A Planetary Nebula Pair
How is it that two glowing globs of gas that look completely different can actually be basically the same thing? In the case of planetary nebulae like IC 4406 and NGC 2392, all it may take is a simple shift of perspective, provided here in infrared images taken by NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope.
Seeing Near and Far
The barred spiral galaxy known as NGC 4907 shows its best side from 270 million light-years away to anyone who can see it from the northern hemisphere.This is a new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the face-on the galaxy, displaying its beautiful spiral arms, wound loosely...
Galaxy Cluster Abell 2218 - a Cosmic Magnifying Glass
Scanning the heavens for the first time since the successful December 1999 servicing mission, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a giant, cosmic magnifying glass, a massive cluster of galaxies called Abell 2218. This 'hefty' cluster resides in the constellation Draco, some 2 billion...
NGC 2392
In its first glimpse of the heavens following the successful December 1999 servicing mission, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a majestic view of a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a dying, Sun-like star.
Stellar Sweet Shop
Looking its best ever is the star cluster NGC 2203, here imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Aside from its dazzling good looks, this cluster of stars contains lots of astronomical treats that have helped astronomers puzzle together the lifetimes of stars. A main sequence star, like...
Hubble Sees Summertime on Saturn
This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was taken on 4 July, 2020, when the opulent giant world was 1350 million kilometres from Earth. This new Saturn image was taken during summer in the planet's northern hemisphere. Hubble found a number of small atmospheric storms. These are...
A Discovery of Ghostly Arms
A notable feature of most spiral galaxies is the multitude of arching spiral arms that seemingly spin out from the galaxys centre. In this image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the stunning silvery-blue spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 4848 are observed in immense detail. Not only...
A frEGGs-cellent Discovery
Galaxies are well known as the birthplaces of stars and planets thanks to the overwhelmingly large amount of dust and gas within them. Over time, cold gas coalesces into molecular clouds, leading to the further emergence of star-forming regions. This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space...
Hunger Pangs
The subject of this Picture of the Week, a spiral galaxy named NGC 1589, was once the scene of a violent bout of cosmic hunger pangs; as astronomers looked on, a poor, hapless star was torn apart and devoured by the ravenous supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy. The astronomers...
Birds of a Feather
The spiral pattern shown by the galaxy in this image from theNASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescopeis striking because of its delicate, feathery nature. These "flocculent" spiral arms indicate that the recent history of star formation of the galaxy, known as NGC 2775, has been relatively quiet. There...
A Galaxy on Edge
The galaxy known as NGC 5907 stretches wide across this image. Appearing as an elongated line of stars and dark dust, the galaxy is categorised as a spiral galaxy just like our own Milky Way. In this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, we dont see the beautiful spiral arms...
One Amongst Millions
Looking deep into the Universe, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope catches a passing glimpse of the numerous arm-like structures that sweep around this barred spiral galaxy, known as NGC 2608. Appearing as a slightly stretched, smaller version of our Milky Way, the peppered blue and red spiral...
A Bright Find
Seen here in incredible detail, thanks to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the starburst galaxy formally known as PLCK G045.1+61.1. The galaxy appears as multiple reddish dots near the center of the image and is being gravitationally lensed by a cluster of closer galaxies that are also...
This illustration shows a glowing stream of material from a star as it is being devoured by a supermassive black hole in a tidal disruption flare.
NEOWISE: Back to Hunt More Asteroids (Artist Concept)
This artist's concept shows the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE spacecraft, in its orbit around Earth. In September of 2013, engineers will attempt to bring the mission out of hibernation to hunt for more asteroids and comets in a project called NEOWISE.
WISE Spacecraft
This artist's concept shows the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE spacecraft. In September of 2013, engineers will attempt to bring the mission out of hibernation to hunt for more asteroids and comets in a project called NEOWISE.
Brown dwarfs are more massive than planets but not quite as massive as stars. Generally speaking, they have between 13 and 80 times the mass of Jupiter. A brown dwarf becomes a star if its core pressure gets high enough to start nuclear fusion.
Black Hole Disk Flare in Galaxy OJ 287
This image shows two massive black holes in the OJ 287 galaxy. The smaller black hole orbits the larger one, which is also surrounded by a disk of gas. When the smaller black hole crashes through the disk, it produces a flare brighter than 1 trillion stars.
Sizes of Black Holes in Galaxy OJ 287 Relative to the Solar System
Two supermassive black holes are locked in an orbital dance at the core of the distant galaxy OJ 287. This diagram shows their sizes relative to the solar system.
Windy Brown Dwarf
For the first time, scientists have directly measured wind speed on a brown dwarf, pictured here in an illustration. Brown dwarfs are objects larger than Jupiter (the largest planet in our solar system) but not quite massive enough to become stars. To achieve the finding, they used a new method...
Spitzer California Nebula Mosaic Callout
This image shows the section of the nebula captured by Spitzer in the context of a larger, visible-light image of the nebula.
Spitzer California Nebula Mosaic
This series of image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope on Jan. 25, 2020, shows part of the California Nebula, which is located about 1,000 light-years from Earth. This is the final mosaic taken by the mission before it was decommissioned on Jan. 30, 2020.
Centuries Before Hubble
This image of an archetypal spiral galaxy was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The subject of this image is known as NGC 691, and it can be found some 120 million light-years from Earth. This galaxy was one of thousands of objects discovered by astronomer William Herschel during...
Rings Upon Rings
At first glance, the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image looks to be a simple spiral galaxy, with two pinwheeling arms emerging from a central bar of stars and material that cuts through the galactic centre. In fact, there are rings within these spiral arms, too: spirals...
Stealing the Show
As beautiful as the surrounding space may be, the sparkling galaxy in the foreground of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope undeniably steals the show. This spotlight-hogging galaxy, seen set against a backdrop of more distant galaxies of all shapes and sizes, is known as PGC...
A Stretched Spiral
This sparkling spiral galaxy looks almost stretched across the sky in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Known as NGC 4100, the galaxy boasts a neat spiral structure and swirling arms speckled with the bright blue hue of newly formed stars. Like so many of the stunning...
Galaxy Galaxy, Burning Bright!
In the forests of the night lies a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 3583, imaged here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This is a barred spiral galaxy with two arms that twist out into the Universe. This galaxy is located 98 million light-years away from the Milky Way. Two supernovae...
Two Supernovae, One Galaxy
Approximately 85 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Libra, is the beautiful galaxy NGC 5861, captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 5861 is an intermediate spiral galaxy. Astronomers classify most galaxies by their morphology. For example, the Milky Way...
A dying stars toxic legacy
The strange and irregular bundle of jets and clouds in this curious image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the result of a burst of activity late in the life of a star. As its core runs out of nuclear fuel, the stars unstable outer layers are puffing out a toxic concoction of gases...
Stellar cocoon CRL 618
This image comes from the large archive of scientific observations performed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Currently more than 250, 000 scientific Hubble observations are contained in this highly valuable archive and more are added all the time. In this image singly ionised sulphur is shown...
Stellar Glitter in a Field of Black
Unlike a spiral or elliptical galaxy, the galaxy KK 246 looks like glitter spilled across a black velvet sheet. KK 246, also known as ESO 461-036, is a dwarf irregular galaxy residing within the Local Void, a vast region of empty space. This lonely galaxy is the only one known for certain to...
Hubble Finds Ozone Spectral "Fingerprint" on Ganymede
NASA's Hubbe Space Telescope found ozone's spectral "fingerprint" during observations of Ganymede made by Keith Noll and colleagues at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. These Hubble Faint Object Spectrograph results were presented at the American Astronomical...
Stellar Snowflakes
Almost like snowflakes, the stars of the globular cluster NGC 6441 sparkle peacefully in the night sky, about 13 000 light-years from the Milky Ways galactic centre. Like snowflakes, the exact number of stars in such a cluster is difficult to discern. It is estimated that together the stars...
Feeding Time
This remarkable spiral galaxy, known as NGC 4651, may look serene and peaceful as it swirls in the vast, silent emptiness of space, but dont be fooled it keeps a violent secret. It is believed that this galaxy consumed another smaller galaxy to become the large and beautiful spiral that we...
Single Arm Galaxy
NGC 4618 was discovered on 9 April 1787 by the German-British astronomer, Wilhelm Herschel, who also discovered Uranus in 1781. Only a year before discovering NGC 4618, Herschel theorised that the foggy objects astronomers were seeing in the night sky were likely to be large star clusters...
A Smudged Fingerprint
TheNASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is no stranger to spiral galaxies. The telescope has brought us some of the most beautiful images ever taken of our spiral neighbours and this Picture of the Week, which features a galaxy known as NGC 4689, is no exception. However, seen almost face on, NGC...
Cotton Wool Galaxy
This Picture of the Week, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy NGC 4237. Located about 60 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair), NGC 4237 is classified as a flocculent spiral galaxy. This means that its spiral arms are...
Impact A Site
A natural colour Hubble Space Telescope view of the full disk of the giant planet Jupiter shows numerous comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact sites as seen on July 22, 1994. The A impact site is on the lower left limb. From left to right the features are: the A site; the E-F complex near the white...
Imposter or the Real Deal?
This Picture of the Week, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a close-up view of a galaxy named NGC 2770. NGC 2770 is intriguing, as over time it has hosted four different observed supernovae (not visible here). Supernovae form in a few different ways, but always involve a dying...
NGC 253
NGC 253 is one of brightest spiral galaxies in the night sky, easily visible with small telescopes, and it is composed of thousands of young, blue stars. It is undergoing intense star formation. The image demonstrates the sharp "eye" of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, which is able to...
NGC 300
In this view of the spiral galaxy NGC 300, young, blue stars are concentrated in spiral arms that sweep diagonally through the image. The yellow blobs are glowing hot gas that has been heated by radiation from the nearest young, blue stars. NGC 300 is a member of the Sculptor Group of galaxies...
Catalogues Galore
This bright, somewhat blob-like object seen in this Picture of the Week as observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is a galaxy named NGC 1803. It is about 200 million light-years away, in the southern constellation of Pictor (The Painters Easel). NGC 1803 was discovered in 1834 by...
NGC 300 Detail 3
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys shows individual stars and clusters of stars in the spiral galaxy NGC 300, located approximately 7 million light-years away from Earth.
NGC 3077
The dark clumps of material scattered around the bright nucleus of NGC 3077 are pieces of wreckage from the galaxy's interactions with its larger neighbours. NGC 3077 is a member of the M81 group of galaxies and it resides 12.5 million light-years from Earth.
NGC 4163
This image shows a swarm of young, blue stars in the diffuse dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 4163. It is a member of a group of dwarf galaxies near our Milky Way and is located roughly 10 million light-years away.
NGC 300 Detail 1
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys shows individual as well as clusters of stars in the spiral galaxy NGC 300, located approximately 7 million light-years away from Earth. In this image, a dense swarm of stars, patches of dust, and a bright star cluster are visible, all located near the...
NGC 300 Detail 2
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys shows individual stars, clusters of stars and nebulae in the spiral galaxy NGC 300, located approximately 7 million light-years away from Earth. The image shows a star-forming region a few thousand light-years farther from the galaxy's centre. The yellow...
Supermassive Influence
This peculiar galaxy, beautifully streaked with tendrils of reddish dust, is captured here in wonderful detail by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy is known as NGC 1022, and is officially classified as a barred spiral galaxy. You can just about make out the bar of stars in the...
Galactic Diversity
NGC 3175 is located around 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Antlia (The Air Pump). The galaxy can be seen slicing across the frame in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with its mix of bright patches of glowing gas, dark lanes of dust, bright core, and...
Bars and Baby Stars
The galaxy depicted in this Picture of the Week is a barred spiral known as NGC 7541, seen here as viewed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, in the constellation of Pisces (The Fishes). A barred spiral is a galaxy with whirling, pinwheeling, spiral arms, and a bright centre that is...
Natures Grand Design
This eye-catching galaxy is known as NGC 5364. Unmistakably a spiral, NGC 5364 is also something known as a grand design spiral galaxy a descriptive name deserved by only one-tenth of spirals. While all spirals have a structure that is broadly similar, there is quite a bit of variation amongst...
Open Arms
The spiral galaxy NGC 2008 sits centre stage, its ghostly spiral arms spreading out towards us, in this image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy is located about 425 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pictor (The Painters Easel). Discovered in 1834...
The globular cluster NGC 6397
This ESA/NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 image shows the globular cluster NGC 6397 in the constellation Ara (the Altar). It is composed of six exposures through different filters: violet/indigo (Strvmgren u, 345 nm, 15080 seconds), blue (B, 418 nm, 8580 seconds),...
Hubble reveals previously unseen shocks
This new, detailed, Hubble image shows a planetary nebula in the making of a proto-planetary nebula. A dying star (hidden behind dust and gas in the centre of the nebula) has ejected massive amounts of gas. Parts of the gas have reached tremendous velocities of up to one-and-a-half million...
A Galactic Traffic Jam
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3887, seen here as viewed by the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, lies over 60 million light-years away from us in the southern constellation of Crater (The Cup); it was discovered on 31 December 1785 by the German/British astronomer...
Tarantula Nebula Spitzer 2-Color Image
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Tarantula Nebula in two wavelengths of infrared light, each represented by a different color.
Embedded Outflow in HH 46/47
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals the molecular outflow from an otherwise hidden newborn star. Using near-infrared light, Spitzer pierces through the dark cloud to detect the embedded outflow in an object called HH 46/47.
Placed Among the Stars
This smattering of celestial sequins is a spiral galaxy named NGC 4455, located in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenices Hair). This might sound like an odd name for a constellation and in fact it is somewhat unusual; its the only modern constellation to be named in honour of...
Spitzer in Space: Infrared Final Voyage (Portrait)
This artist's concept depicts NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in space much as it would appear at the end of its mission on January 30, 2020. The backdrop depicts the sky in infrared light much as Spitzer would have seen it early in its mission.
Spitzer in Space: Infrared Final Voyage
This artist's concept depicts NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in space much as it would appear at the end of its mission on January 30, 2020. The backdrop depicts the sky in infrared light much as Spitzer would have seen it early in its mission.
Providers | Sign In
NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The award is part of NASA’s Science Activation program, which strives to further enable NASA science experts and content into the learning environment more effectively and efficiently with learners of all ages.