Infant stars artistic outburst
The artistic outburst of an extremely young star, in the earliest phase of formation, is captured in this spectacular image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The colourful wisps, found in the lower left of the image, are painted onto the sky by a young star cocooned in the partially...
Image of the galaxy cluster SpARCS1049
This image, using data from Spitzer and the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy cluster SpARCS1049.
Galactic refurbishment
The smudge of stars at the centre of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a galaxy known as UGC 5797. UGC 5797 is an emission line galaxy, meaning that it is currently undergoing active star formation. The result is a stellar population that is constantly being refurbished as massive...
Hubble spies vast gas disk around unique massive star
This visible-light image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals a pancake-shaped disk of gas around an extremely bright star in our Milky Way galaxy. The disk glows brightly in the light of ionized nitrogen. The central star is nicknamed "Nasty 1," derived from its catalogue name of...
The peculiar asymmetry of NGC 949
This image provides the clearest ever view of galaxy NGC 949, which lies over 30 million light-years away in the constellation of Triangulum. The galaxy has an unusual shape, made more obscure due to its inclination. From our point of view, it is difficult to discern exactly what type of galaxy...
The crammed centre of Messier 22
This image shows the centre of the globular cluster Messier 22, also known as M22, as observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Globular clusters are spherical collections of densely packed stars, relics of the early years of the Universe, with ages of typically 12 to 13 billion years....
Young and dynamic
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows an elliptical galaxy called NGC 2865. It lies just over 100 million light-years away from us in the constellation of Hydra The Sea Serpent and was discovered in 1835 by astronomer John Herschel. Elliptical galaxies are usually filled with old,...
Extragalactic peculiarity
This galaxy goes by the name of ESO 162-17 and is located about 40 million light-years away in the constellation of Carina. At first glance this image seems like a fairly standard picture of a galaxy with dark patches of dust and bright patches of young, blue stars. However, a closer look...
Hubble view of green filament in galaxy UGC 11185
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ghostly green filaments, lying within galaxy UGC 11185. This filament was illuminated by a blast of radiation from a quasar a very luminous and compact region that surrounds the supermassive black hole at the centre of its host galaxy. Its...
Hubble view of green filament in galaxy NGC 5252
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ghostly green filaments, lying within galaxy NGC 5252. This filament was illuminated by a blast of radiation from a quasar a very luminous and compact region that surrounds the supermassive black hole at the centre of its host galaxy. Its...
Hubble view of green filament in Teacup galaxy
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ghostly green filaments, lying within the galaxy Teacup (also known as 2MASX J14302986+1339117). This filament was illuminated by a blast of radiation from a quasar a very luminous and compact region that surrounds the supermassive black...
The Hubble GOODS North field (GOODS-N)
This image is from a deep sky Hubble Space Telescope survey called GOODS North (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey). Links: NASA Press release Distant Galaxies in the GOODS North survey GN-z10-3 in the GOODS-N field GN-z9-1 in the GOODS-N field GN-z10-1 in the GOODS-N field GN-z10-2 in...
Hubble view of green filament in galaxy UGC 7342
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ghostly green filaments, lying within galaxy UGC 7342. This filament was illuminated by a blast of radiation from a quasar a very luminous and compact region that surrounds the supermassive black hole at the centre of its host galaxy. Its...
Hubble view of green filament in galaxy 2MASX J22014163+1151237
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ghostly green filaments, lying within galaxy 2MASX J22014163+1151237. This filament was illuminated by a blast of radiation from a quasar a very luminous and compact region that surrounds the supermassive black hole at the centre of its host...
Hubble view of green filament in galaxy 2MASX J15100402+0740370
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ghostly green filaments, lying within galaxy 2MASX J15100402+0740370. This filament was illuminated by a blast of radiation from a quasar a very luminous and compact region that surrounds the supermassive black hole at the centre of its host...
A cosmological measuring tape
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3021 which lies about 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo Minor (The Little Lion). Among many other types of stars, this galaxy contains Cepheid variable stars, which can be used work out the distance to...
Hubble view of green filament in galaxy Mrk 1498
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ghostly green filaments, lying within galaxy Mrk 1498. This filament was illuminated by a blast of radiation from a quasar a very luminous and compact region that surrounds the supermassive black hole at the centre of its host galaxy. Its...
Galaxy cluster ZwCl 1358+62 with dark matter map
This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster ZwCl 1358+62. Shown in blue on the image is a map of the dark matter found within the cluster. This cluster was part of a study of 72 galaxy cluster collisions which determined that dark matter interacts with other dark...
Galaxy cluster MACS J0152.5-2852 with dark matter map
This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0152.5-2852. Shown in blue on the image is a map of the dark matter found within the cluster. This cluster was part of a study of 72 galaxy cluster collisions which determined that dark matter interacts with other dark...
Galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745 with dark matter map
This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. Shown in blue on the image is a map of the dark matter found within the cluster. This cluster was part of a study of 72 galaxy cluster collisions which determined that dark matter interacts with other dark...
Galaxy cluster MACS J0416.12403 with dark matter map
This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0416.12403. Shown in blue on the image is a map of the dark matter found within the cluster. This cluster was part of a study of 72 galaxy cluster collisions which determined that dark matter interacts with other dark...
Galaxy cluster Abell 2744 with dark matter map
This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Shown in blue on the image is a map of the dark matter found within the cluster. This cluster was part of a study of 72 galaxy cluster collisions which determined that dark matter interacts with other dark matter...
Galaxy cluster Abell 370 with dark matter map
This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster Abell 370. Shown in blue on the image is a map of the dark matter found within the cluster. This cluster was part of a study of 72 galaxy cluster collisions which determined that dark matter interacts with other dark matter...
A galaxy on the edge
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows an edge-on view of the spiral galaxy NGC 5023. Due to its orientation we cannot appreciate its spiral arms, but we can admire the elegant profile of its disc. The galaxy lies over 30 million light-years away from us. NGC 5023 is part of the M51...
Three moons and their shadows parade across Jupiter end of event
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image capturesa rare occurrence as three of Jupiters largest moons parade across the giant gas planets banded face. The image shows the end of the event. Europa has entered the frame at lower left with slower-moving Callisto above and to the right of it....
Dancing on the edge
Galaxies can take many shapes and be oriented any way relative to us in the sky. This can make it hard to figure out their actual morphology, as a galaxy can look very different from different viewpoints. A special case is when we are lucky enough to observe a spiral galaxy directly from its...
Centaurus A halo
This image shows the stunning elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. Recently, astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to probe the outskirts of this galaxy to learn more about its dim halo of stars. The galaxys halo of stars has been found to reach much further than expected,...
A slice of stars
The thin, glowing streak slicing across this image cuts a lonely figure, with only a few foreground stars and galaxies in the distant background for company. However, this is all a case of perspective; lying out of frame is another nearby spiral. Together, these two galaxies make up a pair,...
A fossil in the making
Discovered by astronomer William Herschel in the late 1700s, NGC 201 is a barred spiral galaxy similar to our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It lies 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster), and is invisible to the naked eye. This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space...
The scale of the Universe
This bundle of bright stars and dark dust is a dwarf spiral galaxy known as NGC 4605, located around 16 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). This galaxys spiral structure is not obvious from this image, but NGC 4605 is classified as an SBc type galaxy ...
Galaxy cluster MACS J1720+35
The heart of a vast cluster of galaxies called MACSJ1720+35 is shown in this image, taken in visible and near-infrared light by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy cluster is so massive that its gravity distorts, brightens, and magnifies light from more distant objects behind it,...
Hubbles cross-section of the cosmos
An image of a galaxy cluster taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope gives a remarkable cross-section of the Universe, showing objects at different distances and stages in cosmic history. They range from cosmic near neighbours to objects seen in the early years of the Universe. The 14-hour...
Galaxies spiralling around Leo
Shown here is a spiral galaxy known as NGC 3455, which lies some 65 million light-years away from us in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). Galaxies are classified into different types according to their structure and appearance. This classification system is known as the Hubble Sequence,...
Seeing double
In this new Hubble image two objects are clearly visible, shining brightly. When they were first discovered in 1979, they were thought to be separate objects however, astronomers soon realised that these twins are a little too identical! They are close together, lie at the same distance from...
A special spiral galaxy for over 200 000 Facebook fans
This Hubble Picture of the Week is dedicated to the over 200 000 Facebook fans of ESA/Hubble, who share our passion for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the discoveries it brings. We thank you for staying in touch with us! The image, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows...
New shot of Proxima Centauri, our nearest neighbour
Shining brightly in this Hubble image is our closest stellar neighbour: Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri lies in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), just over four light-years from Earth. Although it looks bright through the eye of Hubble, as you might expect from the nearest star...
Hubble image of PGC 6240
The beautiful, petal-like shells of galaxy PGC 6240 are captured here in intricate detail by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, set against a sky full of distant background galaxies. PGC 6240 is an elliptical galaxy approximately 350 000 000 light years away in the southern constellation of...
The most distant gravitational lens yet discovered
This picture from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the most distant gravitational lens yet discovered. The glow at the centre of this picture is the central regions of a normal galaxy. By chance it is precisely aligned with a much more remote, young star-forming galaxy. The light from...
A monster in the Milky Way
This image, not unlike a pointillist painting, shows the star-studded centre of the Milky Way towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The crowded centre of our galaxy contains numerous complex and mysterious objects that are usually hidden at optical wavelengths by clouds of dust but many...
A spiral galaxy crowned by a star
Another treasure unearthed from the Hubble archives, this beautiful image shows a spiral galaxy named NGC 4517. Slightly bigger than our Milky Way, it is seen edge-on, crowned by a very bright star. The star is actually much closer to us than the galaxy, explaining why it appears to be so big...
A smouldering star
This new image, snapped by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the star HD 184738, also known as Campbells hydrogen star. It is surrounded by plumes of reddish gas the fiery red and orange hues are caused by glowing gases, including hydrogen and nitrogen.HD 184738 is at the centre of a...
A flock of stars
The glittering specks in this image, resembling a distant flock of flying birds, are the stars that make up the dwarf galaxy ESO 540-31. Captured in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the dwarf galaxy lies just over 11 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation...
A stranger in the crowd
The constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) is the largest of the Zodiac constellations, and the second largest overall after Hydra (The Water Snake). Its most appealing feature, however, is the sheer number of galaxies that lie within it. In this picture, among a crowd of face- and edge-on spiral,...
Stars that go out with a whimper
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the planetary nebula IC 289, located in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia. Formerly a star like our Sun, it is now just a cloud of ionised gas being pushed out into space by the remnants of the stars core, visible as a small bright dot...
Hubble image of Arp 142
This image shows the two galaxies interacting. NGC 2936, once a standard spiral galaxy, and NGC 2937, a smaller elliptical, bear a striking resemblance to a penguin guarding its egg. This image is a combination of visible and infrared light, created from data gathered by the NASA/ESA Hubble...
Inseparable galactic twins
Looking towards the constellation of Triangulum (The Triangle), in the northern sky, lies the galaxy pair MRK 1034. The two very similar galaxies, named PGC 9074 and PGC 9071, are close enough to one another to be bound together by gravity, although no gravitational disturbance can yet be ...
Stalking our celebrity neighbours
This is the spiral galaxy NGC 3185, located some 80 million light-years away from us in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). The image shows the galaxys spiral arms, which can be traced from the centre of the galaxy out towards the rim, where they appear to meet a sparkling blue disc. At the...
Messier 61 looks straight into the camera
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this image of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 61, also known as NGC 4303. The galaxy, located only 55 million light-years away from Earth, is roughly the size of the Milky Way, with a diameter of around 100 000 light-years. The galaxy is notable...
A very bright contortionist
The contorted object captured by Hubble in this picture is IRAS 22491-1808, also known as the South America Galaxy. It is an ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) that emits a huge amount of light at infrared wavelengths. The reason for this intense infrared emission lies in an episode of...
NGC 1579: The Trifid of the North
Unlike the venomous fictional plants that share its name, the Trifid of the North, otherwise known as the Northern Trifid or NGC 1579, poses no threat to your vision. The nebulas moniker is inspired by the better-known Messier 20, the Trifid Nebula, which lies very much further south in the...
The messy result of a galactic collision
This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures an ongoing cosmic collision between two galaxies a spiral galaxy is in the process of colliding with a lenticular galaxy. The collision looks almost as if it is popping out of the screen in 3D, with parts of the spiral arms...
A spacetime magnifying glass
This Hubble image shows the galaxy cluster Abell S1077. Galaxy clusters are large groupings of galaxies, each of them including millions of stars. They are the largest existing structures in the Universe to be held together by their gravity. The amount of matter condensed in such groupings is...
A unique cluster: one of the hidden 15
Globular clusters are relatively common in our sky, and generally look similar. However, this image, taken using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a unique example of such a cluster Palomar 2. Palomar 2 is part of a group of 15 globulars known as the Palomar clusters. These...
A swirl of star formation
This beautiful, glittering swirl is named, rather unpoetically, J125013.50+073441.5. A glowing haze of material seems to engulf the galaxy, stretching out into space in different directions and forming a fuzzy streak in this image. It is a starburst galaxy a name given to galaxies that...
Hubble/Chandra/Spitzer composite image of NGC 602, in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud
NASAs Chandra X-ray telescope has made the first detection of X-ray emission from young solar-type stars that lie outside our Milky Way galaxy. They live in a region known as the Wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. X-rays from young stars trace how active...
Dusty detail in elliptical galaxy NGC 2768
The soft glow in the picture above is NGC 2768, an elliptical galaxy located in the northern constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). It appears here as a bright oval on the sky, surrounded by a wide, fuzzy cloud of material. This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,...
Galactic glow worm
This charming and bright galaxy, known as IRAS 23436+5257, was captured by the the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It is located in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, which is named after an arrogant, vain, and yet beautiful mythical queen. The twisted, wormlike structure of this...
Blue bursts of hot young stars
This image, speckled with blue, white, and yellow light, shows part of the spiral galaxy IC 5052. Surrounded by distant stars and galaxies, it emits a bright blue-white glow which highlights its narrow, intricate structure. It is viewed side-on in the constellation of Pavo (The Peacock),...
Masquerading as a double star
The object in this image is Jonckheere 900 or J 900, a planetary nebula glowing shells of ionised gas pushed out by a dying star. Discovered in the early 1900s by astronomer Robert Jonckheere, the dusty nebula is small but fairly bright, with a relatively evenly spread central region ...
Oldest star in solar neighbourhood
This is a Digitized Sky Survey image of the oldest star with a well-determined age in our galaxy. The ageing star, catalogued as HD 140283, lies over 190 light-years away. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was used to narrow the measurement uncertainty on the star's distance, and this helped...
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