Hubble Space Telescope's exquisite resolution has allowed astronomers to resolve, for the first time, hot blue stars deep inside an elliptical galaxy. The swarm of nearly 8, 000 blue stars resembles a blizzard of snowflakes near the core (lower right) of the neighboring galaxy M 32, located 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda.

Credit: NASA/ESA and Thomas M. Brown, Charles W. Bowers, Randy A. Kimble, AllenV. Sweigart (NASA/ESA Goddard Space Flight Center) and Henry C. Ferguson ( Space Telescope Science Institute)