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Distant galaxies, nebulas, supernova remnants and black holes - the most striking images from space released this year.
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This image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the world's most powerful X-ray telescope, shows the Cygnus Loop, also known as the Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant of the explosive death of a massive star. This 3D model is the result of a simulation showing the interaction of a blast wave from the explosion with an isolated cloud of the interstellar medium, dust and gas in between the stars....
This newly reprocessed image provides a new view of an enormous, 9.5-light-year-tall pillar of cold gas and dust, part of the greater Eagle Nebula, also called Messier 16. The Eagle Nebula is one of many nebulae in the Milky Way that are known for their sculpted, dusty clouds. Nebulae take on these fantastic shapes when exposed to powerful radiation and winds from infant stars. via ESA/Hubble &...
An image from the James Webb Telescope shows a new mid-infrared view of the planetary nebula, NGC 1514. At the center are a pair of stars, one of which shed its layers of dust and gas as it neared the end of its life cycle. This nebula has been observed at least since the late 1800s. via NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL, Caltech, UCLA
The James Webb Space Telescope captured this sparkling scene of star birth featuring Pismis 24, a young star cluster in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Home to a vibrant stellar nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth, Pismis 24 provides rare insight into large and massive stars. Its proximity...
A detailed view of Jupiter’s south pole taken from NASA’s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles. The oval features are cyclones, up to 600 miles in diameter. Multiple images taken with the JunoCam instrument on three separate orbits were combined to show all areas in daylight, enhanced color, and stereographic projection. via NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles
An image captured by the James Webb Telescope shows an edge-on protoplanetary disc around a newly formed star, surrounded by jets and a disc wind, in unprecedented detail. The image, consisting of many different wavelengths of light represented by various colors, reveals HH 30 to be a dynamic place, where tiny dust grains and massive jets alike play a role in the formation of new planets. Via...
This mid-infrared image from the James Webb Telescope captures glowing cosmic dust heated by very young massive stars in unprecedented detail within the Sagittarius B2. Sgr B2 is the most massive, and active star-forming region in our galaxy, located only a few hundred light years from our central supermassive black hole. While Sgr B2 has only 10% of the galactic center’s gas, it produces 50%...
An image captured by the James Webb Telescope shows NGC 6537 — the Red Spider Nebula, revealing never-before-seen details in this picturesque planetary nebula with a rich backdrop of thousands of stars. Planetary nebulae like the Red Spider Nebula form when ordinary stars like the Sun reach the end of their lives. This phase of a star’s life is as fleeting as it is beautiful, lasting only a few...
In this image from the James Webb Telescope what appears to be a single galaxy is actually two that are very far apart. The closer galaxy lies in the center of the image, while the more distant galaxy appears to be wrapped around it in a phenomenon we call an “Einstein ring.” Einstein rings occur when light from a distant galaxy gets bent by the gravity of a massive closer-by object, in this...
An image captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory shows N79, a giant region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way. Chandra sees the hot gas created by young stars, which helps astronomers better understand how stars like our Sun formed billions of years ago. via NASA/ Chandra X-ray Observatory X-rays from Chandra (purple) and...
An image combining data from the Chandra, Webb, Hubble and Spitzer telescopes shows the glowing Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. Cas A is the youngest known supernova remnant in our Milky Way, residing 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. via NASA/CXC/SAO/ESA/STScI/JPL/CalTech
An image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope provides a fantastic new view of IRAS 04302+2247, a planet-forming disc located about 525 light-years away in a dark cloud within the Taurus star-forming region. IRAS 04302+2247 is a stunning example of a protostar - a young star that is still gathering mass from its environment that can help researchers understand what took place roughly 4.5...
A new look at NGC 6072 from the James Webb Telescope reveals an unusual, asymmetrical scene, potentially caused by a binary star system - two stars orbiting one another. Specifically, a companion star is interacting with an aging star that has already begun to shed some of its outer layers of gas and dust. A planetary nebula is made up of gas and dust ejected from a star, like our Sun, late in...
An image captured by the James Webb Telescope shows the Cat’s Paw nebula, a local star-forming region composed of gas, dust, and young stars. Towards the center of the image (and also in an oval shape at top right) are fiery clumps amongst the brown dust, where massive star formation is still underway. Via NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
The star system Lynds 483, captured in a new image from the James Webb Telescope, shows two actively forming stars responsible for the shimmering hourglass-shaped ejections of gas and dust. The two protostars are at the center of the hourglass shape, in an opaque horizontal disk of cold gas and dust. via NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
The dwarf galaxy Leo P, captured by the James Webb Telescope, shows its patterns of star formation isolated from the influence of larger galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda. Leo P formed stars early on, then stopped shortly after a period known as the Epoch of Reionization, which ended the universe’s ‘dark ages’. Most dwarf galaxies with star formation that shuts down never resume it, but...
An image captured by the Chandra X-ray shows NGC 1068, a relatively nearby spiral galaxy containing a black hole at its center that is twice as massive as the Milky Way’s. A million-mile-per-hour wind is being driven from NGC 1068’s black hole and lighting up the center of the galaxy in X-rays. via NASA/Chandra X-ray Observatory
An image captured by the James Webb Telescope shows the Flame Nebula in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, home to cosmic objects that are not quite planets, but are also so small their cores can’t sustain fusing hydrogen like full-fledged stars do - brown dwarfs. Webb’s ability to see warm objects through dense dust is allowing Webb not only to find brown dwarf candidates, but also to explore...
This image originally from the Hubble Space Telescope uses new filters and processing techniques to show the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy, which sits 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale). The name Squid Galaxy is recent, and stems from the extended, filamentary structure that curls like tentacles around the galaxy’s disk. Via NASA/ESA
An area of deep space in an image combining data and observations from Webb, Hubble, Chandra and XMM-Newton shows a galaxy group as it appeared when the universe was 6.5 billion years old, a little less than half its current age. More than half of the galaxies in our universe belong to galaxy groups like the one pictured here. Studying galaxy groups is critical for understanding how individual...
An image from the Webb Telescope shows outflow from a newly forming star, giving this Herbig-Haro object (HH 49/50) its nickname, the “cosmic tornado.” This pillar of gas and dust looks like it’s topped by a galaxy, but in reality the galaxy is light years away. Herbig-Haro objects are outflows produced by jets launched from a nearby, forming star (in this case, out of frame at lower right)....
