Stardust in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
25.01.2025

Clouds of stardust drift through this deep skyscape, across the Perseus molecular cloud some 850 light-years away. Dusty nebulae reflecting light from embedded young stars stand out in the nearly 4 degree wide field of view. With a characteristic bluish color reflection nebula NGC 1333 is prominent near center.

APOD: 2025 April 9 Б HH 49: Interstellar Jet from Webb
9.04.2025

What's at the tip of this interstellar jet? First let's consider the jet: it is being expelled by a star system just forming and is cataloged as Herbig-Haro 49 (HH 49). The star system expelling this jet is not visible -- it is off to the lower right.

The Small Cloud of Magellan (SMC)
30.04.2000

Almost unknown to casual observers in the northern hemisphere, the southern sky contains two diffuse wonders known as the Magellanic Clouds. The Magellanic Clouds are small irregular galaxies orbiting our own larger Milky Way spiral galaxy.

CG4: A Ruptured Cometary Globule
6.12.1998

The odd looking "creature" to the right of center in the above photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule. This globule, however, has ruptured. Cometary globules are typically characterized by dusty heads and elongated tails.

Constellations and Cloudy Skies
11.07.2007

Recorded earlier in July, the clouds of planet Earth reflect moonlight and a faint, reddish glow in this serene sea and skyscape. Beyond them lie the cosmic dust and star clouds of the Milky Way.

APOD: 2024 April 3 Б Unusual Nebula Pa 30
3.04.2024

What created this unusual celestial firework? The nebula, dubbed Pa 30, appears in the same sky direction now as a bright "guest star" did in the year 1181. Although Pa 30's filaments look...

Inside the Eagle Nebula
3.02.2012

In 1995, a now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured Pillars of Creation, star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula. This remarkable false-color composite image revisits the nearby stellar nursery with image data from the orbiting Herschel Space Observatory and XMM-Newton telescopes.

The Local Interstellar Cloud
10.02.2002

The stars are not alone. In the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy about 10 percent of visible matter is in the form of gas, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is not uniform, and shows patchiness even near our Sun.

NGC 2359: Thor s Helmet
5.12.2002

NGC 2359 is a striking emission nebula with an impressive popular name - Thor's Helmet. Sure, its suggestive winged appearance might lead some to refer to it as the "duck nebula", but if you were a nebula which name would you choose?

M4: The Closest Known Globular Cluster
23.05.2000

M4 is a globular cluster visible in dark skies about one degree west of the bright star Antares in the constellation Scorpius. M4 is perhaps the closest globular cluster at 7000 light years, meaning that we see M4 only as it was 7000 years ago, near the dawn of recorded human history.