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UGC 11397
Centre of activity
The light that the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope collected to create this Picture of the Week reached the telescope after a journey of 250 million years. Its source was the spiral galaxy UGC 11397, which resides in the constellation Lyra (The Lyre). At first glance, UGC 11397 appears to be an...
NGC 4449
Small but mighty
This portrait from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope puts the nearby galaxy NGC 4449 in the spotlight. The galaxy is situated just 12.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). It is a member of the M94 galaxy group, which is near the Local Group of...
IC 758
Stirring the interstellar soup
This serene spiral galaxy hides a cataclysmic past. The galaxy IC 758, shown here in today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week, is situated 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. In this Hubble image captured in 2023, IC 758 appears peaceful, its soft...
RIK 113
Caution: Planets under construction
Astronomers may have caught a still-forming planet on camera, hidden somewhere in this stellar snapshot. Today’s Picture of the Week is a close-up of the star RIK 113, seen here surrounded by a cloud of gas and dust called a protoplanetary disc. These discs are a common feature around young...
HD 141569
Boulevard of broken rings
This Picture of the Week illustrates the remarkable capabilities of SPHERE (the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument), a planet-hunting instrument mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile: It shows a series of broken rings of dust around a nearby star....
Cone Nebula
ESO’s 60th anniversary image: the Cone Nebula as seen by the VLT
The Cone Nebula is part of a star-forming region of space, NGC 2264, about 2500 light-years away. Its pillar-like appearance is a perfect example of the shapes that can develop in giant clouds of cold molecular gas and dust, known for creating new stars. This dramatic new view of the nebula was...
Carina Nebula
Mystic Mountain
This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape. But it is indeed a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant...
Carina Nebula
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.
NGC 6357
Close-up view of NGC 6357
ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has taken the most detailed image so far of a spectacular part of the stellar nursery called NGC 6357. The view shows many hot young stars, glowing clouds of gas and weird dust formations sculpted by ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds.
Fornax Constellation
Distant star-forming galaxies in the early Universe
The LABOCA camera on the ESO-operated 12-metre Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope reveals distant galaxies undergoing the most intense type of star formation activity known, called a starburst. This image shows these distant galaxies, found in a region of sky known as the Extended...
NGC 3582
Wide-field view of the sky around NGC 3582
This visible light wide-field image of the region around NGC 3582 was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The star formation region appears close to the centre and is just one part of a vast complex of gas and dust in the...
T Cha
A wide-field view of the sky around the young star T Cha (annotated)
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around the young star T Cha was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The star appears close to the centre. Some of the dust associated with this star-forming region is...
Large Magellanic Cloud
The brilliant star VFTS 682 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This view shows part of the very active star-forming region around the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbour of the Milky Way. At the exact centre lies the brilliant but isolated star VFTS 682 and to its lower right the very rich star cluster R 136. The origins of...
NGC 1365
Comparison of visible-light and infrared images of the galaxy NGC 1365
This comparison shows a visible-light image of the barred spiral NGC 1365 taken with the FORS1 camera on ESO’s VLT, along with the new infrared view obtained with the HAWK-I camera. In the infrared the dust in the galaxy is much less prominent and the new data is ideal for studying the complex...
Westerlund 1
Wide Field Imager image of Westerlund 1 (annotated)
This image of the young star cluster Westerlund 1 was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. This remarkable cluster contains hundreds of very massive stars, some shining with a brilliance of almost one million suns. Although...
Westerlund 1
The star cluster Westerlund 1
This image of the young star cluster Westerlund 1 was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. Although most stars in the cluster are hot blue supergiants, they appear reddish in this image as they are seen through interstellar...
RY Sagittarii
Clouds around RY Sagittarii
Images of the star RY Sagittarii, member of the class of R Coronae Borealis stars, obtained with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope at two different epochs and at two different wavelengths. The left image was obtained on 24 May 2003 at a wavelength of 2.2 microns, and the right...
NGC 613
NGC 613
This image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 613 was obtained with the FORS1 and FORS2 multi-mode instruments (at VLT MELIPAL and YEPUN, respectively) on December 16-18, 2001. It is a composite of three exposures in different wavebands, cf. the technical note below. The full-resolution version...
Frosty Leo
K-band image of the peculiar star "Frosty Leo"
Frosty Leo is a magnitude 11 (post-AGB) star surrounded by an envelope of gas, dust, and large amounts of ice (hence the name). The associated nebula is of "butterfly" shape (bipolar morphology) and it is one of the best known examples of the brief transitional phase between two late...
30 Doradus
In Tarantula territory (g)
Colour composite image of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and its surroundings. It displays numerous "fingers" of dark material, lanes of cold gas and dust, that still hold out against the strong stellar winds in this area, SE of the centre of the Tarantula Nebula.
Eagle Nebula
The ISAAC infrared images of Messier 16
This shows a zoom into the centre of ESO Press Photo eso0142a, with the infrared view of the columns and their immediate surroundings in more detail. The pillars or columns are numbered 1 to 3 from left to right (east to west). The pillars themselves are less prominent than on the Hubble...
IRAS 16362-4845
Infrared wide angle view of RCW 108
Image showing a unique, wide-field infrared view of the region around IRAS 16362-4845, an "emission" nebula that shines by its own light. It is situated within a dark cloud in a Milky Way region (the "RCW 108 complex") at a distance of about 4,000 light-years in the direction of the Southern...
Comet Hale-Bopp
Persistent dust jets at comet Hale-Bopp
Two different filters were used during the exposures in order to discriminate between the gas and the dust in the coma. The photo obtained through an ultraviolet optical filter (ESO Press Photo eso9726a) displays mainly the distribution of gaseous CN molecules in the coma, while that through a...
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Shoemaker-Levy 9 headed for Jupiter
These two photos from the ESO La Silla observatory show the individual nuclei of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, now headed for collision with Jupiter on 16 - 22 July 1994.The wide-field photo (below, left) was obtained by Klaus Jockers and Galina Chernova (Max-Planck-Institute fur Aeronomie,...
Schwassmann-Wachmann 3
First images of split comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3
This black and white composite of four individual exposures shows the innermost area of the extended coma of Periodic Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. It demonstrates that its nucleus had recently split into three, probably four individual pieces. The upper three images were obtained on December...
Comet Wilson
The long ion tail of comet Wilson
The long ion tail of Comet Wilson. This photo of Comet Wilson was obtained with the ESO 1m Schmidt telescope on March 28, 1987, three weeks before its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion). It shows the development of a long, weak ion tail, consisting of ionized atoms and molecules which are...
NGC 3507
Paired pinwheel seen solo
A single member of a galaxy pair takes centre stage in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This beautiful spiral galaxy is NGC 3507, which is situated about 46 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. NGC 3507 is classified as a barred spiral because the galaxy’s...
NGC 3596
Face to face with a spiral’s arms
The spiral galaxy NGC 3596 is on display in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week, which incorporates six different wavelengths of light. NGC 3596 is situated 90 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. The galaxy was discovered in 1784 by astronomer William...
Capturing candyfloss clouds
Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a sparkling cloudscape from one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbours, a dwarf galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Located 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Large Magellanic Cloud is...
NGC 3511
A spiral so inclined
The stately and inclined spiral galaxy NGC 3511 is the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. The galaxy is located 43 million light-years away in the constellation Crater (The Cup). From Hubble’s vantage point in orbit around Earth, NGC 3511 is tilted by about 70...
NGC 1961
Snapshot of a peculiar spiral
A beautiful but skewed spiral galaxy dazzles in today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This galaxy, called Arp 184 or NGC 1961, sits about 190 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (The Giraffe). The name Arp 184 comes from the Atlas of...
NGC 1760
Early SPHEREx Observations: NGC 1760 at 3.29 microns
NASA's SPHEREx mission is observing the entire sky in 102 colors of infrared light not visible to the human eye. This image shows a section of sky in one wavelength (3.29 microns), revealing the glow of sooty, carbon-based dust particles known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAH's). It is...
NGC 1760
Early SPHEREx Observations: NGC 1760 at 0.98 microns
NASA's SPHEREx mission is observing the entire sky in 102 colors of infrared light not visible to the human eye. This image shows a section of sky in one wavelength (0.98 microns), of the star-forming nebula known as NGC 1760. At this wavelength there is very little glow from the gas and dust...
LEDA 42160
An unlikely spiral
This image shows LEDA 42160, a galaxy about 52 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The dwarf galaxy is one of many forcing its way through the comparatively dense gas in the Virgo cluster, a massive cluster of galaxies. The pressure exerted by this intergalactic gas,...
NGC 4631
The belly of the cosmic whale
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has peered deep into NGC 4631, better known as the Whale Galaxy. Here, a profusion of starbirth lights up the galactic centre, revealing bands of dark material between us and the starburst. The galaxy’s activity tapers off in its outer regions where there...
Bug Nebula
Butterfly emerges from stellar demise in planetary nebula NGC 6302
This celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But it is far from serene. What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to nearly 20 000 degrees Celsius. The gas is tearing across space at more than 950 000 kilometres per hour — fast enough to travel...
Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex
The first anniversary image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope displays star birth like it’s never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. It is a relatively small, quiet...
Cone Nebula
Hubble's newest camera images ghostly star-forming pillar of gas and dust
Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this celestial object is actually just a pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (in NGC 2264) - so named because in ground-based images it has a conical shape - this monstrous pillar resides in a turbulent star-forming...
Boomerang Nebula
The Boomerang Nebula - the coolest place in the Universe?
The Boomerang Nebula is a young planetary nebula and the coldest object found in the Universe so far. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is yet another example of how Hubble's sharp eye reveals surprising details in celestial objects. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a...
NGC 2440
NGC 2440
NGC 2440 is another planetary nebula ejected by a dying star, but it has a much more chaotic structure than NGC 2346. The central star of NGC 2440 is one of the hottest known, with a surface temperature near 200,000 degrees Celsius. The complex structure of the surrounding nebula suggests to...
Carina Nebula
Hubble photographs turbulent neighborhood near eruptive star
A small portion of the rough-and-tumble neighborhood of swirling dust and gas near one of the most massive and eruptive stars in our galaxy is seen in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. This close-up view shows only a three light-year-wide portion of the entire Carina Nebula, which has...
Messier 65
Messier 65 through the years
The 1st of March 1780 was a particularly productive night for Charles Messier. Combing the constellation of Leo for additions to his grand astronomical catalogue, he struck on not one, but two, new objects. One of those objects is seen here: Messier 65. "Nebula discovered in Leo: It is very...
ESO 499-G37
A loose spiral galaxy
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the spiral galaxy ESO 499-G37, seen here against a backdrop of distant galaxies, scattered with nearby stars. The galaxy is viewed from an angle, allowing Hubble to reveal its spiral nature clearly. The faint, loose spiral arms can be...
2MASS J03285694+3116222
The smoking gun of a newborn star
In this image the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the smoking gun of a newborn star, the Herbig–Haro objects numbered 7 to 11 (HH 7–11). These five objects, visible in blue in the top centre of the image, lie within NGC 1333, a reflection nebula full of gas and dust found about a...
NGC 4183
Hubble portrays a dusty spiral galaxy
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has provided us with another outstanding image of a nearby galaxy. This week, we highlight the galaxy NGC 4183, seen here with a beautiful backdrop of distant galaxies and nearby stars. Located about 55 million light-years from the Sun and spanning about...
NGC 4845
Supermassive and super-hungry
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 4845, located over 65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). The galaxy’s orientation clearly reveals the galaxy’s striking spiral structure: a flat and dust-mottled disc surrounding a bright...
NGC 1222
A greedy giant
NGC 1222, seen in this image taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST), is a galaxy with a rather eventful story to tell. NGC 1222 has been described as a peculiar example of a type of galaxy known as a lenticular galaxy. Typically, this kind of...
ESO 121-6
A side-on spiral streak
This thin, glittering streak of stars is the spiral galaxy ESO 121-6, which lies in the southern constellation of Pictor (The Painter's Easel). Viewed almost exactly side-on, the intricate structure of the swirling arms is hidden, but the full length of the galaxy can be seen — including...
Herschel 36
Wide-field view of the Lagoon Nebula (ground-based image)
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows the area around the Lagoon Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 8. This nebula is filled with intense winds from hot stars, churning funnels of gas, and energetic star formation, all embedded within an intricate haze of gas and pitch-dark dust.
Carina Nebula
Wide view of “Mystic Mountain”
This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope photograph, which is stranger than fiction, captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years high,...
M 20
Full HST WFPC2 image of Trifid Nebula
Three huge intersecting dark lanes of interstellar dust make the Trifid Nebula one of the most recognizable and striking star birth regions in the night sky. The dust, silhouetted against glowing gas and illuminated by starlight, cradles the bright stars at the heart of the Trifid. This nebula,...
Terzan 5
The unusual cluster Terzan
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...
Antennae Galaxies
Colliding galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039
This is a close-up view of a head-on collision between two spiral galaxies, called the Antennae galaxies. The image is 1,500 light-years across. The image shows entrapped dust and gas funneled into the centre of the galaxy.
Sagittarius
Galactic centre region in infrared from Spitzer
The Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared-light observations provide a detailed and spectacular view of the galactic centre region. The swirling core of our galaxy harbours hundreds of thousands of stars that cannot be seen in visible light. These stars heat the nearby gas and dust. These dusty...
ESO 255-7
ESO 255-7
ESO 255-7 consists of a quartet of interacting galaxies. Three or four galaxies are embedded in a common structure with an arc-like shape. The upper part of this structure appears almost like one single galaxy but has in fact two component galaxies. The lowest galaxy is substantially obscured...
Arp 220
Arp 220
Arp 220 appears to be a single, odd-looking galaxy, but is in fact a nearby example of the aftermath of a collision between two spiral galaxies. It is the brightest of the three galactic mergers closest to Earth, about 250 million light-years away in the constellation of Serpens, the Serpent....
IRAS 20351+2521
IRAS 20351+2521
IRAS 20351+2521 is a galaxy with a sprawling structure of gas, dust and numerous blue star knots. IRAS 20351+2521 is located in the constellation of Vulpecula, the Fox, 450 million light-years away from Earth. This image is part of a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by...
M 104
The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared Light
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat....
Caldwell 24
Freewheeling Galaxies Collide in a Blaze of Star Birth
A dusty spiral galaxy appears to be rotating on edge, like a pinwheel, as it slides through the larger, bright galaxy NGC 1275, in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. These images, taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), show traces of spiral structure accompanied by...
Stephan's Quintet
Star Clusters Born in the Wreckage of Cosmic Collisions
This spectacular image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the group of galaxies called Stephan's Quintet has provided a detailed view of one of the most exciting star forming regions in the local Universe. Stephan's Quintet is a favoured object for amateur astronomers and has earned a...
NGC 6251
Galaxy NGC 6251 Nucleus
This composite image of the core of the galaxy was constructed by combining a visible light image taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), with a separate image taken in ultraviolet light with the Faint Object Camera (FOC). While the visible light image shows a dark dust disk,...
NGC 299
The Toucan and the cluster
It may be famous for hosting spectacular sights such as the Tucana Dwarf Galaxy and 47 Tucanae (heic1510), the second brightest globular cluster in the night sky, but the southern constellation of Tucana (The Toucan) also possesses a variety of unsung cosmic beauties. One such beauty is NGC...
NGC 4388
A transformation in Virgo
The constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) is especially rich in galaxies, due in part to the presence of a massive and gravitationally-bound collection of over 1300 galaxies called the Virgo Cluster. One particular member of this cosmic community, NGC 4388, is captured in this image, as seen by...
Beta Pictoris
Beta Pictoris - Star with Disk - Not Annotated
Detailed images of the nearby star Beta Pictoris, taken by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, confirm the existence of not one but two dust disks encircling the star. The images offer tantalizing new evidence for at least one Jupiter-size planet orbiting Beta Pictoris. The finding ends a decade...
Kepler's SN
NASA's Great Observatories Provide a Detailed View of Kepler's Supernova Remnant
NASA's three Great Observatories - the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory - joined forces to probe the expanding remains of a supernova, called Kepler's supernova remnant, first seen 400 years ago by sky watchers, including famous astronomer...
Caldwell 24
NGC 1275 - Full WFPC2 Mosaic
A dusty spiral galaxy appears to be rotating on edge, like a pinwheel, as it slides through the larger, bright galaxy NGC 1275, in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. These images, taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), show traces of spiral structure accompanied by...
Haro 6-5B
Disk Around Young Star. A View of Haro 6-5B
Haro 6-5B is a nearly edge-on disk surrounded by a complex mixture of wispy clouds of dust and gas. In this WFPC2 image, the central star is partially hidden by the disk, but can be pinpointed by the stubby jet (shown in green), which it emits. The dark disk extends 32 billion miles (about 51...
Pistol Star
Uncovering the secrets of the Quintuplet Cluster
Although this cluster of stars gained its name due to its five brightest stars, it is home to hundreds more. The huge number of massive young stars in the cluster is clearly captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The cluster is located close to the Arches Cluster and is just...
C/2012 S1
Enhanced Hubble image of Comet ISON
This is a contrast-enhanced image produced from Hubble images of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). It reveals the subtle structure in the inner coma of the comet. In this computer-processed view, the Hubble image has been divided by a computer model coma that decreases in brightness proportional to the...
AU Microscopii
Hubble's Snapshot of Debris Disk Around Young Star - Unannotated
Taken with NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, this image shows light reflected off dust in a debris disk around the young star AU Microscopii.
IRAS 03317-3618
Starry bulges yield secrets to galaxy growth (ground-based image)
This image shows how the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is feeding material into its central region, igniting massive star birth and probably causing its bulge of stars to grow. The material also is fueling a black hole in the galaxy's core. A galaxy's bulge is a central, football-shaped structure...
Black Eye Galaxy
Hubble's Infrared Galaxy Gallery. A View of NGC 4826
Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to produce an infrared 'photo essay' of spiral galaxies. By penetrating the dust clouds swirling around the centers of these galaxies, the telescope s infrared vision is offering fresh views of star birth.
HDF
Hubble Deep Field in Infrared
Two close-up NICMOS views of candidate objects which may be over 12 billion light-years away. Each candidate is centered in the frame. The reddish colour may mean all of the starlight has been stretched to infrared wavelengths by the universe's expansion. Alternative explanations are that the...
NGC 253
NGC 253
NGC 253 is one of brightest spiral galaxies in the night sky, easily visible with small telescopes, and it is composed of thousands of young, blue stars. It is undergoing intense star formation. The image demonstrates the sharp "eye" of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, which is able to...
NGC 300
NGC 300 Detail 1
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys shows individual as well as clusters of stars in the spiral galaxy NGC 300, located approximately 7 million light-years away from Earth. In this image, a dense swarm of stars, patches of dust, and a bright star cluster are visible, all located near the...
NGC 1022
Supermassive Influence
This peculiar galaxy, beautifully streaked with tendrils of reddish dust, is captured here in wonderful detail by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy is known as NGC 1022, and is officially classified as a barred spiral galaxy. You can just about make out the bar of stars in the...
NGC 2775
Birds of a Feather
The spiral pattern shown by the galaxy in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is striking because of its delicate, feathery nature. These "flocculent" spiral arms indicate that the recent history of star formation of the galaxy, known as NGC 2775, has been relatively quiet....
ESO 455-10
An Interstellar Distributor
The lives of planetary nebulae are often chaotic, from the death of their parent star to the scattering of its contents far out into space. Captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESO 455-10 is one such planetary nebula, located in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). ...
Abell 78
A Flash of Life
Located around 5000 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan), Abell 78 is an unusual type of planetary nebula. After exhausting the nuclear fuel in their cores, stars with a mass of around 0.8 to 8 times the mass of our Sun collapse to form dense and hot white dwarf stars. As...
IC 1954
Portrait of a Swirling Galaxy
The spiral galaxy IC 1954 takes centre stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy, which lies approximately 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Horologium (The Clock), boasts a bright central bar and lazily winding spiral arms threaded with dark...
NGC 3568
Hubble Gazes Sidelong at NGC 3568
In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a side-on view of NGC 3568, a barred spiral galaxy roughly 57 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation Centaurus. In 2014 the light from a supernova explosion in NGC 3568 reached Earth — a sudden flare of light...
NGC 4496A
Not-So-Close Encounter
The twin galaxies NGC 4496A and NGC 4496B dominate the frame in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Both galaxies lie in the constellation Virgo, but despite appearing side-by-side in this image they are at vastly different distances from both Earth and one another. NGC 4496A...
IRAS 16399-0937
A cosmic megamaser
This galaxy has a far more exciting and futuristic classification than most — it is a megamaser. Megamasers are intensely bright, around 100 million times brighter than the masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. The entire galaxy essentially acts as an astronomical laser that beams out...
Arp 107
A peculiar proceeding
This Hubble Picture of the Week — taken using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) — shows Arp 107, a celestial object that comprises a pair of galaxies in the midst of a collision. The larger galaxy (on the left of this image) is an extremely energetic galaxy...
Arp 72
Two’s company
This image features Arp 72, a very selective galaxy group that only includes two interacting galaxies: NGC 5996 (the large spiral galaxy) and NGC 5994 (its smaller companion, in the lower left of the image). Both galaxies lie approximately 160 million light-years from Earth, and their cores are...
LEDA 22057
Pale blue (supernova) dot
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the galaxy LEDA 22057, which is located about 650 million light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like the subject of last week’s Picture of the Week, LEDA 22057 is the site of a supernova explosion. This particular...
Dark Energy Camera Captures Circinus West Molecular Cloud
A celestial shadow known as the Circinus West molecular cloud creeps across this image taken with the Department of Energy-fabricated 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) — one of the most powerful digital cameras in the world. Within this stellar nursery's opaque boundaries, infant stars...
NGC 2899
Planetary nebula NGC 2899
This Hubble Space Telescope image captures the beauty of the moth-like planetary nebula NGC 2899. This object has a diagonal, bipolar, cylindrical outflow of gas. This is propelled by radiation and stellar winds from a nearly 22 000 degree Celsius white dwarf at the center. In fact, there may...
Rosette Nebula
Rosette Nebula
This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of a small portion of the Rosette Nebula, a huge star-forming region spanning 100 light-years across and located 5,200 light-years away. Hubble zooms into a small portion of the nebula that is only 4 light-years across (the approximate distance between our...
NGC 5335
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335
The Hubble Space Telescope captured in exquisite detail a face-on view of a remarkable-looking galaxy. NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disk. There is a striking lack of well-defined spiral arms that are commonly found...
NGC 1514
NGC 1514 (MIRI Image)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken the most detailed image of planetary nebula NGC 1514 to date thanks to its unique mid-infrared observations. Webb shows its rings as intricate clumps of dust. It’s also easier to see holes punched through the bright pink central region.
Rosette Nebula
Dark Clouds in Rosette Nebula
This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of a small portion of the Rosette Nebula, a huge star-forming region spanning 100 light-years across and located 5,200 light-years away. Hubble zooms into a small portion of the nebula that is only 4 light-years across (the approximate distance between our...
Rosette Nebula
Rosette Nebula Context Image
The Rosette Nebula is a vast star-forming region, 100 light-years across, that lies at one end of a giant molecular cloud in the constellation Monoceros. The nebula is estimated to contain around 10,000 solar masses. The nebula is located about 5,000 light-years away from Earth. Intense...
Eagle Nebula
Eagle Nebula
This towering structure of billowing gas and dark, obscuring dust might only be a small portion of the Eagle Nebula, but it is no less majestic in appearance for it. 9.5 light-years tall and 7000 light-years distant from Earth, this dusty sculpture is refreshed with the use of new processing...
NGC 6520
The Starry Dandelion and the Cosmic Gecko NGC 6520
Millions of years ago, a dust cloud about 5,200 light-years from the Sun coalesced to begin the process of star birth. Today, some 190 million years later, NGC 6520 is ablaze with hot, massive young stars arrayed in a dandelion seed-shaped cluster. Not far away lies the gecko-shaped remains of...
M17
Swan Nebula (M17)
This FLAMINGOS-2 near-infrared image details part of the magnificent Swan Nebula (M17), where ultraviolet radiation streaming from young hot stars sculpts a dense region of dust and gas into myriad fanciful forms. M17 lies some 5,200 light-years distant in the constellation Sagittarius and is...
DEM L316
Supernova Remnant DEM L316
The Gemini South Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) recently captured a dramatic image of a vast cloud complex named DEM L316 located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The peanut-shaped nebula appears to be a single object, but the latest research indicates that it is really comprised of two...
Fireworks Galaxy
NGC 6946 “Fireworks Galaxy”
NGC6946, the “Fireworks Galaxy,” lies between 10 and 20 million light-years away on the border between the constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus, and was discovered by Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) on September 9, 1798. It continues to fascinate astronomers, who estimate that it contains...
NGC 4941
A galaxy that gives great feedback
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the picturesque spiral galaxy NGC 4941, which lies about 67 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). Because this galaxy is nearby, cosmically speaking, Hubble’s keen instruments are able to pick...
Large Magellanic Cloud
A Tarantula’s outskirts
Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a dusty yet sparkling scene from one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy situated about 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and...
NGC 346
Stellar sculptors in NGC 346
This new image showcases NGC 346, a dazzling young star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Small Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located 200 000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana. The Small Magellanic Cloud is less rich in elements heavier than helium...
Messier 77
The squid and the whale
Today’s rather aquatic-themed NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy, which sits 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale). The designation Messier 77 comes from the galaxy’s place in the...
HH 49/50
Herbig-Haro 49/50 (NIRCam and MIRI Image)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed Herbig-Haro 49/50, an outflow from a nearby still-forming star, in high-resolution near- and mid-infrared light. The young star is off to the lower right corner of the Webb image.Intricate features of the outflow, represented in reddish-orange color,...
Flame Nebula
Flame Nebula in Visible and Infrared Light
his collage of images from the Flame Nebula shows a near-infrared light view from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on the left, while the two insets at the right show the near-infrared view taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Much of the dark, dense gas and dust, as well as the surrounding...
EDFN
Euclid Deep Field North – Preview
This is Euclid’s Deep Field North. After only one observation, the space telescope has already spotted more than ten million galaxies in this field. It is also very rich in Milky Way stars, as it is close to the Galactic plane.
NGC 2244
Rosette Nebula Captured with DECam
Cradled within the fiery petals of the Rosette Nebula is NGC 2244, the young star cluster which it nurtured. The cluster’s stars light up the nebula in vibrant hues of red, gold and purple, and opaque towers of dust rise from the billowing clouds around its excavated core. This image, captured...
NGC 6357
The Lobster Nebula seen with ESO’s VISTA telescope
This image from ESO’s VISTA telescope captures a celestial landscape of vast, glowing clouds of gas and tendrils of dust surrounding hot young stars. This infrared view reveals the stellar nursery known as NGC 6357 in a new light. It was taken as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea...
HD 148937
The nebula (NGC 6164/6165) surrounding HD 148937 as seen in visible light
This image, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, shows the beautiful nebula NGC 6164/6165, also known as the Dragon’s Egg. The nebula is a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a pair of stars called HD 148937. In a new study using ESO data, astronomers have...
MWC 758
The MWC 758 planet-forming disc as seen by SPHERE and ALMA
This composite image shows the MWC 758 planet-forming disc, located about 500 light-years away in the Taurus region, as seen with two different facilities. The yellow colour represents infrared observations obtained with the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE)...
HL Tauri
Water in the HL Tauri disc
Astronomers have found water vapour in a disc around a young star exactly where planets may be forming. In this image, the new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, show the water vapour in shades of blue. Near the centre of the...
NGC 3576
VISTA’s view on stellar births
This Picture of the Week shows a new view of NGC 3603 (left) and NGC 3576 (right), two stunning nebulas imaged with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). This infrared image peers through the dust in these nebulas, revealing details hidden in optical images. NGC...
Dark Wolf Nebula
The Dark Wolf Nebula
Fittingly nicknamed the Dark Wolf Nebula, this cosmic cloud was captured in a 283-million-pixel image by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Located around 5300 light-years from Earth, the cold clouds of cosmic dust create the illusion of a wolf-like silhouette...
HL Tauri
Wide-field view of the sky around the young star HL Tauri
This image shows the region in which HL Tauri is situated. HL Tauri is part of one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth and there are many young stars, as well as clouds of dust, in its vicinity. This picture was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Milky Way Galactic Centre
Wide-field view of the centre of the Milky Way
This visible light wide-field view shows the rich star clouds in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer) in the direction of the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. The entire image is filled with vast numbers of stars — but far more remain hidden behind clouds of dust and are only revealed...
Eagle Nebula
The Eagle has risen: stellar spire in the Eagle Nebula
Appearing like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometres high, about twice the distance from our...
Cone Nebula
Cone Nebula/NGC 2264 (ACS Full Field Image)
Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this monstrous object is actually an innocuous pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (and cataloged NGC 2264) is so named because, in ground-based images, it has a conical shape. This giant pillar resides in a...
MCG+07-07-072
Rings and things
The subject of this week’s circular Hubble Picture of the Week is situated in the Perseus Cluster, also known as Abell 426, 320 million light-years from Earth. It’s a barred spiral galaxy known as MCG+07-07-072, seen here among a number of photobombing stars that are much closer to Earth than...
UGC 11861
A super(nova) spiral
Resting near the centre of the northerly constellation Cepheus, high in the northern sky, is the barred spiral galaxy UGC 11861, the subject of the latest Hubble Picture of the Week. UGC 11861 is located 69 million light-years away from Earth — which may seem a vast distance, but it’s just...
UGC 3478
Hiding a bright secret
Looking past its long spiral arms filled with stars and the dark threads of dust crossing it, your eye might be caught by the shining point at the centre of UGC 3478, the spiral galaxy starring in this Hubble Picture of the Week. This point is the galaxy’s nucleus, and indeed there is something...
IC 4709
Power across the spectrum
The Hubble Space Telescope has a lot to show in this week’s Picture of the Week. Its view here is studded with stars, many of which appear particularly large and bright thanks to their nearby locations in our own galaxy, and which feature the characteristic diffraction patterns caused by...
