Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The night sky is full of wonders too far away to be viewed by the naked eye, but NASA’s telescopes continue to bring them closer.
Two images recently released by NASA illustrate how beautiful and mysterious space can be. One photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a star in the early stages if its life, while another captures the collision of two galaxies.
The baby star, found in the constellation Perseus, is still developing into a fully grown star, according to NASA. Called SSTC2D J033038.2+303212, the star can be seen surrounded by a bright disc of material in the upper middle of the image.
Below the small, young star is a reflection nebula that appears as swirling, bright gas. The dark stream of smoke is a dark nebula, researchers said.
Another image released Tuesday provides a detailed glimpse of the collision of two galaxies. The merging galaxies, named H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836, likely collided when the Universe was half of its current age, according to researchers.
Numerous stars were created as a result of the collision, NASA said.
