When Roses Aren t Red
24.03.2006

Not all roses are red of course, but they can still be very pretty. Likewise, the beautiful Rosette Nebula and other star forming regions are often shown in astronomical images with a predominately red hue - in part because the dominant emission in the nebula is from hydrogen atoms.

M42: The Great Orion Nebula
29.11.2017

Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the nearby stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula. The Nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud.

APOD: 2026 February 18 Б Orions Cradle
18.02.2026

Cradled in red-glowing hydrogen gas, stars are being born in Orion. These stellar nurseries lie at the edge of the giant Orion molecular cloud complex, some 1,500 light-years away. This detailed view spans...

Southern Cross to Eta Carinae
26.04.2019

Tracking along the southern Milky Way this beautiful celestial mosaic was recorded under dark Brazilian skies. Spanning some 20 degrees it actually starts with the dark expanse of the Coalsack nebula at the lower left, tucked under an arm of the Southern Cross.

Cold Dust in the Eagle Nebula
14.09.2001

Stars are born in M16's Eagle Nebula, a stellar nursery 7,000 light-years from Earth toward the constellation Serpens. The striking nebula's star forming pillars of gas and dust are familiar to astronomers from images at visible wavelengths, but this false-color picture shows off the nebula in infrared light.

Cocoon Nebula Deep Field
19.09.2018

Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. The cosmic Cocoon on the upper right also punctuates a long trail of obscuring interstellar dust clouds to its left. Cataloged...

Protoplanetary Survivors in Orion
4.05.2001

The Orion Nebula is a nuturing stellar nursery filled with hot young stars and their natal clouds of gas and dust. But for planetary systems, the active star-forming region can present a hazardous and inhospitable birthplace.

Orion on Film
7.02.2003

Orion, the Hunter, is one of the most easily recognizable constellations in planet Earth's night sky. But Orion's stars and nebulae don't look quite as colorful to the eye as they do in this lovely photograph, taken last month from Vekol Ranch south of Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

SH2 155: The Cave Nebula
5.11.2014

This colorful skyscape features the dusty Sharpless catalog emission region Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula. In the composite image, data taken through narrowband filters tracks the glow of ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in red, green, and blue hues.

Cone Nebula Infrared Close Up
6.06.2002

After astronauts repaired NICMOS - the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer - during the latest Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, astronomers were quick to turn the sophisticated instrument on the photogenic stellar nursery known as the Cone Nebula.