Andromeda Galaxy in Ultraviolet

In a break from its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift satellite acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own....

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Meteors and Milky Way over Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier, Washington, USAAugust 2015Image Credit & Copyright: Matthew Dieterich...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Artist's Impression of the Dwarf Planet Makemake and Its Moon S/2015 (136472) 1

This artist's concept shows the distant dwarf planet Makemake and its newly discovered moon. Makemake and its moon, nicknamed MK 2, are more than 50 times farther away than Earth is from the sun. The pair resides in the Kuiper Belt, a vast reservoir of frozen material from the...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Earth seen by DSCOVR Observatory

A NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite has returned its first view of the entire sunlit side of Earth from one million miles away.This color image of Earth was taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope. The image...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Flame Nebula in the Infrared

The Flame Nebula, designated as NGC 2024 and Sh2-277, is an emission nebula in the constellation Orion. It is about 900 to 1,500 light-years away.The bright star Alnitak (ζ Ori), the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion, shines energetic ultraviolet light into the Flame and this knocks electrons...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Hubble Discovers Moon Orbiting the Dwarf Planet Makemake

Peering to the outskirts of our solar system, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake, the second brightest icy dwarf planet — after Pluto — in the Kuiper Belt.The moon — provisionally designated S/2015 (136472) 1 and nicknamed MK 2 — is more than...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Proton Arc and Aurora over Lake Superior

Lake Superior, Michigan, USAAugust 2015Image Credit & Copyright: Ken Williams...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The NGC 4522 Galaxy

Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) allows astronomers to study an interesting and important phenomenon called ram pressure stripping that is so powerful, it is capable of mangling galaxies and even halting their star formation.NGC 4522 is a spectacular example of a spiral galaxy that is currently being stripped...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The Twin Jet Nebula

The shimmering colours visible in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image show off the remarkable complexity of the Twin Jet Nebula. The new image highlights the nebula’s shells and its knots of expanding gas in striking detail. Two iridescent lobes of material stretch outwards from a central star system....

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The NGC 4449 Galaxy

Nearly 12.5 million light-years away in the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 a veritable stellar "fireworks" is on display - here shown in exquisite detail through the eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope.Hundreds of thousands of vibrant blue and red stars are visible in this image of galaxy NGC 4449...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Wide-field view of the sky around the Pencil Nebula

This image of the region of sky around the Pencil Nebula shows a spectacular celestial landscape featuring the blue filaments of the Vela supernova remnant, the red glow of clouds of hydrogen and countless stars. It is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2.Image...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Comet PanSTARRS, Moon, and Venus

It is the object to the left of the big tree that's generating much recent excitement. If you look closely, there you can see Comet PanSTARRS, complete with two tails. During July 2015, this comet has increased markedly in brightness and has just passed its closest approach to Earth....

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The Bubble Nebula

The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, which lies 8 000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. This object was first discovered by William Herschel in 1787 and this is not the first time it has caught Hubble’s eye. However, due to its very large size on the...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Hubble’s wide view of “Mystic Mountain” in the Infrared

This is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared image of a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby stars in the tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Milky Way over Uluru

Uluru, Northern Territory, AustraliaJuly 13, 2015Image Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Optical Image of the Flame Nebula

An optical image, from the Digitized Sky Survey, of a large field centered on the Flame Nebula. A comparison with the composite image from Chandra and Spitzer - shown as an overlay - demonstrates how powerful X-ray and infrared images are for studying star forming regions. The central cluster...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Artist's Impression of the Cygnus X-1

Cygnus X-1 is located near large active regions of star formation in the Milky Way. An artist's illustration depicts what astronomers think is happening within the Cygnus X-1 system. Cygnus X-1 is a so-called stellar-mass black hole, a class of black holes that comes from the collapse of a...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

ALMA’s Most Detailed Image of a Protoplanetary Disc - Evidence for planet formation in Earth-like orbit around young star

This new image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) shows the finest detail ever seen in the planet-forming disc around the nearby Sun-like star TW Hydrae. It reveals a tantalising gap at the same distance from the star as the Earth is from the Sun, which may mean...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Messier 106

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.This galactic fireworks display is taking place in NGC 4258, also known as...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Dwarf Galaxy Leo A

At first glance this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image seems to show an array of different cosmic objects, but the speckling of stars shown here actually forms a single body — a nearby dwarf galaxy known as Leo A. Its few million stars are so sparsely distributed that some...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The Rosette Nebula

Measuring 50 light years in diameter, the large, round Rosette Nebula is found on the edge of a molecular cloud in the constellation of Monoceros the Unicorn. At the core of the nebula the very hot young stars have heated the surrounding gaseous shell to a temperature in the...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Total Solar Eclipse over Svalbard

Svalbard, NorwayMarch 20, 2015Image Credit & Copyright: Thanakrit Santikunaporn...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The NGC 660 Galaxy

This Hubble image shows a peculiar galaxy known as NGC 660, located around 45 million light-years away from us.NGC 660 is classified as a "polar ring galaxy", meaning that it has a belt of gas and stars around its centre that it ripped from a near neighbour during a...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Artist's Impression of the Supermassive Black Hole

This artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. Supermassive black holes are enormously dense objects buried at the hearts of galaxies. (Smaller black holes also exist throughout galaxies.) In this illustration, the supermassive black hole at the center is...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Volcán de Colima (Fuego) Eruption

Colima, MexicoDecember 13, 2015Image Credit & Copyright: Sergio Tapiro...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Stellar powerhouses in the Eagle Nebula

A spectacular section of the well-known Eagle Nebula has been targeted by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This collection of dazzling stars is called NGC 6611, an open star cluster that formed about 5.5 million years ago and is found approximately 6500 light-years from the Earth. It is a...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array

An alien green glow illuminates antennas that form part the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), located on Chajnantor Plateau, high up in the Chilean Atacama desert. Above, the recognisable glow of the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds is seen amongst a sea of stars in the night sky.Image Credit:...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The Milky Way Galaxy above trees in Salamanca

Salamanca, SpainMarch 20, 2015Image Credit & Copyright: César Vega Toledano...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Hubble snaps close-up of the Tarantula Nebula

Hubble has taken this stunning close-up shot of part of the Tarantula Nebula. This star-forming region of ionised hydrogen gas is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy which neighbours the Milky Way. It is home to many extreme conditions including supernova remnants and the heaviest star ever...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Hubble image of galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745

This enormous image shows Hubble’s view of massive galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. The large field of view is a combination of 18 separate Hubble images.Studying the distorting effects of gravity on light from background galaxies, a team of astronomers has uncovered the presence of a filament of dark matter...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Hubble view of the huge star formation region N11 in the Large Magellanic Cloud

This broad vista of young stars and gas clouds in our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). This region is named LHA 120-N 11, informally known as N11, and is one of the most active star...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Karymsky Volcano Eruption

Kamchatka Peninsula, RussiaJuly 13, 2004Image Credit: Alexander Belousov...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Supercell over Wyoming

Wright-Newcastle, Wyoming, USAMay 18, 2014Image Credit & Copyright: Basehunters Chasing...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

NASA's SDO Captures Images of a Mid-Level Solar Flare

The Sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 8:29 pm EDT on April 17, 2016. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Comparison of the Sun to VY Canis Majoris

The Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System and is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. It is a nearly perfect spherical ball of hot plasma, with internal convective motion that generates a magnetic field via a...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Volcán de Colima Eruption

Colima, MexicoJanuary 21, 2015Image Credit & Copyright: Webcams de México...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Comet 252P/LINEAR, Galactic Center and Auxiliary Telescope

This Auxiliary Telescope at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, looks to be pointing at the greenish emerald glow of the comet 252P/LINEAR high above it. Discovered in April 2000, 252P/LINEAR is a relative newcomer to the inner Solar System, traveling between the...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Part of the Coalsack Nebula

This image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope shows part of the huge cloud of dust and gas known as the Coalsack Nebula. The dust in this nebula absorbs and scatters the light from background stars.Image Credit: ESO...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The MACS J0416.1-2403 Galaxy Cluster

At first glance, this cosmic kaleidoscope of purple, blue and pink offers a strikingly beautiful — and serene — snapshot of the cosmos. However, this multi-coloured haze actually marks the site of two colliding galaxy clusters, forming a single object known as MACS J0416.1-2403 (or MACS J0416 for short).MACS...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The star cluster IC 4651

This rich view of a tapestry of colourful stars was captured by the Wide Field Imager (WFI) camera, on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. It shows a open cluster of stars known as IC 4651, a stellar grouping that lies at in the...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The UGC 4459 Galaxy

Despite being less famous than their elliptical and spiral galactic cousins, irregular dwarf galaxies, such as the one captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, are actually one of the most common types of galaxy in the universe. Known as UGC 4459, this dwarf galaxy is located approximately...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Hubble Frontier Fields view of Abell 2744

Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora’s Cluster, was the first of six targets within the Frontier Fields programme, which together have produced the deepest images of gravitational lensing ever made. The cluster is thought to have a very violent history, having formed from a cosmic pile-up of multiple galaxy clusters.Image Credit:...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

A Cosmic Searchlight

Streaming out from the centre of the galaxy M87 like a cosmic searchlight is one of nature's most amazing phenomena, a black-hole-powered jet of electrons and other sub-atomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light. In this Hubble telescope image, the blue jet contrasts with the yellow glow...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

The Rho Ophiuchi star formation region

This wide-field view shows a spectacular region of dark and bright clouds, forming part of a region of star formation in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer). This picture was created from images in the Digitized Sky Survey 2.Image Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2, Davide De Martin...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Milky Way Galaxy, Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy and Small Magellanic Cloud Galaxy above La Silla Observatory in Chile

Image Credit: P. Horálek/ESO...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More

Popocatépetl Volcano Eruption

Mexico-Puebla-Morelos, MexicoJuly 4, 2013Image Credit: Pablo Spencer...

PLEASE SHARE

Tweet

Read More