Pumpkins and skulls: the latest images from outer space are definitely on the theme of Halloween.
The first image depicts a pumpkin-like galaxy nearly 109,000 light-years wide, roughly the diameter of the Milky Way;
it was photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope of NASA and ESA (European Space Agency).
A second image, on the other hand, resembles a bloodshot skull floating in space, was captured by the ESO (European Southern Observatory) VLT (Very Large Telescope) in Chile.
The giant galactic pumpkin has at its center two ghostly luminous eyes and a slightly crooked grin: to give it this appearance are the first stages of a collision between two galaxies, called NGC 2292 and NGC 2293, while the bluish smile would be due to clusters of newborn stars.
The pumpkin reddish-orange color comes from the glow of aging red stars in the two galaxies, while the two glowing eyes are concentrations of stars around two supermassive black holes.
What looks like a floating skull, on the other hand, is the remnant of a long-dead star nestled in the whale's belly: it is the Skull Nebula, associated with a compact pair of stars around which a third star orbits.
It is the first planetary nebula of this type that has been discovered.
Also known as NGC 246, the Skull Nebula is located approximately 1600 light years from Earth.
It formed when a Sun-like star ejected its outer layers during its 'old age', leaving only the bare core - a white dwarf - one of two stars seen right in the center of NGC 246.