In pictures: Hubble space photos

In a new image released by US space agency Nasa, three galaxies are locked in a gravitational tug-of-war. It may mean one will be destroyed. The galaxies are named after astronomer Paul Hickson.

This photo of a star, released last month, shows the southern constellation of Pyxis (the Compass). It contains the outer layers of the star that were expelled into space 10,000 light-years from Earth.

This image of the Crab Nebula is one of the largest ever produced with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Earth-orbiting observatory. It's one of the most intricately structured objects ever observed.

This image from 2006 shows two galaxies smashing together. Billions of stars are being created, mostly in groups and clusters of stars. The galaxies started to fuse together about 500 million years ago.

This image from December 2006 shows one of the biggest and heaviest stars in the Milky Way. Until recently scientists had thought it was just one star but now think it may be two or even three.

This is another shot of the star or stars in the Milky Way. It sits in the constellation Scorpius and you can see it in the southern hemisphere near the centre of the Milky Way.

This series of images was released three years ago and shows a galaxy far, far away called Messier 101. It's a giant disk of stars, dust and gas and is 170,000 light-years across.

The same galaxy, Messier 101, is shown using different coloured filters. It's possible to see new stars forming (shown in yellow). The image was taken in February this year.

This galaxy, called NGC-4921, is about 320 million light-years away from Earth. The image, taken in February, was created from a total of 80 separate pictures through yellow and near-infrared filters.

Jupiter's moon Ganymede is shown just before it ducks behind the giant planet. Ganymede completes an orbit around Jupiter every seven days and is the largest moon in our solar system.

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