April 25, 2007 9:13 AM PDT
You have seen this collection of stars many times from the Earth, but never this close. This is a region of Cassiopeia, the famous constellation named for the vain queen mother of Andromeda in Greek mythology (expanded view). The photo is composed from 18 images taken by the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Cassiopeia A, as the region is called, is the youngest known remnant of a supernova explosion.
Photo by NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California at Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
