Editor's Picks

Gloucester Docks c.1880 CC53_00092

GLOUCESTER DOCKS, Gloucestershire. The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal was built to specifications that allowed ocean going vessels to reach Gloucester, despite its distance from the sea. This allowed Gloucester to compete with coastal docks in the 19th century, as this picture shows, and it had a profound effect on the commercial aspects of the town. Photographed by Sydney Pitcher, c. 1880

© Historic England

Orions Belt

Orion's Belt. Optical image of the group of stars known as Orion's Belt, in the constellation Orion. North is at top. The belt comprises the three bright stars (from left to right) Alnitak (Zeta Orionis), Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis) and Mintaka (Delta Orionis). Orion is a large and prominent constellation that straddles the celestial equator, making it equally visible from the northern and southern hemispheres

© John Sanford/Science Photo Library

Hubble Space Telescope view of nebula NGC 604

Nebula in galaxy M33. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image showing clouds of gas in the nebula NGC 604. This nebula is a region of intensive star formation. At the centre are more than 200 hot stars, each 15 to 60 times more massive than our Sun. High energy (ultraviolet) light from these stars heat the gas of the nebula and make it fluoresce. NGC 604 is about 1, 500 light years across, making it a peculiarly large nebula. It is situated in a galaxy called M33, found about 2.7 million light years away in the direction of the constellation Triangulum. This image was made on 17 January 1995

© NASA/ESA/STSCI/H.YANG, U.ILLINOIS/ SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY