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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...
NGC 2040
NGC 2040
Displaying wispy layers of red, orange and yellow, the nebula encasing NGC 2040 resembles a vibrant rose in this image captured by the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, which is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF...
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...
Cassiopeia A
Cassiopeia A Light Echoes (NIRCam Images)
These shimmering cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. The gas then glows infrared light in what is known as a thermal light echo. As the supernova illumination travels through space at the speed of light, the...
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...
Phoenix Cluster
Phoenix Cluster (Hubble, Chandra, VLA)
This image of the Phoenix cluster combines data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope and shows how the supermassive black hole at the center promotes large amounts of star formation, instead of hinders it. X-rays from...
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.
Cassiopeia A
Cassiopeia A Light Echoes (Spitzer Context)
This background image of the region around supernova remnant Cassiopeia A was released by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in 2008. By taking multiple images of this region over three years with Spitzer, researchers were able to examine a number of light echoes. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space...
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...
CEERS
Little Red Dots Mosaic
A team of astronomers sifted through James Webb Space Telescope data from multiple surveys to compile one of the largest samples of “little red dots” (LRDs) to date. The team started with the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey before widening their scope to other...
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...
NGC 6505
Euclid image of a bright Einstein ring around galaxy NGC 6505
The ring of light surrounding the centre of the galaxy NGC 6505, captured by ESA’s Euclid telescope, is a stunning example of an Einstein ring. NGC 6505 is acting as a gravitational lens, bending light from a galaxy far behind it. The almost perfect alignment of NGC 6505 and the background galaxy...
Featured from the Archive
Flaming Star Nebula
WISE Catches a Runaway Star in Flames
NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, captured this view of a runaway star racing away from its original home. Seen here surrounded by a glowing cloud of gas and dust, the star AE Aurigae appears to be on fire. Appropriately, the cloud is called the Flaming Star Nebula.
