outer space
Astronomers at the University of Auckland claim that there are actually around 100 billion habitable, Earth-like planets in the Milky Way — significantly more than the previous estimate of around 17 billion. There are roughly 500 billion galaxies in the universe, meaning there is somewhere in the region of 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (5×10 22 ) habitable planets. I’ll leave you to do the math on whether one of those 50 sextillion planets has the right conditions for nurturing alien life or not.
Astronomers estimate 100 billion habitable Earth-like planets in the Milky Way, 50 sextillion in the universe
planets
Hubble Goes to the eXtreme to Assemble Farthest-Ever View of the Universe
Hubble Goes to the eXtreme to Assemble Farthest-Ever View of the Universe Like photographers assembling a portfolio of best shots, astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of mankind's deepest-ever view of the universe. (Credit: NASA; ESA; G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P.
star maps
Welcome to Celestia ... The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth.
Celestia: Home
32 Nearby Stars
A spatial representation of every star within 14 light-years of the Solar System in orthographic projection. There are 32 stars in this region, including the Sun. The stars are colored according to the spectral type, which may not reflect the actual color.
The wispy clouds of a distant nebula bursting with newborn stars take on an eerie face-like shape sculpted by stellar winds in a new photo snapped by a telescope in Chile. The hotbed of star birth, called NGC 3324, is full of hot young stars , whose ultraviolet radiation is making the gas clouds glow. The stellar wind and radiation from the newborn stars has also punched out a cavity in the surrounding gas and dust.
Glowing Nebula's Clouds Look Like Giant Human Face in New Photo | NGC 3324, Nebulas & Star Formation | Space Photos & European Southern Observatory
other pearlers
This artist's conception shows an edge-on view of the Milky Way galaxy. Newly discovered gamma-ray jets (pink) extend for 27,000 light-years above and below the galactic plane, and are tilted at an angle of 15 degrees. Previously known gamma-ray bubbles are shown in purple.
Ghostly gamma-ray beams blast from Milky Way's center