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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 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...
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...
RCW 94
Wide-field view around the RCW 94/95 nebulae
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) shows the region of the sky around the RCW 94 and RCW 95 nebulae, seen here at the centre of the image. The nebulae are part of a larger complex of clouds resembling a bat, with RCW 94 representing the right wing and RCW 95 the body, respectively.
RCW 94
The RCW 94/95 nebulae in visible light
This image shows a cloud of gas and dust, shaped like a cosmic bat. The image was obtained in visible light with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The intense red glow comes from hydrogen atoms ionised by the intense radiation of young stars within...
RCW 94
The RCW 94/95 nebulae in visible and infrared light
This image shows a cloud of gas and dust, shaped like a cosmic bat. The image was obtained mostly in visible light with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The intense red glow comes from hydrogen atoms ionised by the intense radiation of young stars...
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...
ACO 3574
A Cluster of Interacting Galaxies
The galaxy cluster Abell 3574 is captured here by the 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, one of around 40 telescopes at the U.S. National Science Foundation Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile,...
M82
A starburst shines in infrared
Featured in this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month is a nearby galaxy that outshines the Milky Way. This galaxy, called Messier 82 (M82) or the Cigar Galaxy, is situated just 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Despite being smaller than the...
GOODS-S field (NIRCam image)
How did the first stars and galaxies form? The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is already providing new insights into this question. One of the largest programs in Webb’s first years of science was the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, which devoted about 32 days of...
NGC 4571
Spiralling star factory
A star-studded spiral galaxy shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This galaxy is called NGC 4571, and it’s situated about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. NGC 4571 dominates the scene with its feathery spiral structure and sparkling...
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...
Featured from the Archive
Sagittarius A*
New Evidence For A Jet From Milky Way's Black Hole
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
