New Hubble image of spiral galaxy ESO 137-001
This new Hubble image shows spiral galaxy ESO 137-001, framed against a bright background as it moves through the heart of galaxy cluster Abell 3627. This image not only captures the galaxy and its backdrop in stunning detail, but also something more dramatic intense blue streaks streaming...
Hubble helps astronomers map dark matter in Abell 1689
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the distribution of dark matter in the centre of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 1689, containing about 1,000 galaxies and trillions of stars. Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the universe's mass. Hubble cannot...
Starburst cluster shows celestial fireworks
Like a 4th of July fireworks display, a young, glittering collection of stars looks like an aerial burst. The cluster is surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dustthe raw material for new star formation. The nebula, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina, contains a...
A fine Hydra spiral
The small spiral galaxy NGC 2758 is captured in great detail in this image from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It was first seen by the American astronomer Frank Muller, at the McCormick Observatory in Virginia in the 1880s. This galaxy lies in the...
The dusty beauty of NGC 2082
The richly textured spiral galaxy NGC 2082 is found about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Dorado (the Swordfish), deep in the southern sky. As seen here in a very detailed image from the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, filaments of dark...
Active galaxy Circinus
Resembling a swirling witch's cauldron of glowing vapors, the black hole-powered core of a nearby active galaxy appears in this colorful NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxy lies 13 million light-years away in the southern constellation Circinus. This galaxy is designated a type 2...
Hubble-X in galaxy NGC 6822
The saying 'X' marks the spot holds true in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image where Hubble-X marks the location of a dramatic burst of star formation, very much like the Orion Nebula in our Milky Way galaxy, but on a vastly greater scale. Hubble-X is a glowing gas cloud, one of...
Eta Carinae
The furious expansion of a huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds are captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope comparison image of the supermassive star Eta Carinae. Even though Eta Carinae is more than 8,000 light-years away, structures only 15 billion km across (about the diameter...
Venus cloud tops viewed by Hubble
This is a NASA /ESA Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet-light image of the planet Venus, taken on January 24 1995, when Venus was at a distance of 114 million kilometers) from Earth. Venus is covered with clouds made of sulfuric acid, rather than the water-vapor clouds found on Earth. These clouds...
Galaxy cluster Abell 1689
This image shows galaxy cluster Abell 1689. Astronomers have used the sharp eye of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the magnification power of this giant cluster to find 58 remote galaxies, which produced the bulk of new stars during the Universe's early years. They are the smallest,...
Saturn
This is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of Saturn.
Markarian 231, host galaxy of double black hole
This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals a bright starlike glow in the center of the interacting galaxy Markarian 231, the nearest quasar to Earth. Located 600 million light-years away, we are seeing the galaxy as it looked before multicelled life first appeared on Earth. Quasars are powered...
Elliptical galaxy NGC 4150
Elliptical galaxy NGC 4150.
Hubble view of Himiko
This image shows the field around a giant primordial bubble of gas dubbed "Himiko" (after the queen of ancient Japan), as viewed by Hubble. Astronomers using the combined power of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have...
Return to the Carina Nebula
Looking like an elegant abstract art piece painted by talented hands, this picture is actually a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a small section of the Carina Nebula. Part of this huge nebula was documented in the well-known Mystic Mountain picture (heic1007a) and this picture takes an...
Hubbles wide view of Mystic Mountain in the infrared
This is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared image of a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby stars in the tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern...
Wide-field image of NGC 3344 (ground-based image)
This ground-based image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3344 and its surroundings.
The Veil Nebula (ground-based view)
This image shows the Veil supernova remnant and the surrounding sky. Due to the size of the Nebula the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was able to only observe a small part of it in detail.
Stellar association IC 142
IC 142 is a region of ionised hydrogen and a large stellar association in the Triangulum Galaxy. A stellar association is a very loose cluster of stars that share a common origin, but have become gravitationally unbound and are slowly moving apart. Associations are primarily identified by their...
Composite image of supernova 1987A
Astronomers combined observations from three different observatoriesto produce this multiwavelength image of the remnants of SN 1987A. The red colour shows newly formed dust in the centre of the supernova remnant, taken at submillimeter wavelengths by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter...
Hubble optical view of the Tarantula Nebula
This new Hubble image shows a cosmic creepy-crawly known as the Tarantula Nebula in visible, infrared and ultraviolet light. This region is full of star clusters, glowing gas, and thick dark dust. Created using observations taken as part of the Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP), this...
The area around SpARCS1049+56 (ground-based image)
This image shows the region of sky around the the distant galaxy cluster SpARCS1049+56. It took the light of the cluster 9.8 billion light-years to reach us. The cluster houses at least 27 galaxies, probably more, and has a combined mass equal to 400 trillion Suns.
Central regions of 47 Tucanae seen in the ultraviolet
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the central region of a globular cluster known as NGC 104 or, more commonly, 47 Tucanae, since it is part of the constellation of Tucana (The Toucan) seen in ultraviolet light. Using the ultraviolet capabilities of Hubbles sharp-eyed Wide Field...
Wide field image of the region around two merging galaxies in SDSS J1531+3414 (ground based telescope)
This digitized sky survey image shows the region around the galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414. In this cluster two galaxies have been found to be merging into one and a "chain" of young stellar superclusters are seen winding around the galaxies nuclei.
GN-z10-1 in the GOODS-N field
This image shows an ultra-bright young galaxy known as GN-z10-1, discovered in the Hubble GOODS North field (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey). Researchers found four unusually red objects, including GN-z10-1, that appear as they existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. They...
GN-z10-3 in the GOODS-N field
This image shows an ultra-bright young galaxy known as GN-z10-3, discovered in the Hubble GOODS North field (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey). Researchers found four unusually red objects, including GN-z10-3, that appear as they existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. They...
GN-z9-1 in the GOODS-N field
This image shows an ultra-bright young galaxy known as GN-z9-1, discovered in the Hubble GOODS North field (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey). Researchers found four unusually red objects, including GN-z9-1, that appear as they existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. They...
GN-z10-2 in the GOODS-N field
This image shows an ultra-bright young galaxy known as GN-z10-2, discovered in the Hubble GOODS North field (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey). Researchers found four unusually red objects, including GN-z10-2, that appear as they existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. They...
Hubble and Chandra spot a celestial bauble
This delicate shell, photographed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, appears to float serenely in the depths of space, but this apparent calm hides an inner turmoil. The gaseous envelope formed as the expanding blast wave and ejected material from a supernova tore through the nearby...
Hubble finds fifth moon orbiting Pluto (unlabelled)
This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows five moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto, including a newly discovered moon, designated S/2012 (134340) 1, or P5, as photographed by Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 on 7 July 2012. Other observations that collectively...
Settling into old age
NGC 3384, visible in this image, has many of the features characteristic of so-called elliptical galaxies. Such galaxies glow diffusely, are rounded in shape, display few visible features, and rarely show signs of recent star formation. Instead, they are dominated by old, ageing, and red-hued...
Crowded cluster
This sparkling burst of stars is Messier 75. It is a globular cluster: a spherical collection of stars bound together by gravity. Clusters like this orbit around galaxies and typically reside in their outer and less-crowded areas, gathering to form dense communities in the galactic suburbs....
Invisible X-rays
This fuzzy orb of light is a giant elliptical galaxy filled with an incredible 200 billion stars. Unlike spiral galaxies, which have a well-defined structure and boast picturesque spiral arms, elliptical galaxies appear fairly smooth and featureless. This is likely why this galaxy, named...
NGC 595 a diffuse nebula in the Triangulum Galaxy
NGC 595 is is a gigantic region of ionised hydrogen in the Triangulum Galaxy, about three million light-years away. The nebula was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest on 1 October 1864. This image is only a tiny part of the large wide-field image of the Triangulum...
The centre of NGC 247
This Hubble image shows the central region of a spiral galaxy known as NGC 247. NGC 247 is a relatively small spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Cetus (The Whale). Lying at a distance of around 11 million light-years from us, it forms part of the Sculptor Group, a loose collection...
Dwarf galaxy Pisces A
This image shows the galaxy Pisces A. The bright object at the top of the image is a distant background galaxy. Other distant background galaxies are visible as bright dots. Pisces A is roughly 19 million light-years away. Links: NASA Press release Dwarf galaxies in pisces Dwarf galaxy Pisces B
Dwarf galaxy Pisces B
This image shows the galaxy Pisces B. The bright object with the diffraction spikes below left of centre is a foreground star in our Milky Way galaxy. Several distant background galaxies are also visible. Pisces B is about 30 million light-years away. Links: NASA Press release Dwarf galaxies...
Galaxy with a view
This little-known galaxy, officially named J04542829-6625280, but most often referred to as LEDA 89996, is a classic example of a spiral galaxy. The galaxy is much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The disc-shaped galaxy is seen face on, revealing the winding structure of the spiral arms....
The long goodbye
A dying stars final moments are captured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The death throes of this star may only last mere moments on a cosmological timescale, but this stars demise is still quite lengthy by our standards, lasting tens of thousands of years! The stars...
Radio galaxy 3C 297
This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy 3C 297, which was part of a large survey of galaxies. The survey confirmed the link between mergers and galaxies hosting relativistic jets from supermassive black holes. These galaxies have very strong emissions at radio...
Radio galaxy 3C 356
This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy 3C 356 which was part of a large survey of galaxies. The survey confirmed the link between mergers and galaxies hosting relativistic jets from supermassive black holes. These galaxies have very strong emissions at radio...
Radio galaxy 3C 454.1
This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy 3C 454.1 which was part of a large survey of galaxies. The survey confirmed the link between mergers and galaxies hosting jets travelling near the speed of light from supermassive black holes. These galaxies have very...
Hubble view of green filament in galaxy NGC 5972
Twisting in the darkness like a disturbed double helix, NGC 5972 exhibits a remarkable structure of ionised gas, which appears to be reeling in space as a result of a huge disturbance of some kind, possibly a merger with another galaxy. The sweeping trails of gas both H-alpha and doubly...
Four supernova images in an Einstein cross
This image shows four different images of the same supernova whose light has been distorted and magnified by the huge galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223 in front of it. The huge mass of the cluster and one of the galaxies within it is bending the light from a supernova behind them and creating four...
Hubbles cepheid in the Andromeda Galaxy
The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged the star field around the Cepheid variable V1 in M31. This image shows individually resolved stars in the outer disk of the Andromeda Galaxy. The soft, brown swirls are dust lanes are obscuring light from stars farther away from our line of sight. The blue...
Flat as a pancake
Located some 25 million light-years away, this new Hubble image shows spiral galaxy ESO 373-8. Together with at least seven of its galactic neighbours, this galaxy is a member of the NGC 2997 group. We see it side-on as a thin, glittering streak across the sky, with all its contents neatly...
Spiral galaxy NGC 1309
This image shows spiral galaxy NGC 1309. Astronomers have observed a rare type Iax supernova in the outskirts of the galaxy. The stellar explosion, known as Supernova 2012Z, s highlighted in the annotated version of this image. Links: NASA Press release Supernova 2012Z in spiral galaxy NGC...
Overview of the Large Magellanic Cloud (ground-based image)
This wide field view of part of the Large Magellanic Cloud includes the location of the N11 star formation region. This image was created from digitised photographs through red and blue filters. The field of view is about three degrees across.
The area around merging galaxy duo Arp 142 (ground-based image)
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows the area around a pair of merging galaxies known as Arp 142 in the constellation of Hydra. This pair is made up of once-spiral galaxy NGC 2936, and elliptical galaxy NGC 2937.
Transforming galaxies
Many of the Universes galaxies are like our own, displaying beautiful spiral arms wrapping around a bright nucleus. Examples in this stunning image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, include the tilted galaxy at the bottom of the frame, shining ...
Centre of M31
This Hubble Space Telescope image centres on the 100-million-solar-mass black hole at the hub of the neighboring spiral galaxy M31, or the Andromeda galaxy, one of the few galaxies outside the Milky Way visible to the naked eye and the only other giant galaxy in the Local Group. This is the...
Image of Supernova 1987A
This Hubble image of Supernova 1987A shows the brightening ring of supernova debris. The closest supernova seen in almost 400 years, Supernova 1987A is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Shocked region around SN 1987A
This image shows the entire region around supernova 1987A. The most prominent feature in the image is a ring with dozens of bright spots. A shock wave of material unleashed by the stellar blast is slamming into regions along the ring's inner regions, heating them up, and causing them to glow....
Stellar runaway
This image is centred on stellar runaway 30 Dor #016. The image was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The heavyweight star is 90 times more massive than the Sun and is travelling at more than 400 000 kilometres an hour from its home.
Wide-field view of NGC 2467 (ground-based image)
This is a wide field, ground-based view of the region around NGC 2467 created from digitised photographs taken through red and blue filters. The field of view is about three degrees across.
The remarkable Red Rectangle: Stairway to heaven?
This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, reveals startling new details of one of the most unusual nebulae known in our Galaxy. Catalogued as HD 44179, this nebula is more commonly called the "Red Rectangle" because of its unique shape and colour as seen with ground-based...
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