VV 283
VV 283 looks like a single peculiar galaxy, but is in fact a pair of merging galaxies. A tidal tail swirls out from a messy central region and splits into two branches. The upward twisting branch is brightened by luminous blue star knots. Like many merging systems, VV 283 is a very luminous...
UGC 5101
UGC 5101 is a peculiar galaxy with a single nucleus contained within an unstructured main body that suggests a recent interaction and merger. NGC 5101 is thought to contain an active galactic nucleus - an extremely bright, compact core - buried deep in the gas and dust. A pronounced tail...
MCG+08-11-002
MCG+08-11-002 is an odd-looking galaxy with a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's centre, making it resemble a "Black Eye". Scientists believe that it is the remnant of an earlier collision of two separate galaxies. This peculiar galaxy is at the centre of a rich...
ZW II 96
This is a system of merging galaxies with a bizarre shape. Powerful young starburst regions hang as long threadlike structures between the main galaxy cores. The system almost qualifies as an ultraluminous system, but has not yet reached the late stage of coalescence that is the norm for most...
NGC 5256
NGC 5256, also known as Markarian 266, is a striking example of two disc galaxies that are about to merge. Spectacular streamers of gas surround the two nuclei and eye-catching blue spiral trails indicate recent star formation. The shape of the object is highly disturbed and observations in...
MCG+12-02-001
MCG+12-02-001 consists of a pair of galaxies visibly affected by gravitational interaction as material is flung out in opposite directions. A large galaxy can be seen at the top of the frame and a smaller galaxy resembling an erupting volcano is at the bottom. The bright core of this galaxy...
ESO 239-IG002
ESO239 is most likely the result of a cosmic collision or a lengthy merger process that will eventually result in an elliptical galaxy. The messy intermediate stage, captured here, is a galaxy with long, tangled tidal tails that envelope the galaxy's core. This image is part of a large ...
IRAS 21101+5810
This system is an interacting galaxy pair. The interaction has disturbed both galaxies: the lower galaxy has a bizarre structure and a tidal tail emerges from the main body of the upper galaxy. The galaxy pair lies in a crowded field of Milky Way stars. IRAS 21101+5810 is located in the...
CGCG436-030
CGCG436-030, the eye-catching spiral galaxy in the image, shows a very pronounced curling tail. The companion galaxy, located to the bottom-right of the image, displays an intricate structure, including a number of trails that extend quite far out from its core. The bright star that appears...
NGC 7469
This is a stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the barred spiral Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 (Arp 298, Mrk 1514), a luminous infrared source with a powerful starburst deeply embedded into its circumnuclear region, and its smaller companion IC 5283. This system is located about 200 million...
NGC 6786
This Hubble image displays a beautiful pair of interacting spiral galaxies with swirling arms. The smaller of the two, dubbed LEDA 62867 and positioned to the left of the frame, seems to be safe for now, but will probably be swallowed by the larger spiral galaxy, NGC 6786 (to the right),...
Planetary Nebula NGC 2371
Probing a glowing bubble of gas and dust encircling a dying star, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a wealth of previously unseen structures. The object, called NGC 2371, is a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. The remnant star visible at the centre of NGC 2371...
Hubble maps dark matter web in a large galaxy cluster
This image reveals the distribution of dark matter in the supercluster Abell 901/902, composed of hundreds of galaxies. The image shows the entire supercluster. Astronomers assembled this photo by combining a visible-light image of the supercluster taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope in...
A Sky Flush with Galaxies
This image, taken by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, represents a small section of a larger panoramic view of the heavens, where at least 50,000 galaxies reside.
Hubble maps dark matter web in a large galaxy cluster (individual image 1)
A Hubble study pinpointed four main areas in the supercluster where dark matter has pooled into dense clumps. These areas match the location of hundreds of galaxies that have experienced a violent history in their passage from the outskirts of the supercluster into these dense regions. To make...
"Death star" galaxy black hole fires at neighboring galaxy
A powerful jet from a supermassive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy, according to new data from NASA/ESA observatories. This never-before witnessed galactic violence may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and trigger a burst of star formation in its destructive wake. ...
Mars on Dec. 7, 2007; longitude ~140 degrees
Mars observation taken on Dec. 7, 2007; longitude ~140 degrees
Hubble Finds Mature Galaxy Masquerading as Toddler
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope quashed the possibility that what was previously believed to be a toddler galaxy in the nearby universe may actually be considered an adult. Called I Zwicky 18, this galaxy has a youthful appearance that resembles galaxies typically found only in the early...
Dark matter ring in galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17 (ZwCl 0024+1652)
This Hubble Space Telescope composite image shows a ghostly "ring" of dark matter in the galaxy cluster ZwCl0024+1652. The ring-like structure is evident in the blue map of the cluster's dark matter distribution. The map is superimposed on a Hubble image of the cluster. The ring is one of the...
Multiple generations of stars in a globular cluster
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a dense swarm of stars shows the central region of the globular cluster NGC 2808. Astronomers were surprised when Hubble spied three generations of cluster stars. The discovery is far different from the standard picture of a globular cluster. For...
Extended Groth Strip - Detail of Hubble Image
Detail of the Hubble image of the Extended Groth Strip (EGS). The EGS, named after Princeton University physicist Edward Groth, is a small region in the constellation Ursa Major, based on the results of a series of observations by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Extended Groth Strip is 1.1...
The "Comet Galaxy" as seen with Hubble
While looking at the galaxy cluster Abell 2667, astronomers found an odd-looking spiral galaxy (shown here in the upper left hand corner of the image) that ploughs through the cluster after being accelerated to at least 3.5 million km/h by the enormous combined gravity of the cluster's dark...
Jupiter's New Red Spot - HST ACS/HRC: April 8, 2006
Image of the partial disk of Jupiter from ACS/HRC on April 8, 2006 at 02:33UT. This contrast-enhanced image was taken in blue (F435W) and red (F656N) light. The group involved with the observation was led by Amy Simon-Miller (NASA GoddardSpace Flight Center), Glenn Orton (Jet Propulsion...
A String of 'Cosmic Pearls' Surrounds an Exploding Star
Two decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years. Since that first sighting, the doomed star, called Supernova 1987A, has continued to fascinate astronomers with its spectacular light show. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is one of many...
Orion in miniature
A massive star is illuminating this small region, called M43, and sculpting the landscape of dust and gas. Astronomers call the area a miniature Orion Nebula because of its small size and the single star that is shaping it. The Orion Nebula itself is much larger and has four hefty stars that...
Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 - Fragment G [18 April 2006]
Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3's Fragment G.
NASA Space Observatories Glimpse Faint Afterglow of Nearby Stellar Explosion
Intricate wisps of glowing gas float amid a myriad of stars in this image created by combining data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. The gas is a supernova remnant, cataloged as N132D, ejected from the explosion of a massive star that occurred some 3,000...
Pillars of gas
These dense, dark pillars of dust and gas are resisting erosion from intense ultraviolet light released by the Orion Nebula's biggest stars.
Hubble Spies a Zoo of Galaxies
Gazing deep into the universe, NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has spied a menagerie of galaxies. Located within the same tiny region of space, these numerous galaxies display an assortment of unique characteristics. Some are big; some are small. A few are relatively nearby, but most are far...
Hubble Images Comet Tempel 1 Just Before Deep Impact Probe Arrives
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has snapped an image of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 just days before the Deep Impact spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with the comet. This image, taken on the morning of 30 June, 2005, shows an undisturbed and quiet comet. This Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)...
Hubble Images Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy
This new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a small galaxy called the Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy, or "SagDIG" for short. SagDIG is relatively nearby, and Hubble's sharp vision is able to reveal many thousands of individual stars within the galaxy.
Hubble sees stars as numerous as grains of sand in nearby galaxy
Myriads of stars embedded in the heart of the nearby galaxy NGC 300 can be singled out like grains of sand on a beach in this Hubble Space Telescope image. The Hubble telescope's exquisite resolution enables it to see the stars as individual points of light, despite the fact that the galaxy is...
Hubble's Latest Saturn Picture Precedes Cassini's Arrival
As NASA's Cassini spacecraft hurtles toward a July 1, 2004 rendezvous with Saturn, the Hubble Space Telescope continues snapping breathtaking pictures of the solar system's most photogenic planet. This latest view, taken on March 22, 2004, is so sharp that many individual ringlets can be seen...
Hubble Spots Rare Triple Eclipse on Jupiter
At first glance, Jupiter looks like it has a mild case of the measles. Five spots - one colored white, one blue, and three black - are scattered across the upper half of the planet. Closer inspection by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals that these spots are actually a rare alignment of...
Hubble's near-infrared camera digs for galactic gold
This infrared view reveals galaxies far, far away that existed long, long ago. Taken by the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the image is part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field survey, the deepest portrait ever taken of the universe....
V838 Monocerotis revisited: Space phenomenon imitates art
"Starry Night", Vincent van Gogh's famous painting, is renowned for its bold whorls of light sweeping across a raging night sky. Although this image of the heavens came only from the artist's restless imagination, a new picture from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope bears remarkable...
Neptune as Seen with colour Filters
Neptune, the furthest planet in our Solar System, absorbs the red light from the sun and reflects a cold, blue image in return.
WFPC2 Mosaic of Carina Nebula Region
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope close-up view, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera, shows a three light-year-wide portion of the Carina Nebula, which has a diameter of over 200 light-years. This region in the Carina Nebula is between two large clusters of some of the hottest and most...
Uranus - Wider View
This wider view of Uranus reveals the planet's faint rings and several of its satellites. The area outside Uranus was enhanced in brightness to reveal the faint rings and satellites. The outermost ring is brighter on the lower side, where it is wider. It is made of dust and small pebbles, which...
The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared Light
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat....
Full ACS Image of NGC 3370
Amid a backdrop of far-off galaxies, the majestic dusty spiral, called NGC 3370, looms in the foreground in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. Observations show an intricate spiral arm structure spotted with hot areas of new star formation. But this galaxy is more than just a pretty face....
Iridescent Glory of Nearby Planetary Nebula Showcased on Astronomy Day
In one of the largest and most detailed celestial images ever made, the coil-shaped Helix Nebula is being unveiled tomorrow in celebration of Astronomy Day (Saturday, May 10). The composite picture is a seamless blend of ultra-sharp NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope HST) images combined with the...
Galaxy NGC 3982
A team of European astronomers is using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to look back in time. They have imaged the spiral galaxy NGC 3982 and hundreds of other galaxies in the hope that one of the millions of stars in these images will some day explode as a supernova. They can then look...
The Slant on Saturn's Rings (Ultraviolet)
This image fromNASA's Hubble Space Telescope, seen in ultraviolet light, showsSaturn's Southern Hemisphere and the southern face of its rings. Saturn experiences seasonal tilts away from and toward the Sun, much the same way Earth does, over the course of its 29.5-year orbit. This means that...
The Slant on Saturn's Rings (Visible)
This image fromNASA's Hubble Space Telescope showsSaturn's Southern Hemisphere and the southern face of its rings in visible light. Saturn experiences seasonal tilts away from and toward the Sun, much the same way Earth does, over the course of its 29.5-year orbit. This means that approximately...
The Slant on Saturn's Rings (Infrared)
This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows Saturn's Southern Hemisphere and the southern face of its rings in Infrared light. Saturn experiences seasonal tilts away from and toward the Sun, much the same way Earth does, over the course of its 29.5-year orbit. This means that...
Hubble's Sharpest View of Mars: ACS Image
This view of Mars from the Hubble Space Telescope's new Advanced Camera for Surveys provides the sharpest view of the red planet attainable by the Earth-oribiting observatory. The picture was taken August 24, when Mars was approximately 34.7 million miles (or 55.8 million kilometres) from...
Supernova Shock Wave Paints Cosmic Portrait
Remnants from a star that exploded thousands of years ago created a celestial abstract portrait, as captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Pencil Nebula. Officially known as NGC 2736, the Pencil Nebula is part of the huge Vela supernova remnant, located in the southern...
Hubble's Close Encounter with Mars
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took this close-up of the red planet Mars when it was just 55, 760, 220 km away. This colour image was assembled from a series of exposures taken between 6:20 p.m. and 7:12 p.m. EDT Aug. 26 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The picture was taken...
Hubble's Closest View of Mars
Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using the Hubble telescope have taken the space-based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. The telescope snapped these pictures between April 27 and May 6, 1999, when Mars was 87 million kilometres...
Freewheeling Galaxies Collide in a Blaze of Star Birth
A dusty spiral galaxy appears to be rotating on edge, like a pinwheel, as it slides through the larger, bright galaxy NGC 1275, in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. These images, taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), show traces of spiral structure accompanied by...
Hubble's Full WFPC2 Image of 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's Hubble Space Telescope. The Dumbbell, a nearby planetary nebula residing more than 1,200 light-years away, is the...
'Double Bubble' in Neighboring Galaxy
A unique peanut-shaped cocoon of dust, called a reflection nebula, surrounds a cluster of young, hot stars in this view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The 'double bubble, ' called N30B, is inside a larger nebula, named DEM L 106. The larger nebula is embedded in the Large Magellanic...
Odd Couple Widely Separated by Time and Space
Appearances can be deceiving. In this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, an odd celestial duo, the spiral galaxy NGC 4319 [center] and a quasar called Markarian 205 [upper right], appear to be neighbors. In reality, the two objects don't even live in the same city. They are separated by...
A Wheel within a Wheel
A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a face-on view of the galaxy's ring of stars, revealing more detail than any existing photo of this object.
Fireworks in the Sky
Glowing gaseous streamers of red, white, and blue - as well as green and pink - illuminate the heavens like Fourth of July fireworks. The colorful streamers that float across the sky in this photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope were created by the universe's biggest firecracker,...
Elliptical galaxy NGC 4365 with numerous young star clusters
This colour image shows the elliptical galaxy NGC 4365. The image is a combination of two exposures taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and one taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope. By combining these images a group of European and American astronomers have made a major discovery....
Cone Nebula/NGC 2264 (ACS Full Field Image)
Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this monstrous object is actually an innocuous pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (and cataloged NGC 2264) is so named because, in ground-based images, it has a conical shape. This giant pillar resides in a...
NICMOS uncovers dust layers to show inner region of dusty nebula (NICMOS image)
The revived Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has penetrated dust layers in a star-forming cloud to uncover a dense, craggy edifice of dust and gas. This NICMOS image shows the Cone Nebula (NGC 2264), so named because, in...
ACS uncovers dust layers to show inner region of dusty nebula
The photograph, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) shows a tumultuous collision between four galaxies located 1 billion light-years from Earth. The galactic wreckage is creating a torrent of new stars. The tangled-up galaxies, called IRAS 19297-0406, are crammed together in the...
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