“Mystic Mountain” in the Carina Nebula – Astronomy Picture of the Week
This close up on the Carina nebula looks like the fantasy "Mystic Mountain" from Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". The image was taken on Feb. 1-2, 2010 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Hubble's launch and deployment into an orbit around the Earth.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Starburst Galaxy NGC 1569
This image of a dwarf galaxy called NGC 1569 was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It is of one of the most active galaxies in our local neighborhood. NGC 1569 gives birth to stars at a rate that is 100 times faster than the rate observed in our Milky Way Galaxy.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This composite image of the nebula near the star cluster NGC 2074 was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on August 10, 2008, in commemoration of completing its 100,000th orbit in its 18th year since the beginning of the mission.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Hubble Finds Ring of Dark Matter
This composite image of a ghostly ring of dark matter in the galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17 was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in November 2004. A false color map is superimposed on a Hubble image of the cluster in order to make the cluster's dark matter distribution more evident.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Distant Spiral Galaxy NGC 4603
This photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a magnificent view of the spiral galaxy NGC 4603. It is a very distant galaxy because it is located in the Centaurus cluster about 108 million light-years away from Earth.
Ara Constellation
Explore the Ara constellation with its mythological roots, notable stars like Beta Arae, a star with planets, and fascinating deep-sky objects.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Pandora’s Cluster
This galaxy cluster commonly known as Pandora's Cluster is officially named Abell 2744. As observed by a team of scientists, the cluster has a complex and violent history. The giant galaxy cluster appears to be the result of a simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate, smaller galaxy clusters.
Aquila Constellation
Discover Aquila, the eagle, in Greek mythology. Explore its notable stars like Altair and Alshain, as well as intriguing deep-sky objects.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Rings of Uranus
This series of images of the rings of Uranus were taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. They were taken at different times when the rings were facing the Earth at slightly different angles. In the third image, the edge-on rings appear as two spikes above and below the planet.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Interacting Galaxy NGC 7469
This stunning pair of interacting galaxies are in the process of merging. The barred spiral Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 and its smaller companion IC 5283 are both located about 200 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. This image was taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – NGC 2346 Planetary Nebula
NGC 2346 is a planetary nebula which is ejected from Sun-like stars which are near the ends of their lives. It is remarkable because its central star is a very close pair of stars, orbiting each other every 16 days. The nebula lies about 2,000 light-years away from us, and is about one-third of a light-year in size.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Jupiter as seen by Hubble
This image of Jupiter was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on June 7, 2010. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, M.H. Wong (University of Califoria, Berkeley), H.B. Hammel (Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.), A.A. Simon-Miller (Goddard Space Flight Center), and…