This category includes images of objects that may be formed by
exotic phenomena that do not fit into any other category in the Image
Gallery. These phenomena include gravitational lensing, which is the
bending of light around a massive object before the light reaches the
Earth; astrochemistry, the study of the chemical composition of
astronomical objects; protoplanetary disks, small, rapidly rotating clouds
of gas that may grow into full-sized planets; gamma-ray bursts, powerful
discharges of energy expelled when a giant star collapses into a black
hole; masers, or cosmology, the study of large-scale structure and
evolution of the universe.
Click on any Sub-category name below to view
all the images in that sub-category, or click any
thumbnail to view the details of
that image.
