Stellar views of some of the most spectacular sights in the universe

This mosaic image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82) is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82. It is a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions where young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside in our Milky Way Galaxy. — Galaxy Messier 82 (M82), also known as the cigar galaxy

NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScIAURA); J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI), P. Puxley (NSF)

Scarlet plumes of hydrogen emanate from the lively cosmic portrait of the galaxy Messier 82 (M82) shown above. Also known as the cigar galaxy, it sits in the constellation Ursa Major, around 12 million light years away.

It is what is known as a starburst galaxy due to its remarkably high rate of star formation. In fact, for every star born in the Milky Way, 10 burst into existence in M82. The reason for this much greater activity lies in M82’s gravitational interactions with a neighbouring galaxy known as M81.

The fantastic image here is the sharpest wide-angle view of M82 ever captured. It was assembled using shots taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in both infrared and visible wavelengths of light.

In this detailed view from the NASA/ESA 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 "Lord of the Rings." The nebula, formally catalogued NGC 6543, is every bit as inscrutable as the J.R.R. Tolkien phantom character. Although the Cat's Eye Nebula was among the first planetary nebula ever to be discovered, it is one of the most complex planetary nebulae ever seen in space. A planetary nebula forms when Sun-like stars gently eject their outer gaseous layers to form bright nebulae with amazing twisted shapes. — Cat’s Eye Nebula

ESA/NASA/HEIC/Hubble Heritage Team (STScIAURA)

Glowing with an ethereal beauty is the Cat’s Eye Nebula, or NGC 6543, (pictured above) which was also imaged by Hubble. It is a planetary nebula. Despite the name, these are nothing to do with planets, but form when sun-like stars vigorously expel their outer layers of gas to form a spectacular display. This nebula’s concentric, pastel-coloured rings are shells of material emitted in a series of pulses, with around 1500 years between each event.

Both these magnificent scenes feature in the upcoming book Cosmos: Explore the Wonders of the Universe, out on 3 October.

“I hope readers will take away both a sense of wonder at how incredible, vast and beautiful our universe is,” says astrophysicist Becky Smethurst, who wrote the book’s foreword, “but also a sense of how much there is that we still don’t know about our universe.”

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