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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...
Galaxies in miniature
The Hubble Picture of the Week this week reveals the subtle glow of the galaxy named IC 3430, located 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It is part of the Virgo cluster, a rich collection of galaxies both large and small, many of which are very similar in type to this...
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...
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...
Centaurus A
This is part of the image comparison The radio galaxy Centaurus A, as seen by ALMA.
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.
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...
TRAPPIST first light image of the spiral galaxy Messier 83
One of the TRAPPIST first light images shows the spiral galaxy Messier 83. Messier 83 lies roughly 15 million light-years away in the huge southern constellation of Hydra (the Sea Serpent). It stretches across 40 000 light-years, making it roughly 2.5 times smaller than our own Milky Way....
A giant galaxy
Centaurus A is our nearest giant galaxy, at a distance of about 13 million light-years in the southern constellation of Centaurus, and as such, it is one of the most extensively studied objects in the southern sky. It is an elliptical galaxy, currently merging with a companion spiral galaxy,...
A Milky Way cousin
NGC 2613 is a rarely imaged spiral galaxy located about 60 million light years away towards the southern constellation of Pyxis (the mariner’s compass). It is thought to resemble our own Milky Way. This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5-metre Danish telescope at ESO’s La Silla...
The Carina Nebula
The Carina Nebula is a large bright nebula that surrounds several clusters of stars. It contains two of the most massive and luminous stars in our Milky Way galaxy, Eta Carinae and HD 93129A. Located 7500 light years away, the nebula itself spans some 260 light years across, about 7 times the...
Messier 100 and supernova SN 2006X
Similar in appearance to our own Milky Way, Messier 100 is a grand spiral galaxy that presents an intricate structure, with a bright core and two prominent arms. The galaxy harbours numerous young and hot massive stars as well as extremely hot regions of ionised hydrogen. Two smaller arms are...
The centre of NGC 253
Close-up of the central regions of the starburst galaxy NGC 253. This image is based on data obtained with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the ACS on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Thanks to the VLT's sharp eye, astronomers have identified 37 bright regions, a...
The Einstein Cross
The Einstein Cross and the galaxy that causes this 'cosmic mirage', as seen with the FORS instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. This cross-shaped configuration consists of four images of a single very distant source. The multiple images are a result of gravitational lensing by a foreground...
Centaurus A
Colour composite image of Centaurus A, revealing the lobes and jets emanating from the active galaxy’s central black hole. This is a composite of images obtained with three instruments, operating at very different wavelengths. The 870-micron submillimetre data, from LABOCA on APEX, are shown in...
The Einstein Cross
Close-up of the Einstein Cross, as observed with the SINFONI instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. SINFONI makes use of the adaptive optics technique and so, allows astronomers to overcome the blurring effect of the atmosphere, thereby providing very sharp images. The central blob is the...
Star-forming region NGC 346
This new portrait of the bright star-forming region NGC 346, in which different wavelengths of light swirl together like watercolours, reveals new information about how stars form. NGC 346 is located 210,000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring dwarf galaxy of the...
SN 1996cr in Circinus galaxy
This composite image shows the central regions of the nearby Circinus galaxy, located about 12 million light years away. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown in blue and data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space telescope is shown in yellow ("I-band"), red (hydrogen emission), cyan...
The Circinus Galaxy and the position of SN 1996cr
The SuSI New Technology Telescope image as shown in eso0832b is shown again with a blow-up of the location of SN 1996cr. The data obtained in April 1994 of the supernova is not yet visible in this image. However, a small, powerful region of ionised gas is apparent and may be linked with the...
The Circinus galaxy
Colour image of the Circinus Galaxy based on ESO SuSI New Technology Telescope data obtained in April 1993, that is, about three years before the supernova exploded. The observations were made through different narrow-band filters (ionised hydrogen, ionised oxygen, and ionised iron).
How do galaxies grow?
The inset in this image obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope shows that the brightest galaxy in group 3 has also a double nucleus. Thus, these galaxies are currently in the process of merging. This discovery provides unique and powerful validation of hierarchical formation as manifested in...
The quiet explosion
The spiral galaxy NGC 2770 and its two supernovae as observed at the Asiago Observatory. The image was obtained on 12 January 2008 and shows the then fading SN 2007uy and the newly discovered SN 2008D.
Spiral galaxy Messier 83*
This dramatic image of the galaxy Messier 83 was captured by the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory, located high in the dry desert mountains of the Chilean Atacama Desert. Messier 83 lies roughly 15 million light-years away towards the huge southern constellation of Hydra (the sea...
A thick belt around a massive star in another galaxy
The position of the supergiant star WOH G64 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way's neighbouring galaxies, is shown in this Spitzer image (left). On the right, an artist's impression is provided of the thick, massive torus of matter surrounding the star as inferred from...
Spiral galaxy NGC 253*
Measuring 70 000 light-years across and laying 13 million light-years away, the nearly edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 253 is revealed here in an image from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory. The image is based on data obtained through four...
Cosmic interactions
Colour-composite image of the triplet of galaxies, catalogued as NGC 7173 (top), 7174 (bottom right) and 7176 (bottom left), and located 106 million light-years away towards the constellation of Piscis Austrinus (the 'Southern Fish'). This triplet of galaxies makes up part of the Hickson...
Anatomy of a bird
Image taken with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in the K-band. Also indicated are the different parts of the 'Bird'. There is a barred spiral galaxy at the heart of the Bird, and a strongly disturbed massive galaxy just south of it, while the head of the Bird consists of an...
The starburst galaxy NGC 253
NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies in the sky, and also one of the dustiest. The whole galaxy is shown here as observed with the WFI instrument, while the insert shows a close-up of the central parts as observed with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope and the ACS on...
The Tinker Bell triplet
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered a stunning rare case of a triple merger of galaxies. This system, which astronomers have dubbed 'The Bird' - although it also bears resemblance with a cosmic Tinker Bell - is composed of two massive spiral...
Twisted spiral galaxy NGC 134
Image obtained with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the spiral galaxy observed by the European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik, when at Paranal. NGC 134 is a barred spiral with its spiral arms loosely wrapped around a bright, bar-shaped central region. The red features...
The spiral galaxy NGC 5584 and SN 2007af
This image is a colour-composite of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5584. It is based on data collected by the Paranal Science Team with the FORS1 instrument on Kueyen, the second 8.2-m Unit Telescope of ESO's Very Large Telescope. The supernova SN 2007af is the bright object seen slightly below...
VLT image of supernova in beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1288
Colour-composite image of the Type Ia supernova SN 2006dr in the spiral galaxy NGC 1288, as observed with ESO's Very Large Telescope. It is based on images acquired through several filters (B, V, R, I and H-alpha) for a total exposure time of 5 minutes. The supernova is the bright object...
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NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The award is part of NASA’s Science Activation program, which strives to further enable NASA science experts and content into the learning environment more effectively and efficiently with learners of all ages.