8 stunning images of space captured by NASA

1. Hubble shows two galaxies in Arp 240 linked like dancers, forming stars as they merge

2. This composite picture of the Helix Nebula was assembled by astronomers by blenindg ultra-sharp NASA Hubble Space Telescope images combined with the wide view of the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

3. NASA image captures a long solar filament.

4. Fermi Telescope uncovers giant gamma-ray bubbles towering 25,000 light-years from Milky Way’s core

5. Crab Nebula: In celebration of the 29th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers used Hubble to capture this festive, colorful look at the tentacled Southern Crab Nebula.

6. The latest camera on the Hubble Space Telescope captured "The Mice," a striking duo of galaxies.

7. Planetary-mass objects can form in two distinct ways: contraction of gas and dust clouds, similar to stars, or from disks of gas and dust around young stars, as in the case of Jupiter.

8. NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) detected the magnetic field streamlines shown over this image of the Keyhole Nebula.