Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission nebula and young star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Of course, the cosmic elephant's trunk is over 20 light-years long.

The expanding remains of a supernova 20 times bigger than the Sun have been caught on camera. Nasa has released images and video of the Veil Nebula, which is debris from a massive star explosion 8,000 years ago, captured by the Hubble space telescope. The nebula resembles a crumpled bed sheet viewed from the side. Ashley Morrow, of Nasa

Two rare blue stars ionise the gas in the Prawn Nebula, allowing it to emit its own light.

So much has changed in 18 years.

Centaurus A, also known as NGC 5128, is well known for its dramatic dusty lanes of dark material. Hubble’s new observations, using its most advanced instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3, are the most detailed ever made of this galaxy. They have been combined here in a multi-wavelength image which reveals never-before-seen detail in the dusty portion of the galaxy.

This is a time lapse of the Milky Way rising above Bifrost Astronomical Observatory in Portal, AZ. The still images were shot with a Nikon D800 and 16mm full frame fisheye. Exposures were 30 seconds at f/3.5 and ISO 6400.

If you gaze long enough into space, space will gaze back into you

This is a false color image. Nicknamed "The Rose"

In our terrestrial view of things, the speed of light seems incredibly fast. But as soon as you view it against the vast distances of the universe, it's unfortunately very slow. This animation illustrates, in realtime, the journey of a photon of light emitted from the sun and traveling across a portion of the solar system.I've taken liberties with certain things like the alignment of planets and asteroids, but overall I've kept the size and distances of all the objects as accurate as possible.

Speeding toward pale, icy Dione, Cassini's view is enriched by the tranquil gold and blue hues of Saturn in the distance. The horizontal stripes near the bottom of the image are Saturn's rings. The spacecraft was nearly in the plane of the rings when the images were taken, thinning them by perspective and masking their awesome scale. The thin, curving shadows of the C ring and part of the B ring adorn the northern latitudes visible here, a reminder of the rings' grandeur.

Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark dust lanes, appears, on the left, like a billowing fire.

"Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in this alluring telescopic mosaic. The scene is anchored right and left by two bright stars, Mu and Eta Geminorum, at the foot of the celestial twin while the Jellyfish Nebula is the brighter arcing ridge of emission with dangling tentacles below and right of center." Image Credit & Copyright: César Blanco González