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NGC 1365
Portrait of the Great Barred Spiral
This image captures the elegant galaxy NGC 1365 in the Fornax Cluster of galaxies. Also known as The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy, NGC 1365 is a strikingly perfect example of a barred spiral galaxy. This image shows the galaxy’s prominent bar and its graceful spiral arms, with lanes of dust...
Galactic Center
Galactic Center in Thermal IR
The center of our Milky Way Galaxy showing emission from hot gas that will either form stars or feed the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Technical Details: The image quality for this Brackett-alpha (hydrogen) line image is FWHM=0.35 arcsec. This image was obtained with the...
NGC 4395
Spiral Galaxy NGC 4395
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NGC 4395 is a spiral galaxy with a very low surface brightness. Unlike most galaxies the center of the galaxy is small and faint. Nearly all galaxies are...
Andromeda Galaxy
The Infrared Face of the Andromeda Galaxy
This newly-processed infrared image of the Andromeda galaxy uses data from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope to show off the disk of stars and clouds of dust that fill our Milky Way Galaxy’s largest neighbor. The image spans a wide swath of sky nearly 3.8 degrees across, which is close...
Andromeda Galaxy
The Dusty Arcs of the Andromeda Galaxy
This newly-processed image of the Andromeda galaxy uses data from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope to reveal the complex patterns of dust found in our Milky Way galaxy’s nearest neighbor. It shows the glow of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons glowing at a wavelength of 8 microns.
CEERS
Two Extremely Distant Active Supermassive Black Holes (NIRSpec MSA Emission Spectra)
Researchers using data and images from the James Webb Space Telescope have already captured two of the smallest known supermassive black holes in the early universe. Webb’s spectra show that these black holes weigh only 10 million times the mass of the Sun. Other very distant supermassive...
CEERS
Black Hole Existed 570 Million Years After Big Bang (NIRSpec MSA Emission Spectrum)
Researchers have identified the most distant active supermassive black hole to date in the James Webb Space Telescope’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. The black hole, within galaxy CEERS 1019, existed just over 570 million years after the big bang and weighs only 9...
EIGER
EIGER Survey (NIRCam Image)
There are more than 20,000 galaxies in this field. This James Webb Space Telescope view is found between the Pisces and Andromeda constellations. Researchers using Webb anchored their observations on quasar J0100+2802, an active supermassive black hole that acts like a beacon. It is at the...
Milky Way Galactic Center
Multiwavelength View of Sagittarius A*
An enormous swirling vortex of hot gas glows with infrared light, marking the approximate location of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. This multiwavelength composite image includes near-infrared light captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and was the...
UGC 2885
NASA's Hubble Surveys Gigantic Galaxy
This majestic spiral galaxy might earn the nickname the "Godzilla Galaxy" because it may be the largest known in the local universe. The galaxy, UGC 2885, is 2.5 times wider than our Milky Way and contains 10 times as many stars. But it is a "gentle giant," say researchers, because it looks like...
MACS J2129-0741
Dying Young: Massive Dead Disk Galaxy Challenges the Picture of How Galaxies Evolve
By combining the power of a “natural lens” in space with the capability of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers made a surprising discovery—the first example of very compact yet massive disk-shaped and rotating galaxy that stopped making stars only a few billion years after the big bang....
MACS J2129-0741
Dying Young: Massive Dead Disk Galaxy Challenges the Picture of How Galaxies Evolve
By combining the power of a “natural lens” in space with the capability of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers made a surprising discovery—the first example of very compact yet massive disk-shaped and rotating galaxy that stopped making stars only a few billion years after the big bang....
Hercules A
A Multi-Wavelength View of Radio Galaxy Hercules A
Spectacular jets powered by the gravitational energy of a supermassive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A illustrate the combined imaging power of two of astronomy's cutting-edge tools, the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, and the recently upgraded Karl...
NGC 6217
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has imaged the barred spiral galaxy, NGC 6217, which is located 60 million light-years away.
Galactic Center
Hubble-Spitzer Color Mosaic of the Galactic Center
This composite color infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy reveals a new population of massive stars and new details in complex structures in the hot ionized gas swirling around the central 300 light-years. This sweeping panorama is the sharpest infrared picture ever made of...
Omega Centauri
Starry Splendor in Core of Omega Centauri
The core of the spectacular globular cluster Omega Centauri glitters with the combined light of 2 million stars. The entire cluster contains 10 million stars, and is among the biggest and most massive of some 200 globular clusters orbiting the Milky Way Galaxy. Omega Centauri lies 17,000...
Messier 106
Galactic Pyrotechnics on Display
A galaxy about 23 million light-years away is the site of impressive, ongoing, fireworks. Rather than paper, powder, and fire, this galactic light show involves a giant black hole, shock waves, and vast reservoirs of gas.
Galactic Center
NASA's Great Observatories Examine the Galaxy Center
In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA's Great Observatories -- the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory -- have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy.
Galactic Center
Spitzer View of the Center of the Milky Way
This dazzling infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows hundreds of thousands of stars crowded into the swirling core of our spiral Milky Way galaxy.
Sgr A*
Earliest Phase of Star Formation Ever Observed in Highly Hostile Environment
An ALMA image of the center of the Milky Way galaxy showing the location of 11 young protostars within about 3 light-years of our galaxy's supermassive black hole. The lines indicate the direction of the bipolar lobes created by high-velocity jets from the protostars. The illustrated star in the...
Milky Way
High-Energy X-rays Fill Center of our Galaxy
This picture from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, NuSTAR, shows very center of our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists were surprised to find more high-energy X-rays than predicted in the surrounding regions, seen here as the elliptical haze.
Sagittarius A*: Sgr A*: Galactic Center
Chandra Catches Milky Way Monster Snacking
A compact radio source in the center of our Milky Way Galaxy thought to be a supermassive black hole.
Sagittarius A East
Scientists Discover Supernova May Control Activity in the Center of Our Galaxy
Supernova remnant Sagittarius A East. For the first time, Chandra has resolved the complex structures at the center of our Milky Way galaxy through X-ray observations. In addition to the supermassive black hole, Sgr A*, astronomers have found the remains of a supernova that exploded some 10,000...
Arp 220
Chandra Observes Titanic Merger
Arp 220 gives new insight into what happens when two galaxies the size of the Milky Way collide.
Galactic Center X-ray Binaries
Chandra Finds a Black Hole Swarm Near Milky Way Center
The central region of the Milky Way, about 25,000 light years from Earth.
Light Echo at Galactic Center
Chandra Discovers Light Echo from the Milky Way's Black Hole
X-rays bounced off gas clouds near the Milky Way's supermassive black hole.
Milky Way
New Vista of Milky Way Center Unveiled
A 400 by 900 light-year mosaic of images located about 26,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.
Abell 644
How Often do Giant Black Holes Become Hyperactive?
A new study reveals how often some of the biggest black holes are active.
Sagittarius A*
Peering Into The Heart of Darkness
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Sagittarius A*
NASA's Chandra Finds Milky Way's Black Hole May be Grazing on Asteroids
Illustration of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Sagittarius A*
A Glimpse of the Violent Past of Milky Way's Giant Black Hole
The supermassive black hole about 26,000 light years from Earth at the center of the Milky Way
WISE J224607.57-052635.0
Dusty 'Sunrise' at Core of the Brightest Known Galaxy
This artist's concept depicts the current record holder for the most luminous galaxy in the universe. The galaxy, named WISE J224607.57-052635.0, is erupting with light equal to more than 300 trillion suns. It was discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The galaxy is...
Messier 74
A Spiral Galaxy is Visited by a Trojan War Hero
In the center of this new mosaic image captured by NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is the galaxy Messier 74, with its spiral arms seen face-on. The bright reddish object moving across the lower right part of the image is the much closer asteroid 3540 Protesilaos, seen at...
Circinus Galaxy
A Super Special Galaxy
At a distance of 14 million light-years, the Circinus Galaxy is one of the nearest galaxies, yet is largely unexplored because the Milky Way veils it. There are so many stars and so much dust from our own galaxy obscuring the Circinus galaxy. In fact, this galaxy has two extended spiral arms,...
