Distant galaxies in "AXAF Deep Field"
This image is a combination of a K-band image from ANTU/ISAAC with two images obtained in the B and R bands with the SUSI-2 optical imager at the New Technology Telescope (NTT) on La Silla. Note the relatively high density of red galaxies, visible in the upper right part of this image. The...
Centre of the Crab Nebula
This is the central region of the Crab Nebula, the famous supernova remnant in the constellation Taurus (The Bull). It was obtained early in the night of "First Light" with the third 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope, MELIPAL. It is a composite of several 30-sec exposures with the VLT Test Camera in...
Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) as obtained with FORS2 at KUEYEN during the night of January 31 - February 1, 2000. The LMC is a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way system, located in the southern constellation Dorado (The Swordfish) at a distance of approximately...
MELIPAL "very first light"
The "very first light" image for MELIPAL . It is that of a relatively bright star, as recorded by the Guide Probe at about 21:50 hrs local time on January 26, 2000. It is a 0.1 sec exposure, obtained after preliminary adjustment of the optics during a few iterations with the computer controlled...
View towards the Great Attractor
This image covers a field of 0.5° x 0.5° in the Southern constellation of Norma (The Level) and in the direction of the "Great Attractor". This region is at an angular distance of about 7° from the main plane of the Milky Way, i.e. less than 15 times the width of the image shown. In this colour...
Fine shades of a Sombrero*
Image of the famous early-type spiral galaxy Messier 104, widely known as the "Sombrero" (the Mexican hat) because of its particular shape. The "Sombrero" is located in the constellation Virgo (The Virgin), at a distance of about 50 million light-years. Messier 104 is the 104th object in the...
Spiral galaxy in the Abell 496 field
This is an image of a typical spiral galaxy in the Abell 496 cluster, as obtained with the WFI during the observations with the 2.2-m telescope. The WFI image of Abell 496 was obtained in blue light (B-band) and corresponds to a total integration time of 7560 seconds, split into a number of...
Radio galaxy Centaurus A
The new FORS2 image of Centaurus A, also known as NGC 5128, is an example of how frontier science can be combined with esthetic aspects. This galaxy is a most interesting object for the present attempts to understand active galaxies. It is being investigated by means of observations in all...
Disturbed spiral galaxy in the Abell 496 field
This image shows a galaxy with a strange structure in the Abell 496 Field. This image is reproduced on a logarithmic intensity scale to better show the structure of the objects. At this scale, the individual pixels in the original frames are visible. The sky field measures 0.8 x 0.8 arcmin 2....
CD galaxy in the Abell 496 field
This image shows the central cD-type galaxy in the Abell 496 cluster, as obtained with the WFI during the observations with the 2.2-m telescope. The WFI image of Abell 496 was obtained in blue light (B-band) and corresponds to a total integration time of 7560 seconds, split into a number of...
Detail of the cluster of galaxies Abell 496
This image displays part of a sky field centered on the distant cluster of galaxies Abell 496, as imaged by the WFI at the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla during a total exposure time of just over 2 hours. Note in particular the large numbers of very faint objects in this field, almost...
Detail of the AXAF Deep Field
Image showing a small area of the AXAF Deep Field at the original resolution. It measures about 5.8 x 6.5 arcmin 2, i.e. the area corresponds to approx. 1/30 of the full frame. The background is extremely crowded with very faint objects - most of these are galaxies at very large distances. Some...
The AXAF Deep Field
This image displays a 0.5° x 0.5° sky area in the direction of the so-called AXAF Deep Field in which few bright objects are seen. This photo results from the combination of 28 individual WFI exposures behind a B(lue) optical filter with a total exposure time of 7 hours. About 100,000 galaxies...
Cluster of galaxies Abell 496
This image displays a 0.5° x 0.5° sky field centered on the distant cluster of galaxies Abell 496, as imaged by the WFI at the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla during a total exposure time of just over 2 hours. The original frame is a composite of several shorter exposures and encompasses...
Galaxy in the Great Attractor Field
This image displays a small area (about 2.4 x 2.4 arcmin 2) centered on a bright galaxy in the Great Attractor Field. The dark lane probably indicates that it has already cannibalized one or more of its companions. During the course of hundreds of millions of years or more, others are likely to...
White dwarf stars in globular cluster NGC 6397
Image showing the very crowded sky field of the globular cluster NGC 6397, with some candidate White Dwarf stars indicated by red squares. This photo was obtained with the WPFC2 camera onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The image sharpness is about 0.1 arcsec and the "crosses" around the...
Detail of a view towards the Great Attractor
This image shows the central region of the Great Attractor at the original resolution of the WFI. Note the strong warping of the galaxy to the left of the center, which may be caused by gravitational interaction with one or both of the bright galaxies that are seen above and below it. The field...
Time sequence of Crab pulsar
In this image, the continuous lines in the top and bottom half are produced by normal stars of constant brightness, while the series of dots represents the individual pulses of the Crab pulsar, one every 33 milliseconds (i.e. the neutron star rotates around its axis 30 times per second). It is...
Detail of N70 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This image shows an enlargement of a three-colour composite of the N 70 nebula. It is a "Super Bubble" in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way system, located in the southern sky at a distance of about 160,000 light-years. This photo is based on CCD frames...
N70 Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This image shows a three-colour composite of the N 70 nebula. It is a "Super Bubble" in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way system, located in the southern sky at a distance of about 160,000 light-years. This photo is based on CCD frames obtained with the...
Protostar HH 34 in Orion
This image is an enlargement of a three-colour composite of the young object Herbig-Haro 34 (HH-34), now in the protostar stage of evolution. It is based on CCD frames obtained with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode, on November 2 and 6, 1999. This object has a remarkable, very complicated...
Centre of the Crab Nebula in Taurus
This image is an enlargement of a three colour composite of the well-known Crab Nebula (also known as "Messier 1"), as observed with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode in the morning of November 10, 1999. It is the remnant of a supernova explosion at a distance of about 6,000 light-years,...
Messier 83 – central region
This image of a well-known spiral galaxy, Messier 83, was prepared by superposing three CCD frames from this data release that are now available in the archive. This galaxy is located in the southern constellation Hydra (The Water-Snake) and is also known as NGC 5236; the distance is about 15...
Central star cluster in NGC3603
The central cluster is the densest concentration of massive stars known in the Milky Way. The field shown is about 2.5 x 2.5 light-years 2. It hosts more than 50 hot O-type stars. The brightest star in the field is the red supergiant IRS4 ; it is located about 80 arcsec NE of the center. About...
The galactic starburst region NGC 3603 *
These images of the NGC 3603 region were obtained in three near-IR filter bands (Js, H and Ks) with the ISAAC instrument at the ANTU telescope at the VLT at Paranal. NGC 3603 is located in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of about 20,000 light-years (6-7 kpc). It is...
The Crab Nebula in Taurus
This photo shows a three colour composite of the well-known Crab Nebula (also known as Messier 1), as observed with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode in the morning of November 10, 1999. It is the remnant of a supernova explosion at a distance of about 6,000 light-years, observed almost...
Protostar HH-34 in Orion
Three-colour composite of the young object Herbig-Haro 34 (HH-34), now in the protostar stage of evolution. It is based on CCD frames obtained with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode, on November 2 and 6, 1999. This object has a remarkable, very complicated appearance that includes two...
Supernova SN 1987A
This is a direct image of SN1987A, flanked by two nearby stars. The distance between these two is 4.5 arcsec. This reproduction is from a 2-min exposure through a R(ed) filter with the FORS1 multi-mode instrument at VLT ANTU, obtained in 0.55 arcsec seeing on September 20, 1998. North is up...
Echelle spectrum of SN1987A
This shows the raw image, as read from the CCD, with the recorded echelle spectrum of SN1987A. With this technique, the supernova spectrum is divided into many individual parts (spectral orders, each of which appears as a narrow horizontal line) that together cover the wavelength interval...
MELIPAL: first image
First image of a star obtained with the CCD camera at the 20-cm guide telescope on MELIPAL, at the beginning of pointing and tracking tests.
Methane brown dwarf
Part of the NTT Deep Field, with the new Methane Brown Dwarf NTTDF J1205-0744 at the centre. The field measures 1.3 x 1.3 arcmin 2. The object is well visible in the SOFI infrared exposure (left) in the J-band at wavelength 1.25 µm, but not in the SUSI one at a shorter wavelength (right) in the...
Spectrum of methane brown dwarf
The infrared spectrum of NTTDF J1205-0744, as obtained with SOFI at the NTT and ISAAC at VLT ANTU, and compared to the spectrum of the much closer and brighter Methane Brown Dwarf Gliese 229B .
The enormous coma of comet Hale-Bopp
This photo is a "sum" of the three exposures that served as the basis for the colour image. It has been contrast-enhanced to show the truly enormous size of the comet's coma, over 3 arcmin across. The optical reflection from the bright star to the lower left was also enhanced by this process.
NN Ser spectrum during total eclipse
This chart represents the spectrum of the cool dwarf star in the variable stellar system NN Ser . The 5 min exposure was obtained during the total phase of the eclipse, when the magnitude of the system was V = 23.0. Several TiO bands are clearly visible in this slightly smoothed tracing. A few...
Comet Wirtanen near Aphelion
This is a reproduction of a photo based on the addition of twelve images of the nucleus of Comet Wirtanen near aphelion, obtained with VLT KUEYEN and the VLT Test Camera on May 17, 1999. The total integration time is 96 min. Individual pixels (each 0.0455 arcsec wide) are well visible at this...
Comet Hale-Bopp
False-colour composite photo of Comet Hale-Bopp, obtained on June 18, 1999, with the EMMI instrument at the ESO 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla. Three exposures were made through V- (green-yellow; 60 sec; here colour-coded as "blue"), R- (red; 30 sec; "green") and I (infrared,...
The 17-mag eclipsing binary system NN Ser
This photo represents the sky field around the 17-mag variable stellar system NN Serpentis, as seen in a 5 sec exposure through a Visual filter with VLT ANTU and FORS1. It was obtained just before the observation of an eclipse of this unusual object and served to centre the telescope on the...
Motion of Comet Wirtanen near Aphelion
The faint, moving image of the nucleus of Comet Wirtanen (in the circles), as observed by the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope (formerly UT2) and the VLT Test Camera on May 17, 1999, during the commissioning phase. The telescope followed the comet's motion and the stellar images in the field are...
Detail of N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This image of the spectacular N44 H II region in the LMC displays (very nearly) its central region, which is dominated by a large, ring-shaped nebula that includes a bright stellar association of very luminous stars. It emits X-rays - this is interpreted as a sign that several heavy stars in...
N119 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
N119 is an "H II region" in the LMC. The most remarkable characteristic is its pronounced spiral shape that is reminiscent of a barred spiral galaxy. It is quite large, about 400 x 600 light-years, and it is situated at the northern side of the stellar bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud, near...
Detail of N119 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This image shows N119 in detail. N119 is an "H II region" in the LMC. The most remarkable characteristic is its pronounced spiral shape that is reminiscent of a barred spiral galaxy. It is quite large, about 400 x 600 light-years, and it is situated at the northern side of the stellar bar of...
Total eclipse of NN Ser
This is a 18.5-min "drift" exposure with VLT ANTU and FORS1 of the sky field around the variable stellar system NN Ser (indicated with an arrow). The telescope moved 1 pixel (0.20 arcsec) every 3 seconds so that the images of the stars in the field are trailed from left to right. After some...
N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This image of the spectacular N44 H II region in the LMC displays (very nearly) the full extent of the WFI field. N44 is a very bright, rich and well-studied complex in the LMC, somewhat apart from the other nebulae in this galaxy. The general appearance (in astronomical terminology: the...
Globular cluster NGC1916 near N119 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This image is centered on the bright, rich and compact cluster (NGC 1916), located close to N119. N119 is an "H II region" in the LMC. The most remarkable characteristic is its pronounced spiral shape that is reminiscent of a barred spiral galaxy.
Detail of N119 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This image shows N119 in detail. N119 is an "H II region" in the LMC. The most remarkable characteristic is its pronounced spiral shape that is reminiscent of a barred spiral galaxy. It is quite large, about 400 x 600 light-years, and it is situated at the northern side of the stellar bar of...
Looking through the Dark Cloud B68
B68 is a dark cloud situated at a distance of about 500 light-years (160 pc) towards the southern constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent-holder). This is a false-colour, infrared composite photo of the dark cloud Barnard 68, obtained on March 8-9, 1999, with the SOFI instrument at the ESO 3.5-m...
The dark cloud B68 at different wavelengths
B68 is a dark cloud situated at a distance of about 500 light-years (160 pc) towards the southern constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent-holder). This image represents the sky area of the so-called Bok globule Barnard 68 --- nicknamed the Dark Cloud -- imaged in six different wavebands,...
Afterglow of GRB 990510
Enlargement from the 30 sec V-exposure by the VLT, shown in ESO Press Photo eso9926. The field is about 1.9 x 1.9 arcmin 2. North is up and East is left.
Spectrum of GRB 990510 afterglow
The object of study is the remnant of a mysterious cosmic explosion far out in space, first detected as a gigantic outburst of gamma rays on May 10. Gamma-Ray Bursters (GRBs) are brief flashes of very energetic radiation - they represent by far the most powerful type of explosion known in the...
Afterglow of GRB 990510
This wide-field photo was obtained with the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) at the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at La Silla on May 11, 1999, at 08:42 UT, under inferior observing conditions (seeing = 1.9 arcsec). The exposure time was 450 sec in a B(lue) filter. The optical image of the afterglow of GRB...
GRB 990510 sky region
The object of study is the remnant of a mysterious cosmic explosion far out in space, first detected as a gigantic outburst of gamma rays on May 10. Gamma-Ray Bursters (GRBs) are brief flashes of very energetic radiation — they represent by far the most powerful type of explosion known in the...
GRB 990510
The object of study is the remnant of a mysterious cosmic explosion far out in space, first detected as a gigantic outburst of gamma rays on May 10. Gamma-Ray Bursters (GRBs) are brief flashes of very energetic radiation — they represent by far the most powerful type of explosion known in the...
Galaxy pair NGC 5090 and NGC 5091
A pair of galaxies NGC 5090 - 5091 in Centaurus is shown in this image. They are located at about the same distance as ESO 269-57 and may belong to the same cluster of galaxies. This is an interacting elliptical-spiral system with some evidence of tidal disruption of NGC 5091 (to the left;...
Afterglow of GRB 990510
This is a false-colour composite of the area around the optical image of the afterglow of GRB 990510, based on three near-infrared exposures with the SOFI multi-mode instrument at the 3.6-m ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla, obtained on May 10, 1999, between 23:15 and 23:45 UT. The...
Galaxy with warped dust lane
Image showing a sky field in the southern constellation Hydra (The Water-snake) that includes the peculiar spiral galaxy ESO 510-13 . It resembles the famous "Sombrero" galaxy, but its equatorial dust plane is pronouncedly warped. The velocity is 3300 km/sec, the distance is about 170 million...
Edge-on galaxy with dust lane
This is a colour composite (BVR) of a sky field near the border between the southern constellations Carina (The Ship's Keel) and Volans (The Flying Fish). It contains a spiral galaxy, ESO 60-24 that is seen nearly edge-on. This galaxy has a strong equatorial dust band that hides the light from...
B68, the black cloud
This photograph shows an unusual sky field in the Milky Way band. It is centred on one of the classical, dark globules, known as Barnard 68 (B68) after the American astronomer, Edward E. Barnard (1857 - 1923), who included it in a list of such objects, published in 1919. It appears as a...
Spiral galaxy ESO 269-57
ESO 269-57 is a spectacular spiral galaxy of symmetrical shape in the southern constellation Centaurus and belongs to a well-known cluster of galaxies seen in this direction. The galaxy received this designation when it was catalogued during the first ESO Survey of the Southern Sky in the...
Detail of star-forming region RCW 108 in Ara
RCW 108 is a molecular cloud that is in the process of being destroyed by intense ultraviolet radiation from heavy and hot stars in the nearby stellar cluster NGC 6193, seen to the left in the photos. A series of images were obtained with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) of areas in the Milky Way...
Interacting galaxies NGC 5090
This is a close-up view of the double galaxy NGC 5090 (right) and NGC 5091 (left), in the southern constellation Centaurus. The first is a typical S0 galaxy with a bright diffuse centre, surrounded by a fainter envelope of stars (not resolved in this picture). However, some of the starlike...
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