NGC 3507 takes centerstage in this week's new #HubbleFriday view! It's classified as a "barred" spiral galaxy because its arms emerge from the ends of a central bar of stars rather than the central core of the galaxy. This galaxy is located about 46 million light-years away, but a much closer cosmic object glows with diffraction spikes, visible to the lower right of the galaxy's center. That's a star that resides within our home galaxy, the Milky Way, at just 436 light-years away. Keep reading at the link in our bio! Image description: A spiral galaxy seen face-on. Across its center, a broad bar of blazing stars shines. A glowing spiral arm extends from each end of this bar, both making almost a full turn through the galaxy’s disk before fading out. The arms contain sparkling blue stars, pink spots of star formation, and dark threads of dust that follow both spiral arms into and across the central bar. A foreground star sits atop the galaxy. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker #NASA #Hubble #Friday #galaxy #space #stars #astronomy #universe #cosmos

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1天前

These up-and-coming stars reside deep within the Orion Nebula, the closest massive star-forming region to Earth. Hubble's powerful vision reveals these protostars changing their home environment. The colorful, glowing material is actually a jet outflowing from protostar HOPS 153. This jet plows into the surrounding gas and dust of the Orion Nebula. The other glowing cosmic object is actually a binary star system, in which two young protostars orbit each other. Each star has a small, dusty disk of material surrounding it. These stars gather material from their respective dust disks, growing in the process. The dark line that cuts across the bright glow of these protostars is a cloud of gas and dust falling in on the pair. Image credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, and T. Megeath Music credit: "Superstars Only" by SIDDHARTH NADKARNI [ASCAP] via TLL HypeKit Music [ASCAP] and Universal Production Music #NASA #Hubble #stars #space #nebula #science #astronomy #universe #cosmos #telescope

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2天前

Almost 200 years before the launch of Hubble, astronomer William Herschel discovered this galaxy, NGC 691. The intricate detail provided by Hubble's vision would be extraordinary to him. NGC 691 is a spectacular spiral galaxy. Its arms are laced with dark dust and bright patches of stars. The whole galaxy stretches about 130,000 light-years across, and is located 120 million light-years away! Image description: A tightly wound spiral galaxy fills the image. Its core glows yellow, and its arms are laced with dark brown dust and blue patches of star formation. Some foreground stars and more distant galaxies shine throughout. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al. #NASA #Hubble #HubbleClassic #galaxy #space #science #astronomy #universe #cosmos #telescope

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3天前

Ready for some summer stargazing? Check out June's cosmic targets for Hubble's Night Sky Challenge at the link in our bio. Search for star clusters galore, stunning spiral galaxies, and more – then compare your view to Hubble's! In partnership with the Astronomical League, this yearlong astronomy challenge provides successful observers with recognition of their achievements. No telescope? You can look for a local star party or club, also at a link in our bio. Image descriptions/credits: 1 - M83. A massive spiral galaxy takes up the whole image, with a bright pink core and arms full of pink patches of star formation, all laced through with dark brown dust. (NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: W. Blair (STScI/Johns Hopkins University) and R. O’Connell (University of Virginia)) 2 - M5. Many stars shine against black space, more closely concentrated at center. (ESA/Hubble & NASA) 3 - M101. A spiral galaxy fills the image, with a yellow core and arms full of bright blue star formation. (NASA, ESA, K. Kuntz (JHU), F. Bresolin (University of Hawaii), J. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Lab), J. Mould (NOAO), Y.-H. Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana) and STScI) #Hubble35 #NASA #Hubble #NightSkyChallenge #space #science #stargazing #astrophotography #telescope

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4天前

A galactic tilt-a-whirl 🌀 Located 43 million light-years away, the subject of this new #HubbleFriday view is the spiral galaxy NGC 3511. From Hubble's vantage point, NGC 3511 appears to be tilted. These observations were captured as part of a survey of the star formation cycle in (relatively) nearby galaxies. For more information, check out the link in our bio! Image description: A spiral galaxy in space. It is visible at a tilted angle and appears as a stormy disk filled with clouds of stars and dust. It is colored more yellowish in the center, and bluer out toward the edge of the disk, where the ends of curved spiral arms break away from the disk. Spots of red light scattered through the galaxy mark where stars are actively forming. The galaxy is on a black background. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker #NASA #Hubble #Friday #galaxy #space #science #universe #cosmos #telescope

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8天前

Bullseye! 🎯 The huge galaxy LEDA 1313424 ripples with nine star-filled rings after an “arrow” — a far smaller blue dwarf galaxy — shot through its heart. Nicknamed the Bullseye Galaxy, this cosmic site shows a very special moment in time, since there's a narrow window after the smaller galaxy's impact when LEDA 1313424 would have so many resulting rings, like ripples in a pond. Galaxies collide or barely miss one another quite frequently on cosmic timescales, but it's extremely rare for one galaxy to dive through the center of another like this. Image credit: NASA, ESA, Imad Pasha (Yale), Pieter van Dokkum (Yale) Music credit: "The Power of the Pride" by James Joshua Otto [PRS] via Aurora [PRS] and Universal Production Music #NASA #Hubble #galaxy #space #stars #science #astronomy #universe #telescope #cosmos

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10天前

The faraway galaxy HerS 020941.1+001557 (rolls off the tongue!) appears in this Hubble image as the red arc partially encircling the bright elliptical galaxy at center. Why does it look like that? This is an Einstein ring – an interesting type of gravitational lensing. Gravitational lenses occur when light from a very distant cosmic object bends (or is "lensed") around a massive (or "lensing") cosmic object located between us and the distant lensed galaxy. When the lensed object and the lensing object align, they create an Einstein ring. Uncover more at the link in our bio! Image description: A field full of distant galaxies on a dark background. Most of the galaxies are very small, but there are a few larger galaxies and some stars where detail is visible. In the very center is an elliptical galaxy with a brightly glowing core and a broad disk. A reddish, warped, ring of light, thicker at one side, surrounds its core. A small galaxy intersects the ring as a bright dot. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Nayyeri, L. Marchetti, J. Lowenthal #NASA #Hubble #space #science #astronomy #galaxy #universe #cosmos #telescope

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11天前

The spiral galaxy NGC 2082 stuns from 60 million light-years away. Captured here by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, NGC 2082 can be seen in exquisite detail – filaments of dark dust splay across the galaxy's arms and central hub of stars. Plus, Hubble's vision resolves individual stars in the galaxy and even tiny, distant galaxies in the background. Image description: A spiral galaxy fills the center of the image, with a yellow core and hazy arms full of dark brown dust and bright blue stars. The black background of space is dotted with several stars and more distant galaxies. Image credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA #NASA #Hubble #HubbleClassic #space #galaxy #stars #science #astronomy #universe #cosmos

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12天前

We wish a happy 100th birthday to the late Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, the namesake of @NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission, which is on track to launch by May 2027. Often known as the “Mother of Hubble,” Dr. Roman did much more. Recalling when she was asked if she would be interested in starting the astronomy program at NASA, Dr. Roman reflected, “I knew that taking on this responsibility would mean that I could no longer do research, but the challenge of formulating a program from scratch that I believed would influence astronomy for decades to come was too great to resist.” Dr. Roman’s legacy will continue to inspire the next generation of astronomers and beyond. “She had a vision for what amazing discoveries are possible when you put an observatory up in orbit above Earth’s atmosphere, and, for me, that defines NASA as an agency. Time and again, NASA science has rewritten our understanding of the world and universe we live in, and that’s thanks to Dr. Roman.” – Jackie Townsend, Roman’s deputy project manager. Dr. Roman’s passion and dedication drove the development of telescopes like @NASAHubble, @NASAWebb, and now Roman, which is in the final stages of assembly at @NASAGoddard Space Flight Center. This summer, Roman’s hardware will go through more testing before the full observatory is assembled later this fall. Make sure to follow @NASAUniverse and @NASAGoddard for the latest #NASARoman updates. Image credits: NASA Image descriptions are in the comments. #NASA #NancyGraceRoman #HappyBirthday #Birthday #Astrophysics

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15天前