In the Heart of the Furnace
This jewel-bright image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 1385, a spiral galaxy 30 million light-years away from Earth, which lies in the constellation Fornax. The image was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which is often referred to as Hubble’s workhorse camera,...
Trifid Nebula (M20)
Central region of the Trifid Nebula (M20 in the Messier Catalogue) taken by the Gemini North 8-meter Telescope on Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, June 5, 2002. Located in the constellation of Sagittarius, the beautiful nebula is a much-photographed, dynamic cloud of gas and dust where...
The Andromeda Galaxy
This picture shows M31 (NGC 224) and its small companions M32 (NGC 221), lower center, and NGC 205 (sometimes designated M110), to the upper right. The image was made by combining three separate frames derived from photographic plates taken in 1979 at the Burrell Schmidt telescope of the Warner...
Star-Birth “Fireworks”
This Gemini North telescope image reveals no less than six gas jets emerging at supersonic speeds from the reddish Herbig-Haro 24 (HH 24) complex — a small cluster of young stars embedded in a molecular cloud some 1,300 light years distant in the constellation Orion. It is the most detailed...
Stellar Gusts From AFGL 2591
AFGL 2591 is located within the Milky Way more than 3,000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Cygnus. Over the course of the last few thousand years, it has created a vast expanding nebula larger than 500 times the diameter of our solar system. The star is at least 10 times the size...
Gemini Spies Strong Stellar Gusts in Nearby Massive Star
This false-color image of AFGL 2591 shows some high-resolution details in the expanding outflow of gas and dust around the massive stars that are not fully visible in the color version of the image.
Gemini Spies Strong Stellar Gusts in Nearby Massive Star
This black-and-white, K-band image of AFGL 2591 shows some fainter lobe structure and a bow shock to the left of the massive star that is not readily apparentl in the color version. This part of the expanding nebula of gas and dust around AFGL 2591 is hidden from view by a dense and extensive...
When amateur astronomers point the way
This image features the spiral galaxy NGC 941, which lies about 55 million light-years from Earth. The data used for this image were collected by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The beautiful NGC 941 is undoubtedly the main attraction in this image; however, this hazy-looking galaxy...
Blooming of the Spare Tyre Nebula
IC 5148, nicknamed the Spare Tyre Nebula, is a beautiful planetary nebula located about 3000 light-years away near the ‘neck’ of the southern constellation Grus (The Crane). This image, captured with the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s...
The dancer in Dorado
This vibrant and dynamic-looking image features the spiral galaxy NGC 1566, which is sometimes informally referred to as the ‘Spanish Dancer Galaxy’. Like the subject of another recent Hubble Picture of the Week, NGC 1566 is a weakly-barred or intermediate spiral galaxy, meaning that it does...
A dynamic duo … or trio?
This striking image captures the interacting galaxy pair known as Arp-Madore 2339-661, so named because they belong to the Arp-Madore catalogue of peculiar galaxies. However, this particular peculiarity might be even odder than first meets the eye, as there are in fact three galaxies...
Each layer of sound in these three new NASA sonifications represents particular wavelengths of light detected by Chandra, Webb, Hubble, and Spitzer in various combinations.
Each layer of sound in these three new NASA sonifications represents particular wavelengths of light detected by Chandra, Webb, Hubble, and Spitzer in various combinations.
Monster "El Gordo" Galaxy Cluster is Bigger than Thought
This cluster has been nicknamed "El Gordo" (or, "the fat one" in Spanish) because of its gigantic mass.
Artist's impression of ASASSN-14li
Astronomers using NASA's Chandra, ESA's XMM-Newton, and other telescopes have determined that a giant black hole has destroyed a large star and strewn its contents into space.
Crab Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula in the search for answers about the supernova remnant’s origins. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) have revealed new details in infrared light. Similar to the Hubble optical wavelength image...
Hubble Observation of ’the Finch’
HST WFC3 observation of the Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2023fhn (aka ’the Finch’) with a total of 2184 s exposure time on 17 May 2023. AT2023fhn is in the center of the image.
Grand swirls
This new Hubble image shows NGC 1566, a beautiful galaxy located approximately 40 million light-years away in the constellation of Dorado (The Dolphinfish). NGC 1566 is an intermediate spiral galaxy, meaning that while it does not have a well defined bar-shaped region of stars at its centre —...
Artist's impression of the Euclid spacecraft. Artist's impression of the Euclid spacecraft. Euclid is a medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision to investigate the expansion of our Universe over the past ten billion years, probing cosmic epochs from before the expansion started to...
Artist's impression of the Euclid spacecraft. Artist's impression of the Euclid spacecraft. Euclid is a medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision to investigate the expansion of our Universe over the past ten billion years, probing cosmic epochs from before the expansion started to...
Reflection Nebula Bernes 149 in Dark Cloud Lupus 3
The two young, low-mass proto-stars HR 5999 and HR 6000 illuminate nearby dust, creating the reflection nebula Bernes 149. These stars grew out of the dusty dark cloud of Lupus 3, part of a larger complex of as many as nine dark clouds.
The Horsehead Nebula/IC434
This exceptional image of the Horsehead nebula was taken at the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera. Located in the constellation of Orion, the Hunter, the Horsehead is part of a dense cloud of gas in front of an active star-forming...
HH 211 (NIRCam Image)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s high resolution, near-infrared look at Herbig-Haro 211 reveals exquisite detail of the outflow of a young star, an infantile analogue of our Sun. Herbig-Haro objects are formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from newborn stars form shock waves...
Jupiter (NIRCam)
This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud...
Jupiter (NIRCam)
This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud...
NGC 346 (MIRI Image)
This new infrared image of NGC 346 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) traces emission from cool gas and dust. In this image blue represents silicates and sooty chemical molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. More diffuse red emission...
Exoplanet WASP-17 b (MIRI Transmission Spectrum)
A transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-17 b captured by MIRI (Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument) on March 12-13, 2023, reveals the first evidence for quartz (crystalline silica, SiO2) in the clouds of an exoplanet. The spectrum was made by measuring the change in brightness...
Exoplanet WASP-17 b (Artist's Concept)
This artist's concept shows what the exoplanet WASP-17 b could look like. WASP-17 b, also called Ditsö̀, is a hot gas giant that orbits its star at a distance of just 0.051 AU (about 4.75 million miles, or one-eighth the distance between Mercury and the Sun), completing one full circuit in...
Atmosphere Composition of Exoplanet K2-18 b (NIRISS & NIRSpec)
Spectra of K2-18 b, obtained with Webb’s NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) and NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) displays an abundance of methane and carbon dioxide in the exoplanet’s atmosphere, as well as a possible detection of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide...
Exoplanet K2-18 b (Illustration)
This illustration shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data. K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light years from Earth. A new investigation with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope...
Artist’s Concept of Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient
This is an artist’s concept of one of brightest explosions ever seen in space. Called a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT), it shines intensely in blue light and evolves rapidly, reaching peak brightness and fading again in a matter of days, unlike supernovae which take weeks or...
Europa CO2 Distribution (NIRCam and NIRSpec IFU Image)
For as long as humans have gazed into the night sky, we have wondered about life beyond the Earth. Scientists now know that several places in our solar system might have conditions suitable for life. One of these is Jupiter’s moon Europa, a fascinating world with a salty, subsurface ocean of...
Hubble Views Bright Outburst Far from Galaxies
A Hubble Space Telescope image of a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT) designated AT 2023fhn, indicated by pointers. It shines intensely in blue light and evolves rapidly, reaching peak brightness and fading again in a matter of days, unlike supernovae which take weeks or months to...
Europa (NIRCam Image)
For as long as humans have gazed into the night sky, we have wondered about life beyond the Earth. Scientists now know that several places in our solar system might have conditions suitable for life. One of these is Jupiter’s moon Europa, a fascinating world with a salty, subsurface ocean of...
Cygnus Loop
Though a doomed star exploded some 20,000 years ago, its tattered remnants continue racing into space at breakneck speeds – and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the action. The nebula, called the Cygnus Loop, forms a bubble-like shape that is about 120 light-years in diameter. The...
Intracluster Light
Hubble Finds that Ghost Light Among Galaxies Stretches Far Back in Time
Terzan 12
This colorful image of the globular star cluster Terzan 12 is a spectacular example of how dust in space affects starlight coming from background objects. A globular star cluster is a conglomeration of stars, arranged in a spheroidal shape. Stars in globular clusters are bound together by...
Starstruck image of Arp 263
The irregular galaxy Arp 263 lurks in the background of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, but the view is dominated by a stellar photobomber; the bright star BD+17 2217. Arp 263 — also known as NGC 3239 — is a patchy, irregular galaxy studded with regions of recent star...
‘S’ is for ‘Spiral’, ‘AB’ is for … ‘Weakly Barred’
This glittering image shows the spiral galaxy IC 5332, which lies about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor, and has an almost face-on orientation to Earth. To explain what is meant by ‘face-on’, it is helpful to visualise a spiral galaxy as an (extremely) large disc. If...
HST WFC3 observation of the Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2023fhn (aka ’the Finch’) with a total of 2184 s exposure time on 17 May 2023. AT2023fhn is in the center of the image.
Comet Halley in 1988
Collage image of Comet Halley in 1988.
LINER on collision course
This Picture of the Week prominently features two galaxies: NGC 3558 in the lower left, and LEDA 83465 in the upper right. Both galaxies lie roughly 450 million light years from Earth. The two galaxies are separated from one another by a distance of roughly 150 000 light years, which might...
Nebular Harvest
Observing the night sky has never been so delightful as with this image of LBN 867, the Raspberry Nebula. Captured here by the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope using the Mosaic-3 detector at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, this nebula is located in the...
Galactic Face-off
Far, far away in the constellation Phoenix, two interacting galaxies meet in an epic battle spanning a hundred thousand light-years, captured here with the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Collectively known as NGC...
JWST Image of Galaxies
New imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope is giving scientists their first look at high resolution into the fine structure of nearby galaxies and how that’s impacted by the formation of young stars. NGC 1433 is a barred spiral galaxy with a particularly bright core surrounded by double...
Measure of a great galactic disc
This dream-like Picture of the Week features the galaxy known as NGC 3156. It is a lenticular galaxy, meaning that it falls somewhere between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy. It lies about 73 million light-years from Earth, in the minor equatorial constellation Sextans. Sextans is a small...
Webb captures detailed beauty of Ring Nebula (NIRCam image)
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the well-known Ring Nebula with unprecedented detail. Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the Ring Nebula is an archetypal planetary nebula. Also known as M57 and NGC 6720, it is both relatively close to...
Webb captures detailed beauty of Ring Nebula (MIRI image)
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the well-known Ring Nebula with unprecedented detail. Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the Ring Nebula is an archetypal planetary nebula. Also known as M57 and NGC 6720, it is both relatively close to...
Supernova 1987a (NIRCam Compass Image)
Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured this detailed image of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A), which has been annotated to highlight key structures. At the center, material ejected from the supernova forms a keyhole shape. Just to its left and right are faint crescents newly discovered by Webb....
Supernova 1987a (NIRCam Image)
Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured this detailed image of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A). At the center, material ejected from the supernova forms a keyhole shape. Just to its left and right are faint crescents newly discovered by Webb. Beyond them an equatorial ring, formed from material...
Neptune Cloud Cover and Solar Cycle Over Three Decades
This sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images chronicles the waxing and waning of the amount of cloud cover on Neptune. This nearly-30-year-long set of observations shows that the number of clouds grows increasingly following a peak in the solar cycle – where the Sun’s level of activity...
Neptune Cloud Cover Over Three Decades
This sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images chronicles the waxing and waning of the amount of cloud cover on Neptune. This long set of observations shows that the number of clouds grows increasingly following a peak in the solar cycle – where the Sun’s level of activity rhythmically rises...
Galactic isolation
The swirls of the galaxy IC 1776 stand in splendid isolation in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies over 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces. IC 1776 recently played host to a catastrophically violent explosion — a supernova — which...
Dark Shrouds in Orion
The shadowy clouds of LDN 1622 are pictured in this observation from the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. This image was captured in 2018 by the Mosaic-3 instrument, a wide-field camera used to capture large swaths of the...
Revisiting the Eagle Nebula
The Eagle Nebula (M16) is one of the best-known regions of star formation in our galaxy as it is host to the iconic “Pillars of Creation.” This infrared view of the region highlights the extensive fields of dust, gas, and stars that are hidden from view in visible light, and was rendered from...
M61: A Starburst Spiral
Messier 61 (M61), pictured here in infrared light observed by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, is known to astronomers as a “starburst” galaxy due to its prodigious rate of forming new stars. Seen face-on, it provides an excellent view of the characteristic swirl of stars, gas, and dust that...
A "Needle" Galaxy on Its Edge
Spiral galaxies are as varied as snowflakes, and almost as flat. This becomes clear when one observes a galaxy seen edge-on, as with NGC 4565, also known as the “Needle Galaxy.” This infrared image, made with archival data from the cryogenic phase of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, reveals the...
NGC 2392
It is appropriate that this particular nebula is seen high in the sky during the (cold) early evening hours of winter (northern hemisphere). At a distance of around 3000 light-years away this bubble of gas appears very bright in our telescope. With your eyes you can see the central star and...
NGC 1535
NGC 1535 is very similar to NGC 2392 in both structure and color. Through our telescope this bubble of gas appears to glow a pale neon aqua. Visually the central star can sometimes be difficult to see, but in the image its existence is quite certain. NGC 1535 is no less than 1500 light years...
WR 124: A Star Nearing Its End
Wolf Rayet stars are massive objects that are nearing the end of their lives, and are identified by the striking nebulas of dusty material that surround them. This infrared image of WR 124, compiled from archival data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, shows off the complex dusty patterns seen...
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