The Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile captured the ring-like envelope of the first recorded supernova. The glowing debris indicates an explosion of a white dwarf star more than 1,800 years ago and was recorded by Chinese astronomers in the year 185.
This artist’s illustration shows the large, bulging star Gaia17bpp partially obscured by a dust cloud surrounding the smaller, enigmatic companion star.
The Sh2-54 nebula was imaged in infrared light with the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.
The Gemini North telescope has captured a pair of galaxies, NGC 4567 (top) and NGC 4568 (bottom), as they collide. Nicknamed the Butterfly Galaxies, they will eventually merge as one galaxy within 500 million years.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning, face-to-face view of the large-design spiral galaxy NGC 3631, located about 53 million light-years away.
This collection of 37 Hubble Space Telescope images, taken between 2003 and 2021, includes galaxies that are all hosts of Cepheid variables and supernovae. They serve as cosmic tools for measuring astronomical distances and improving the expansion rate of the universe.
This is the first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, taken by the Event Horizon Telescope project.
Two galaxies, NGC 1512 and NGC 1510, appear to be dancing in this image from the Dark Energy Camera. The galaxies have been in the process of merging for 400 million years, sparking waves of star formation and warping both galaxies.
This illustration shows the outer shells orbiting the neighboring star Beta Pictoris. Astronomers have discovered at least 30 exoplanets in the system, which also hosts two exoplanets.
This artist’s impression shows a two-star system, with a white dwarf (in the foreground) and a companion star (in the background), where a micronova explosion can occur. Although these stellar explosions are smaller than supernovae, they can be intensely powerful.
This image sequence shows how the solid core (or “dirty snowball” core) of comet C/2014 UN271 was isolated from a massive shell of dust and gas for measurement. Scientists think the core could be 85 miles away.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of the farthest star yet: Eärendel, which is about 13 billion light-years away.
Astronomers have imaged a space phenomenon called single radio circuits using Australia’s SKA Pathfinder telescope. These space rings are so massive that they measure about a million light-years across – 16 times larger than our Milky Way galaxy.
This illustration shows what happens when two large celestial bodies in space collide, creating a debris cloud. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has seen a debris cloud blocking the light of star HD 166191.
About 4.4 million space objects billions of light years away have been mapped by astronomers, including a million space objects that have not been observed before. The observations were made with the sensitive, low-frequency telescope known as LOFAR.
The unusual triangular shape of two galaxies slammed together in a cosmic game of tug-of-war has been captured in a new image captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. A head-on collision between the two galaxies fueled a frenzy of star formation, creating an “eccentric triangle of newly polished stars”.
This image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A combines some of the first X-ray data collected by NASA’s Polarimetry Explorer, shown in purple, with high-energy X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, in blue.
This image shows the Milky Way as seen from Earth. The star icon shows the locus of an ambiguous recurrent transient. The rotating space object emitted radiation three times an hour and became the brightest source of radio waves visible from Earth, acting like a celestial beacon.
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10, which is full of young stars. The bright center, surrounded by pinkish clouds, indicates the location of the black hole and star birth regions.
This image shows the Flame Nebula and its surroundings captured in radio waves.
This artist’s impression shows a red giant star in the last year of its life emitting a roaring cloud of gas, experiencing great internal changes before exploding in a supernova.