Stellar explosions are most often associated with supernovae, the spectacular deaths of stars. But new ALMA observations of the Orion Nebula complex provide insights into explosions at the other end of the stellar life cycle, star birth. Astronomers captured these dramatic images of the remains...
The merging galaxy system Arp 220 from ALMA and Hubble
The compound view shows a new ALMA Band 5 image of the colliding galaxy system Arp 220 (in red) on top of an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (blue/green). With the newly installed Band 5 receivers, ALMA has now opened its eyes to a whole new section of this radio spectrum,...
Disc around the star HD 97048
Using the ESO’s SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope, a team of astronomer observed the planetary disc surrounding the star HD 97048 in the constellation of Chameleon, about 500 light-years from Earth. The juvenile disc is formed into concentric rings. This symmetry is in contrast to...
Disc around the star HD 135344B
Using ESO’s SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope, a team of astronomers observed the planetary disc surrounding the star HD 135344B, about 450 light-years away. The disc shows prominent spiral-arm-like structures. These are thought to have been created by one or multiple massive...
Region R37 in the Carina Nebula
This image was taken by the MUSE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and shows the region R37 within the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away. The massive stars within the star formation region slowly destroy the pillars of dust and gas from which they are born.
Region R44 in the Carina Nebula
This image was taken by the MUSE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and shows the region R44 within the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away. The massive stars within the star formation region slowly destroy the pillars of dust and gas from which they are born.
Region R18 in the Carina Nebula
This image was taken by the MUSE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and shows the region R18 within the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away. The massive stars within the star formation region slowly destroy the pillars of dust and gas from which they are born.
The Orion Nebula and cluster from the VLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM — the wide-field optical camera on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) — has captured the spectacular Orion Nebula and its associated cluster of young stars in great detail, producing this beautiful new image. This famous object, the birthplace of many massive stars, is one of the...
The unusual cluster Terzan 5
Peering through the thick dust clouds of the galactic bulge an international team of astronomers has revealed the unusual mix of stars in the stellar cluster known as Terzan 5. The new results indicate that Terzan 5 is in fact one of the bulge's primordial building blocks, most likely the relic...
ALMA image of the protoplanetary disc around V883 Orionis
This image of the planet-forming disc around the young star V883 Orionis was obtained by ALMA in long-baseline mode. This star is currently in outburst, which has pushed the water snow line further from the star and allowed it to be detected for the first time. The dark ring midway through the...
The surroundings of the edge-on galaxy NGC 1055
This rich wide-field view captures not only the edge-on galaxy NGC 1055 at the centre but also the bright galaxy NGC 1068 (also known as Messier 77, it is an active galaxy with a huge black hole at its centre) to its lower-left, the fainter galaxy NGC 1032 to the upper right and the barred...
The rich region around the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Glowing brightly about 160 000 light-years away, the Tarantula Nebula is the most spectacular feature of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. This image from VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile shows the region and its rich surroundings in...
Wide-field view of the sky around the exotic binary star system AR Scorpii
This wide-field image from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 shows the rich starfields surrounding the exotic binary star system AR Scorpii.
Wide field view of the sky around the very faint neutron star RX J1856.5-3754
This wide field image shows the sky around the very faint neutron star RX J1856.5-3754 in the southern constellation of Corona Australis. This part of the sky also contains interesting regions of dark and bright nebulosity surrounding the variable star R Coronae Australis (upper left), as well...
SPHERE observations of the planet HD 131399Ab
This composite image shows the newly discovered exoplanet HD 131399Ab in the triple-star system HD 131399. The image of the planet was obtained with the SPHERE imager on the ESO Very Large Telescope in Chile. This is the first exoplanet to be discovered by SPHERE and one of very few...
Variable stars close to the galactic centre
This image, captured with the VISTA infrared survey telescope, as part of the Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO public survey, shows the central part of the Milky Way. While normally hidden behind obscuring dust, the infrared capabilities of VISTA allow to study the stars close to the...
Light from ionised oxygen detected by ALMA is shown in green. Light from ionised hydrogen detected by the Subaru Telescope and ultraviolet light detected by the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) are shown in blue and red, respectively.
Wide-field view of the region around the star cluster Messier 18
The small smattering of bright stars at the centre of this wide-field view is Messier 18, an open star cluster containing stars that formed together from the same massive cloud of gas and dust. This picture, which also shows part of the bright Omega Nebula (Messier 17) at the top, was created...
A deep infrared view of the Orion Nebula from HAWK-I
This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. This is the deepest view ever of this region and reveals more very faint planetary-mass objects than expected.
ALMA surveyed the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, uncovering new details of the star-forming history of the Universe. This close-up image reveals one such galaxy (orange), rich in carbon monoxide, showing it is primed for star formation. The blue features are galaxies imaged by Hubble. This image is...
VISTA views Messier 78
This richly detailed view of the star formation region Messier 78, in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. As well as the blue regions of reflected light from the hot young stars the image also shows...
The sky around Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri
This image of the sky around the bright star Alpha Centauri AB also shows the much fainter red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The picture was created from pictures forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The blue halo around Alpha Centauri AB is an...
The sky around the triple-star system HD 131399
This wide-field image shows a piece of the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur) centred on the position of the triple star HD 131399. It was created from images from the Digitized Sky Survey 2. HD 131399 itself appears as a star of moderate brightness exactly at the centre of the picture.
The WLM galaxy on the edge of the Local Group
This image, captured by ESO’s OmegaCAM on the VLT Survey Telescope, shows a lonely galaxy known as Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte, or WLM for short. Although considered part of our Local Group of dozens of galaxies, WLM stands alone at the group’s outer edges as one of its most remote members. In fact,...
The Flying Saucer protoplanetary disc around 2MASS J16281370-2431391
The young star 2MASS J16281370-2431391 lies in the spectacular Rho Ophiuchi star formation region, about 400 light-years from Earth. It is surrounded by a disc of gas and dust — such discs are called protoplanetary discs as they are the early stages in the creation of planetary systems. This...
The dwarf galaxy IC 1613
This image, captured with the OmegaCAM camera on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope in Chile, shows an unusually clean small galaxy. IC 1613 contains very little cosmic dust, allowing astronomers to explore its contents with great clarity.
VLT image of the surroundings of VY Canis Majoris seen with SPHERE
The star VY Canis Majoris is a red hypergiant, one of the largest known stars in the Milky Way. It is 30–40 times the mass of the Sun and 300 000 times more luminous. In its current state, the star would encompass the orbit of Jupiter, having expanded tremendously as it enters the final stages...
The unique rocky comet C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS)
Observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope, and the Canada France Hawai`i Telescope, show that C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) is the first object to be discovered that is on a long-period cometary orbit, but that has the characteristics of a pristine inner Solar System asteroid. It may provide...
ALMA image of the disc around the young star TW Hydrae
ALMA’s best image of a protoplanetary disc to date. This picture of the nearby young star TW Hydrae reveals the classic rings and gaps that signify planets are in formation in this system.
Gemini GMOS image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7552
Gemini GMOS image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7552. Benjamin Reynolds, a 10th grade student at Sutherland Shire Christian School, suggested this target for Australia’s 2011 Gemini School Astronomy Contest and won. The picture consists of separate images taken with different filters: H-alpha...
NGC 7232/3
This image shows an interacting trio of galaxies known as the Lyon Group of Galaxies #455 (LGG 455). It is made up of the galaxies NGC 7232 (upper right), NGC 7233 (lower right), and NGC 7232B (left). The two brightest objects near the center of the image are foreground stars in our Milky Way....
The Green Bean galaxy J2240
CFHT color image, taken in g,r, and i filters, of J2240. The very strong [OIII] emission leads to the peculiar green color of the galaxy near the center of the field. In this object the ultra-luminous narrow-line region (NLR) is as large as the entire object, 130,000 light-years across. The...
Central region of GMOS-N observations of And XXIX
Central region of the GMOS-N observations of And XXIX against the less dense field of stars. The image is 4.3 arcminutes on a side, corresponding to 900 parsecs (or 3000 lightyears square) at the distance of And XXIX.
Gemini North image of the planetary nebula M97
Gemini North image of the planetary nebula M97, also knownas the Owl Nebula, imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) as part of a Canadian contest for high school students. The approximately 6,000year-old nebula is located about 2,600 light-years away, and has a diameter ofabout...
NGC 6751 Glowing Eye Nebula
Gemini South image of planetary nebula NGC 6751, the "Glowing Eye Nebula." The image is the result of the winning entry in the 2009 Gemini School Astronomy Contest, submitted by high school student Daniel Tran of PAL College, Cabramatta, NSW, Australia. Using narrow-band filters in the imaging...
ground- and space-based HST/WIYN composite image of M82
A ground- and space-based HST/WIYN composite image of M82 and its optically bright superwind. This has been colour-coded to show its supergalactic wind running left-right (north-south) and a nearly vertical disk of stars. Broad blue, green and red filters were used to render the relatively...
Gemini Researchers Receive Prestigious Canadian Award
NIRI/Altair + Laser-guide-star image of NGC 7027 from Gemini North. The image is a two-color composite, [Fe II] emission is coded in the white color, molecular hydrogen emission [H2 (S 1-0)] is shown in red. The central star of the system is apparent in the middle of the nebula. Details as...
Image of the late-type spiral NGC 4244
SDSS g-r-i’ band image of the late-type spiral NGC 4244 seen edge-on. The NSC is visible as a small, almost point-like, white spot at the center.
HST imaging of the core of PG1426+015
Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 optical image of PG1426. The SDSS image in Figure 1 shows more of the host galaxy structure. However, in the SDSS image the core of the source is saturated. Here we see the central few arcseconds of the system where the central supermassive black hole powering the...
Galaxy/Quasar PG 1426+015 by Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) image of the distant host galaxy/quasar PG 1426+015. The field shown is about 50 x 50 arsec2. See Figure 4 for an image of the same field taken with the Hubble Space Telescope.
McNeil's Nebula
A timely discovery by American amateur astronomer Jay McNeil, followed immediately by observations at the Gemini Observatory, has provided a rare glimpse into the slow, yet violent birth of a star about 1,500 light-years away. The resulting findings reveal some of the strongest stellar winds...
Stephan's Quintet as imaged by the Gemini North
Stephan's Quintet as imaged by the Gemini Observatory using the Multi-Object Spectrograph on Gemini North. The interacting members of the cluster are almost 300 million light years away. The galaxy NGC 7320 (top–center) is thought by most astronomers to be in the foreground (about 8 times...
Central part of the galaxy cluster RXJ0152.7-1357
The central part of the galaxy cluster RXJ0152.7-1357, which lies at a redshift of 0.83, is shown in this HST/ACS archival data view. The image covers 75 × 45 arcseconds, which corresponds to about 0.6 × 0.35 megaparsecs. Most of the galaxies in the cluster appear as yellow/orange objects in...
NIRI image superimposed
The same image with the NIRI image superimposed over the region it imaged. Note that the dust is invisible in the NIRI image and many of the blue stars shown in the WIYN image are much dimmer in the infrared.
Hokupa'a image of full field of Galactic Center
Hokupa'a image of full field of Galactic Center (JHK' color composite).
Gemini Deep Field is centered on z=4 quasar QSO PMN2314+0201
Gemini Deep Field is centered on z=4 quasar QSO PMN2314+0201.
IRS-8 Bow-Shock
RS-8 smaller field JHK' color composite and K' image with stars subtracted. See https://www.gemini.edu/gallery/media/irs-8-bow-shock for more information.
NGC 300
This image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows the galaxy NGC 300, located about seven million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor.
NGC 1316
This image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows the galaxy NGC 1316, located about 62 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. The elliptical-shaped galaxy may be in the late stages of merging with a smaller companion galaxy.
A Lesson in Counting Stars
These two photographs were made by combining data from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. By combining the data, astronomers were able to learn that not all galaxies make stars of different sizes in the same quantities, as was...
NGC 4569
This image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows the galaxy NGC 4569, located about four million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It is one of the largest and brightest spiral galaxies found in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, the nearest major galaxy cluster to our Milky Way galaxy.
NGC 1291
This image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows the galaxy NGC 1291, located about 33 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. NGC 1291 is notable for its unusual inner bar and outer ring structure.
Now You See a Tail, Now You Don't
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer found a tail behind a galaxy called IC 3418.
Beyond the Borders of a Galaxy
The outlying regions around the Southern Pinwheel galaxy, or M83, are highlighted in this composite image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array in New Mexico.
Ghostly Remnant of an Explosive Past
This enhanced image from the far-ultraviolet detector on NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows a ghostly shell of ionized gas around Z Camelopardalis, a binary, or double-star system featuring a collapsed, dead star known as a white dwarf, and a companion star.
Scene of Multiple Explosions
This composite image shows Z Camelopardalis, or Z Cam, a double-star system featuring a collapsed, dead star, called a white dwarf, and a companion star, as well as a ghostly shell around the system. The massive shell provides evidence of lingering material ejected during and swept up by a...
GALEX Sees Comet Machholz
The figure shows a GALEX NUV grism observation of comet Machholz, recorded on March 1, 2005. The different colors in the image represent different intensities, with black being the lowest, purple a little higher, and yellow the highest.
Classic Galaxy With Glamour
This color composite image of nearby NGC 300 combines the visible-light pictures from Carnegie Institution of Washington's 100-inch telescope at Las Campanas Observatory (colored red and yellow), with ultraviolet views from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer.
Cool Andromeda
In this new view of the Andromeda galaxy from the Herschel space observatory, cool lanes of forming stars are revealed in the finest detail yet.
Herschel's View of Rho Ophiuchi
This image shows Rho Ophiuchi, a vast stellar nursery where new stars take shape from billowing clouds of gas, as viewed by the Herschel Space Observatory.
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