The cosmic postcards are back. Astronomers on Wednesday unveiled new pictures and observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. With the exception of a picture last month of the bruise on Jupiter caused by a comet, they were the first data obtained with the telescope since a crew spent 13 days in orbit last May replacing, refurbishing and rebuilding its vital components. 'This is truly Hubble's new beginning,' Edward Weiler, the associate administrator for science at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said at a news conference in Washington. The event was a mix of science and celebration of the human spirit and innovation. 'I'm in awe of the human ingenuity that could conceive of such a thing and then make it happen,' said K. Megan McArthur, an astronaut who flew on the repair mission last spring Among the images were gas flying from a dying star that looked like a butterfly spreading its wings, and a galaxy nearly 10 billion light years away whose image had been stretched and magnified by the gravity of a cluster of galaxies into a 'dragon' shape. Examining such images, astronomers can study details of galaxies that existed before the Milky Way was born and chart the distribution of mysterious dark matter in the universe. Weiler noted that the telescope was now in the best shape of its 19-year life in orbit, far surpassing the ambitions of its founders, and that it could last for at least another five years. 'Hubble gets better and better and better,' he said. 