As part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's astronomical discoveries 400 years ago, scientists and enthusiasts all over the world are celebrating 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. NASA is offering everyone a chance to vote on which of six possible astronomical objects should be studied by the "new and improved" Hubble later this year. The six objects include:

• Star-Forming Region: NGC 6634 This is part of a nebula where gas clouds collapse and combine to form new stars.




• Planetary Nebula: NGC 6072 These are made of the remains of dead star, that has blown out the remaining gasses into a number of formations.




• Planetary Nebula: NGC 40 As planetary nebula go, this is fairly bright, and the Hubble could show a lot more detail.




• Spiral Galaxy: NGC 5172 This galaxy contains billions stars, and more are being born along the spiral arms.




• Edge-on Galaxy: NGC 4289 A view from the edge of a spiral galaxy.




• Interacting Galaxies: Arp 274 Two galaxies in close proximity, close enough to interact with each other.

None of the six objects have been studied by the Hubble before. Voting is open now, and will continue until March 1, 2009. The winning object's images will be revealed sometime during the International Year of Astronomy's "100 Hours of Astronomy" between April 2nd and 5th, 2009. Everyone who casts a vote will be entered into a random drawing for one of 100 prints of the selected Hubble image. You can cast your vote here. Each of the options is discussed and there's an explanatory video. They all appear to have been selected with two primary criteria; that they haven't been imaged by the Hubble before, and they are all likely to be quite stunning. Right now, the lead contender is Spiral Galaxy: NGC 5172, but that could change with your vote.