There has been some wonderful pictures of space, but these are some of the most stunning pictures we've ever seen published of the universe that lies afar.

The whole question of belief for me is easily missed whilst drooling in complete mysterious wonder and perplexity.. ;]

Can you even imagine a mayan shamans response to seeing these images? They would not appear like magick to them, our technology would, but once explained the image would reaffirm their beliefs not because of magick, but because of wonder and belief in utter complexity beyond fathoming.

Indeed, the universe is a great mystery.. one we can only pursue!


This image provided by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds. The festive portrait is the most detailed view of a young stellar grouping, called R136 in the 30 Doradus Nebula


This image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows an area in the northwest region of the large Iris Nebula which seems to be clogged with cosmic dust, looking like cotton wool


A Hubble false-colour image of glowing gas and dark dust clouds in IC 1795, a star-forming region in the constellation Cassiopeia. Located just over 6,000 light-years away, the complex sprawls along the Perseus spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy


The Cartwheel galaxy as seen by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's Far Ultraviolet detector, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory


An image taken by the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope shows a celestial object that looks like a delicate butterfly


The Crab Nebula, one of the most studied objects in the sky. X-ray data from Chandra provide significant clues to the workings of this mighty cosmic "generator," which is producing energy at the rate of 100,000 suns

Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory are combined to produce an unprecedented image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy

This image, taken by the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope, shows stars bursting to life in the chaotic Carina Nebula

This image reveals a small region inside the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri, which boasts nearly 10 million stars

The emission nebula NGC 6164, which was created by a rare, hot, luminous O-type star, some 40 times as massive as the Sun. Seen at the centre of the cosmic cloud, the star is a mere three to four million years old l

An image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows the most detailed view of star birth in the nearby spiral galaxy M83, nicknamed the Southern Pinwheel

This image from combined data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope shows a pair of colliding galaxies called NGC 6240 in a rare, short-lived phase of their evolution just before they merge into a single, larger galaxy

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory have captured a new image of the Trifid Nebula, showing just why it is a firm favourite of astronomers. This massive star factory is 5500 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius


This image provided by NASA from the Spitzer space telescope shows a pair of colliding galaxies called NGC 6240 in a rare, short-lived phase of their evolution just before they merge into a single, larger galaxy

It looks like a soap bubble, but this is a planetary nebula caused when stars die and blast out a glowing shell of gas and plasma. Known as the "Soap Bubble Nebula", this rare planetary nebula PN G75.5 1.7 was discovered by an amateur astronomer

From his garden in the New Forest, Professor Greg Parker takes images of deep space which are now collected in his book Star Vistas. Included in the book is this image of NGC 2264 or as it is more commonly known, The Christmas Tree Nebula

Stephan's Quintet, a compact group of galaxies discovered about 130 years ago and located about 280 million light years from Earth

A European Southern Observatory (ESO) handout photo of a new image of the Eagle Nebula, a stellar nursery filled with clusters of infant stars, 7,000 light years away towards the constellation of Serpans (the Snake)

The Flame Nebula, a spectacular star-forming cloud of gas and dust in the constellation of Orion. The image was taken by the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (Vista), based at the Paranal Observatory in Chile


A galaxy called NGC 1097, which is located 50 million light-years away. The "eye" at the centre of the galaxy is actually a monstrous black hole surrounded by a ring of stars. Image obtained by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope