An infrared view of the 9io9 galaxy
This infrared image shows the distant galaxy 9io9, seen here as a reddish arc curved around a bright nearby galaxy. This nearby galaxy acts as a gravitational lens: its mass curves spacetime around it, bending lightrays coming from 9io9 in the background, hence its distorted shape. This colour...
NGC 7727’s spectacular galactic dance as seen by the VLT
The galaxy NGC 7727 was born from the merger of two galaxies that started around a billion years ago. The cosmic dance of the two galaxies has resulted in the spectacular wispy shape of NGC 7727. At the heart of the galaxy, two supermassive black holes are spiralling closer to each other,...
First image of our black hole (with wider background)
This is the first image of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, with an added black background to fit wider screens. It’s the first direct visual evidence of the presence of this black hole. It was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an array which linked...
A close-up view of Messier 77’s active galactic nucleus
This image, captured with the MATISSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer, shows the very inner region of the active galaxy Messier 77. Active galactic nuclei are extremely energetic sources powered by supermassive black holes. By making extraordinarily detailed observations...
Close-up view of the nearest pair of supermassive black holes
Close-up view of the two bright galactic nuclei, each housing a supermassive black hole, in NGC 7727, a galaxy located 89 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. Each nucleus consists of a dense group of stars with a supermassive black hole at its centre. The two...
NGC 4303 as seen with MUSE on ESO’s VLT at several wavelengths of light
This image, taken by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the nearby galaxy NGC 4303. NGC 4303 is a spiral galaxy, with a bar of stars and gas at its centre, located approximately 55 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo....
NGC 1300 as seen with MUSE on ESO’s VLT at several wavelengths of light
This image, taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the nearby galaxy NGC 1300. NGC 1300 is a spiral galaxy, with a bar of stars and gas at its centre, located approximately 61 million light-years from Earth in the constellation...
NGC 1087 as seen with the VLT and ALMA at several wavelengths of light
This image of the nearby galaxy NGC 1087 was obtained by combining observations taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. NGC 1087 is a spiral galaxy...
NGC 3627 as seen with the VLT and ALMA at several wavelengths of light
This image of the nearby galaxy NGC 3627 was obtained by combining observations taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. NGC 3627 is a spiral galaxy...
NGC 4254 as seen with the VLT and ALMA at several wavelengths of light
This image of the nearby galaxy NGC 4254 was obtained by combining observations taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. NGC 4254 is a grand-design...
NGC 1300 as seen with the VLT and ALMA at several wavelengths of light
This image of the nearby galaxy NGC 1300 was obtained by combining observations taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. NGC 1300 is a spiral galaxy,...
ALMA image of M87 jet in polarised light
This image shows a view of the jet in the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy in polarised light. The image was obtained with the Chile-based Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, and captures the part of the jet, with a size of 6000 light years, closer to the...
NGC 4303 as seen with the VLT and ALMA at several wavelengths of light
This image of the nearby galaxy NGC 4303 was obtained by combining observations taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. NGC 4303 is a spiral galaxy,...
NGC 3627 as seen with MUSE on ESO’s VLT at several wavelengths of light
This image, taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the nearby galaxy NGC 3627. NGC 3627 is a spiral galaxy located approximately 31 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. The image is a combination of observations...
NGC 4254 as seen with MUSE on ESO’s VLT at several wavelengths of light
This image, taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the nearby galaxy NGC 4254. NGC 4254 is a grand-design spiral galaxy located approximately 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. The image is a...
Hubble image of the Kinman Dwarf galaxy
Image of the Kinman Dwarf galaxy, also known as PHL 293B, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 in 2011, before the disappearance of the massive star. Located some 75 million light-years away, the galaxy is too far away for astronomers to clearly resolve its...
NGC1850 as seen with the Very Large Telescope and Hubble
This image shows NGC1850, a cluster of thousands of stars roughly 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a Milky Way neighbour. The reddish filaments surrounding the cluster, made of vast clouds of hydrogen, are believed to be the remnants of supernova explosions. The image is...
Bumps in the heavens
Just as people at a busy crossroad may accidentally bump into each other, so too can galaxies in the Universe! But in this case, the outcome is more dramatic than a small nudge. When two galaxies clash, they merge into each other, giving birth to a new, bigger one. One example is the NGC 7727...
NGC 1087 as seen with MUSE on ESO’s VLT at several wavelengths of light
This image, taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the nearby galaxy NGC 1087. NGC 1087 is a spiral galaxy located approximately 80 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cetus. The image is a combination of...
Image of the Centaurus A galaxy taken during the Test-Bed Telescope first light tests
Full field-of-view image (in false colour) obtained during the Test-Bed Telescope’s first light tests at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The individual light sources are stars, with the galaxy Centaurus A visible in the centre of the image. While the telescope will be used to detect...
This image shows one of the gas halos newly observed with the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope superimposed to an older image of a galaxy merger obtained with ALMA. The large-scale halo of hydrogen gas is shown in blue, while the ALMA data is shown in orange. The halo is bound to...
Lensed view of SPT0418-47
Astronomers using ALMA, in which the ESO is a partner, have revealed an extremely distant galaxy that looks surprisingly like our Milky Way. The galaxy, SPT0418-47, is gravitationally lensed by a nearby galaxy, appearing in the sky as a near-perfect ring of light.
Wide-field view of the region of the sky hosting NGC 7727
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) shows the region of the sky around NGC 7727, a galaxy located 89 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. The galaxy is the bright spot in the centre. NGC 7727 is home to the closest pair of supermassive black holes to...
Wide-field view of the sky around the galaxy NGP–190387
This visible-light, wide-field image of the area of the sky where the remote galaxy NGP–190387 is found was created from images in the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The galaxy, located so far away its light took over 12 billion years to reach us, lies close to the center of the image. Although it is...
Wide-field view of the region of the sky where the Kinman Dwarf galaxy is located
This wide-field view shows the region of the sky, in the constellation of Aquarius, where the Kinman Dwarf galaxy can be found. This view was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Messier 87 Captured by ESO’s Very Large Telescope
Messier 87 (M87) is an enormous elliptical galaxy located about 55 million light years from Earth, visible in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781, but not identified as a galaxy until 20th Century. At double the mass of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and...
First Light for SPECULOOS Southern Observatory’s Europa Telescope
This first light image from the Europa telescope at the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory (SSO) shows M83, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. M83 is a picturesque and often-imaged galaxy — this object was also a first light image the SPECULOOS prototype telescope, TRAPPIST-South at ESO’s La Silla...
Coils of Apep
The VISIR instrument on ESO’s VLT captured this stunning image of a newly-discovered massive binary star system. Nicknamed Apep after an ancient Egyptian deity, it could be the first gamma-ray burst progenitor to be found in our galaxy. Apep’s stellar winds have created the dust cloud...
A Galactic Gem
FORS2, an instrument mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope captured the spiral galaxy NGC 3981 in all its glory. The image, captured during the ESO Cosmic Gems Programme, showcases the beauty of the southern skies when conditions don’t allow scientific observations to be made.
Digitized Sky Survey image around Abell 2597
Observations by ALMA and data from the MUSE spectrograph on ESO’s VLT have revealed a colossal fountain of molecular gas powered by a black hole in the brightest galaxy of the Abell 2597 cluster — the first of its kind to be detected. The image is a colour composite made from exposures from the...
Digitized Sky Survey image around the galaxy NGC 5018 in the constellation of Virgo
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2).
Digitized Sky Survey image around the spiral galaxy NGC 3981
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximately 2.4 x 2.0 degrees.
The centre of the Milky Way*
The central parts of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, as observed in the near-infrared with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. By following the motions of the most central stars over more than 16 years, astronomers were able to determine the mass of the supermassive black hole that...
The Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This gigantic star-forming region in the Milky Way’s neighbour galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud is the birthplace of an astonishing number of massive stars, some of which might have masses of up to 300 solar masses.
Galaxy cluster MACS j1149.5+223
This image shows the huge galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+223, whose light took over 5 billion years to reach us. The huge mass of the cluster is bending the light from more distant objects. The light from these objects has been magnified and distorted due to gravitational lensing. The same effect...
Elliptical elegance
This deep image of the area of sky around the elliptical galaxy NGC 5018 offers a spectacular view of its tenuous streams of stars and gas. These delicate features are hallmarks of galactic interactions, and provide vital clues to the structure and dynamics of early-type galaxies.
Widefield image of the sky around π1 Gruis
This colourful image shows the sky around the bright pair of stars π1 Gruis (centre-right, very red) and π2 Gruis (centre-left, bluish-white). Just right of centre the bright spiral galaxy IC 5201 is also visible and many other fainter galaxies are scattered across this wide-field image from...
VLT/MUSE image of the galaxy NGC 4993 and associated kilonova
This image from the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile shows the galaxy NGC 4993, about 130 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy is not itself unusual, but it contains something never before witnessed, the aftermath of the explosion of a pair...
VIMOS image of galaxy NGC 4993 showing the visible-light counterpart to a merging neutron star pair
This image from the VIMOS instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile shows the galaxy NGC 4993, about 130 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy is not itself unusual, but it contains something never before witnessed, the aftermath of the explosion of a...
Example of a jellyfish galaxy
Observations of “Jellyfish galaxies” with ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed a previously unknown way to fuel supermassive black holes. It seems the mechanism that produces the tentacles of gas and newborn stars that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the...
Example of a jellyfish galaxy
Observations of “Jellyfish galaxies” with ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed a previously unknown way to fuel supermassive black holes. It seems the mechanism that produces the tentacles of gas and newborn stars that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to...
Example of a jellyfish galaxy
Observations of “Jellyfish galaxies” with ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed a previously unknown way to fuel supermassive black holes. It seems the mechanism that produces the tentacles of gas and newborn stars that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to...
The sky around the galaxy NGC 4993
This wide-field image generated from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 shows the sky around the galaxy NGC 4993. This galaxy was the host to a merger between two neutron stars, which led to a gravitational wave detection, a short gamma-ray burst and an optical identification of a kilonova event.
ALMA view of the Cosmic Eyelash
This ALMA image shows the Cosmic Eyelash, a remote starburst galaxy that appears double and brightened by gravitational lensing. ALMA has been used to detect turbulent reservoirs of cold gas surrounding this and other distant starburst galaxies. By detecting CH+ for the first time in the...
Dazzling galaxy Messier 77
ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image does justice to the galaxy’s beauty, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes — but it fails to betray Messier 77’s turbulent nature.
ESO 338-4
ESO 338-4 is a starburst galaxy located in Sagittarius, the Archer. It is currently in the process of merging, with several smaller galaxies colliding to form the final galaxy. The new AOF+MUSE data clearly resolve several bright knots where intense star formation, induced by the merging, is...
This colourful image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows NGC 1055 in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). This large galaxy is thought to be up to 15 percent larger in diameter than the Milky Way. NGC 1055 appears to lack the whirling arms characteristic of a spiral, as it is seen...
Wide-field image of the sky around Messier 77
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows spiral galaxy Messier 77 and its surroundings. Messier 77 appears at the centre and the edge-on galaxy NGC 1055 to its upper-right.
Wide-field view of the surroundings of NGC 5018
This wider-area image around the elliptical galaxy NGC 5018 offers a different perspective on the cosmic vastness. If seen with the unaided eye it will look almost empty. Here the extremely sensitive detectors of the VST have captured a myriad of stars, galaxies, and even a few errant asteroids...
The active galaxy Markarian 1018
This image from the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the active galaxy Markarian 1018, which has a supermassive black hole at its core. The faint loops of light around the galaxy are a result of its interaction and merger with another galaxy in the recent past.
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,...
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...
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.
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...
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 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.
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...
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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.