Messier 65 through the years
The 1st of March 1780 was a particularly productive night for Charles Messier. Combing the constellation of Leo for additions to his grand astronomical catalogue, he struck on not one, but two, new objects. One of those objects is seen here: Messier 65. "Nebula discovered in Leo: It is very...
A collection of ancient stars
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the globular cluster Messier 56 (also known as M 56 or NGC 6779), which is located about 33 000 light years away from the Earth in the constellation of Lyra (The Lyre). The cluster is composed of a large number of...
BUFFALOs view on Abell 370
The galaxy cluster Abell 370 was the first target of the BUFFALO survey, which aims to search for some of the first galaxies in the Universe. This remarkable cluster in the constellation of Cetus is located approximately four billion light-years away. Its mass, consisting of both hundreds of...
Smoky shells
Located in a relatively vacant region of space about 4200 light-years away and difficult to see using an amateur telescope, the lonesome planetary nebula NGC 7354 is often overlooked. However, thanks to this image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope we are able to see this brilliant...
Hubble captures a lucky galaxy alignment
An interesting galaxy has been circled in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxy one of a group of galaxies called Luminous Red Galaxies has an unusually large mass, containing about ten times the mass of the Milky Way. However, its actually the blue horseshoe shape that...
An arc sculpted by gravity
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows remarkable structures in a galaxy cluster around an object called LRG-4-606. LRG stands for Luminous Red Galaxy, and is the acronym given to a large collection of bright red galaxies found in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). These objects are...
Hubble revisits an old friend
Supernova SN 1987A, one of the brightest stellar explosions since the invention of the telescope more than 400 years ago, is no stranger to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The observatory has been on the frontline of studies into this brilliant dying star since its launch in 1990, three...
Enigmatic cluster targeted by Hubble
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has used its powerful optics to separate the globular cluster NGC 6401 into its constituent stars. What was once only visible as a ghostly mist in the eyepieces of astronomical instruments has been transformed into a stunning stellar landscape. NGC 6401 can...
Spiral key to Universe's expansion
This view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 5584. This galaxy has played a key role in a new study that measures the expansion rate of the Universe to greater accuracy than ever before. NGC 5584 was first spotted as a faint glow in the constellation...
The very curious creation of an ageing star
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made a rare celestial catch. Close to a bright, nearby star in this image, the bizarre, whorl-shaped object known as IRAS 22036+5306 has been captured during a brief tumultuous period late in a star's life. Inside IRAS 22036+5306 lies an aged star that...
ZwCl 1358+62
ZwCl 1358+62 is located 3.7 billion light-years from Earth (z=0.33) and is made up of at least 150 individual galaxies. This image depicts multiple blue, red and orange arcs scattered across the image, which represent amplified and stretched images of the galaxies behind the cluster's core. The...
The unique Red Rectangle: sharper than ever before
The star HD 44179 is surrounded by an extraordinary structure known as the Red Rectangle. It acquired its moniker because of its shape and its apparent colour when seen in early images from Earth. This strikingly detailed new Hubble image reveals how, when seen from space, the nebula, rather...
Hubble studies sequences of star formation in neighbouring galaxy [full WFPC2 frame]
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the iridescent tapestry of star birth in a neighbouring galaxy in this panoramic view of glowing gas, dark dust clouds, and young, hot stars. The star-forming region, catalogued as N11B lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), located only 160,000...
A perfect storm of turbulent gases
Like the fury of a raging sea, this anniversary image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a bubbly ocean of glowing hydrogen, oxygen, and sulphur gas in the extremely massive and luminous molecular nebula Messier 17. This Hubble photograph captures a small region within Messier 17...
The mysterious 'Garden-sprinkler' nebula
There are many mysterious objects seen in the night sky which are not really well understood. For example, astronomers are puzzled by the 'jets' emerging from planetary nebulae. However, the S-shaped jet from Henize 3-1475 is the most perplexing of all. 'Jets' are long outflows of fast-moving...
Close-up of M27, the Dumbbell Nebula
An aging star's last hurrah is creating a flurry of glowing knots of gas that appear to be streaking through space in this close-up image of the Dumbbell Nebula, taken with NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The Dumbbell, a nearby planetary nebula residing more than 1,200 light-years away, is the...
Composite ultraviolet-visible-infrared image of NGC 1512
This picture is a multi-wavelength composite made by seven individual exposures made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. These exposures were taken by the Faint Object Camera (FOC), Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer...
A tantalising veil
This image shows a small portion of a nebula called the Cygnus Loop. Covering a region on the sky six times the diameter of the full Moon, the Cygnus Loop is actually the expanding blastwave from a stellar cataclysm - a supernova explosion - which occurred about 15,000 years ago.
Multiple generations of stars in the Tarantula Nebula
The star cluster Hodge 301 is an old cluster. Many of its stars have already exploded as supernovae. The filaments in the upper left corner have been compressed by the explosions of these stars. Elsewhere in the picture news stars are being born.
Sunny side up
What may first appear as a sunny side up egg is actually NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's face-on snapshot of the small spiral galaxy NGC 7742. But NGC 7742 is not a run-of-the-mill spiral galaxy. In fact, this spiral is known to be a Seyfert 2 active galaxy, a type of galaxy that is probably...
Beacon of Light
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy Messier 86. Despite its being discovered over 235 years ago by astronomer Charles Messier, the morphological classification of Messier 86 remains unclear; astronomers are still debating over whether it is either elliptical or...
Hubble's planetary nebula gallery. A view of Hubble 5
Hubble 5 is a striking example of a 'butterfly' or bipolar (two-lobed) nebula. The heat generated by fast winds causes each of the lobes to expand, much like a pair of balloons with internal heaters. This observation was taken Sept. 9, 1997 by the Hubble telescope's Wide Field and Planetary...
Comet or cluster?
Most globular clusters are almost perfectly spherical collections of stars but Messier 62 breaks the mould. The 12-billion-year-old cluster is distorted, and stretches out on one side to form a comet-like shape with a bright head and extended tail. As one of the closest globular clusters to...
Awesome gravity
Gravity is so much a part of our daily lives that it is all too easy to forget its awesome power but on a galactic scale, its power becomes both strikingly clear and visually stunning. This image was taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescopes Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and shows an object...
LEDA 36252, a cosmic tadpole
In this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a firestorm of star birth is lighting up one end of the diminutive galaxy LEDA 36252 also known as Kiso 5649.The galaxy is a member of a class of galaxies called tadpoles because of their bright heads and elongated tails. This galaxy...
Dazzling diamonds of Trumpler 14
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the star cluster Trumpler 14. One of the largest gatherings of hot, massive and bright stars in the Milky Way, this cluster houses some of the most luminous stars in our entire galaxy. The prominent dark patch, close to the centre of the...
A misbehaving spiral
Despite its unassuming appearance, the edge-on spiral galaxy captured in the left half of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is actually quite remarkable. Located about one billion light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus, this striking galaxy known as LO95 0313-192 has a...
Panta rhei motion in the Milky Way
Panta rhei is a simplified version of the famous greek philosopher Heraclitus' teachings. It basically means, everything flows. And everything in the Universe is indeed continually on the move, spiralling and shifting through space. Some cosmic objects move a little further than others take...
An ancient globule
This image captures the stunning NGC 6535, a globular cluster 22 000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens (The Serpent) that measures one light-year across. Globular clusters are tightly bound groups of stars which orbit galaxies. The large mass in the rich stellar centre of the...
A spattering of blue
Far beyond the stars in the constellation of Leo (The Lion) is irregular galaxy IC 559. IC 559 is not your everyday galaxy. With its irregular shape and bright blue spattering of stars, it is a fascinating galactic anomaly. It may look like sparse cloud, but it is in fact full of gas and dust...
Galaxy gets a cosmic hair ruffling
From objects as small as Newton's apple to those as large as a galaxy, no physical body is free from the stern bonds of gravity, as evidenced in this stunning picture captured by the Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Here we see two...
GOODS field containing distant dwarf galaxies forming stars at an incredible rate
This image shows a region of space containing a sample of dwarf galaxies studied by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to unlock the secrets of star formation in the early Universe. Hiding amongst these thousands of galaxies are faint dwarf galaxies that reside in the early Universe, between...
A scattering of spiral and elliptical galaxies
This image shows the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0152.5-2852, captured in detail by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. Almost every object seen here is a galaxy, each containing billions of stars. Galaxies are not usually randomly distributed in space, but instead...
A cosmic optical illusion
At first glance, this Hubble picture appears to capture two space colossi entangled in a fierce celestial battle, with two galaxies entwined and merging to form one. But this shows just how easy it is to misinterpret the jumble of sparkling stars and get the wrong impression as its all down to...
A hungry starburst galaxy
This new Hubble picture is the sharpest ever image of the core of spiral galaxy Messier 61 andthe central part of the galaxy is shown in striking detail. The image is comprised of 2003 and 2004 data from the now decommissionedHigh Resolution Channel(HRC) of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys....
Bipolar planetary nebula PN Hb 12
This image shows an example of a bipolar planetary nebula known as PN Hb 12 popularly known as Hubble 12 in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The striking shape of this nebula, reminiscent of a butterfly or an hourglass, was formed as a Sun-like star approached the end of its life and puffed...
Sunset in Mordor
Dont be fooled by the title; the mysterious, almost mystical bright light emerging from these thick, ominous clouds is actually a telltale sign of star formation. Here, a very young star is being born in the guts of the dark cloud LDN 43 a massive blob of gas, dust, and ices, gathered 520...
Looking to the heavens
The pearly wisps surrounding the central star IRAS 10082-5647 in this Hubble image certainly draw the eye towards the heavens. The divine-looking cloud is a reflection nebula, made up of gas and dust glowing softly by the reflected light of nearby stars, in this case a young Herbig Ae/Be...
Old stars with a youthful glow
The dazzling stars in Messier 15 look fresh and new in this image from the NASA/Hubble Space Telescope, but they are actually all roughly 13 billion years old, making them some of the most ancient objects in the Universe. Unlike another recent Hubble Picture of the Week, which featured the...
Hubble peers deeply into the Eagle Nebula
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has once more turned its attention towards the magnificent Eagle Nebula (Messier 16). This picture shows the northwestern part of the region, well away from the centre, and features some very bright young stars that formed from the same cloud of material. These...
Bright star faint galaxy
Astronomers are used to encountering challenges in their work, but studying the prosaically-named galaxy PGC 39058 proves more difficult than usual. Due to a stroke of bad luck, a bright star happens to lie between the galaxy and the Earth, meaning our view is partly obscured by the glare of...
Trio of galaxies mixes it up
The three pictured galaxies - NGC 7173 (middle left), NCG 7174 (middle right) and NGC 7176 (lower right) - are part of the Hickson Compact Group 90, named after astronomer Paul Hickson, who first catalogued these small clusters of galaxies in the 1980s. NGC 7173 and NGC 7176 appear to be...
The heart of the Lion
It might appear featureless and unexciting at first glance, but NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations of this elliptical galaxy known as Messier 105 show that the stars near the galaxys centre are moving very rapidly. Astronomers have concluded that these stars are zooming around a...
Uncovering the Veil Nebula
This image is a stunning close-up of the Veil Nebula - the shattered remains of a supernova that exploded some 5-10,000 years ago. The image provides a beautiful view of the delicate, wispy structure resulting from this cosmic explosion. Also known as Cygnus Loop, the Veil Nebula is located in...
The Pluto system on Feb. 15, 2006 (non-annotated)
Anxiously awaited follow-up observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the presence of two new moons around the distant planet Pluto. The moons were first discovered by Hubble in May 2005, but the science team probed even deeper into the Pluto system last week to look...
Stephan's Quintet - A mammoth cosmic collision (Hubble view)
This spectacular new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the group of galaxies called Stephan's Quintet has provided a detailed view of one of the most exciting star forming regions in the local Universe. Stephan's Quintet is a favoured object for amateur astronomers and has...
Edge-On view of NGC 4013
The Hubble telescope has snapped this remarkable view of a perfectly 'edge-on' galaxy, NGC 4013. This new Hubble picture reveals with exquisite detail huge clouds of dust and gas extending along, as well as far above, the galaxy's main disk. NGC 4013 is a spiral galaxy, similar to our Milky...
Hubble identifies source of ultraviolet light in an old nebula
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...
The full COSMOS field (UltraVISTA)
This view shows part of the COSMOS field in the constellation of Sextans (The Sextant), as viewed by the UltraVISTA survey in infrared light. This region of sky has been extensively studied by many telescopes, including Hubble. Hubble viewed this field in near-infrared light at full...
Hazy dust in Ursa Major
This weeks NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image showcases the galaxyNGC 4036: a lenticular galaxy some 70 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear). This galaxy is known for its irregular lanes of dust, which form a swirling spiral pattern around the centre...
Galaxy full of cosmic lighthouses
This enchanting spiral galaxy can be found in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear). Star-studded NGC 3972 lies about 65 million light-years away from the Earth, meaning that the light that we see now left it 65 million years ago, just when the dinosaurs became extinct. NGC 3972 has...
Crash in progress
Arp 256 is a stunning system of two spiral galaxies, about 350 million light-years away, in an early stage of merging. The image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, displays two galaxies with strongly distorted shapes and an astonishing number of blue knots of star formation that...
Youthful NGC 362
Globular clusters offer some of the most spectacular sights in the night sky. These ornate spheres contain hundreds of thousands of stars, and reside in the outskirts of galaxies. The Milky Way contains over 150 such clusters and the one shown in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image,...
Galactic politics
Only rarely does an astronomical object have a political association. However, the spiral galaxy NGC 7252 acquired exactly that when it was given an unusual nickname. In December 1953, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech advocating the use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes....
Hubble views bizarre cosmic quartet HCG 16
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows four of the seven members of galaxy group HCG 16. This quartet is composed of (from left to right) NGC 839, NGC 838, NGC 835, and NGC 833 four of the seven galaxies that make up the entire group. They shine brightly with their glowing golden...
Hubble Frontier Fields view of MACSJ0416.12403
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster MACS J0416.12403. This is one of six being studied by the Hubble Frontier Fields programme, which together have produced the deepest images of gravitational lensing ever made. Due to the huge mass of the cluster it is...
A messy star factory
This sprinkle of cosmic glitter is a blue compact dwarf galaxy known as Markarian 209. Galaxies of this type are blue-hued, compact in size, gas-rich, and low in heavy elements. They are often used by astronomers to study star formation, as their conditions are similar to those thought to exist...
A dusty spiral in Virgo
This magnificent new image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4206, located about 70 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Virgo. Captured here are vast streaks of dust, some of which are obscuring the central bulge, which...
A star set to explode
Floating at the centre of this new Hubble image is a lidless purple eye, staring back at us through space. This ethereal object, known officially as [SBW2007] 1 but sometimes nicknamed SBW1, is a nebula with a giant star at its centre. The star was originally twenty times more massive than our...
Blue and gold
This sprinkling of cosmic glitter makes up the galaxy known as ESO 149-3, located some 20 million light-years away from us. It is an example of an irregular galaxy, characterised by its amorphous, undefined shape a property that sets it apart from its perhaps more photogenic spiral and...
Providers | Sign In
NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The award is part of NASA’s Science Activation program, which strives to further enable NASA science experts and content into the learning environment more effectively and efficiently with learners of all ages.