Nebulae and Star Fields

3D renderings of colorful nebulae against a backdrop of stars, highlighting the vastness and beauty of the universe.

A powerful jet from a supermassive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy. This never-before witnessed galactic violence may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and trigger a burst of star formation in its destructive wake. Known as 3C 321, the system contains two galaxies in orbit around each other. Data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory show both galaxies contain supermassive black holes at their centers, but the larger galaxy has a jet emanating from the vicinity of its black

Star field in space and a nebulae. 3D rendering. Star field in space a nebulae and a gas congestion. Elements of this image furnished by NASA . 3D rendering

Small part of an infinite star field of space in the Universe. Elements of this image furnished by NASA . 3D rendering. Small part of an infinite star field. 3D rendering

This image of the active galaxy Centaurus A was taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer on June 7, 2003. The galaxy is located 30 million light-years from Earth and is seen edge on, with a prominent dust lane across the major axis.

Star field in space a nebulae and a gas congestion. Elements of this image furnished by NASA".. Star field in space and a nebulae.

Small part of an infinite star field of space in the Universe. "Elements of this image furnished by NASA". 3D rendering. Small part of an infinite star field. 3D rendering

A powerful jet from a supermassive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy. This never-before witnessed galactic violence may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and trigger a burst of star formation in its destructive wake. Known as 3C 321, the system contains two galaxies in orbit around each other. Data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory show both galaxies contain supermassive black holes at their centers, but the larger galaxy has a jet emanating from the vicinity of its black

Star field in space a nebulae and a gas congestion. Elements of this image furnished by NASA". 3D rendering. Star field in space and a nebulae. 3D rendering

This image of supernova remnant G54.1+0.3 includes radio, infrared and X-ray light. The saturated yellow point at the center of the image indicates strong X-ray source at the center of the supernova remnant. This is an incredibly dense object called a neutron star, which can form as a star runs out of fuel to keep it inflated, and the unsupported material collapses down on to the star's core. G54.1+0.3 contains a special type of neutron star called a pulsar, which emits particularly bright radio and X-ray emissions. The blue and green emissions show the presence of dust, including silica. The red hues correspond to radio data from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array; green corresponds to 70 µm wavelength infrared light from the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory; blue corresponds to 24 µm wavelength infrared light from the Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) instrument on NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope; yellow corresponds to X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory

This animation shows the events that serve as the basis of an astrophysics technique called echo mapping, also known as reverberation mapping. At center is a supermassive black hole surrounded by a disk of material called an accretion disk. As the disk gets brighter it sometimes even releases short flares of visible light. Blue arrows show the light from this flash traveling away from the black hole, both toward an observer on Earth and toward an enormous, doughnut-shaped structure (called a torus) made of dust. The light gets absorbed, causing the dust to heat up and release infrared light. This brightening of the dust is a direct response to or, one might, say an echo of the changes happening in the disk. Red arrows show this light traveling away from the galaxy, in the same direction as the initial flash of visible light. Thus an observer would see the visible light first, and (with the right equipment) the infrared light later. Astronomers have previously proposed using echo ma

This image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the comet Encke riding along its pebbly trail of debris (long diagonal line) between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

The six red dots in this composite picture indicate the location of the first new near-Earth asteroid, called 2013 YP139, as seen by NASA's NEOWISE.

Far being shone nebula and star field against space. "Elements of this image furnished by NASA". 3D rendering.. Being shone nebula. 3D rendering

Center Of Globular Cluster Omega Centauri.

Galaxy, flare and a blue star in space on a dark background at night for astronomy. Universe, light and a planet or nebula in the cosmos as part of a constellation on an interstellar backdrop

This image taken with the Palomar Observatory's Hale Telescope, shows the light from three planets orbiting a star 120 light-years away. The planets' star, called HR8799, is located at the spot marked with an 'X.'

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE appears as a string of fuzzy red dots in this composite of several heat-sensitive infrared images taken by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission on March 27, 2020. The comet was discovered using these images to track its motion across the sky against the backdrop of stationary stars and galaxies. These images have been processed such that cyan colors represent NEOWISE's 3.4-micron channel (a wavelength of light approximately seven times longer than the green light that humans see), and red colors represent the NEOWISE 4.6-micron channel. The comet's extended halo, or coma, of gas and dust was already apparent in the discovery images. The comet appears much redder than the background stars and galaxies because it is much cooler and therefore emits more light at longer wavelengths.

This is a presentation of two comparison images of the Spiral Galaxy M81 in the constellation URA Major. The galaxy is about 12-million light years from Earth. The left image is the Spiral Galaxy M81 as photographed by the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) during the Astro-1 Mission (STS-35) on December 9, 1990. This UIT photograph, made with ultraviolet light, reveals regions where new stars are forming at a rapid rate. The right image is a photograph of the same galaxy in red light made with a 36-inch (0.9-meter) telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. The Astro Observatory was designed to explore the universe by observing and measuring ultraviolet radiation from celestial objects. Three instruments made up the Astro Observatory The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT), and the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimetry Experiment (WUPPE). The Marshall Space Flight Center had management responsibilities for the Astr

The dark hole seen in the green cloud at the top of this image was likely carved out by multiple jets and blasts of radiation. Herschel.

ESA's Herschel Space Observatory has discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars. The filament connects two clusters of galaxies that, along with a third cluster, will smash together in several billion years.

This picture highlights a slice of Saturn's largest ring. The ring (red band) was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which detected infrared light, or heat, from the dusty ring material.

A colorful creature in a starry sea stands out in this image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Explorer; infrared light that has been assigned visible colors we see with our eyes. The jellyfish-looking object is actually a very close pair of dying stars.

NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes have uncovered a long-lost population of active supermassive black holes, or quasars located deep in the bellies of distant, massive galaxies (circled in blue).

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 11584286

fantasy nebula in space A fantasy nebula in space illustration background Copyright: xZoonar.com/magannx 19325332

The collection of red dots seen here show one of several very distant galaxy clusters discovered by combining ground-based optical data from the NOAO's Kitt Peak National Observatory with infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The green dot in the middle of this image is a dim star belonging to a class called brown dwarfs. This particular object is named 'WISEPC J045853.90+643451.9' after its location in the sky. WISE.

Mercury's Kidney

Ring Nebula, Supernova Core pulsar neutron star Ring Nebula, Supernova Core pulsar neutron star. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Copyright: xZoonar.com/AleksandarxVukicevicx 22369259

Comet Hyakutake C/1996 B2

Two rambunctious young stars are destroying their natal dust cloud with powerful jets of radiation, in an infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

After barely 2 months in space, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO) took this sturning image of the Crab Nebula, the spectacular remains of a stellar explosion, revealing something never seen before, a brilliant ring around the nebula's heart. The image shows the central pulsar surrounded by tilted rings of high-energy particles that appear to have been flung outward over a distance of more than a light-year from the pulsar. Perpendicular to the rings, jet-like structures produced by high-energy particles blast away from the pulsar. Hubble Space Telescope images have shown moving knots and wisps around the neutron star, and previous x-ray images have shown the outer parts of the jet and hinted at the ring structure. With CXO's exceptional resolution, the jet can be traced all the way in to the neutron star, and the ring pattern clearly appears. The image was made with CXO's Advanced Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) and High Energy Transmission Grating. The Crab N

This image from NASA's WISE shows the constellation Cassiopeia.

Astronomers have found that stars are forming more rapidly in the center of a distant galaxy cluster than at its edges, which is completely reversed from galaxy clusters seen in the local universe. This cluster, designated CLG J02182-05102, is shown in the image.

This artist's concept illustrates the hottest planet yet observed in the universe. The scorching ball of gas, a 'hot Jupiter' called HD 149026b, is about 3 times hotter than the rocky surface of Venus, the hottest planet in our solar system.

This image was taken on May 21 and 22, 2003, by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The image was made from data gathered during the missions 'first light' milestone, and shows celestial objects in the constellation Hercules.

These time-lapse images of a newfound dwarf planet in our solar system, formerly known as 2003 UB313 (or Xena), and now called Eris, were taken using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory.

Blobs are intensely glowing clouds of hot hydrogen gas that envelop faraway galaxies. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was able to see the dusty galaxies tucked inside one well-known blob located 11 billion light-years away.

Photograph of a spiral galaxy in constellation Andromeda. Photographed at the Yerkes Observatory in Chicago. Dated 20th century

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

Cosmic image of our vast universe.

Caption In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula.

The Spitzer Space Telescope captured this image of comet Holmes in March 2008, five months after the comet suddenly erupted and brightened a millionfold overnight. Every six years, comet 17P/Holmes speeds away from Jupiter and heads inward toward the sun, traveling the same route typically without incident. However, twice in the last 116 years, in November 1892 and October 2007, comet Holmes mysteriously exploded as it approached the asteroid belt.

A jet of gas firing out of a very young star can be seen ramming into a wall of material in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The Helix Nebula, a planetary nebula also known as NGC 7293, seen in a composite of multiple exposures taken in the wavelengths of Helium II, Hydrogen Alpha, and O III.

New data from the Herschel Space Observatory suggest comets are constantly smashing together around the star Fomalhaut, a young star, just a few hundred million years old, and twice as massive as the sun.

The third closest star system to the sun, called WISE J104915.57-531906, center of large image, which was taken by NASA's WISE. It appeared to be a single object, but a sharper image from Gemini Observatory, revealed that it was binary star system.

A sky map taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, shows the location of the TW Hydrae family, or association, of stars, which lies about 175 light-years from Earth and is centered in the Hydra constellation.

SCI2017_0007: Artist illustration of the thick ring of dust that can obscure the energetic processes that occur near the supermassive black hole of an active galactic nuclei. The SOFIA studies suggest that the dust distribution is about 30 percent smaller than previously thought.

Neon Saturn

Hubble Space Telescope, ultraviolet image of an electric-blue aurora glowing on the giant planet Jupiter. Auroras are curtains of light resulting from high-energy electrons racing along the planets magnetic field into the upper atmosphere. The electrons excite atmospheric gases, causing them to glow. The image shows the main oval of the aurora, which is cantered on the magnetic north pole, plus more diffuse emissions inside the polar cap. Though the aurora resembles the same phenomenon that crowns Earths polar regions, the Hubble image shows unique emissions from the magnetic footprints of three of Jupiters largest moons. Auroral footprints can be seen in this image from Io (along the left-hand limb), Ganymede (near the centre), and Europa (just below and to the right of Ganymedes Auroral footprint). These emissions, produced by electric currents generated by the satellites, flow along Jupiters magnetic field, bouncing in and out of the upper atmosphere.

An archival image of the Red Rectangle, or HD44179, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 onboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Star field in space a nebulae and a gas congestion. Elements of this image furnished by NASA .. Star field in space and a nebulae

space explosion chute A space object exploding into space a the point of creation Copyright: xZoonar.com/michaelxtraversx 736616

A white arrow marks Pluto in this NASA New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager picture taken Sept. 21, 2006. Pluto is little more than a faint point of light among a dense field of stars.

This colorful composite image from NASA's Dawn mission shows the flow of material inside and outside a crater called Aelia on the giant asteroid Vesta. To the naked eye, these structures would not be seen. But here, they stand out in blue and red.

This image of the Triangulum galaxy, or M33, 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

Dense filaments of gas in the IC5146 interstellar cloud can be seen clearly in this image taken in infrared light by the Herschel space observatory. The blue region is a stellar nursery known as the Cocoon nebula.

The Helix Nebula, NGC 7293 located in the constellation Aquarius.

Sunrise over Earth, illustration

This mosaic of Saturn's rings was acquired by NASA's Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instrument on Sept. 15, 2006, while the spacecraft was in the shadow of the planet looking back towards the rings

Floating at the centre of this new Hubble image is a lidless purple eye, staring back at us through space. This ethereal object, known officially as SBW2007 1 but sometimes nicknamed SBW1, is a nebula with a giant star at its centre. The star was originally twenty times more massive than our Sun, and is now encased in a swirling ring of purple gas, the remains of the distant era when it cast off its outer layers via violent pulsations and winds. But the star is not just any star; scientists say that it is destined to go supernova! 26 years ago, another star with striking similarities went supernova — SN 1987A. Early Hubble images of SN 1987A show eerie similarities to SBW1. Both stars had identical rings of the same size and age, which were travelling at similar speeds; both were located in similar HII regions; and they had the same brightness. In this way SBW1 is a snapshot of SN1987a's appearance before it exploded, and unsurprisingly, astronomers love studying them together. At a

Disc around Proxima Centauri, illustration

This Chandra image of Jupiter shows concentrations of aurora x-rays near the north and south poles due to a single `hot spot' that pulsates with a period of 45 minutes, similar to high-latitude radio pulsation previously detected by NASA's Galileo and Cassini spacecraft. Previous x-ray detections of Jupiter have been made with other x-ray telescopes, but did not reveal that the sources of the x-rays, energetic oxygen and sulfur ions, would be located so near the poles. Previous theories held that ions were mostly coming from Jupiter's moon, lo. Chandra's ability to pinpoint the source of the x-rays discards this theory since ions coming from near lo's orbit carnot reach the observed high latitudes. One possibility is that particles flowing out from the Sun are captured in the outer regions of Jupiter's magnetic field, then accelerated and directed toward its magnetic pole. Once captured, the ions would bounce back and forth in the magnetic field from Jupiter's north pole to the south p

two computer generated images: On the left is a normal star field containing the constellation Orion. Notice the three stars of nearly equal brightness that make up Orions Belt. On the right is the same star field but this time with a black hole superposed in the centre of the frame. The black hole has such strong gravity that light is noticeably bent towards it - causing some very unusual visual distortions. In the distorted frame, every star in the normal frame has at least two bright images - one on each side of the black hole.

An asteroid discovered by NASA's NEOWISE spacecraft has been given the formal designation 316201 Malala, in honor of Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. The asteroid's previous appellation was 2010 ML48.

Comet Shoemaker-Levy colliding with Jupiter, 20 July 1994. Artist: Unknown

NASA image caputred November 6, 2010 b To see a really cool video of this event go here a href= http //www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5164627471/ www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5164627471/ /a /b Active sunspot 1121 has unleashed one of the brightest x-ray solar flares in years, an M5.4-class eruption at 15 36 UT on Nov. 6th. Radiation from the flare created a wave of ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere that altered the propagation of low-frequency radio waves. There was, however, no bright CME (plasma cloud) hurled in our direction, so the event is unlikely to produce auroras in the nights ahead. This is the third M-flare in as many days from this increasingly active sunspot. So far none of the eruptions has been squarely Earth-directed, but this could change in the days ahead as the sun's rotation turns the active region toward our planet.

S72-40821 (21 April 1972) --- An artificially reproduced color enhancement of a ten-minute far-ultraviolet exposure of Earth, taken with a filter which blocks the glow caused by atomic hydrogen but which transmits the glow caused by atomic oxygen and molecular nitrogen. Note that airglow emission bands are visible on the night side of Earth, one roughly centered between the two polar auroral zones and one at an angle to this extending northward toward the sunlit side of Earth. The UV camera was operated by astronaut John W. Young on the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission. It was designed and built at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. EDITOR'S NOTE The photographic number of the original black & white UV camera photograph, from which this artificially reproduced version was made, is AS16-123-19657.

MARCH 27, 2014 Comet Siding Spring is plunging toward the Sun along a roughly 1-million-year orbit. The comet, discovered in 2013, was within the radius of Jupiter's orbit when the Hubble Space Telescope photographed it on March 11, 2014. Hubble resolves two jets of dust coming from the solid icy nucleus. These persistent jets were first seen in Hubble pictures taken on Oct. 29, 2013. The feature should allow astronomers to measure the direction of the nucleus's pole, and hence, rotation axis. The comet will make its closest approach to our Sun on Oct. 25, 2014, at a distance of 130 million miles, well outside Earth's orbit. On its inbound leg, Comet Siding Spring will pass within 84,000 miles of Mars on Oct. 19, 2014, which is less than half the Moon's distance from Earth. The comet is not expected to become bright enough to be seen by the naked eye.

NASA's EPOXI mission took this image of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 2, 2010. The spacecraft will fly by the comet on Nov. 4, 2010. The white blob and the halo around it are the comet's outer cloud of gas and dust, called a coma.

Ultraviolet Aurora Movie

This computer animation illustrates how Pluto's moon Nix changes its spin unpredictably as it orbits the "double planet" Pluto-Charon. The view is from the surface of Pluto as the moon circles the Pluto-Charon system. This is a time-lapse view of the moon, compressing four years of motion into two minutes, with one complete orbit of Pluto-Charon every two seconds. (The apparent star movement rate is greatly slowed down for illustration purposes.) The animation is based on dynamical models of spinning bodies in complex gravitational fields like the field produced by Pluto and Charon's motion about each other. Astronomers used this simulation to try to understand the unpredictable changes in reflected light from Nix as it orbits Pluto-Charon. They also found that Pluto's moon Hydra also undergoes chaotic spin. The football shape of both moons contributes to their wild motion. The consequences are that if you lived on either moon, you could not predict the time or direction th

These three panels show the first detection of the faint distant object dubbed 'Sedna.' Imaged on November 14th from 6:32 to 9:38 Universal Time, Sedna was identified by the slight shift in position noted in these three pictures taken at different times.

The tightly packed system, named Kepler-444, is home to five small planets in very compact orbits. The planets were detected from the dimming that occurs when they transit the disk of their parent star, as shown in this artist's conception.

Black hole, illustration

Memories of Many Mixed Materials

A UFO traveling through a starry sky

This artist's diagram based on observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope compares the Epsilon Eridani system to our own solar system. The two systems are structure

Galaxy NGC 4261; Hubble Space Telescope image 1992, showing a giant disk of cold gas and dust fuelling a possible black hole at the core of the galaxy. Estimated to be 300 light years across, the disk is tipped enough (about 60 degrees) to provide astronomers with a clear view of its bright hub, which presumably harbours the black hole.

Composite of Cassiopeia A supernova remnant across the spectrum: Gamma rays (magenta) Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope; X-rays (blue, green) Chandra X-ray Observatory; visible light (yellow) from the Hubble Telescope. Science

ESA's Herschel Space Observatory captured asteroid Apophis in its field of view during the approach to Earth on Jan. 5 and 6, 2013.

This frame from a simulation shows the merging of two massive galaxies. The merging galaxies are split into two views: a visible-light view on the left, and infrared view on the right.

These observations of interstellar dark cloud L1157, are located in the Cepheus constellation. The multi-colored area shows a dust disk surrounding a newborn star.

Though fragile comet nuclei have been seen falling apart as they near the Sun, nothing like the slow breakup of an asteroid has ever before been observed in the asteroid belt. A series of Hubble Space Telescope images shows that the fragments are drifting away from each other at a leisurely one mile per hour. This makes it unlikely that the asteroid is disintegrating because of a collision with another asteroid. A plausible explanation is that the asteroid is crumbling due to a subtle effect of sunlight. This causes the rotation rate to slowly increase until centrifugal force pulls the asteroid apart. The asteroid's remnant debris, weighing in at 200,000 tons, will in the future provide a rich source of meteoroids. Hubble Observation of P/2013 R3 - November 15, 2013

The images indicate that the bubble of gas that makes up the supernova remnant appears different in various types of light. Chandra reveals the hottest gas colored blue and colored green, which radiates in X-rays.

Photograph of spiral galaxy (M 74) in constellation Pisces. Dated 20th century

This x-ray image of the Cassiopeia A (CAS A) supernova remnant is the official first light image of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO). The 5,000-second image was made with the Advanced Charged Coupled Device (CCD) Image Spectrometer (ACIS). Two shock waves are visible A fast outer shock and a slower irner shock. The inner shock wave is believed to be due to the collision of ejecta from the supernova explosion with a circumstellar shell of material, heating it to a temperature of 10 million-degrees Celsius. The outer shock wave is analogous to an awesome sonic boom resulting from this collision The x-rays reveal a bright object near the center, which may be the long-sought neutron star or black hole remnant of the explosion that produced Cassiopeia A. Cassiopeia A is the 320-year-old remnant of a massive star that exploded. Located in the constellation Cassiopeia, it is 10 light-years across and 10,000 light-years from Earth. A supernova occurs when a massive star has used up its nucl

NASA's Cassini spacecraft takes a look at Saturn's diffuse E ring which is formed from icy material spewing out of the south pole of the moon Enceladus. The E ring is seen nearly edge-on from slightly above the northern side of Saturn's ring plane.

composite image of the Tycho supernova remnant combines infrared and X-ray observations obtained with NASAs Spitzer and Chandra space observatories, respectively, and the Calar Alto observatory, Spain. It shows the scene more than four centuries after the brilliant star explosion witnessed by Tycho Brahe and other astronomers of that era. The explosion has left a blazing hot cloud of expanding debris (green and yellow). The location of the blasts outer shock wave can be seen as a blue sphere of ultra-energetic electrons. Newly synthesized dust in the ejected material and heated pre-existing dust from the area around the supernova radiate at infrared wavelengths of 24 microns (red). Foreground and background stars in the image are white.

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found compelling evidence of a planet forming 7.5 billion miles away from its star, a finding that may challenge current theories about planet formation. Of the almost 900 planets outside our solar system that have been confirmed to date, this is the first to be found at such a great distance from its star. The suspected planet is orbiting the diminutive red dwarf TW Hydrae, a popular astronomy target located 176 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Hydra the Sea Serpent. Read more a href= http //1.usa.gov/196B6lZ rel= nofollow 1.usa.gov/196B6lZ /a NASA, ESA, J. Debes (STScI), H. Jang-Condell (University of Wyoming), A. Weinberger (Carnegie Institution of Washington), A. Roberge (Goddard Space Flight Center), G. Schneider (University of Arizona/Steward Observatory), and A. Feild (STScI/AURA) b a href= http //www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html rel= nofollow NASA image use policy. /a /b b a hre

Earth-Based Observations of a Fire Fountain on Io

This image acquired by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a crater (center of image) formed by impact of the Apollo 14 Saturn IVB booster.

A composite image of the Tycho supernova remnant. Spitzer and Chandra space observatories. It shows the scene more than four centuries after the star explosion.

AUGUST 31, 2011: A team of scientists has collected enough high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope images over a 14-year period to stitch together time-lapse movies of powerful jets ejected from three young stars.The jets, a byproduct of gas accretion around newly forming stars, shoot off at supersonic speeds in opposite directions through space. These phenomena are providing clues about the final stages of a stars birth, offering a peek at how our Sun came into existence 4.5 billion years ago. Hubbles unprecedented sharpness allows astronomers to see changes in the jets over just a few years time. Most astronomical processes change over timescales that are much longer than a human lifetime.Object Name: HH 34 Bow ShockImage Type: Astronomical

Outer Space Orb BubbleGalaxy Stars Universe Cosmic Background

Astronomers have uncovered patterns of light that appear to be from the first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe. The light patterns were hidden within a strip of sky observed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Three simulated planets -- one as bright as Jupiter, one half as bright as Jupiter and one as faint as Earth -- stand out plainly in this image created from a sequence of 480 images captured by the High Contrast Imaging Testbed at NASA's JPL.

Milky way - The real shape of our galaxy is revealed in this infrared image obtained by IRAS. Infrared light penetrates the dust clouds and shows that the galaxy appears as a thin disk, just like the edge-on spiral galaxies we see throughtout the cosmos. The bulge in the band is the center of the galaxy. The yellow and green knots and blobs scattered along the band are giant clouds of interstellar gas and dust heated by nearby stars.

Mammogram indicating breast cancer.

A pair of small moons orbiting pluto discovered by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope: Nix and Hydra are roughly 5,000 times fainter than Pluto and are about two to three times farther from Pluto than its large moon, Charon.

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