M78, NGC 2068
This image of M78, the brightest diffuse reflection nebula in the sky, was taken in 2006 with the Mosaic imager on the Mayall 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. Located some 1600 light-years away and around 4 light-years across, M78 is part of the Orion complex, a large region of star-forming gas...
The Sculptor Galaxy, NGC 253
None This image of spiral galaxy NGC253 was taken with the National Science Foundation’s Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. NGC253 is the brightest member of the Sculptor group of galaxies, which is grouped around the south galactic pole (and therefore...
NGC 6520 with Barnard 86
An image of the open star cluster NGC 6520 and nearby dust cloud Barnard 86, in the constellation Sagittarius, one of the densest parts of our Galaxy. This image was taken on June 24th, 2007 at the NSF's Blanco 4-m telescope in CTIO, with B (blue), V (green) , I (orange) and H-alpha (red)...
Medusa nebula, Abell 21
The Medusa nebula, known scientifically as Abell 21, is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. It is estimated to be over 4 light-years across. This image was taken on Oct 24th, 2008 at the Mayall telescope with the mosaic camera, with [OIII] (assigned...
Big Galaxy Collisions Can Stunt Star Formation
A deep new image of the Virgo cluster has revealed monumental tendrils of ionized hydrogen gas 400,000 light-years long connecting the elliptical galaxy M86 and the disturbed spiral galaxy NGC 4438.
DECam Legacy Survey Announces Third Data Release
The DECam Legacy Survey (DECaLS) has released reduced images and source catalogs covering between 4000 and 8000 square degrees of sky in three wavelength bands. Dive into survey images and explore the Universe with the survey’s Imagine Sky Viewer. DECaLS, which is being carried out on the CTIO...
DESI Imaging Legacy Surveys Publish Seventh Data Release
he slideshow above highlights images from the Legacy Surveys’ Data Release 7 (DR7), which covers more than a quarter of the sky. More DR7 images of galaxies in Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies are available online. Read more about DR7 in the latest issue of NOAO Currents, which also...
Superbubble Complex N44
Known as the N44 superbubble complex, this cloudy tempest is dominated by a vast bubble about 325 by 250 light-years across. A cluster of massive stars inside the cavern has cleared away gas to form a distinctive mouth-shaped hollow shell. While astronomers do not agree on exactly how this...
Perfect Spiral M74
This image of NGC 628 (M-74) was obtained by the 8.1-meter Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea Hawaii using the newly commissioned Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph. To make the color image, three images were combined to make this red, green and blue composite as specified in the technical data...
Gemini South image of NGC 5426-27 (Arp 271)
Gemini South image of NGC 5426-27 (Arp 271) as imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph.
Orion Bullets
Gemini's Laser Vision Reveals Striking New Details in Orion Nebula This composite image at infrared wavelengths was obtained using the Gemini North laser guide star system in conjunction with the ALTAIR adaptive optics system and the NIRI near-infrared imager. The image shows the Orion...
Hubble Ultra Deep Field
This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The snapshot includes galaxies of various ages, sizes, shapes, and colours. The smallest, reddest galaxies, about 100, may be among the most distant known, existing when the universe was just 800 million years old. The...
The last of the Frontier Fields — Abell 370
With the final observation of the distant galaxy cluster Abell 370 — some five billion light-years away — the Frontier Fields program came to an end. Abell 370 is one of the very first galaxy clusters in which astronomers observed the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, the warping of...
Spectacular view of V838 Monocerotis light echo
The light echo around the star V838 Monocerotis as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in November 2005.
UGC 10214 (ACS Full Field Image)
A colliding galaxy dubbed the "Tadpole" (catalog name UGC10214) is set against a rich tapestry of 6,000 galaxies. The Tadpole, with its long tail of stars, looks like a runaway pinwheel firework, unlike the textbook images of stately spiral galaxies. Its distorted shape was caused by a small...
Hubble Looks Through Cosmic Zoom Lens
The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has used a natural 'zoom lens' in space to boost its view of the distant universe. Besides offering an unprecedented and dramatic new view of the cosmos, the results promise to shed light on galaxy evolution and...
NGC 1512/10, 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...
Hickson Compact Group 87
During commissioning in early 2003 of the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini South Telescope, images and spectra were obtained of the group of galaxies known as the Hickson Compact Group 87 (HCG 87). The Gemini image compares very favorably with space-based image of this same...
Looking Sharp: Images from New Gemini Spectrograph Rival View from Space
HCG 87 imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope
NGC 896
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the KPNO 0.9m-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NGC 896 is part of a large, diffuse nebula. Star formation inside NGC 896 energizes the gas. However, most of the star formation is obscured by dark dust...
North America Nebula, NGC 7000 South
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the KPNO 0.9m-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NGC 7000, also known as the North America Nebula, is a giant emission nebula in the constellation of Cygnus. This image shows only the southern tip of the...
IC 2944 Thackeray's Globules
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic II camera on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory on January 12th and February 7th, 2012. An array of dark Bok globules, known as Thackeray's Globules, can be seen in silhouette against the emission...
Planetary Nebula HDW 3
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Hartl-Dengel-Weinberger 3 (HDW 3) is a large, ancient planetary nebula. Its distinctive braided shape is the result of the planetary nebula colliding with the...
Not-So-Close Encounter
The twin galaxies NGC 4496A and NGC 4496B dominate the frame in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Both galaxies lie in the constellation Virgo, but despite appearing side-by-side in this image they are at vastly different distances from both Earth and one another. NGC 4496A...
M33 optical/radio
This image of the Triangulum Galaxy was created by combining optical data from the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona with radio data from the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in New Mexico and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio...
The Eagle Nebula, M16
This wide-field image of the Eagle 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 Serpens, the Serpent, the Eagle Nebula is a very luminous open cluster of stars surrounded by dust and gas....
Crescent, NGC 6888
This wide-field image of the Crescent Nebula was taken at the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera. Also known as NGC6888, the nebula is a shell of gas that is being energized by the strong stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136,...
M94, NGC 4736
None The Sab spiral galaxy M94 in the constellation Canes Venatici is considered by some (but not others) to be in a group including M64 and various fainter galaxies. It has an extremely bright innner region surrounded by a blue ring of young star clusters, then a fainter yellowish region of...
The Omega Nebula, M17
The Omega Nebula, M17 or NGC6618, in the constellation Sagittarius. M17 is a bright emission nebula excited by young stars, but with lanes of opaque dust; it is also referred to as the Swan Nebula and the Horseshoe Nebula. This image is unusual in that it was created from five frames imaged...
M100, NGC 4321
None M100 is one of the brighter galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, although it's actually located in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is a spiral galaxy of type Sc, nearly face-on and showing strong blue (young star) spiral arms. In addition, this picture shows two nearby dwarf galaxies, while...
Wide-Field View of Arp 143
This image shows a wide-field view of Arp 143
Hubble’s Observation of Arp 143
A spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies has been captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which has the unusual triangular-shaped star-birthing frenzy. The interacting galaxy duo is collectively called Arp 143. The pair contains the distorted, star-forming spiral galaxy NGC...
Hubble Captures a Peculiar Galactic Pair
This striking image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases Arp 298, a stunning pair of interacting galaxies. Arp 298 — which comprises the two galaxies NGC 7469 and IC 5283 — lies roughly 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. The larger of the two galaxies...
M5
M5 is arguably one of the best globular clusters in the sky visible from the northern hemisphere. These balls of stars (upwards of a million members) orbit our galaxy tens of thousands of light years distant. This particular cluster is approximately 26,000 light years away and is estimated to...
NGC 2440
This nebula is powered by an incredibly hot central star (not shown in this image). The central star, a white dwarf, is enshrouded by the cocoon of gas that it shed a few tens of thousands of years ago. It is estimated that the temperature of this star may hold the current record (in our...
Artists concept of a neutron star (the bright white star) surrounded by an accretion disk of material that it has stripped of its low-mass companion star (top left). This material shines in X-rays as it falls onto the neutron star during "outbursts" of extremely bright X-ray activity.
M15, NGC 7078
Somewhat over 33000 light-years away and 120 light-years across, M15 in the constellation Pegasus is one of the more conspicuous of the large globular star clusters, almost visible to the naked eye. This picture was made from CCD images taken at the WIYN 0.9-meter Telescope in July and...
RMC 136
This near-infrared image obtained with GeMS adaptive optics system resolves the stars inside RMC 136, a giant star cluster within the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The cluster produces most of the energy that energizes the Tarantula Nebula. The estimated mass of the cluster is...
M43, NGC 1982
M43 is part of the larger Orion nebula, seen in this excellent picture from the KPNO Mayall 4-meter telescope. The dark lane separating the pieces shows to good effect in this image, taken with the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on the night of December 20th 2002 UT. The central star is a young...
M11
M11 got its nickname, the Wild Duck Cluster, from Admiral Smyth. His view in 1835 seemed to elicit visions of wild ducks flying in the distant sky. With the growth of large cities, seeing similar flocks fill the sky are most rare indeed. This is certainly one of the more compact examples of...
This illustration shows magnetic field lines protruding from a highly magnetic neutron star, or a dense nugget left over after a star goes supernova and explodes. Known as magnetars, these objects generate bright bursts of light that might be powered by their strong magnetic fields.
Artist's Concept of NuSTAR
Artist's concept of NuSTAR on orbit. NuSTAR has a 10-m (30') mast that deployed after launch to separate the optics modules from the detectors in the focal plane.
Artist's Concept of NuSTAR
Artist's concept of NuSTAR in orbit. NuSTAR has a 10-m (30') mast that was deployed after launch to separate the optics modules from the detectors in the focal plane.
NGC 2261, Hubble's Variable Nebula
These views of NGC2261, made from a combination of red (R), green (V), and blue (B) images, are given only in false color.
Big Babies in the Rosette Nebula
This image from the Herschel Space Observatory shows most the cloud associated with the Rosette nebula, a stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years from Earth in the Monoceros, or Unicorn, constellation.
Tumultuous Galactic Trio
The mass of dust and bright swirls of stars in this image are the distant galaxy merger IC 2431, which lies 681 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cancer. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured what appears to be a triple galaxy merger in progress, as well as a...
A Galactic Vortex
The arms of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672 sweep across this Image of the Week, captured by the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. NGC 1672 is something of a celestial mystery, as it is difficult to define its...
Hubble Revisits a Galactic Oddball
The dwarf galaxy NGC 1705 is featured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This diminutive galaxy lies in the southern constellation Pictor, and is approximately 17 million light-years from Earth. NGC 1705 is a cosmic oddball — it is small, irregularly shaped, and has...
NGC 3359 – Meet Me at the Bar
This image of NGC 3359 was obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawai‘i. The circular pinwheel shape with the easily recognized spiral arm structure makes it straightforward to classify this object as a spiral galaxy, however,...
NGC 3582 - The Heart of a Stellar Nursery
At the heart of a star-forming region called RCW 57, this image shows the complex interaction of interstellar gas and dark dust clouds among newly formed stars. The glowing gas is energized by ultraviolet radiation from the young stars. The intricate wispy structures in the cloud are formed by...
A Stellar Incubator
Starburst galaxy NGC 1313 is a stellar incubator delivering stars on a scale rarely seen in a single galaxy of its size. As imaged by the Gemini South 8-meter telescope in Chile, a multitude of colorful gas clouds blaze forth from the galaxy’s spiral arms — a tell-tale sign that this...
Abell 3827
Central region of Abell 3827 as imaged using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. The central supermassive galaxy (ESO 146-IG 005) is clearly visible among its cluster companions as well as the remains of at least four nuclei that are being “digested” by...
Swan Nebula (M17)
This FLAMINGOS-2 near-infrared image details part of the magnificent Swan Nebula (M17), where ultraviolet radiation streaming from young hot stars sculpts a dense region of dust and gas into myriad fanciful forms. M17 lies some 5,200 light-years distant in the constellation Sagittarius and is...
NGC 253
In this near-infrared image, FLAMINGOS-2 peered deep into the heart of spiral galaxy NGC 253, which lies about 11.5 million light-years nearby in the constellation of Sculptor. The new instrument captured an intricate whirlpool of dust spiraling in to a diffuse nuclear region, where violent...
NGC 7582
Spiral galaxy NGC 7582 is the brightest member of the Grus Quartet of galaxies, some 60 million light-years distant traveling together through space. In this near-infrared image, FLAMINGOS-2 resolved its high quantity of dust that line NGC 7582’s arms as well as regions rich in star formation.
A Collection of Spirals
At the center of this image is NGC 1515, an intermediate barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Dorado Group. Large-scale observations of the Universe have found that galaxies “clump” together. These clumps are held together by a loose gravitational pull and designated a group or cluster,...
k61 Planetary Nebula
Gemini Observatory image of Kronberger 61 showing the ionized shell of expelled gas resembling a soccer ball. The light of the nebula is primarily due to ionized oxygen (oxygen-III) emission and its central star can be seen as the slightly bluer star very close to the center of the nebula. The...
SAM images gravitational arcs in the Abel 370 cluster of galaxies
Nearly every "star" in this image is actually a galaxy. The SOAR Adaptive Module (SAM), built by CTIO/NOAO-S, is mounted on the SOAR 4.1 meter telescope: it creates an artificial laser guide star which enables the exquisite resolution seen here. The dark shadow on the left ( as seen in the full...
A Sprinkling of Stars
The open star cluster NGC 1755 resembles a pinch of salt strewn on a jet-black tablecloth in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This collection of stars resides in one the Milky Way’s near neighbours — the Large Magellanic Cloud — and measures 120 light-years from side to...
Lonely Spiral
The lonely spiral galaxy UGC 9391 is shown in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3. This galaxy resides 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco near the north celestial pole. The star-studded spiral arms stand in splendid isolation...
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