Galaxy-World-Galaxy

In this artist's conception, we peer through the dark dust of L1014 to witness the birth of a star. Learn more about newborn stars next.

A light echo occurs when a sudden flash of light moves outward from a star through the surrounding dust and then travels to Earth. Witness the birth of a star in the next image.

This Hubble image reveals the dust lanes and star clusters of this giant galaxy. The strands of dust suggest it was formed from a past merger of two gas-rich galaxies. Up next: what's a light echo?

Saturn's shepherd moon Prometheus seems to be pulling material off of the strands of the F Ring, the outermost bright ring. Next, see what happens when two gassy, dusty galaxies come together.

The dust around this brown dwarf star is a proto-planetary disk, from which planets may form. Next, see how a moon can pull dust particles from a large planet.

The pinwheel of dust at the upper left is an elliptical galaxy sliding toward the central black hole inside Perseus A. Space dust can eventually form planets too.

This combination emission/reflection nebula in the constellation Cygnus is intertwined with black rivers of dust and is probably a star forming region. Next, see dust swirling around a black hole.