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AFGL 4106
Two's company
We humans are strongly influenced by the presence of companions over the course of our lives, shaping each other emotionally, culturally, or intellectually. This shaping effect is made literal in the case of stellar companions, which is the topic of today's Picture of the Week. The pair of...
1RXS J052832.5+283824
VLT image of a dead star creating a shock wave as it moves through space
The central square image, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows shock waves around the dead star RXJ0528+2838. When a star moves through space it can push away nearby material creating a so-called bow shock, which in this image is glowing in red, green and blue....
1RXS J052832.5+283824
Wide-field view (PanSTARRS) of the area of the sky around the star RXJ0528+2838
This image from the PanSTARRS survey shows the region of the sky around the dead star RXJ0528+2838, which is located at the very centre of the image.
1RXS J052832.5+283824
Wide-field view (DSS) of the area of the sky around the star RXJ0528+2838
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) shows the region of the sky around the dead star RXJ0528+2838, which is located at the very centre of the image.
HD 121617
The precious rings of space
Not all rings are forged in fantasy, my precious! For astronomers, they are found in space. The ones in today’s Picture of the Week are debris discs: the leftovers of planet formation around other stars. Even our Solar System has a debris disc, known as the Kuiper Belt, where numerous asteroids...
Ve 7–27
Young or old? — There’s both
Today’s Picture of the Week represents an unexpected full circle moment. The depicted object, known as Ve 7–27, was long believed to be a planetary nebula — the end phase of a sun-like star’s life. But ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has shown that it’s actually a still-forming baby star. ...
SVS 13
Young stars blow bubbles?
We know that a star’s childhood is turbulent: growing via a disc of gas and dust, the same disc from which planets form. Young stars also experience outbursts, expelling material via fast jets that regulate how much material is left to feed the young stars and form planets around it. Today’s...
GAL316
Survey gives astronomers a latte to think about
Creating a star is hard work, and the process is not very efficient. Current knowledge suggests that a stellar nursery must have a minimum density of gas and dust for a star to form. Only 1-2% of all the gas and dust in these clouds is utilised to ignite a star. But could even denser regions be...
1RXS J052832.5+283824
VLT image of a dead star creating a shock wave as it moves through space
The central square image, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows shock waves around the dead star RXJ0528+2838. When a star moves through space it can push away nearby material creating a so-called bow shock, which in this image is glowing in red, green and blue....
Galaxy field of low-surface-brightness galaxy CDG-2
The low-surface-brightness galaxy CDG-2, shown in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is dominated by dark matter and contains only a sparse scattering of stars. This galaxy is nearly invisible, but by using advanced statistical techniques, scientists identified it by searching...
Egg Nebula
The Egg Nebula
This newly processed image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the clearest view yet of the Egg Nebula. It is a preplanetary nebula, a structure of gas and dust created as a Sun-like star approaches the end of its life. The Egg that we see now will eventually hatch, revealing a white...
NGC 7722
NGC 7722 in dark surroundings (wide crop)
For this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, we have a sight of an uncommon galaxy with a striking appearance. This is NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. A “lenticular”, meaning “lens-shaped”, galaxy...
Featured from the Archive
Messier 95
NGC 3351 (M95)
This image of galaxy NGC 3351, located approximately 30 million light-years away in the constellation Leo was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC).
