Distant Galaxies and Nebulae

Spectacular views of various galaxies and nebulae in deep space. Bright colors and swirling patterns depict stars, gas, and cosmic dust.

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11788752

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11663329

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured these infrared images of a nearby spiral galaxy that resembles our own Milky Way. The targeted galaxy, known as NGC 7331 and sometimes referred to as our galaxy's twin.

Deep space. Awesome science fiction render. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

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Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11663468

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Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11663479

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Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11788752

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 12159296

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 14972351

Outer Space Rainbow Galaxy Stars Universe Cosmic Background

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 13370230

The Cigar Galaxy, also known as Messier 82 or NGC 3034, is a starburst galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major

Tucked away in the small northern constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs) is the galaxy NGC 4242, shown here as seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy lies some 30 million light-years from us. At this distance from Earth, actually not all that far on a cosmic scale, NGC 4242 is visible to anyone armed with even a basic telescope, as British astronomer William Herschel found when he discovered the galaxy in 1788. This image shows the galaxys bright center and the surrounding dimmer and more diffuse “fuzz.” Despite appearing to be relatively bright in this image, studies have found that NGC 4242 is actually relatively dim (it has a moderate-to-low surface brightness and low luminosity) and also supports a low rate of star formation. The galaxy also seems to have a weak bar of stars cutting through its asymmetric center, and a very faint and poorly-defined spiral structure throughout its disk. But if NGC 4242 is not all that remarkable, as with much of the Uni

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The Triangulum Galaxy, otherwise known as Messier 33.

In combined data from ESA's Herschel and NASA's Spitzer telescopes, irregular distribution of dust in the Small Magellanic Cloud becomes clear. A stream of dust extends to left, known as the galaxy's 'wing,' and a bar of star formation appears to right.

NASA's Spitzer, Hubble and Chandra space observatories teamed up to create this multi-wavelength, false-colored view of the M82 galaxy. The lively portrait celebrates Hubble's 'sweet sixteen' birthday.

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 13493903

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11932373

Messier 81, also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major

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Cluster of Galaxies Abell S0740

Artist's impression of a firestorm of star birth deep inside core of young, growing elliptical galaxy.

NGC 1275, also known as Perseus A, is a large elliptical galaxy with an active supermassive black hole at its center which spews plasma jets and filaments over 20,000 light years into the dust and gas surrounding the Perseus Galaxy Cluster (Abell 426)

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Messier 33, the Triangulum Galaxy.

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This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a galaxy that appears to be sizzling hot, with huge plumes of smoke swirling around it. The galaxy is known as Messier 82 or the 'Cigar galaxy.'

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Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11663055

Sometimes, the best way to understand how something works is to take it apart. The same is true for galaxies like NGC 300, which NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has divided into its various parts.

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11663123

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 12155469

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Dust Band Around the Nucleus of Black Eye Galaxy M64. A collision of two galaxies has left a merged star system with an unusual appearance as well as bizarre internal motions. Messier 64 (M64) has a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxys bright nucleus, giving rise to its nicknames of the Black Eye or Evil Eye galaxy. M64 resides roughly 17 million light-years from Earth. At first glance, M64 appears to be a fairly normal pinwheel-shaped spiral galaxy. As in the majority of galaxies, all of the stars in M64 are rotating in the same direction, clockwise as seen in the Hubble image. However, detailed studies in the 1990s led to the remarkable discovery that the interstellar gas in the outer regions of M64 rotates in the opposite direction from the gas and stars in the inner regions.

The Andromeda Galaxy (NGC 224) is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Andromeda

The Hubble telescope captured a display of starlight, glowing gas, and silhouetted dark clouds of interstellar dust in this 4-foot-by-8-foot image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300. NGC 1300 is considered to be prototypical of barred spiral galaxies. Barred spirals differ from normal spiral galaxies in that the arms of the galaxy do not spiral all the way into the center, but are connected to the two ends of a straight bar of stars containing the nucleus at its center. The image was constructed from exposures taken in September 2004 by the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard Hubble in four filters. Starlight and dust are seen in blue, visible, and infrared light. The galaxy lies roughly 69 million light-years away (21 megaparsecs) in the direction of the constellation Eridanus

The spiral galaxy known as Messier 81, or M81. GALEX Orbiter,Hubble Space Telescope,Spitzer Space Telescope.

Nearly all black holes come in one of two sizes stellar mass black holes that weigh up to a few dozen times the mass of our sun or supermassive black holes ranging from a million to several billion times the suns mass. Astronomers believe that medium-sized black holes between these two extremes exist, but evidence has been hard to come by, with roughly a half-dozen candidates described so far. A team led by astronomers at the University of Maryland and NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center has found evidence for a new intermediate-mass black hole about 5,000 times the mass of the sun. The discovery adds one more candidate to the list of potential medium-sized black holes, while strengthening the case that these objects do exist. The team reported its findings in the September 21, 2015 online edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters. This image, taken with the European Southern Observatorys Very Large Telescope, shows the central region of galaxy NGC1313. This galaxy is home to the ultra

Messier 33, spiral galaxy in Triangulum.

Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672 in the constellation Dorado.

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11662961

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Milky Way galaxy, illustration

A surprisingly large collection of galaxies stands out at a remarkably large distance in this composite image combining infrared and visible-light observations. Spitzer.

This latest image from NASA's WISE shows three different nebulae located in the constellation of Perseus. NGC 1491 is seen on the right side of the image, SH 2-209 is on the left side and BFS 34 lies in between.

The Sculptor galaxy is shown in different infrared hues, in this image from NASA's WISE.

The Medusa Nebula, a planetary nebula in the Gemini constellation.

Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 11663272

NGC 2403, a spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis.

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This image shows two companion galaxies, NGC 4625 (top) and NGC 4618 (bottom), and their surrounding cocoons of cool hydrogen gas (purple). The huge set of spiral arms on NGC 4625 (blue) was discovered by the ultraviolet eyes of NASA's GALEX.

Messier 83, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy.

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Small part of an infinite star field of space in the Universe. Elements of this image furnished by NASA".

The Blue Ring Nebula was discovered in 2004 by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) mission. Astronomers think the nebula was created by the merger of two stars, and that we are seeing the system a few thousand years after the merger, when evidence of the collision is still apparent. The blue light in the image shows the debris cloud created by the merger. As the hot cloud of material expanded into space and cooled down, it formed hydrogen molecules that collided with the interstellar medium (the particles occupying the space between stars). These collisions caused the hydrogen molecules to radiate far-ultraviolet light, which was detected by GALEX. Yellow indicates near-ultraviolet light, also detected by GALEX, which is emitted by the star at the center of the nebula and many surrounding stars. Infrared light observed by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is also shown in red, and is primarily emitted by the central star. Detailed analysis of the WISE data revealed

NGC 4676, or the Mice Galaxies, are two spiral galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope combined to make this image of a pair of colliding galaxies called NGC 6240 shows them in a rare, short-lived phase of their evolution just before they merge into a single, larger galaxy.

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Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy Stars, dust and gas nebula in a far galaxy. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 12159273

In an infrared image from NASA's WISE there are some clouds that are so cool and thick that even infrared light coming from within or the background can't penetrate them. The black areas in this image are called infrared dark clouds.

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The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a UFO well, the UFO Galaxy, to be precise. NGC 2683 is a spiral galaxy seen almost edge-on, giving it the shape of a classic science fiction spaceship. This is why the astronomers at the Astronaut Memorial Planetarium and Observatory gave it this attention-grabbing nickname. While a bird’s eye view lets us see the detailed structure of a galaxy (such as this Hubble image of a barred spiral), a side-on view has its own perks. In particular, it gives astronomers a great opportunity to see the delicate dusty lanes of the spiral arms silhouetted against the golden haze of the galaxy’s core. In addition, brilliant clusters of young blue stars shine scattered throughout the disc, mapping the galaxy’s star-forming regions. Perhaps surprisingly, side-on views of galaxies like this one do not prevent astronomers from deducing their structures. Studies of the properties of the light coming from NGC 2683 suggest that this is a barred spiral galaxy

The spiral galaxy NGC 3627, located about 30 million light years from Earth as seen by four NASA telescopes; inset shows the central region, which contains a bright X-ray source that is likely powered by material falling onto a supermassive black hole.

Bright Spiral Galaxy M81 viewed from the Hubble telescope. Credit NASA. Science Astronomy Stellar Space

Outer Space Galaxy Stars Universe Cosmic Background

This image of the Andromeda galaxy, or M31, includes data from the ESA (European Space Agency) Herschel mission, supplemented with data from ESA's retired Planck observatory and two retired NASA missions the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). Operated from 2009 to 2013, Herschel detected wavelengths of light in the far-infrared and microwave ranges, and was ideal for studying dust in nearby galaxies because it could capture small-scale structures in the dust clouds in high resolution. However, Herschel often couldn't detect light from diffuse dust clouds - especially in the outer regions of galaxies, where the gas and dust become sparse and thus fainter. As a result, the mission missed up to 30%% of all the light given off by dust. Combining the Herschel observations with data from other observatories creates a more complete picture of the dust in the galaxy. In the image, red indicates hydrogen gas; green indicates cold dust; and warmer dust

Bright galaxy Deep Space NGC 1275. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Retouched image

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured an image of an unusual comet that experiences frequent outbursts, which produce abrupt changes in brightness.

Top-Down View of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1309 in Eridanus

This cloud of glowing gas is the Iris nebula, also called NGC 7023.as seen in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. It lies 1,300 light-years away in the Cepheus constellation.

The Pinwheel galaxy, otherwise known as Messier 101, sports bright reddish edges in this new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

An amazing 'edge-on' view of a spiral galaxy 55 million light years from Earth has been captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image reveals in great detail huge clouds of dust and gas extending along and above the galaxy's main disk.

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Andromeda galaxy surrounded by stars in sky

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Not all galaxies have the luxury of possessing a simple moniker or quirky nickname. This impressive galaxy imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is one of the unlucky ones, and goes by a name that looks more like a password for a computer 2XMM J143450.5+033843. Such a name may seem like a random jumble of numbers and letters, but like all galactic epithets it has a distinct meaning. This galaxy, for example, was detected and observed as part of the second X-ray sky survey performed by ESAs XMM-Newton Observatory. Its celestial coordinates form the rest of the bulky name, following the “J” a right ascension value of 14h (hours) 34m (minutes) 50.5s (seconds). This can be likened to terrestrial longitude. It also has a declination of +03d (degrees) 38m (minutes) 43s (seconds). Declination can be likened to terrestrial latitude. The other fuzzy object in the frame was named in the same way — it is a bright galaxy named 2XMM J143448.3+033749. 2XMM J143450.5+033843 lies nearly 400 m

The constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear) is home to Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy. One of the biggest and brightest spiral galaxies in the night sky, Messier 101 is also the subject of one of Hubble's most famous images (heic0602). Like the Milky Way, Messier 101 is not alone, with smaller dwarf galaxies in its neighbourhood. NGC 5477, one of these dwarf galaxies in the Messier 101 group, is the subject of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Without obvious structure, but with visible signs of ongoing starbirth, NGC 5477 looks much like an archetypal dwarf irregular galaxy. The bright nebulae that extend across much of the galaxy are clouds of glowing hydrogen gas in which new stars are forming. These glow pinkish red in real life, although the selection of green and infrared filters through which this image was taken makes them appear almost white. The observations were taken as part of a project to measure accurate distances to a range of gal

This colorful picture is a mosaic of the Lagoon nebula taken by NASA's WISE. Also known as Messier 8, or simply M8, the Lagoon nebula is seen here as a large circular cloud in the center of the image, surrounded by innumerable stars.

This artist's concept illustrates the new view of the Milky Way. The galaxy's two major arms can be seen attached to the ends of a thick central bar, while the two now-demoted minor arms are less distinct and located between the major arms.

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This image shows three galaxies playing a game of gravitational tug-of-war that may result in the eventual demise of one of them. Located about 100 million light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish), the galaxy interaction may ultimately lead to the three reforming into two larger star cities. The three galaxies, NGC 7173 (middle left), NGC 7174 (middle right), and NGC 7176 (lower right), are part of Hickson Compact Group 90. NGC 7173 and NGC 7176 appear to be

The Tadpole Galaxy. The small, blue galaxy visible in the upper left corner of the Tadpole ripped through the larger spiral galaxy, distorting it and pulling out a long tail of stars, gas and dust. Young blue star clusters, spawned by the collision, are evident in the tail and spiral arms.

Messier 94, also known as NGC 4736, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici

Astronomers have made the most detailed study yet of an extremely massive young galaxy cluster using three of NASA's Great Observatories. This rare galaxy cluster, located 10 billion light-years from Earth, is almost as massive as 500 trillion suns.

NGC 2207 and IC 2163 met and began a sort of gravitational tango about 40 million years ago. The two galaxies are tugging at each other, stimulating new stars to form. Eventually, this cosmic ball will come to an end, when the galaxies meld into one. The dancing duo is located 140 million light-years away in the Canis Major constellation. Hubble Space Telescope (HST),Spitzer Space Telescope.

The gamma-ray output from Cen A's lobes exceeds their radio output by more than ten times. High-energy gamma rays detected by Fermi's Large Area Telescope are depicted as purple in this gamma ray/optical composite of the galaxy.

Using infrared images from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that the Milky Ways elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two arms wrapping off the ends of a central bar of stars. Previously, our galaxy was thought to possess four major arms. This artists concept illustrates the new view of the Milky Way, along with other findings presented at the 212th American Astronomical Society meeting in St. Louis, Mo. The galaxys two major arms (Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus) can be seen attached to the ends of a thick central bar, while the two now-demoted minor arms (Norma and Sagittarius) are less distinct and located between the major arms. The major arms consist of the highest densities of both young and old stars; the minor arms are primarily filled with gas and pockets of star-forming activity.

NASA's Hubble and Spitzer telescopes combined to make these shape-shifting galaxies taking on the form of a giant mask. The icy blue eyes are actually the cores of two merging galaxies, called NGC 2207 and IC 2163, and the mask is their spiral arms.

IC 342, an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis

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