NGC 1808
NGC 1808 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the southern constellation Columba (the dove). This image was captured using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which is mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, in...
The Many Layers of NGC 1808
NGC 1808 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the southern constellation Columba (the dove). This image was captured using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which is mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, in...
A sparkling galactic neighbour
The galaxy ESO 300-16 looms over this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy, which lies 28.7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus, is a ghostly assemblage of stars which resembles a sparkling cloud. A rogue’s gallery of distant galaxies and...
Wider view of elliptical galaxy NGC 474 from the Dark Energy Survey
NGC 474 is at a distance of about 100 million light-years in the constellation of Pisces. This image shows unusual structures around NGC 474 characterized as tidal tails and shell-like structures made up of hundreds of millions of stars. This image is an excerpt from the Dark Energy Survey,...
A clear view of a galaxy cluster
The massive cluster Abell 3322 is featured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, in which the galaxy 2MASX J05101744-4519179 basks in the centre. This distant galaxy cluster is a cosmic leviathan that is highly luminous at X-ray wavelengths. Observing galaxy clusters like...
Hubble image of the Ring Nebula (Messier 57)
This new image shows the dramatic shape and colour of the Ring Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 57. From Earth’s perspective, the nebula looks like a simple elliptical shape with a shaggy boundary. However, new observations combining existing ground-based data with new NASA/ESA Hubble Space...
Gentle Giant Galaxy
In the constellation Sculptor lies this large extended spiral galaxy called NGC 289. Despite being around 75 million light-years away, the light of NGC 289 is stunningly captured here by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American...
Cropped View of Galaxies in Lopsided Tug of War
The spiral galaxy NGC 1532, also known as Haley’s Coronet, is caught in a lopsided tug of war with its smaller neighbor, the dwarf galaxy NGC 1531. The image — taken by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Dark Energy Camera mounted on the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Víctor M. Blanco...
Sunrise Arc Inset (NIRCam Image)
This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08, and at the right, an inset of the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc. Within that galaxy is the most distant star ever detected, first...
Sunrise Arc (NIRCam Image)
This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08 contains the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc, and within that galaxy, the most distant star ever detected. The star, nicknamed Earendel,...
Galactic Close-Up
This image shows a close-up portrait of the magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4603, which lies over 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur). Bright bands of blue young stars make up the arms of this galaxy, which wind lazily outwards from the luminous core. The...
Portrait of a Ghostly Galactic Peacock
The lenticular galaxy NGC 6684 bathes this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in a pale light. Captured with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, this lenticular galaxy is around 44 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pavo. Pavo — whose name is Latin for peacock —...
The Cosmic Jewels of Sextans A
This glittering image captured by the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, shows the irregular dwarf galaxy Sextans A, which lies around 4.4 million light-years from Earth. This galaxy, which is only a fraction of the size of the...
Owl Nebula, M97, NGC 3587
This composite image of the Owl Nebula (also known as M97 or NGC3587) was created from three sets of narrowband images taken at the 0.6-meter Burrell Schmidt telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in June 1991. The colors in the image correspond to oxygen [O III] in blue, nitrogen [N II]...
Sharpest Image Ever of R136a1, Largest Known Star
Nestled in the center of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest star yet discovered. With the help of the Zorro imager and the power of the 8.1-meter Gemini South telescope in Chile, astronomers have produced the sharpest image ever of this star. This new image...
La Flaca and El Anzuelo (NIRCam Image)
Webb’s infrared image of the galaxy cluster El Gordo (“the Fat One”) reveals hundreds of galaxies, some never before seen at this level of detail. El Gordo acts as a gravitational lens, distorting and magnifying the light from distant background galaxies. Two of the most prominent features in...
El Gordo (NIRCam Image)
Webb’s infrared image of the galaxy cluster El Gordo (“the Fat One”) reveals hundreds of galaxies, some never before seen at this level of detail. El Gordo acts as a gravitational lens, distorting and magnifying the light from distant background galaxies. Two of the most prominent features in...
Orion "Bullets" with GeMS
This image is just one of millions of astronomical images processed using IRAF. Obtained during the late commissioning phase of the GeMS adaptive optics system, with the Gemini South AO Imager (GSAOI) on the night of 28 December 2012, it reveals exquisite details in the outskirts of the Orion...
Cosmic Ripples — image created with FITS Liberator
This image was “liberated” with the FITS Liberator from the FITS file from the Gemini North telescope. It captures the heart of Messier 1, the Crab Nebula. Formed by a colossal supernova explosion in the year 1054, the Crab Nebula consists of the outer layers of a now-dead massive star strewn...
Nebula NGC 6164-5
NGC 6164-5 imaged at Gemini South. The emission nebula NGC 6164-5 is a rectangular, bipolar cloud with rounded corners and a diagonal bar producing an inverted S-shaped appearance. It lies about 1,300 parsecs (4,200 light-years) away in the constellation Norma. The nebula measures about 1.3...
Nebula NGC 5189
NGC 5189 imaged at Gemini South. NGC 5189, a chaotic-looking planetary nebula that lies about 550 parsecs (1,800 light-years) away in the southern hemisphere constellation Musca, is a parallelogram-shaped cloud of glowing gas. The GMOS image of this nebula shows long streamers of gas, glowing...
RY-Tau
Gemini North image of stellar nursery RY Tau was imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) as part of a Canadian contest for amateur astronomers. The image reveals tremendous detail in the wispy remains of the gas cloud that formed the bright star at bottom/center. This system is...
The NGC 1333 cluster
The NGC1333 cluster in the constellation Perseus is embedded deeply in the Perseus giant molecular cloud, at a distance of 1,000 light-years from Earth. It is the home to several hundred young and forming stars with ages less than about one million years. The cold molecular gas in he cloud...
NGC 6652
The glittering, glitzy contents of the globular cluster NGC 6652 sparkle in this star-studded image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The core of the cluster is suffused with the pale blue light of countless stars, and a handful of particularly bright foreground stars are adorned with...
Deep Dive into Astronomical Data Tapestry of the Milky Way
This image, which is brimming with stars and dark dust clouds, is a small extract — a mere pinprick — of the full Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS2) of the Milky Way. The new dataset contains a staggering 3.32 billion celestial objects — arguably the largest such catalog so far. The data...
Herbig-Haro 46/47 (NIRCam Image)
These stars have a lot of energy to let loose! NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. Look for them at the center of the red diffraction spikes. The stars are buried...
HUBBLE PHOTOGRAPHS BOULDERS FLUNG OFF ASTEROID DIMORPHOS
This Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Dimorphos was taken on December 19, 2022, nearly four months after the asteroid was impacted by NASA’s DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). Hubble’s sensitivity reveals a few dozen boulders knocked off the asteroid by the force of...
Doing cartwheels to celebrate the end of an era
An image of the Cartwheel Galaxy taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been reprocessed using the latest techniques to mark the closure of the Space Telescope European Coordination Facility (ST-ECF), based near Munich in Germany, and to celebrate its achievements in supporting...
Galactic island of tranquillity
The tranquil spiral galaxy UGC 12295 basks leisurely in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies around 192 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces, and is almost face-on when viewed from Earth, displaying a bright central bar and tightly wound spiral...
Deepest, widest view of the Large Magellanic Cloud from SMASH
Part of the SMASH dataset showing an unprecedented wide-angle view of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and, unlike the rest of the satellite galaxies, are still actively forming stars — and at a rapid pace. The...
Deepest, widest view of the Small Magellanic Cloud from SMASH
Part of the SMASH dataset showing what is arguably the best wide-angle view of the Small Magellanic Cloud to date. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and, unlike the rest of the satellite galaxies, are still actively forming stars — and at...
Globular Cluster Omega Centauri Captured by NEWFIRM on the Blanco Telescope
During its commissioning and capabilities testing, astronomers used NEWFIRM on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile to capture a spectacular image of the Omega Centauri globular cluster. At about 17,000 light-years from Earth in the...
Rho Ophiuchi (NIRCam Image)
The first anniversary image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope displays star birth like it’s never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. It is a relatively small, quiet stellar...
Serene Supernova Aftermath
The spiral galaxy UGC 11860 seems to float serenely against a field of background galaxies in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. UGC 11860 lies around 184 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus, and its untroubled appearance is deceiving; this galaxy recently...
Most detailed image of the Crab Nebula
This Hubble image gives the most detailed view of the entire Crab Nebula ever. The Crab is among the most interesting and well studied objects in astronomy. This image is the largest image ever taken with Hubble's WFPC2 camera. It was assembled from 24 individual exposures taken with the...
Two Extremely Distant Active Supermassive Black Holes (NIRSpec MSA Emission Spectra)
Researchers using data and images from the James Webb Space Telescope have already captured two of the smallest known supermassive black holes in the early universe. Webb’s spectra show that these black holes weigh only 10 million times the mass of the Sun. Other very distant supermassive...
Black Hole Existed 570 Million Years After Big Bang (NIRSpec MSA Emission Spectrum)
Researchers have identified the most distant active supermassive black hole to date in the James Webb Space Telescope’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. The black hole, within galaxy CEERS 1019, existed just over 570 million years after the big bang and weighs only 9...
Saturn
JWST turned to the ringed world Saturn in June 2023 to conduct a deep search for new ring structure and faint moons. Saturn itself appears to extremely dark at the infrared wavelengths sensed by JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), as methane gas absorbs almost all of the sunlight falling on...
NASA’s Webb Identifies the Earliest Strands of the Cosmic Web
Field with Circled Galaxies
NASA’s Webb Identifies the Earliest Strands of the Cosmic Web
Dusty Supernovae (MIRI)
Images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveal large amounts of dust within two Type II supernovae, Supernova 2004et (SN2004 et) and Supernova 2017eaw (SN 2017eaw), located 22 million light-years away from Earth in spiral galaxy NGC 6946. The large amounts...
NGC 6496 (Kitt Peak National Observatory)
This image from the Kitt Peak National Observatory of NGC 6496 contextualizes the locations of Supernova 2004et and Supernova 2017eaw within the galaxy. Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveal large amounts of dust within two Type II...
Dusty Supernovae (MIRI Compass Image)
Images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveal large amounts of dust within two Type II supernovae, Supernova 2004et (SN2004 et) and Supernova 2017eaw (SN 2017eaw), located 22 million light-years away from Earth in spiral galaxy NGC 6946. The large amounts...
Saturn
JWST turned to the ringed world Saturn in June 2023 to conduct a deep search for new ring structure and faint moons. Saturn itself appears to extremely dark at the infrared wavelengths sensed by JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), as methane gas absorbs almost all of the sunlight falling on...
CEERS (NIRCam Image)
Stare deeply at this vast landscape. It was stitched together from multiple images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared light – and it is practically pulsing with activity. To the right of center is a clump of bright white spiral galaxies that seem to be twisting into...
Orion Bar (NIRCam Image)
This image taken by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. It is a region where energetic ultraviolet light from the Trapezium Cluster — located off the upper-left corner — interacts with dense molecular clouds. The energy of the stellar...
Set of Extremely Distant Galaxies (NIRSpec MSA Emission Spectra)
A team investigating data from Webb’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey has already identified seven galaxies that existed when the universe was only 540 to 660 million years old. Some of the evidence is displayed above: Three lines appear in the same order – one hydrogen...
Orion Bar (MIRI Image)
This image from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) shows a small region of the Orion Nebula. At the center of this view is a young star system with a protoplanetary disk named d203-506. An international team of astronomers detected a new carbon molecule known as methyl cation for the first...
Orion Bar Collage (NIRCam and MIRI Images)
These Webb images show a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. It is a region where energetic ultraviolet light from the Trapezium Cluster — located off the upper-left corner — interacts with dense molecular clouds. The energy of the stellar radiation is slowly eroding the Orion Bar,...
TRAPPIST-1 c Emission Spectra
This graph compares the measured brightness of TRAPPIST-1 c to simulated brightness data for three different scenarios. The measurement (red diamond) is consistent with a bare rocky surface with no atmosphere (green line) or a very thin carbon dioxide atmosphere with no clouds (blue line). A...
TRAPPIST-1 c Light Curve
This light curve shows the change in brightness of the TRAPPIST-1 system as the second planet, TRAPPIST-1 c, moves behind the star. This phenomenon is known as a secondary eclipse. Astronomers used Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to measure the brightness of mid-infrared light. When the...
Rocky Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c (Artist Concept)
This artist' concept shows what the hot rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c could look like based on this work. TRAPPIST-1 c, the second of seven known planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, orbits its star at a distance of 0.016 AU (about 1.5 million miles), completing one circuit in just 2.42 Earth-days....
Image of Abell 3158, Part of the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey
This is an image centered on a relatively nearby galaxy cluster dubbed Abell 3158; light from these galaxies had a redshift value of 0.059, meaning that it traveled approximately 825 million years on its journey to Earth. The image is a small part of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys — a...
DECam Images RCW 86, Remains of Supernova Witnessed in 185
The tattered shell of the first-ever recorded supernova was captured by the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, which is mounted on the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of...
Gemini North Back On Sky With Dazzling Image of Supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy
Gemini North, part of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, is back observing the night sky following the repair and refurbishment of its primary mirror. The telescope’s debut observation captured the supernova dubbed SN 2023ixf (lower left), which was discovered on 19...
A Sky Full of Galaxies
The blackness of space is punctuated by bright dots. This image could almost be mistaken for a particularly detailed shot of the night sky as seen from Earth, full of stars. Appearances, however, can be deceptive. This image was taken from Earthʻs southern hemisphere, but the bright dots are...
A Very Wooly Galaxy
This observation from the international Gemini Observatory — a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab — showcases a flocculent spiral galaxy that lies nearly 12 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. The word flocculent means “fluffy” or “wooly,” and refers to these galaxies’ strangely tufty...
Complex Planetary Nebula Sh2-71
Gemini Legacy image of the complex planetary nebula Sh2-71 as imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on Gemini North on Mauna Kea in Hawai‘i. The long-assumed central star is the brightest star near the center, but some astronomers wonder if the much dimmer and bluer star (just to the...
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