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Field surrounding Cloud-9
A team using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a new type of astronomical object —a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud that is considered a “relic” or remnant of early galaxy formation. Nicknamed “Cloud-9,” this is the first confirmed detection of such an object in the...
LMC N159
A neighbouring vista of stellar birth
Today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week highlights another view of a distant stellar birthplace. Captured in a parallel field to a recently released image, this scene reveals a neighbouring region of the N159 star-forming complex in the Large Magellanic Cloud, approximately 160 000 light-years...
Circumstellar disc IRAS 23077+6707
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the largest planet-forming disc ever observed around a young star. It spans nearly 640 billion kilometers, roughly 40 times the diameter of our Solar System. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen from Earth, the dark, dusty disk resembles a hamburger....
Arp 4
Long-distance relationship
These galaxies look to be close companions — a small, bright spiral galaxy flitting around the edge of a much larger spiral with a dark and disturbed countenance. But looks can be deceiving — how close are they really? The celestial pair featured in this week’s Hubble Picture of the Week is...
Milky Way
SPHEREx All Sky Map 2025: Stars and Galaxies
This SPHEREx image shows a selection of the infrared colors primarily emitted by stars and galaxies. SPHEREx is observing hundreds of millions of distant galaxies across the sky. Its multiwavelength view will also help astronomers measure the distance to those galaxies.
Milky Way
SPHEREx All Sky Map 2025
NASAs SPHEREx has mapped the entire sky in 102 infrared colors, which are invisible to the human eye but can be used to reveal different features of the cosmos. This image features a selection of colors emitted primarily by stars (blue, green, and white), hot hydrogen gas (blue), and cosmic dust...
Milky Way
SPHEREx All Sky Map 2025: Dust and Gas
This SPHEREx image features the infrared colors emitted primarily by dust (red) and hot gas (blue), key ingredients for forming new stars and planets. Though these clouds of material cover a massive portion of the sky, they are invisible in most wavelengths of light, including those the human eye...
Fomalhaut cs1 and cs2 (clean image)
This composite NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the debris ring and dust clouds cs1 and cs2 around the star Fomalhaut. For comparison, dust cloud cs1, imaged in 2012, is pictured with dust cloud cs2, imaged in 2023. The dashed circles mark the location of these clouds. When dust...
NGC 6823
Ua ʻŌhiʻa Lani: An Image to Celebrate Gemini North’s 25th Anniversary
To celebrate 25 years since the completion of the International Gemini Observatory, students in Hawai‘i voted for the Gemini North telescope to image NGC 6820 — a striking emission nebula and open star cluster. The image was named Ua ʻŌhiʻa Lani, the Heavenly ʻŌhiʻa Rains, after the traditional...
Large Magellanic Cloud
Cloudy with a Chance of Star Formation
This Image of the Week is of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf galaxy that appears cloud-like in the Southern Hemisphere. This image was captured by photographer Petr Horálek, a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador, using a wide-aperture telephoto lens on a commercial camera. Petr...
NGC 6302
Gemini South Images the Butterfly Nebula
To celebrate 25 years since the completion of the International Gemini Observatory, students in Chile voted for the Gemini South telescope to image the NGC 6302 — a billowing planetary nebula that resembles a cosmic butterfly. The International Gemini Observatory is partly funded by the U.S....
GRB 250702B
GRB 250702B host galaxy
The faint oval at the center of this image is the host galaxy of GRB 250702B — the longest gamma-ray burst that astronomers have ever observed. This image was taken on 20 July 2025 by the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S....
Featured from the Archive
IC 342
Blazing Black Holes Spotted in X-ray View of Galaxy IC 342
This new view of spiral galaxy IC 342, also known as Caldwell 5, includes data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. The two magenta spots are blazing black holes first detected at lower-energy X-ray wavelengths by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. With NuSTAR's...
