
ALT A large galaxy is at center, and a significantly smaller galaxy is to its left. The large galaxy is mostly face-on, but the top appears slightly tilted away. It has several rings. Its circular core is bright white at the very center, but light yellow overall. Going outward, there are gaps between the rings. The core is surrounded by two slightly lighter yellow rings, which also appear to be overlapping. The next ring is slightly more transparent and yellow. The two or three rings that are farther out are bluer, sometimes with blue clumps. The widest ring is also blue, but also the most transparent. At 9 oโclock is a small dwarf galaxy. It is about the same size as the yellow core of the Bullseye. The dwarf galaxy is blue, with many dots. It looks like the edge of the Bullseye might touch the dwarf galaxy. Both galaxies are set on the black background of space, which is dotted with a range of galaxies in different shapes, colors, and sizes, along with one foreground star at left.

ALT A concentration of bright blue stars occupies the bottom right corner of the image. At bottom center within them is a small blue bubble. The stars and bubble are part of a diffuse dwarf galaxy that extends beyond the image border. Background galaxies are scattered across the image, with some particularly prominent spirals located at upper left and upper right. The background of space is black.

ALT This is a highly detailed composite image of a star-forming region of space known as 30 Doradus, shaped like a bouquet, or a maple leaf. X-ray wind and gas takes the shape of a massive purple and pink bouquet with an extended central flower, or perhaps a leaf from a maple tree. The hazy, mottled shape occupies much of the image, positioned just to our left of center, tilted slightly to our left. Inside the purple and pink gas and wind cloud are red and orange veins, and pockets of bright white light. The red and orange veins represent energy ejected by supernovas, carried on cosmically strong winds. The pockets of white light represent clusters of young stars. One cluster at the heart of 30 Doradus houses the most massive stars astronomers have ever found. The hazy purple and pink bouquet is surrounded by glowing dots of green, white, orange, and red. A second mottled purple cloud shape, which resembles a ring of smoke, sits in our lower righthand corner.

ALT This is a composite image of star cluster NGC 602, in vibrant and festive colors. The shape of the star cluster strongly resembles a holiday wreath. The cluster includes a giant dust cloud ring, shown in greens, yellows, blues, and oranges. The green hues and feathery edges of the ring cloud create the appearance of a wreath made of evergreen boughs. Hints of red representing X-rays provide shading, highlighting layers within the wreath-like ring cloud. The image is aglow with specks and dots of colorful, festive light, in blues, golds, whites, oranges, and reds. These lights represent stars within the cluster. Some of the lights gleam with diffraction spikes, while others emit a warm, diffuse glow. Upon closer inspection, many of the glowing specks have spiraling arms, indicating that they are, in fact, distant galaxies.




















