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ALMA image of the ‘cosmic joust’
This image, taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), shows the molecular gas content of two galaxies involved in a cosmic collision. The one on the right hosts a quasar –– a supermassive black hole that is accreting material from its surroundings and releasing intense...
Wide-field view of the region of the sky around a ‘cosmic joust’
This wide-field view shows the region of the sky around a pair of interacting galaxies, nicknamed the 'cosmic joust', in which one of them is piercing the other with intense radiation. The galaxies appear as a tiny white dot at the centre of this image. The Atacama Large...
NGC 6723
Starry chandelier
The subject of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month is an ancient inhabitant of our galaxy. This sparkling scene is of a globular cluster: a collection of tens of thousands to millions of stars, all tightly bound together under the influence of gravity. Astronomers know of more than 150...
NGC 4594
Sombrero Galaxy: The Universe’s Dusty Brimmed Hat
Messier 104, nicknamed the Sombrero galaxy, is a popular target for amateur observing and astronomical research. Its recognizable extended halo and dust-filled disk are captured in this image from the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the U.S. National...
Excerpt of the area around NGC 4261
A trail of celestial objects stretches across this excerpt from a First Look image captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The most prominent feature is NGC 4261, the large elliptical galaxy in the top half of the image. In the bottom-left of the image is the lenticular galaxy NGC 4281....
Gum 10
Celebrating the birth of new stars... and the VST!
Imagine for a moment you are lying back, gazing up at the red-orange celestial clouds in today’s Picture of the Week. What shapes do you see? A chicken pecking seeds on the ground, the head of a dragon, or something else entirely? These pareidolia-inducing clouds are a pair of nebulae —...
Pictor II
Pictor II ultra-faint dwarf galaxy
This image shows stars in the ultra-faint dwarf galaxy, Pictor II. Pictor II is a satellite galaxy of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, and is located in the constellation Pictor. The system is made up of several thousand stars and is more than ten...
Pictor II
Star PicII-503 in Pictor II ultra-faint dwarf galaxy
This image shows the star PicII-503, with the lowest iron content ever measured outside of the Milky Way. With less than 1/40,000th the amount of iron as the Sun, PicII-503 is the clearest example of a star within a primordial system that preserves the chemical enrichment of the Universe’s...
NGC 4594
Close-up of the central parts of the Sombrero Galaxy
Messier 104, nicknamed the Sombrero galaxy, is a popular target for amateur observing and astronomical research. Its recognizable extended halo and dust-filled disk are captured in this image from the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the U.S. National...
NGC 2685
NGC 2685: A Helix in the Sky
The very unusual galaxy NGC 2685, also known as the Helix Galaxy, is located about 40 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This image was captured by the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF NOIRLab which is funded by the...
Gemini North image of the field around "Shadow Blaster"
This image shows the field around the gravitationally lensed galaxy nicknamed "Shadow Blaster." This galaxy lies 11 billion light-years away and sits just behind the bright red galaxy at the center of this image. The red foreground galaxy acts like a cosmic magnifying glass, enlarging and...
Gemini North and ALMA image of "Shadow Blaster"
This image shows the gravitationally lensed galaxy nicknamed "Shadow Blaster," which astronomers have identified as the likely source of the high-energy neutrino event IC 210922A, detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in 2021. Gravitational lensing occurs when a very massive foreground...
ALMA image of "Shadow Blaster"
This image shows a close-up of the gravitationally lensed galaxy nicknamed "Shadow Blaster," which astronomers have identified as the likely source of the high-energy neutrino event IC 210922A, detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in 2021. Gravitational lensing occurs when a very...
NGC 6822
NGC 6822 and its rich neighborhood
A new color image of the nearby irregular galaxy NGC6822 shows a myriad of hot blue massive stars and several famous nebulae in impressive detail. NGC6822 is located approximately 1.6 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Sagittarius. A member of the Milky Way galaxy's Local...
M31
M31, NGC 224
A beautifully detailed image of the northwest portion of the Andromeda galaxy, M31, demonstrates the power of an on-going sky survey project sponsored by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). This image of M31, the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, was taken by Phil...
Milky Way
Euclid’s galactic bulge survey
This six-gigapixel view of the galactic bulge is the largest high-resolution photo ever made of our Milky Way galaxy’s centre in visible light. It was taken on 23 March 2025 by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope.
Galaxy field of MXDFz4.4 (Hubble and Webb clean image)
This galaxy field contains the oddball galaxy MXDFz4.4 that existed only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was still a “swirl” of opaque and clear gas as the Era of Reionisation was ending. Detailed visible-light images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope revealed...
Messier 88
Journey to the centre of a galaxy cluster
The focus of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month is an active spiral galaxy on a journey lasting hundreds of millions of years. The galaxy Messier 88 (M88), which is also known as NGC 4501, is located about 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). ...
A beacon of light in swirls of dust
This latest Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous and appreciated among astronomers for its combination of relative proximity and spectacular features to study. It is located 45 million light-years away in...
Messier 87
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...
Messier 87
The Halo of Galaxy Messier 87
The huge halo around giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 appears on this very deep image. An excess of light in the top-right part of this halo, and the motion of planetary nebulae in the galaxy, are the last remaining signs of a medium-sized galaxy that recently collided with Messier 87. The...
NGC 3137
Starry spiral in a familiar neighbourhood
In this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, a spiral galaxy glittering with star clusters is the centre of attention. NGC 3137 is located 53 million light-years away in the constellation Antlia (The Air Pump). As a nearby spiral galaxy, this target offers astronomers an excellent opportunity to...
Milky Way Galactic Centre
First image of our black hole
This is the first image of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. 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 together eight existing radio observatories across...
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...
NGC 3640
Not too close encounters of the galactic kind
This Picture of the Week shows NGC 3640, an unusual elliptical galaxy 88 million light-years away. The image, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, reveals a menagerie of galaxies of all shapes and sizes, ranging from slight blue smudges to the fried-egg shape...
NASA's SPHEREx Observatory Maps Stars and Dust in Cygnus
An observation made by NASAs SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) shows a dusty infrared starfield in the Cygnus region of the sky.
NASA's SPHEREx Observatory Maps Interstellar Ice in Milky Way
An observation made by NASAs SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) shows the chemical signatures of water ice (shown in bright blue) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (orange) in Cygnus X, one of the most active and turbulent...
Laser Guide Star
Aiming at a cosmic tarantula
It might look like we started a space war, but we didn't. This isn't a scene from Star Wars either. What we're looking at is the Tarantula Nebula. And those beams come from the lasers installed on the telescopes that comprise ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer. The VLTI combines 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....
NGC 288
4MOST first-light field-of-view
On October 18, the 4MOST instrument used its 2400 fibres for the first time to analyse the light from different cosmic objects. The spectrograph, which is installed on ESO’s VISTA telescope, observed a large patch of sky containing two prominent objects: the Sculptor Galaxy and the globular...
NGC 1269
The Cosmic Steering Wheel NGC 1269
This Image of the Week of NGC 1269 was taken utilizing the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. NGC 1269...
Andromeda Galaxy
The ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Pegasus V
A unique ultra-faint dwarf galaxy has been discovered in the outer fringes of the Andromeda Galaxy thanks to the sharp eyes of an amateur astronomer examining archival data from the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo...
Abell 3158
Image of Abell 3158, Part of the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey
This is an image centered on a relatively nearby galaxy cluster dubbed Abell 3158; light from these galaxies had a redshift value of 0.059, meaning that it traveled approximately 825 million years on its journey to Earth. The image is a small part of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys — a...
Where spiral arms and star formation meet
A luminous swirl set against the deep black of space, the barred spiral galaxy IC 486 glows with a soft, ethereal light in this new ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month image. IC 486 lies right on the edge of the constellation Gemini (the Twins), around 380 million light-years from Earth. Classified...
IC 486
IC 486 (wide-field view)
IC 486 lies in the constellation Gemini (the Twins), around 380 million light-years from Earth. Classified as a barred spiral galaxy, it features a bright central bar-shaped structure from which its spiral arms unfurl, wrapping around the core in a smooth, almost ring-like pattern. This...
Andromeda
Hubble M31 PHAT+PHAST Mosaic
This is the largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble Space Telescope observations. It is a panoramic view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, located 2.5 million light-years away. It took over 10 years to make this vast and colorful portrait of the galaxy, requiring over 600 Hubble...
NGC 1637
NASA’s Webb Telescope Locates Former Star That Exploded as Supernova
The main image at left shows a view of spiral galaxy NGC 1637 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble’s shorter-wavelength data is represented in blue and green, while Webb’s longer-wavelength data is represented in green and red. Panels at the right show a...
Circinus Galaxy
Circinus Galaxy (Hubble and Webb)
This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows a full view of the Circinus galaxy, a nearby spiral galaxy about 13 million light-years away. The inset highlights a Webb close-up of the galaxy’s core, where infrared observations pierce through dust to reveal hot material feeding its central...
Sextans A
Sextans A (NIRCam Only Image)
Images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of the dwarf galaxy Sextans A reveal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), large carbon-based molecules that can be a signifier of star formation. Sextans A is a nearby galaxy that is chemically primitive, meaning it has a very low content of...
Sextans A
Sextans A Unannotated (NIRCam and MIRI image)
Images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of the dwarf galaxy Sextans A reveal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), large carbon-based molecules that can be a signifier of star formation. Sextans A is a nearby galaxy that is chemically primitive, meaning it has a very low content of...
Sextans A
Sextans A Context image (Webb and KPNO)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s image of a portion of the nearby Sextans A galaxy is put into context using a ground-based image from the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The image from Webb shows the galaxy in both near- and mid-infrared light, while...
Sextans A
Sextans A PAHs Pull-out (NIRCam and MIRI image)
Images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of the dwarf galaxy Sextans A reveal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), large carbon-based molecules that can be a signifier of star formation. The inset at the top right zooms in on those PAHs, which are represented in green. In Sextans A,...
CEERS
New Galaxy Population Pull-outs in CEERS Field (NIRCam Image)
Four of the nine galaxies in the newly identified “platypus” sample were discovered in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS). One key feature that makes them distinct is their point-like appearance, even to a telescope that can capture as much...
Sagittarius B2
Sagittarius B2 (NIRCam Image)
Stars, gas and cosmic dust in the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud glow in near-infrared light, captured by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). In this light, astronomers see more of the region’s diverse, colorful stars, but less of its gas and dust structure. Webb’s instruments each provide...
GRB 250702B
GRB 250314A Pull-out (NIRCam Image)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope identified the source of a super bright flash of light known as a gamma-ray burst: a supernova that exploded when the universe was only 730 million years old. Webb’s high-resolution near-infrared images also detected the supernova’s host galaxy. Its quick-turn...
Sh2-284 p1
Stellar Jet in Sh2-284
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged an extremely large and symmetric protostellar jet at the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy in the forming cluster Sh2-284. From tip to tip, this protostellar jet is 8 light-years across, about double the distance from our Sun to its closest...
Sombrero Galaxy
Sombrero Galaxy (NIRCam/MIRI)
The Sombrero galaxy is split diagonally in this image: near-infrared observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are at the top left, and mid-infrared observations from Webb are at the bottom right. The near-infrared image shows where dust from the outer ring blocks stellar light from...
Sombrero Galaxy
Sombrero Galaxy (NIRCam Image)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero Galaxy with its NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), which shows dust from the galaxy’s outer ring blocking stellar light from stars within the galaxy. In the central region of the galaxy, the roughly 2,000 globular clusters, or...
Spiral Galaxies
Thin/Thick Galaxy Disks
JADES
JADES-GS-z13-1 in the GOODS-S field (NIRCam)
The incredibly distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1, observed just 330 million years after the big bang, was initially discovered with deep imaging from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). Now, an international team of astronomers definitively has identified powerful...
Sagittarius A star
Milky Way Center Annotated (MeerKAT and Webb)
Labeling, compass arrows, and scale bars provide context for these MeerKAT and James Webb Space Telescope images. The star-forming region Sagittarius C, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, is about 200 light-years from the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius...
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,...
Sagittarius A*
Flaring Disk Around Milky Way's Black Hole (Artist's Concept)
This artist’s concept portrays the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A* (A-star). It’s surrounded by a swirling accretion disk of hot gas. The black hole’s gravity bends light from the far side of the disk, making it appear to wrap above and...
Wolf-Rayet 140
Compare Observations of Wolf-Rayet 140 (MIRI Images)
The telescope shows that the winds of two massive stars are producing carbon-rich dust, which may eventually “seed” new stars and planets.
IRAS 23077+6707
Dracula’s Chivito (IRAS 23077+6707)
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the largest planet-forming disk ever observed around a young star. It spans nearly 400 billion miles — 40 times the diameter of our solar system. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen from Earth, the dark, dusty disk resembles a hamburger. Hubble reveals it to be...
AT2024tvd
Black Hole TDE AT2024tvd (Hubble + Chandra)
This is a combined Hubble Space Telescope/Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of galaxy located 600 million light-years away that is host to the telltale signature of a roaming supermassive black hole. Visible in the Hubble image is a tidal disruption event (TDE), an intense flash of radiation...
NGC 5335
NGC 5335
NASA’s 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...
M31
Survey of Andromeda's Satellite Galaxies
This is a wide-angle view of the distribution of known satellite galaxies orbiting the large Andromeda galaxy (M31), located 2.5 million light-years away. The Hubble Space Telescope was used to study the entire population of 36 mini-galaxies circled in yellow. Andromeda is the bright...
LEDA 1313424
Galaxy LEDA 1313424 (Advanced Camera for Surveys Image)
LEDA 1313424, aptly nicknamed the Bullseye, is two and a half times the size of our Milky Way and has nine rings — six more than any other known galaxy. High-resolution imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope confirmed eight rings, and data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii confirmed...
J0742+2704
Spiral Quasar-host Galaxy J0742+2704
Quasar J0742+2704 (center) became the subject of astronomers' interest after it was discovered to have a newborn jet blasting from the disk around its supermassive black hole in 2020, using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio observatory. This led to follow-up with other...
R Aquarii
NASA's Hubble Sees a Stellar Volcano
R Aquarii (WFC3 Image) NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided a dramatic and colorful close-up look at one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy, weaving a huge spiral pattern among the stars. Located approximately 700 light-years away, a binary star system called R Aquarii undergoes...
GRB 250702BDE
GRB 250702B, an unusually long and repeating gamma-ray burst
The orange dot at the centre of this image is a powerful explosion that repeated several times over the course of a day, an event unlike anything ever witnessed before. The image, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), allowed astronomers to determine that the explosion didn’t take place...
Triangulum Galaxy
The Triangulum galaxy up close
Today’s Picture of the Week is a closeup of the nearby Triangulum galaxy, also known as Messier 33, located about 3 million light-years away. This festive-looking image, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), reveals the diversity and complexity of the gas and dust between the stars in...
Central Molecular Zone
Location of the Central Molecular Zone in the Milky Way
This image shows the location of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), a region at the core of our galaxy rich in dense and intricate gas clouds. This zone has been mapped with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), as part of the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey or ACES. The inset is...
Central Molecular Zone
Largest ALMA image ever shows the molecular gas in the centre of the Milky Way
This image shows the complex distribution of molecular gas in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way. It was obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. This map is as long as three full Moons side-by-side in the sky, and it is in...
Central Molecular Zone
Different molecules in the centre of the Milky Way observed with ALMA
This montage shows the distribution of different molecules in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way. The observations were made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), as part of the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey or ACES. ACES has mapped the distribution of...
Abell 3667
DECam’s Deep View of Abell 3667
Abell 3667 — an actively merging galaxy cluster — is featured in this image assembled from over 28 hours of observations with the 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo...
NGC 1512
Wider crop of the NGC 1512 image
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. NGC 1512 has been in the process of...
NGC 4449
Wide-field View of Starburst Galaxy
A wide-field view of NGC 4449, the Starburst Galaxy.
Antlia Cluster
DECam Deep View of the Antlia Cluster
The Antlia Cluster (Abell S636) is a group of at least 230 galaxies located about 130 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Antlia (the Air Pump). It hosts a rich variety of galaxy types, including lenticular galaxies, irregular galaxies and ultra-compact dwarfs. The...
Zhúlóng: The most distant spiral galaxy
At the center of this image, placed subtly amongst the dense galactic field, is Zhúlóng, the most distant spiral galaxy discovered to date. It has remarkably well-defined spiral arms, a central old bulge, and a large star-forming disk, resembling the structure of the Milky Way. This galaxy was...
ESO 440-11
Dark Energy Camera's 1 millionth exposure
The Dark Energy Camera's 1 millionth exposure. At the time of this exposure DECam was making an of a galaxy cluster. The 1 millionth exposure has been combined with 127 earlier exposures to make this view of the field. This demonstrates the power of DECam and an archive of a million exposures....
Most luminous fast blue optical transient
This composite image features X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared data of the luminous fast blue optical transient (LFBOT) named AT 2024wpp. The transient is the bright spot at the upper right edge of its host galaxy, which is 1.1 billion light-years from Earth.
Large Magellanic Cloud
Deepest, widest view of the Large Magellanic Cloud from SMASH
Part of the SMASH dataset showing an unprecedented wide-angle view of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and, unlike the rest of the satellite galaxies, are still actively forming stars — and at a rapid pace. The...
NGC 4567
The merging galaxy pair NGC 4568 and NGC 4567
This image from the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i reveals a pair of interacting spiral galaxies — NGC 4568 (bottom) and NGC 4567 (top) — as they begin to clash and merge. The galaxies will eventually form a single elliptical galaxy in around 500 million years.
GRB 151229A
Hidden Galaxy Home of GRB (Unannotated)
Unannotated image of the region of the sky surrounding a recently identified galaxy that was found to be the home of GRB 151229A, a short gamma-ray burst. Astronomers calculate that this burst, which lies in the direction of the constellation Capricornus, occurred approximately 9 billion years...
NGC 1512
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. NGC 1512 has been in the process of...
NGC 1512
Wider crop of the NGC 1512 image
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. NGC 1512 has been in the process of...
NGC 772
Galaxy NGC 772
The overdeveloped spiral arm of the galaxy NGC 772, which was created by tidal interactions with an unruly neighbor, dominates this observation made by astronomers using the Gemini North telescope located near the summit of Maunakea in Hawai‘i.
IC 10
Portrait of a Starburst Galaxy
KPNO captures irregular starburst galaxy IC 10 in glorious detail This striking image from NOIRLab’s Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) presents a portrait of the irregular galaxy IC 10, a disorderly starburst galaxy close to the Milky Way. As well as a population of bright young stars, this...
NGC 5394
Galactic Dance
Image of the interacting galaxy pair NGC 5394/5 obtained with NSF NOIRLab's Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Hawai'i's Maunakea using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph in imaging mode. This four-color composite image has a total exposure time of 42 minutes
IC 1727
A (Galactic) Arm’s Length Away
The two galaxies in this image — NGC 672 (top right) and IC 1727 (bottom left) — appear to be so close that they are almost elbowing each other, like playful children. In fact, the galaxies shown in this beautifully detailed image taken at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of NSF...
M96
M96, NGC 3368
The Sa spiral galaxy M96 is the second brightest member of the Leo I galaxy grouping, which includes M95 and M105, as well as various NGC and other galaxies. At a distance of about 38 million light-years, the faint outer regions just visible at the top and (particularly) the bottom of this...
N44
Superbubble Complex N44
Known as the N44 superbubble complex, this cloudy tempest is dominated by a vast bubble about 325 by 250 light-years across. A cluster of massive stars inside the cavern has cleared away gas to form a distinctive mouth-shaped hollow shell. While astronomers do not agree on exactly how this...
NGC 3109
The Value of Being Metal-Poor
This galaxy, NGC 3109, is a somewhat nondescript — but fascinating — member of our Local Group of galaxies. Located around four million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra, it’s about 40,000 light-years across. Despite its beautiful blue hues, this irregular dwarf galaxy appears...
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...
HD 212087
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...
NGC 7722
Dark rings and new light
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...
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...
An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Collisional ring galaxy
This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one. This...
An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Merging galaxies 1
This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one. This...
An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Merging galaxies 2
This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one. A...
An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Unknown object
This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one. The...
An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Gravitational lens 1
This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one. This...
An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Gravitational lens 2
This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one. Two...
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...
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....
IDCS J1426.5+3508
NASA's Great Observatories Weigh Massive Young Galaxy Cluster
A massive galaxy cluster located about 10 billion light years from Earth.
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...
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...
Markarian 178
Massive stars make their mark
This glittering blue galaxy and subject of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week is a blue compact dwarf galaxy called Markarian 178 (Mrk 178). This galaxy, which is substantially smaller than our own Milky Way, lies 13 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear)....
NGC 4388
Galactic gas makes a getaway
A sideways spiral galaxy shines in today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week. Located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden), NGC 4388 is a resident of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The Virgo cluster contains more than a thousand galaxies and is the nearest large...
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...
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....
Field around GRB 250702B
The stellar field around the host galaxy of GRB 250702B — the longest gamma-ray burst that astronomers have ever observed. It comprises observations from the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and...
NGC 4485
A dance of dwarf galaxies
For this new ESA/Webb Picture of the Month, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has spied a pair of dwarf galaxies engaged in a gravitational dance. These two galaxies are named NGC 4490 and NGC 4485, and they’re located about 24 million light-years away in the constellation Canes...
Sculptor Galaxy
MUSE view of ionised gas in the Sculptor Galaxy
This image shows the Sculptor Galaxy in a new light. This false-colour composition shows specific wavelengths of light released by hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen. These elements exist in gas form all over the galaxy, but the mechanisms causing this gas to glow can vary throughout the...
Sculptor Galaxy
MUSE view of the Sculptor Galaxy
This image shows a detailed, thousand-colour image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Regions of pink light are spread throughout this whole galactic snapshot, which come from ionised hydrogen in star-forming regions. These areas have...
JADES-GS-z14-0
Oxygen spectrum in most distant known galaxy
The inset in this image shows JADES-GS-z14-0 –– the most distant known galaxy as of today –– as seen with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The two spectra shown here result from independent analysis of ALMA data by two teams of astronomers. Both found an emission line of...
NGC 3621
The supernova SN 2024ggi in the NGC 3621 galaxy
This image shows the location of the supernova SN 2024ggi in the NGC 3621 galaxy. It was taken on 11 April 2024, just 26 hours after the initial detection of the supernova. The image was obtained with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Among other capabilities, FORS2...
NGC 3621
A galaxy full of surprises — the spiral galaxy NGC 3621
This image, from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows a truly remarkable galaxy known as NGC 3621. To begin with, it is a pure-disc galaxy. Like other spirals, it has a flat disc permeated by dark lanes of material and with prominent spiral arms where young stars are forming in clusters (the...
NGC 4535
Finding star clusters in the Lost Galaxy
Today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features the spiral galaxy NGC 4535, which is situated about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). This galaxy has been nicknamed the ‘Lost Galaxy’ because it’s extremely faint when viewed through a small telescope. With a...
LMC N159
Baby stars blowing bubbles
Today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week brings a distant stellar birthplace into focus. This gigantic cloud of cold hydrogen gas is called N159, and it’s located about 160 000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado. N159 is one of the most massive star-forming clouds in the Large...
NGC 1792
A storm of new stars
The subject of the latest Hubble Picture of the Week is a stormy and highly active spiral galaxy named NGC 1792. Located over 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Columba (the Dove), the bright glow of the galaxy’s centre is offset by the flocculent and sparkling spiral arms...
LDN 1641
Euclid Peers through a Dark Cloud’s Dusty Veil
This shimmering view of interstellar gas and dust was captured by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. The nebula is part of a so-called dark cloud, named LDN 1641. It sits at about 1300 light-years from Earth, within a sprawling complex of dusty gas clouds where stars are being...
NGC 1511
A disruptive neighbour
Though interesting to look at, NGC 1511 is one galaxy you might not want for a neighbour. Seen in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week, NGC 1511 is a peculiar spiral galaxy located roughly 50 million light-years away in the constellation Hydrus. Like many galaxies, NGC 1511 doesn’t travel...
NGC 4102
Revisiting an unusual spiral
What lies at the heart of this unusual-looking spiral galaxy? The galaxy NGC 4102, featured in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week, is home to what astronomers call an active galactic nucleus. Active galactic nuclei are luminous galactic centres powered by supermassive black holes that contain...
