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A ‘Butterfly’ from Death’s Door
This ghostly, butterfly-shaped planetary nebula, captured with Gemini North, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, is known as Kohoutek 3-46. Kohoutek 3-46 derives its name from the prolific...
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
25 Images to Celebrate NASA's Chandra 25th Anniversary
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
A matter of distance
In space, being outshone is an occupational hazard. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures a galaxy named NGC 7250. Despite being remarkable in its own right — it has bright bursts of star formation and recorded supernova explosions — it blends into the background somewhat thanks...
Assembling the largest galaxies
The galaxy featured in this week’s Hubble Picture of the Week is the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238, located 14.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. Its unexciting, blob-like appearance, resembling more an oversized star cluster than a galaxy, belies a...
The difference between distance and dust
Measuring the distance to truly remote objects like galaxies, quasars and galaxy clusters is a crucial task in astrophysics, particularly when it comes to studying the early Universe, but it’s a difficult one. Only in the case of a few nearby objects like the Sun, planets and some nearby stars...
Interacting Galaxies Arp 142 (NIRCam and MIRI Image)
This “penguin party” is loud! The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that...
L1527 and Protostar (MIRI Image)
L1527, shown in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), is a molecular cloud that harbors a protostar. It resides about 460 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. The more diffuse blue light and the filamentary structures in the image...
Interacting Galaxies Arp 142 (MIRI Image)
Webb’s mid-infrared view of interacting galaxies Arp 142 seems to sing in primary colors. The background of space is like a yawning darkness speckled with bright, multi-colored beads. This image was taken by MIRI, the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, which astronomers use to study cooler...
Draco Dwarf Spheroidal
A team of astronomers analyzed observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope taken over a span of 18 years to measure the dynamic motions of stars within the Draco dwarf galaxy. The telescope's extensive baseline and data archive enabled the team to build the most accurate three-dimensional map...
Dark Energy Camera Images Cometary Globule CG 4
This cloudy, ominous structure is CG 4, a cometary globule nicknamed ‘God’s Hand’. CG 4 is one of many cometary globules present within the Milky Way, and how these objects get their distinct form is still a matter of debate among astronomers. This image was captured by the Department of...
M45 Pleiades
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona. The Pleiades are an open cluster easily visible to the naked eye. The cluster is dominated by several hot, luminous and massive stars. The blue nebulosity surrounding the...
Reflection Nebula NGC 1788
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NGC 1788 is an unusual reflection nebula (bluish white at the center of the image) surrounded by a glowing red ring of hydrogen gas. The stars inside the...
Centaurus A
This is part of the image comparison The radio galaxy Centaurus A, as seen by ALMA.
The laser frequency comb in action
This picture illustrates part of a spectrum of a star obtained using the HARPS instrument on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The lines are the light from the star spread out in great detail into its component colours. The dark gaps in the lines are absorption...
Taurus molecular cloud
This image is part of the image comparison of the Taurus Molecular Cloud.
Orion's Belt
This image is part of the image comparison "Sifting through Dust near Orion’s Belt (mouseover comparison)"
Taurus molecular cloud
This image is part of the image comparison of the Taurus Molecular Cloud.
VLT image of the Carina Nebula in infrared light
Colour-composite image of the Carina Nebula, revealing exquisite details in the stars and dust of the region. Several well known astronomical objects can be seen in this wide field image : to the bottom left of the image is one of the most impressive binary stars in the Universe, Eta Carinae,...
The Carina Nebula
Colour-composite image of the Carina Nebula, revealing exquisite details in the stars and dust of the region. Several well known astronomical objects can be seen in this wide field image : to the bottom left of the image is one of the most impressive binary stars in the Universe, Eta Carinae,...
Helix Nebula
This image is part of the "Infrared/visible light comparison view of the Helix Nebula".
Helix Nebula (infrared)
This image is part of the "Infrared/visible light comparison view of the Helix Nebula".
Visible/infrared comparison views of the newly discovered globular cluster VVV CL001
This picture shows a comparison of the view of the newly discovered globular cluster VVV CL001 in visible (upper) and infrared light (lower). The infrared view, from the VISTA telescope, shows the new cluster very clearly for the first time and allows many of the component stars to be...
Antenna Galaxies
This image is part of the "Antennae Galaxies comparison of ALMA and Hubble observations"
The Phoenix dwarf galaxy
The Phoenix Dwarf, imaged here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is an irregular dwarf galaxy that was discovered in 1976 by Hans-Emil Schuster and Richard Martin West. It is located in the constellation Phoenix in the southern sky, 1.44 million light-years away from Earth.
Interferometric fringes from an observation of 3C 273 with the VLTI
An interferometric observation of the quasar 3C 273 with the VLTI. The columns marked UT1, UT2, and UT4 show the data from the individual 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes, which were then combined interferometrically. The resultant fringes are shown in the column marked VLTI. The bright feature is the...
Artwork showing some hexagonal mirror pieces of ELT
Read more about the ELT on http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/e-elt.html
The asteroid P/2010 A2, imaged by OSIRIS on Rosetta
A view of the asteroid P/2010 A2, imaged by the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera on the ESA spacecraft Rosetta. The asteroid underwent a high-speed collision with a small rock, producing a trail of dust. On the left is the full field of view of the camera, covering 2.2 degrees on a side, which shows...
Artwork showing some hexagonal mirror pieces of ELT
Read more about the ELT on http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/e-elt.html
The first "3D" data from the VLTI
This image was created from the first combined image and motion measurements from the AMBER instrument on the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. It shows the mysterious disc of material around the brilliant supergiant star HD 62623. The picture has...
A fireball in the atmosphere of Jupiter
This image of a fireball, created by the collision of an unknown object with the atmosphere of Jupiter, was obtained by Anthony Wesley on 3 June 2010 at 20:31 from Broken Hill (Australia) using a webcam on his 37 cm aperture home-made telescope. The impact created a short-lived white spot...
Digitized Sky Survey image of the star T Leporis
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximatelly 2.7 x 2.1 degrees. ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2.
IRAS 13481-6124 and its cradle
The object IRAS 13481-6124 (the bright "star" upper left), which consists of a young central star, about twenty times the mass of our Sun and five times its radius, surrounded by its pre-natal cocoon, is the first massive baby star for which astronomers could obtain an image of a dusty disc...
The disc around IRAS 13481-6124
Astronomers have been able to obtain the first image of a dusty disc closely encircling a massive baby star, providing direct evidence that massive stars do form in the same way as their smaller brethren —and closing an enduring debate. In order to discover and understand the properties of this...
High-energy jet in NGC 3862
This is the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the central region of the galaxy NGC 3862 that reveals a jet-like feature previously unseen in optical wavelengths. The image was taken with the European Space Agency's Faint object Camera in F/96 mode at a wavelength of 3400 Å in the...
Dust jets in comet Hyakutake
Strong dust jets are visible in this image. They trace the ejection of dust particles from the surface of the cometary nucleus. Of particular interest is the fact that there are substantial morphological changes on arcsec scale within the short time interval between these exposures. This is...
The inner coma of comet Hyakutake
The most recent ESO observations of bright Comet Hyakutake have shown rapid changes in the innermost coma, within a few hundred kilometres from the cometary nucleus. This result has only become possible because of the unusual combination of a bright comet being near the Earth, together with the...
The asymetric shape of the coma of comet Hyakutake
This image shows a combined image, based on 24 R-frames with a total exposure of 48 seconds. It shows the asymmetric shape of the coma contours (isophotes), indicating the presence of much structural detail in the coma. North is up and East is to the left. The distance between the two...
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