stars. These massive stars glow fiercely in ultraviolet light.

The smaller, nearly edge-on companion shows distinct signs of intense star formation at its nucleus, perhaps triggered by the encounter with the companion galaxy.

Arp 273 lies in the constellation Andromeda and is roughly 300 million light-years away from Earth. The image shows a tenuous tidal bridge of material between the two galaxies that are separated by tens of thousands of light-years from each other.

This Hubble image is a composite of data taken with three separate filters on WFC3 that allow a broad range of wavelengths covering the ultraviolet, blue, and red portions of the spectrum.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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13. Carina Nebula Pillar wallpaper

A pillar of gas in the Carina Nebula is bathed in the light of hot, massive stars. Radiation and fast winds from the stars sculpt the pillar and cause new star formation within it.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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14. Cosmic Ice Sculptures wallpaper - Dust Pillars in the Carina Nebula

In the cold vacuum of space, there is no edible ice cream, but there is radiation from massive stars that is carving away at cold molecular clouds, creating bizarre, fantasy-like structures.

These one-light-year-tall pillars of cold hydrogen and dust, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, are located in the Carina Nebula. Violent stellar winds and powerful radiation from massive stars are sculpting the surrounding nebula. Inside the dense structures, new stars may be born.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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15. Full Disk Image of the Sun wallpaper, March 26, 2007

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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16. Hubble Captures the Ring nebula M57

This close-up, visible-light view by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals new details of the Ring Nebula.

The object is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. The Hubble observations reveal that the nebula's shape is more complicated than astronomers thought. The blue gas in the nebula's center is actually a football-shaped structure that pierces the red doughnut-shaped material. Hubble also uncovers the detailed structure of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring. The knots look like spokes in a bicycle. The Hubble images have allowed the research team to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect.

The Ring Nebula is a well-known planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star's hot core, called a white dwarf.

The nebula is about 2,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. The structure measures roughly one light-year across.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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17. Hubble Image of NGC 3324

The landmark 10th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's Hubble Heritage Project is being celebrated with a 'landscape' image from the cosmos. Cutting across a nearby star-forming region are the "hills and valleys" of gas and dust displayed in intricate detail. Set amid a backdrop of soft, glowing blue light are wispy tendrils of gas as well as dark trunks of dust that are light-years in height.

The Hubble Heritage Project, which began in October 1998, has released nearly 130 images mined from the Hubble data archive as well as a number of observations taken specifically for the project. By releasing a new, previously unseen Hubble image every month, the team's intent was to showcase some of the most attractive images ever taken by the Hubble telescope, and share them with a wide audience. The Heritage team continues to create aesthetic images that present the universe from an artistic perspective.

Three-dimensional-looking Hubble image shows the edge of the giant gaseous cavity within the star-forming region called NGC 3324. The glowing nebula has been carved out by intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from several hot, young stars. A cluster of extremely massive stars, located well outside this image in the center of the nebula, is responsible for the ionization of the nebula and excavation of the cavity.

The image also reveals dramatic dark towers of cool gas and dust that rise above the glowing wall of gas. The dense gas at the top resists the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the central stars, and creates a tower that points in the direction of the energy flow. The high-energy radiation blazing out from the hot, young stars in NGC 3324 is sculpting the wall of the nebula by slowly eroding it away.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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18. Moon lunar craters wallpaper

Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, almost all of which were formed by impacts.

Because of the Moon's lack of water, atmosphere, and tectonic plates, there is little erosion, and craters are found that exceed two billion years in age. The age of large craters is determined by the number of smaller craters contained within it, older craters generally accumulating more small, contained craters.

The smallest craters found have been microscopic in size, found in rocks returned to Earth from the Moon. The largest crater called such is about 290 kilometres (181 mi) across in diameter, located near the lunar South Pole. However, it is believed that many of the lunar maria were formed by giant impacts, with the resulting depression filled by upwelling lava.

Source: Wikipedia, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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19. Mystic mountain wallpaper, Pillars in the Carina Nebula from Hubble

Mystic Mountain is a photograph and a term for a region in the Carina Nebula imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. This region is about 7,500 light-years (2,300 parsecs) away from Earth. The pillar measures around three light-years in height (190,000 astronomical units).

The view was captured by the then-new Wide Field Camera 3, though the region was also viewed by the previous generation instrument. Mystic Mountain contains multiple Herbig-Haro objects where nascent stars are firing off jets of gas which interact with surrounding clouds of gas and dust.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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20. Orion Nebula Complex including M42, M43, Running Man Nebula (NGC 1973, 1975, and 1977) and much of the surrounding nebulosity

The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex (or, simply, the Orion Complex) is a star forming region with stellar ages ranging up to 12 Myr. Two giant molecular clouds are a part of it, Orion A and Orion B. The stars are currently forming within the Complex are located within these clouds. A number of other somewhat older stars are no longer associated with the molecular gas are also part of the Complex. Near the head of Orion there is also a population of young stars that are centered on the Meissa. The Complex is between 1 000 and 1 400 light-years away, and hundreds of light-years across.

The Orion Complex is one of the most active regions of nearby stellar formation visible in the night sky, and is home to both protoplanetary discs and very young stars. Much of it is bright in infrared wavelengths due to the heat-intensive processes involved in the stellar formation, though the complex contains dark nebulae, emission nebulae, reflection nebulae, and H II regions.

Source: Wikipedia, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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21. Planetary Nebula MyCn18 - An Hourglass Pattern Around a Dying Star wallpaper

The Engraved Hourglass Nebula (also known as MyCn 18) is a young planetary nebula in the southern constellation Musca about 8,000 light-years from Earth.

It is conjectured that MyCn 18's hourglass shape is produced by the expansion of a fast stellar wind within a slowly expanding cloud which is denser near its equator than its poles. The vivid colours given off by the nebula are the result of different 'shells' of elements being expelled from the dying star, in this case helium, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon.

Source: Wikipedia, NASA. Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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22. Most detailed picture of pluto

Pluto is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System (after Eris) and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun. Originally classified as the ninth planet from the Sun, Pluto was recategorized as a dwarf planet and plutoid due to the discovery that it is only one of several large bodies within the Kuiper belt. Pluto has four known moons.

Like other members of the Kuiper belt, Pluto is composed primarily of rock and ice and is relatively small: approximately a sixth the mass of the Earth's Moon and a third its volume.

On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined what it means to be a "planet" within the Solar System. This definition excluded Pluto as a planet and added it as a member of the new category "dwarf planet" along with Eris and Ceres.

A number of scientists hold that Pluto should continue to be classified as a planet, and that other dwarf planets should be added to the roster of planets along with Pluto.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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23. A Perfect Storm of Turbulent Gases in the Omega/Swan Nebula (M17)

Resembling the fury of a raging sea, this image actually shows a bubbly ocean of glowing hydrogen gas and small amounts of other elements such as oxygen and sulfur.

The photograph, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, captures a small region within M17, a hotbed of star formation. M17, also known as the Omega or Swan Nebula, is located about 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

The wave-like patterns of gas have been sculpted and illuminated by a torrent of ultraviolet radiation from young, massive stars, which lie outside the picture to the upper left. The glow of these patterns accentuates the three-dimensional structure of the gases. The ultraviolet radiation is carving and heating the surfaces of cold hydrogen gas clouds. The warmed surfaces glow orange and red in this photograph. The intense heat and pressure cause some material to stream away from those surfaces, creating the glowing veil of even hotter greenish gas that masks background structures. The pressure on the tips of the waves may trigger new star formation within them.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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24. Monkey Head Nebula (NGC 2174) wallpaper

In celebration of the 24th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (on April 24, 1990) astronomers have taken an infrared-light portrait of a roiling region of starbirth located 6,400 light-years away.

The Hubble mosaic unveils a collection of carved knots of gas and dust in a small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula (also known as NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252).

Massive, newly formed stars near the center of the nebula (and toward the right in this image) are blasting away at dust within the nebula. Ultraviolet light from these bright stars helps carve the dust into giant pillars. The nebula is mostly composed of hydrogen gas, which becomes ionized by the ultraviolet radiation.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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25. Rosette Nebula wallpaper

The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is a large spherical H II region (circular in appearance) located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of some 5,000 light-years from Earth and measure roughly 130 light years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excites the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see. The mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses.

Source: Lóránd Fényes, Wikipedia, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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26. Spiral Galaxy (NGC 2841) wallpaper

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals a majestic disk of stars and dust lanes in this view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2841.

A bright cusp of starlight marks the galaxy's center. Spiraling outward are dust lanes that are silhouetted against the population of whitish middle-aged stars. Much younger blue stars trace the spiral arms.

Notably missing are pinkish emission nebulae indicative of new star birth. It is likely that the radiation and supersonic winds from fiery, super-hot, young blue stars cleared out the remaining gas (which glows pink), and hence shut down further star formation in the regions in which they were born. NGC 2841 currently has a relatively low star formation rate compared to other spirals that are ablaze with emission nebulae.

NGC 2841 lies 46 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). This image was taken in 2010 through four different filters on Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. Wavelengths range from ultraviolet light through visible light to near-infrared light.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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27. Star-Forming Region (S106) wallpaper

The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched "wings" of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium.

Sharpless 2-106, Sh2-106 or S106 for short, lies nearly 2,000 light-years from us. The nebula measures several light-years in length. It appears in a relatively isolated region of the Milky Way galaxy.

A massive young star is responsible for the furious activity we see in the nebula. Twin lobes of super-hot gas, glowing blue in this image, stretch outward from the central star. This hot gas creates the "wings" of our angel.

A ring of dust and gas orbiting the star acts like a belt, cinching the expanding nebula into an "hourglass" shape. Hubble's sharp resolution reveals ripples and ridges in the gas as it interacts with the cooler interstellar medium.

Dusky red veins surround the blue emission from the nebula. The faint light emanating from the central star reflects off of tiny dust particles. This illuminates the environment around the star, showing darker filaments of dust winding beneath the blue lobes.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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28. The brightest star is WR 25 wallpaper

WR 25 is a binary star system in the turbulent star forming region Carina Nebula, about 7,500 light-years from Earth. It contains a Wolf-Rayet star and a hot luminous companion, and is a member of the Trumpler 16 cluster.

The primary star of the WR 25 system is notable for being the most luminous known star in the Milky Way Galaxy, substantially brighter than its nearby neighbor Eta Carinae, although it is unclear what contribution is from the companion. It is approximately 6.3 million times brighter than the Sun and illuminates the far southern end of the Trumpler 16 cluster.

Source: Wikipedia, original image by: NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain), processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club.

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29. The Carina Nebula wallpaper - Star Birth in the Extreme

It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth - and death - is taking place.

Hubble's view of the nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail. The fantasy-like landscape of the nebula is sculpted by the action of outflowing winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit this inferno. In the process, these stars are shredding the surrounding material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born.

The immense nebula contains at least a dozen brilliant stars that are roughly estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun. The most unique and opulent inhabitant is the star Eta Carinae, at far left. Eta Carinae is in the final stages of its brief and eruptive lifespan, as evidenced by two billowing lobes of gas and dust that presage its upcoming explosion as a titanic supernova.

The fireworks in the Carina region started three million years ago when the nebula's first generation of newborn stars condensed and ignited in the middle of a huge cloud of cold molecular hydrogen. Radiation from these stars carved out an expanding bubble of hot gas. The island-like clumps of dark clouds scattered across the nebula are nodules of dust and gas that are resisting being eaten away by photoionization.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club

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30. V838 Monocerotis - September 2006

V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) is a red star in the constellation Monoceros about 20,000 light years (6 kpc) from the Sun.

On January 6, 2002, an unknown star was seen to brighten in Monoceros, the Unicorn. The initial light curve resembled that of a nova, an eruption that occurs when enough hydrogen gas has accumulated on the surface of a white dwarf from its close binary companion.

V838 Monocerotis reached maximum visual magnitude of 6.75 on February 6, 2002, after which it started to dim rapidly, as expected. However, in early March the star started to brighten again, especially in infrared wavelengths. In 2003 the star had returned to near its original brightness before the eruption (magnitude 15.6) but now as a red supergiant rather than a blue main-sequence star. The light curve produced by the eruption is unlike anything previously seen. In 2009 the star was about 15,000 times more luminous than the sun, but its radius had decreased to 380 times that of the Sun although the ejecta continues to expand.

The reason for the outburst is still uncertain, but several conjectures have been put forward, including an eruption related to stellar death processes and a merger of a binary star or planets.

Source: Wikipedia, STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club

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31. VV 340 - A Cosmic Exclamation Point

VV 340, also known as Arp 302, provides a textbook example of colliding galaxies seen in the early stages of their interaction. The edge-on galaxy at the right part of the image is VV 340 North and the face-on galaxy at the left part of the image is VV 340 South. Millions of years later these two spirals will merge - much like the Milky Way and Andromeda will likely do billions of years from now. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) are shown here along with optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue). VV 340 is located about 450 million light years from Earth.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club

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32. Westerlund 2 Detail wallpaper

Westerlund 2 is an obscured compact young star cluster (perhaps even a super star cluster) in the Milky Way, with an estimated age of about one or two million years. It contains some of the hottest, brightest, and most massive stars known. The cluster resides inside a stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina.

The red dots scattered throughout the landscape around Westerlund 2 are a rich population of newly forming stars still wrapped in their gas-and-dust cocoons. These tiny, faint stars are between 1 million and 2 million years old and have not yet ignited the hydrogen in their cores. Hubble's near-infrared vision allows astronomers to identify these fledgling stars.

As its name indicates, the Westerlund 2 cluster was discovered by Bengt Westerlund in the 1960s but its stellar content was assessed only in later years.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club

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33. Whirlpool Galaxy wallpaper

The Whirlpool galaxy is one of the most photogenic galaxies. This celestial beauty is easily seen and photographed with smaller telescopes and studied extensively from large ground- and space-based observatories. The new composite image shows visible starlight and light from the emission of glowing hydrogen, which is associated with the most luminous young stars in the spiral arms.

The companion's gravitational pull is triggering star formation in the galaxy, lit up by numerous clusters of young and energetic stars in brilliant detail. Luminous clusters are highlighted in red by their associated emission from glowing hydrogen gas.

Source: STScI, created for NASA (Contract NAS5-26555). Full gallery: HubbleSite.org, processing and cropping images: HQ Wallpapers Club

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