This striking photograph released earlier this year was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
It shows a "light echo" propagating away from the red super-giant star (V838 Monocerotis) seen at the middle of the image. It gave off a huge pulse of light three years ago and the expanding shell of light as it moves outwards illuminates dust surrounding the star, as seen in the four-picture sequence at the bottom of the image.
Today marks the 15th anniversary since its launch, but for how much longer will Hubble be able to send back these beautiful images? Nasa has shelved plans to service Hubble and bump it into a higher orbit despite the fact that the telescope should last for another five or 10 years. Failure to service Hubble seals its doom. Within a few years it will crash back to earth to a firey end and with it will end the scientific discoveries it has delivered.