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DEATH STAR
Violent Cosmic Blast Seen for First Time
(July 12) - Like a cosmic Grim Reaper, a blast of ultraviolet light signals the violent death of the universe's most massive stars. Now astronomers have viewed this heavenly harbinger for the first time.
This ultraviolet flash of light was produced from inside this dying star just before it exploded. It marked the first time scientists observed what happened in the final moments before a doomed star burst into space.
Even galaxies get bullied. Here, a so-called "death star galaxy" blasts a nearby galaxy with a jet of energy. Scientists said that if this happened in the Milky Way, it would likely destroy all life on Earth.
In 2005, NASA's Hubble Telescope captured this image of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers witnessed this violent event in 1054.
For years, astronomers have been baffled by the source of antimatter. Now, researchers say the matter-annihilating material is generated when stars get ripped apart by black holes or neutron stars. In this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, thousands of stars swirl around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
Feel like you are being watched? This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix nebula, a cosmic starlet notable for its vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye.
This star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, forming a cocoon around the star's remaining core. The burned-out star, called a white dwarf, is the white dot in the center.
This is one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras, a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of a star's birth and death is taking place.
These are views of an unusual phenomenon called a light echo. Light from an erupted star continues outward through a cloud of dust surrounding the star. The light reflects or "echoes" off the dust and then travels to Earth.
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