Ground-Based View of J21500551 Region
Wide-field image around the field of J21500551 (ground-based view), in which an intermediate-mass black hole named 3XMM J215022.4055108 has been detected.
A massive laboratory
This image shows a region of space called LHA 120-N150. It is a substructure of the gigantic Tarantula Nebula. The latter is the largest known stellar nursery in the local Universe. The nebula is situated more than 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring dwarf...
Hubble Observation of Intermediate-Mass Black Hole
This Hubble Space Telescope image identified the location of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), weighing over 50 000 times the mass of our Sun (making it much smaller than the supermassive black holes found in the centres of galaxies). The black hole, named 3XMM J215022.4055108, is...
Wide-field image of NGC 6302 (ground-based image)
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows the planetary nebula NGC 6302 and its surroundings.
Illustration of Hubbles Observation of Fomalhaut bs Expanding Dust Cloud
Illustration from the Hubble Space Telescopes observations of Fomalhaut bs expanding dust cloud from 2004 to 2013. The cloud was produced in a collision between two large bodies orbiting the bright nearby star Fomalhaut. This is the first time such a catastrophic event around another star has...
Westerlund 2 Hubbles 25th anniversary image
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the cluster Westerlund 2 and its surroundings has been released to celebrate Hubbles 25th year in orbit and a quarter of a century of new discoveries, stunning images and outstanding science. The images central region, containing the star cluster,...
Wide-field view of NGC 2014 and NGC 2020 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (Ground-based Image)
This wide-field view captures the pair of nebulae NGC 2014 and NGC 2020 in the constellation of Dorado (The Swordfish). These two glowing clouds of gas, in the centre of the frame, are located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Ways satellite galaxies. Both are sculpted by powerful...
Wide-field image of NGC 7027 (ground-based image)
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows the planetary nebula NGC 7027 and its surroundings.
The star cluster Westerlund 2
This image shows the sparkling centerpiece of Hubble's 25th anniversary tribute. Westerlund 2 is a giant cluster of about 3000 stars located 20 000 light-years away in the constellation Carina. Hubble's near-infrared imaging camera pierces through the dusty veil enshrouding the stellar nursery,...
Wide-field image of Westerlund 2 (ground-based image)
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows star cluster Westerlund 2 and its surroundings. A new image of Westerlund 2 was released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Galaxy Cluster MACSJ0416
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster MACS J0416. This is one of six clusters that was studied by the Hubble Frontier Fields programme, which yielded the deepest images of gravitational lensing ever made. Scientists used intracluster light (visible in...
NGC 7027
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts NGC 7027, or the Jewel Bug nebula. The object had been slowly puffing away its mass in quiet, spherically symmetric or perhaps spiral patterns for centuries until relatively recently when it produced a new cloverleaf pattern. New...
Wide-Field View of the Stingray Nebula
Pictured here is the region surrounding the Stingray Nebula. Archival data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has revealed that the nebula has faded precipitously over just the past two decades. Witnessing such a swift rate of change in a planetary nebula is exceedingly rare, say...
Wide-field view of the Serpens Nebula (ground-based image)
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows the area around the Serpens Nebula. The Serpens star-forming region is a compact region of star formation. At a distance of about 1300 light-years it is close enough for detailed, spatially-resolved studies of its individual young stellar objects.
Bat Shadow (2018 Observation)
This image shows only the feature which was nicknamed the Bat Shadow. It is the shadow of a protoplanetary disc orbiting the star in the centre of the image.
Serpens Nebula, seen by HAWK-I
This image shows the Serpens Nebula as seen by the HAWK-I instrument installed on the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory. The filters used by HAWK-I to create this image cover wavelengths similar to the filters used by Hubble.
Ground-based view of the sky around the galaxies NGC 1052-DF4 NGC & 1052-DF2
This image shows the sky around the ultra diffuse galaxiesNGC 1052-DF4 and NGC 1052-DF2. It was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. NGC 1052-DF2 is basically invisible in this image. In2018an international team of researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope...
The Atmosphere of Betelgeuse
This is the first direct image of a star other than the Sun, made with the Hubble Space Telescope. Called Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, it is a red supergiant star marking the shoulder of the winter constellation Orion the Hunter. The Hubble image reveals a huge ultraviolet atmosphere with a...
Wide-field view of Betelgeuse (ground-based image)
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). It shows the area around the red supergiant star Betelgeuse.
Hubble image of galaxy cluster MACS J0416.12403
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster MACS J0416.12403. This is one of six being studied by the Hubble Frontier Fields programme. This programme seeks to analyse the mass distribution in these huge clusters and to use the gravitational lensing effect of...
Hubble image of Abell S1063
Abell S1063, a galaxy cluster, was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Frontier Fields programme. The huge mass of the cluster acts as a cosmic magnifying glass and enlarges even more distant galaxies, so they become bright enough for Hubble to see.
Galaxy NGC 2525
Pictured here is the captivating galaxy NGC 2525. Located nearly 70 million light-years from Earth, this galaxy is part of the constellation of Puppis in the southern hemisphere. Together with the Carina and the Vela constellations, it makes up an image of the Argo from ancient greek mythology....
Wide-Field View of NGC 2525
Pictured here is the region surrounding NGC 2525. Located nearly 70 million light-years from Earth, this galaxy is part of the constellation of Puppis in the southern hemisphere. Hubble has captured a series of images of NGC2525 as part of one of its major investigations; measuring the...
Region of the Sky Around HD 106906b
Pictured here is the region surrounding the exoplanet HD106906b. Located nearly 336 light-years from Earth, this 11-Jupiter-mass planet occupies an unlikely orbit around a double star 336 light-years away and may be offering clues to something that might be much closer to home: a hypothesized...
Hubbles Observation of the Stingray Nebula in 1996
Archival data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the nebula Hen 3-1357, nicknamed the Stingray nebula, has faded precipitously over just the past two decades. Witnessing such a swift rate of change in a planetary nebula is exceedingly rare, say researchers. This image...
Hubbles Observation of the Stingray Nebula in 2016
Archival data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the nebula Hen 3-1357, nicknamed the Stingray nebula, has faded precipitously over just the past two decades. Witnessing such a swift rate of change in a planetary nebula is exceedingly rare, say researchers. This image...
Spiral Snapshot
The luminous heart of the galaxy M61 dominates this image, framed by its winding spiral arms threaded with dark tendrils of dust. As well as the usual bright bands of stars, the spiral arms of M61 are studded with ruby-red patches of light. Tell-tale signs of recent star formation, these...
Wide-Field View of AG Carinae
Pictured here is the region of the sky around the star AG Carinae, which is positioned in the centre of the image. The giant star is featured in the latest Hubble Space Telescope anniversary image, and is waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self destruction. AG Carinae is...
The Trifid Nebula: stellar sibling rivalry
Massive newborn stars are creating in this dramatic torn apart image of the Trifid Nebula.The Trifid Nebula is home to many thousands of newly created stars. The source of the jet is a young very hot star buried in the cloud.
Gaseous streamers flutter in stellar breeze
N44C is the designation for a region of ionized hydrogen gas surrounding an association of young stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a nearby, small companion galaxy to the Milky Way visible from the Southern Hemisphere. N44C is part of the larger N44 complex, which includes young, hot,...
Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth
This image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed during its 30-year lifetime. The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming...
Through the Clouds
Nestled amongst the vast clouds of star-forming regions like this one lie potential clues about the formation of our own Solar System. This weeks NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features AFGL 5180, a beautiful stellar nursery located in the constellation of Gemini (The...
Eye in the Sky
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features NGC4826 a spiral galaxy located 17 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenices Hair). This galaxy is often referred to as the Black Eye, or Evil Eye, galaxy because of the dark band of dust that...
A Pocketful of Stars
Many colourful stars are packed close together in this image of the globular cluster NGC 1805, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This tight grouping of thousands of stars is located near the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. The stars orbit...
Quadruple Saturn moon transit snapped by Hubble
This close-up view of Saturn's disc captures the transit of several moons across the face of the gas giant planet. The giant orange moon Titan larger than the planet Mercury can be seen at upper right. The white icy moons that are much closer to Saturn, hence much closer to the ring plane in...
Best image of bright quasar 3C 273
This image from Hubbles Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) is likely the best of ancient and brilliant quasar 3C 273, which resides in a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). Its light has taken some 2.5 billion years to reach us. Despite this great...
Hubble images remarkable double cluster
Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighbouring dwarf galaxies, this young globular-like star cluster is surrounded by a pattern of filamentary nebulosity that is thought to have been created during supernova blasts. It consists of a main globular cluster in the centre and a...
A rose made of galaxies
This image of a pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273 was released to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.The distorted shape of the larger of the two galaxies shows signs of tidal interactions with the smaller of the two. It is thought that...
Arp-Madore 2026-424
This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures two galaxies of equal size in a collision that appears to resemble a ghostly face. This observation was made on 19 June 2019 in visible light by the telescopes Advanced Camera for Surveys. Residing 704 million light-years from...
A frEGGS-plosion of Star Formation
This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, depicts a special class of star-forming nursery known as Free-floating Evaporating Gaseous Globules, or frEGGs for short. This object is formally known as J025157.5+600606. When a massive new star starts to shine while still within the...
One Large Stellar Latte To Go
Far away in the Ursa Major constellation is a swirling galaxy that would not look out of place on a coffee made by a starry-eyed barista. NGC 3895 is a barred spiral galaxy that was first spotted by William Herschel in 1790 and was later observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble's...
Ghostly reflections in the Pleiades
This image shows a dark interstellar cloud ravaged by the passage of Merope, one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Just as a torch beam bounces off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light from the surface of pitch-black clouds of cold gas laced with dust. As the nebula...
Light Bends from the Beyond
This extraordinary image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the galaxy cluster Abell 2813 (also known as ACO 2813) has an almost delicate beauty, which also illustrates the remarkable physics at work within it. The image spectacularly demonstrates the concept of gravitational lensing....
Hubble's 28th birthday picture: The Lagoon Nebula
To celebrate its 28th anniversary in space the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took this amazing and colourful image of the Lagoon Nebula. The whole nebula, about 4000 light-years away, is an incredible 55 light-years wide and 20 light-years tall. This image shows only a small part of this...
The Crab of the Southern Sky
The Southern Crab Nebula Hubbles 29th anniversary image.
Hubble Celebrates its 31st anniversary with a magnificent view of AG Carinae
In celebration of the 31st anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers aimed the celebrated observatory at one of the brightest stars seen in our galaxy to capture its beauty. The giant star featured in this latest Hubble Space Telescope anniversary image is...
In the Sky with Diamonds
The interaction of two doomed stars has created this spectacular ring adorned with bright clumps of gas a diamond necklace of cosmic proportions. Fittingly known as the Necklace Nebula, this planetary nebula is located 15 000 light-years away from Earth in the small, dim constellation of...
Hubble Captures NGC 2276
This spectacular image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the trailing arms of NGC 2276, a spiral galaxy 120 million light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus. At first glance, the delicate tracery of bright spiral arms and dark dust lanes resembles countless other spiral...
A Distant Spiral in Virgo
This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5037, which is found in the constellation of Virgo and was first documented by William Herschel in 1785. It lies about 150 million light-years away from Earth, and yet it is possible to see the delicate structures of gas and dust within the galaxy in...
Our Giant Universe
This detailed image features Abell 3827, a galaxy cluster that offers a wealth of exciting possibilities for study. It was observed by Hubble in order to study dark matter, which is one of the greatest puzzles cosmologists face today. The science team used Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys...
Cosmic Silver Lining
This Picture of the Week showcases the emission nebula NGC 2313. The bright star V565 surrounded by four prominent diffraction spikes illuminates a silvery, fan-shaped veil of gas and dust, while the right half of this image is obscured by a dense cloud of dust. Nebulae with similar shapes a...
The Eponymous NGC 691
This image features the spiral galaxy NGC 691, imaged in fantastic detail by Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). This galaxy is the eponymous member of the NGC 691 galaxy group, a group of gravitationally bound galaxies that lie about 120 million light-years from Earth. Objects such as NGC 691...
Wide-Field View of NGC 2276
This image shows a wide-field view of NGC 2276, a spiral galaxy 120 million light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus. At first glance, the delicate tracery of bright spiral arms and dark dust lanes resembles countless other spiral galaxies. A closer look reveals a strangely lopsided...
A Menagerie of Galaxies
This packed ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week showcases the galaxy cluster ACO S 295, as well as a jostling crowd of background galaxies and foreground stars. Galaxies of all shapes and sizes populate this image, ranging from stately spirals to fuzzy ellipticals. As well as a range of sizes, this...
Local Group dwarf galaxy NGC 6822
The Local Group dwarf galaxy NGC 6822, as observed with the CTIO Vctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope and Mosaic II camera as part of the NOAO-sponsored Local Group Survey.
Open Cluster IC 1805
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. IC 1805 is an open cluster of stars embedded in a giant emission nebula that is informally known as the Heart Nebula. Only the inner portion of the nebula is...
The Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635
The Bubble Nebula is a shell of gas and dust carved out by the stellar wind of the massive central star (BD+602522, for the cognoscenti), and ionized by the same star's high-energy light. The Bubble Nebula is in the constellation Cassiopeia, and is bright enough to be seen with a small...
Orion Nebula, M42
The Orion Nebula seen with the infrared eyes of the WIYN High Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC) in the emission lines of HeI (1083 nm; blue), FeII (1644 nm; green), and H2 (2122 nm; red). The HeI shows the location of the ionized gas and the holes around the O-type stars show the location...
Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237
The Rosette Nebula in the constellation Monoceros. This image, despite being a degree across, still does not include the full size of this magnificent nebula. This color picture was made from CCD images taken in September 1997 at the Burrell Schmidt telescope of the Warner and Swasey...
Bipolar Nebula Outters 4
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Outters 4 is a bipolar nebula (seen in blue) that is embedded in the giant HII emission nebula Sh2-129 (seen in red). It was discovered by amateur astronomer...
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