Close-up of K2-25
Close-up of exoplanet K2-25b’s host star K2-25.
Young stellar jet MHO 2147 (wider crop)
The sinuous young stellar jet, MHO 2147, meanders lazily across a field of stars in this image captured from Chile by the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. The stellar jet is the outflow from a young star that is embedded in an infrared dark cloud. Astronomers...
Gemini South Captures Planetary Nebula CVMP 1
The international Gemini Observatory composite color image of the planetary nebula CVMP 1 imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile.
Wider crop of the NGC 1512 image
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. NGC 1512 has been in the process...
Wider crop of the NGC 1512 image
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. NGC 1512 has been in the process...
Young stellar jet MHO 1502
The knotted young stellar jet, MHO 1502, is captured in this image from Chile by the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. The stellar jet is embedded in an area of star formation known as an HII region. The bipolar jet is composed of a chain of knots, suggesting that...
Spiral galaxy NGC 1566
This image, taken by astronomers using the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, captures the galaxy NGC 1566 as it twirls, flinging its arms through the vastness of...
Galaxy NGC 772
The overdeveloped spiral arm of the galaxy NGC 772, which was created by tidal interactions with an unruly neighbor, dominates this observation made by astronomers using the Gemini North telescope located near the summit of Maunakea in Hawai‘i.
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. NGC 1512 has been in the process...
Dusty disk around MWC 789
The dusty disk around MWC 789 is part of a survey of 44 young massive stars to investigate planet formation shows dusty, swirling disks — likely to become new solar systems. The image was taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) instrument on the Gemini South telescope of the International...
Dusty disk around MWC 614
The dusty disk around MWC 614 is part of a survey of 44 young massive stars to investigate planet formation shows dusty, swirling disks — likely to become new solar systems. The image was taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) instrument on the Gemini South telescope of the International...
Dusty disk around HD 145718
The dusty disk around HD 145718 is part of a survey of 44 young massive stars to investigate planet formation shows dusty, swirling disks — likely to become new solar systems. The image was taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) instrument on the Gemini South telescope of the International...
Dusty disk around HD 34700 A
The dusty disk around HD 34700 A is part of a survey of 44 young massive stars to investigate planet formation in dusty, swirling disks — likely to become new solar systems. The image was taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) instrument on the Gemini South telescope of the International...
The ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Pegasus V
A unique ultra-faint dwarf galaxy has been discovered in the outer fringes of the Andromeda Galaxy thanks to the sharp eyes of an amateur astronomer examining archival data from the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo...
The merging galaxy pair NGC 4568 and NGC 4567
This image from the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i reveals a pair of interacting spiral galaxies — NGC 4568 (bottom) and NGC 4567 (top) — as they begin to clash and merge. The galaxies will eventually form a single elliptical galaxy in around 500 million years.
A Young Mammoth Cluster of Galaxies Sighted in the Early Universe
Coma Cluster image from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Serpent’s Nebula
The emission nebula Sh2-54 glows brightly in this image from the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Gathering the fine details of this particular image required almost twenty minutes of observations and three different wavelength...
Hubble Spies a Long-Armed Galaxy
The peculiar spiral galaxy ESO 415-19, which lies around 450 million light-years away, stretches lazily across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. While the centre of this object resembles a regular spiral galaxy, long streams of stars stretch out from the galactic core like...
Festive and Free-Floating
Just in time for the festive season, this new Picture of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features a glistening scene in holiday red. This image shows a small region of the well-known nebula Westerhout 5, which lies about 7000 light-years from Earth. Suffused with bright red...
Cosmic Smokescreen
A portion of the open cluster NGC 6530 appears as a roiling wall of smoke studded with stars in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 6530 is a collection of several thousand stars lying around 4350 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The cluster is set...
Tiny, Hidden Galaxy Provides A Peek Into The Past
Tiny galaxy HIPASS J1131–31 peeks out from behind the glare of star TYC 7215-199-1, a Milky Way star positioned between Hubble and the galaxy. One hundred years ago, this fast-moving foreground star would have appeared directly in the line of sight, and the "Peekaboo" galaxy would not have been...
Head in the Clouds
A small portion of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is pictured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The SMC is a dwarf galaxy and one of the Milky Way’s nearest neighbours, lying only about 200 000 light-years from Earth. It makes a pair with the Large Magellanic Cloud, and...
Celestial fireworks
Resembling the puffs of smoke and sparks from a summer fireworksdisplay in this image from NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, these delicate filaments are actually sheets of debris from a stellar explosion in a neighboring galaxy. Hubble's target was a supernova remnant within the Large...
Shrouded Starburst in the Galaxy Merger II Zw 096
A brilliant burst of star formation is revealed in this image combining observations from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes. The collision of two spiral galaxies, has triggered this luminous starburst, the brightest ever seen taking place far away from the centers, or nuclei, of merging...
Dusty Orion Nebula in Infrared
This infrared image of the Orion Nebula features plenty of dust but no stars. In these infrared wavelengths, it’s possible to see hot spots where new stars are forming, while unseen bright, massive stars have carved out caverns of empty space.
Hubble Hunts an Unusual Galaxy
The galaxy merger Arp-Madore 417-391 steals the spotlight in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The Arp-Madore catalogue is a collection of particularly peculiar galaxies spread throughout the southern sky, and includes a collection of subtly interacting galaxies as well as...
Clouded Vision
A small, dense cloud of gas and dust called CB 130-3 blots out the centre of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. CB 130-3 is an object known as a dense core, a compact agglomeration of gas and dust. This particular dense core is in the constellation Serpens, and seems to billow...
Investigating A Made-to-Measure Galaxy
The spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 7038 wind languidly across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 7038 lies around 220 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Indus. This image portrays an especially rich and detailed view of a spiral galaxy, and exposes...
Latest plans for Hubble Servicing Mission 4
NASA officials announced 30 October 2008 that the planned Hubble Servicing Mission 4, originally scheduled for late September, will at the earliest take place in May 2009. The decison comes after engineers completed an initial assessement of the work required to bring the replacement Science...
Hubble Inspects A Pair of Space Oddities
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows two of the galaxies in the galactic triplet Arp 248 — also known as Wild's Triplet — which lies around 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The two large spiral galaxies visible in this image — which flank a...
Wide-Field View Abell 611
This image shows a wide-field view of the galaxy cluster Abell 611.
A Cosmic Cobweb
In celebration of Halloween, Hubble brings you this inky image of the galaxy cluster Abell 611, located roughly 3.2 billion light years from Earth. This object is a popular target for investigating dark matter, in part because of the numerous examples of strong gravitational lensing visible...
Cosmic Keyhole
This peculiar portrait from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases NGC 1999, a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. NGC 1999 is around 1350 light-years from Earth and lies near to the Orion Nebula, the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. NGC 1999 itself is a relic...
Multiwavelength View of a Turbulent Stellar Nursery
The lives of newborn stars are tempestuous, as this image of the Herbig–Haro objects HH 1 and HH 2 from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts. Both objects are in the constellation Orion and lie around 1250 light-years from Earth. HH 1 is the luminous cloud above the bright star in the...
A Snapshot of Interacting Galaxies
The two interacting galaxies making up the pair known as Arp-Madore 608-333 seem to float side by side in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Though they appear serene and unperturbed, the two are subtly warping one another through a mutual gravitational interaction that is...
Pelican Nebula Ionization Front
These images were obtained with the MOSAIC CCD camera at the prime focus of the Mayall 4-meter reflector, and show a 36 arc minute field of view that contains the well known Pelican nebula, located at the northwest rim of the giant HII region W80 (the North America/Pelican Nebula) in Cygnus....
Dynastic Vibes
The SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro-Tololo International Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, has captured an echo of the past in this gorgeous Image of the Week. RCW 86 is a literal shell of its former self, the gaseous remnant of a supernova. Some 11,000 years ago a white...
The Eta Carinae nebula, NGC 3372
The Eta Carinae nebula, NGC3372, also known as the Keyhole Nebula, as seen by the Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in 1975. We also have an interesting narrow-band emission line image of this nebula. This gaseous bright nebula surrounds the peculiar...
Cluster of galaxies in Perseus
This cluster in the constellation Perseus includes the strong radio galaxy NGC1275. KPNO 4-meter Mayall telescope, 1975.
The Spiral Galaxy NGC 253
The Spiral Galaxy NGC253, as seen by the KPNO 0.9-meter telescope.
The Eta Carinae nebula, NGC 3372
The Eta Carinae nebula, NGC3372, as seen from CTIO.
47 Tucanae, NGC 104
47 Tucanae, or NGC104, a globular cluster in the constellation Tucana, as seen by the CTIO 4-meter Blanco telescope in 1975. One of the nearest globular clusters, at only 16000 light-years, 47 Tuc has a diameter of 210 light-years and a mass about one million times that of the Sun.
M5, NGC 5904
M5, or NGC5904, a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens, as seen by the KPNO 4-m telescope in 1975. This large cluster is amongst the most massive in orbit around our Galaxy, at about two million times the mass of the Sun. At a distance of about 26000 light-years, M5 is about 13 billion...
M101 Mosaic
The well-known spiral galaxy M101 was imaged by Dr George Jacoby at the Kitt Peak National Observatory's 0.9-meter telescope, using the new wide-field imaging system Mosaic. This instrument combines the pictures from eight separate CCD chips, carefully mounted next to each other for a total of...
NGC 6522 and NGC 6528
Two globular clusters seen through the dense star field in the direction towards the center of our Galaxy, in the constellation Sagittarius. These systems are relatively young for globular clusters, being only about 10 million years old. KPNO 4-meter Mayall telescope, 1975.
M81, NGC 3031
M81, a type Sb spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major, as seen by the KPNO 4-meter Mayall telescope in 1975.
NGC 7331 in Pegasus
NGC7331, a type Sb spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus, is about 30000 light-years across and is located some 50 million light-years from Earth. KPNO 4-meter Mayall telescope, 1975.
M1, NGC 1952, Crab Nebula
The famous Crab Nebula, Messier object 1 and NGC1952. This image of the well-known Crab Nebula was taken using Ektachrome film at the prime focus of the Kitt Peak 4-meter telescope on October 1st 1973. This is unusual because most astronomical pictures are coloured by combining three different...
M42/M43, NGC 1976, Orion Nebula
The Orion Nebula (M42/M43, NGC1976/1982) This picture shows the great nebula in the constellation of Orion the Hunter. On a good clear night, from a dark site well away from the lights of modern civilization, this glowing cloud of gas and dust can be seen with the naked eye as a fuzzy patch...
Arp 286 (NGC 5560, 5566 & 5569)
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Arp 286 consists of three galaxies that are gravitationally interacting. The large spiral galaxy at the center is NGC 5566. Below and to its left is the...
Small Magellanic Cloud
The Small Magellanic Cloud is an irregular dwarf galaxy in the constellation Tucana, and is a satellite of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The SMC is visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere. CTIO Curtis Schmidt telescope photograph.
NGC 3200, SINGG Survey
Gas-rich galaxies display a wide range of structures and properties, but one thing they all seem to have are some newly formed stars. Images from the Survey for Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies (SINGG), an NOAO Survey Program (obtained with the CTIO 1.5m telescope), are designed to highlight...
NGC 5068, SINGG Survey
Gas-rich galaxies display a wide range of structures and properties, but one thing they all seem to have are some newly formed stars. Images from the Survey for Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies (SINGG), an NOAO Survey Program (obtained with the CTIO 1.5m telescope), are designed to highlight...
M67, NGC 2682
M67 is an open star cluster in the constellation Cancer. One of the oldest known such clusters, M67 is believed to be 10 billion years old. It contains approximately 500 stars within its 12 light-year diameter and is located some 2500 light-years away. KPNO 4-meter Mayall telescope, 1975.
Cluster of galaxies in Centaurus
This cluster of galaxies in the constellation Centaurus is more easily seen from the Southern Hemisphere. CTIO 4-meter Blanco telescope, 1975.
NGC 5253, SINGG Survey
Gas-rich galaxies display a wide range of structures and properties, but one thing they all seem to have are some newly formed stars. Images from the Survey for Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies (SINGG), an NOAO Survey Program (obtained with the CTIO 1.5m telescope), are designed to highlight...
The Lagoon Nebula, M8 (NGC 6523)
The Lagoon Nebula, Messier object 8 (M8) or NGC6523, in the constellation of Sagittarius. This false-color, emission-line image was created from a total of twenty-nine separate exposures taken at the Burrell Schmidt telescope of Case Western Reserve University's Warner and Swasey Observatory...
NGC 7125/6, SINGG Survey
Gas-rich galaxies display a wide range of structures and properties, but one thing they all seem to have are some newly formed stars. Images from the Survey for Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies (SINGG), an NOAO Survey Program (obtained with the CTIO 1.5m telescope), are designed to highlight...
Pelican Nebula Ionization Front
This is a false color composite image of the ionization front at the edge of the Pelican Nebula (IC5070) in the constellation Cygnus. By using narrow filters centered around the specific emission lines we expect to see from different elements in different states, we can determine exactly what...
M10; NGC 6254
M10, or NGC6254, is a seventh magnitude globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus, close to M12. About 16000 light-years away and about 70 light-years across, M10 on the sky has about half the diameter of the full moon. This picture was made from CCD images taken at the Burrell Schmidt...
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