In this show we present a collection of the best shots from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

Planning for the HST began in the mid-1970s, and funding was approved by Congress in 1977. Launch was scheduled for October 1986, but the Challenger disaster delayed the launch until 1990. Initial images were blurry and technicians soon discovered a flaw in the primary mirror. An extremely complex service mission in December 1993 by a seven-person crew of Space Shuttle Endeavor fixed Hubble's problems. In January 1994 pristine images began streaming back to Earth.

The HST was scheduled to be 'switched off' in 2006, but a decision by NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has extended its mission to 2013.

The HST transmits about 120Gb of data every week. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble.

Caption information (in order):

1) The Hubble Space Telescope superimposed on an image of NGC 2080, the 'Ghost Head Nebula', a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud
2) Super-heavy stars in the Pismis 24 cluster heat gases of the surrounding nebula, NGC-6357
3) Rapid starbirth in the galaxy M82 creates a galactic stellar wind of glowing hydrogen (in white)
4) The Crab Nebula - a supernova remnant now more than 12 light years across
5) The Abell 901/902 supercluster with inferred dark matter shown as magenta-colored clumps
6) The Tarantula Nebula, a mix of very young and old stars orbiting the Milky Way 170,000 light years away
7) A tower of gas and dust 9.5 light years tall rising from the Eagle Nebula. Stars are forming inside the pillar
8) Star cluster NGC 346, an intense star-forming area of the Small Magellanic Cloud
9) Abel 2218 - a cluster of thousands of galaxies two billion light years away

V838 Monocerotis

10 to 16) The six-light-year-wide "light echo" from the giant star V838 Monocerotis from May 2002 to Sep 2006. In order the image dates are: May 2002; September 2002; October 2002; December 2002; February 2004; October 2004 and September 2006
17) Clouds of cold hydrogen in the Carina Nebula are shaped by ultraviolet radiation
18) Galactic nebula NGC 3603 with the blue supergiant star Sher 25 and clouds of hydrogen
19) The Antennae galaxies, two spiral galaxies which began to merge about 300 million years ago
20) Three-light-year-wide halo of the Cat's Eye Nebula (imaged by the Nordic Optical Telescope)
21) Complex interior of the Cat's Eye Nebula showing gas jets, knots, and concentric shells
22) High energy radiation from young stars in N90 carves out a "cavern" in the surrounding dust & gas
23) The nearest star-forming region - the Orion Nebula - 1,500 light years away
24) The dusty spiral galaxy NGC 3370, roughly 98 million light years away in Leo
25) The Red Spider Nebula - its unusually hot central star creates shockwaves in the surrounding gas