IC 486 lies in the constellation Gemini (the Twins), around 380 million light-years from Earth. Classified as a barred spiral galaxy, it features a bright central bar-shaped structure from which its spiral arms unfurl, wrapping around the core in a smooth, almost ring-like pattern.
\r\nThis wide-field view also features a vibrant scene of distant background galaxies and foreground stars. Some stars appear with characteristic diffraction spikes. However, much of the field is dominated by the more diffuse, orange-red smudges of far more distant galaxies.
\r\n[Image Description: The face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486 dominates the right side of this image. The wide-field view is dominated against a black background of space by many distant galaxies that appear as orange-red dots throughout the scene. A few foreground stars are also visible.]
\r\nA luminous swirl set against the deep black of space, the barred spiral galaxy IC 486 glows with a soft, ethereal light in this new ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month image.
\r\nIC 486 lies right on the edge of the constellation Gemini (the Twins), around 380 million light-years from Earth. Classified as a barred spiral galaxy, it features a bright central bar-shaped structure from which its spiral arms unfurl, wrapping around the core in a smooth, almost ring-like pattern.
\r\nHubble’s keen eye reveals subtle variations in colour across the galaxy. The pale, luminous centre is dominated by older stars, while faint bluish regions in the surrounding disc trace pockets of more recent star formation. Wisps of dust thread through the galaxy’s structure, gently obscuring light and tracing regions of increased molecular gas where new stars are likely to form.
\r\nAt the galaxy’s centre a noticeable white glow outshines the starlight around it. This is light given off by IC 486’s active galactic nucleus (AGN), powered by a supermassive black hole more than 100 million times the mass of the Sun. Every sufficiently large galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its centre, but some of these black holes are particularly ravenous, marshalling vast amounts of gas and dust into swirling accretion discs from which they feed. The intense heat generated by the orbiting disc of material generates intense radiation up to and including X-rays, which can outshine the entire rest of the galaxy. In these cases, the galaxy is known as an active galaxy, with an AGN at its centre.
\r\nThe data used to make this image comes from two separate observing programmes — #17310 (PI: M. J. Koss) and #15444 (PI: A. J. Barth) — with similar aims: to survey nearby active galaxies like IC 486 and record detailed, high-quality images of their central black holes and the stars near the core of the galaxy. By combining Hubble’s sharp imaging with large comprehensive samples, these programmes are enabling detailed comparisons of how stars, gas, dust, and black holes interact in galaxy centres.
\r\nA key goal of this work is to understand how galaxies grow by linking their large-scale structures, such as bars and spiral arms, to activity in their nuclei. To achieve this, the research teams are leveraging both expert classifications and citizen science through Galaxy Zoo, with datasets that will ultimately be released to the public. In parallel, the same images are being used to test how well large language models and other machine learning techniques can reproduce or extend human classifications, offering a new way to scale galaxy morphology studies to the largest surveys that are currently being performed with the Euclid telescope.
\r\nBeyond IC 486 itself, the image is peppered with distant background galaxies and foreground stars. Some stars appear with characteristic diffraction spikes, while the more diffuse, reddish smudges are far more distant galaxies scattered across the cosmos.
\r\nThough it may appear calm and orderly, IC 486 is a dynamic system shaped by gravity and stellar evolution. Over millions of years, its structure will continue to evolve as stars are born, age, and fade, contributing to the ongoing story of galactic life in the Universe.
\r\n[Image Description: A face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486, showing a bright, elongated central bar and softly curving, ring-like spiral arms with subtle blue star-forming regions and dark dust lanes, set against a black background dotted with distant galaxies and a few foreground stars.]
\r\nThe NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the intricate detail of the Crab Nebula with its Wide Field Camera 3. The colours in the image trace Hubble’s detection of oxygen and sulfur gases in the nebula at varying densities and energies. The blue areas are the hottest and lowest density. While there is not a lot of green in the image, showing dense neutral oxygen, there is quite a lot of yellow, which appears where green and the red of energized sulfur are near to each other and similarly bright.
\r\nThe white haze in the central region is synchrotron radiation, which is produced by interaction between the magnetic field of the central pulsar and the Crab’s nebulous material. This emission heats the surrounding filaments, causing them to glow. Synchrotron radiation is also powering the nebula’s ongoing expansion, distinguishing the Crab from other well-known young supernova remnants. The Crab Nebula is the closest supernova remnant of this kind to Earth, making it invaluable to astronomers using Hubble to study its evolution in unparalleled detail.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, W. Blair (JHU). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Crab Nebula"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2607c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2607c.tif","FileSize":24606546,"Dimensions":[3864,3864],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2607c.jpg","FileSize":5286904,"Dimensions":[3864,3864],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2607c.jpg","FileSize":399780,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2607c.jpg","FileSize":13328,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2607c.jpg","FileSize":6089,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2607a","Title":"Crab Nebula (2024 Hubble image)","Description":"The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the intricate detail of the Crab Nebula with its Wide Field Camera 3. The colours in the image trace Hubble’s detection of oxygen and sulfur gases in the nebula at varying densities and energies. The blue areas are the hottest and lowest density. While there is not a lot of green in the image, showing dense neutral oxygen, there is quite a lot of yellow, which appears where green and the red of energized sulfur are near to each other and similarly bright.
\r\nThe white haze in the central region is synchrotron radiation, which is produced by interaction between the magnetic field of the central pulsar and the Crab’s nebulous material. This emission heats the surrounding filaments, causing them to glow. Synchrotron radiation is also powering the nebula’s ongoing expansion, distinguishing the Crab from other well-known young supernova remnants. The Crab Nebula is the closest supernova remnant of this kind to Earth, making it invaluable to astronomers using Hubble to study its evolution in unparalleled detail.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, W. Blair (JHU). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Crab Nebula"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2607a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":80,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2607a.tif","FileSize":24538884,"Dimensions":[3864,3864],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2607a.jpg","FileSize":5185243,"Dimensions":[3864,3864],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2607a.jpg","FileSize":378899,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2607a.jpg","FileSize":13201,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2607a.jpg","FileSize":5766,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Cyan","Yellow","Red"],"Band":["O III","Strömgren y","O I","S II"],"Bandpass":["O III","Strömgren y","O I","S II"],"CentralWavelength":[502,574,631,673]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[83.635615730036,22.015225537845847],"ReferenceDimension":[3864.0,3864.0],"ReferencePixel":[1932.0,1932.0],"Scale":[-2.7599905781471696e-05,2.7599905781471696e-05],"Rotation":-0.060000000000002524,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2607d","Title":"Crab Nebula (new image from 1999/2000 data, annotated)","Description":"This newly processed image comes from data originally captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 1999 and 2000. Updated image-processing technology allows for this archival image to be best compared with more recent data, including those captured by Hubble itself. Hubble received a new imaging instrument in 2009, the Wide Field Camera 3.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, W. Blair (JHU). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Crab Nebula"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2607d/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2607d.tif","FileSize":25723400,"Dimensions":[3864,3864],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2607d.jpg","FileSize":4903570,"Dimensions":[3864,3864],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2607d.jpg","FileSize":396591,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2607d.jpg","FileSize":13926,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2607d.jpg","FileSize":6172,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2607b","Title":"Crab Nebula (new image from 1999/2000 data)","Description":"This newly processed image comes from data originally captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 1999 and 2000. Updated image-processing technology allows for this archival image to be best compared with more recent data, including those captured by Hubble itself. Hubble received a new imaging instrument in 2009, the Wide Field Camera 3.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, W. Blair (JHU). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Crab Nebula"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2607b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2607b.tif","FileSize":25741542,"Dimensions":[3864,3864],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2607b.jpg","FileSize":4836893,"Dimensions":[3864,3864],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2607b.jpg","FileSize":378944,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2607b.jpg","FileSize":13806,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2607b.jpg","FileSize":5925,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["WFPC2","WFPC2","WFPC2","WFPC2"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Cyan","Yellow","Red"],"Band":["O III","Strömgren y","O I","S II"],"Bandpass":["O III","Strömgren y","O I","S II"],"CentralWavelength":[502,574,631,673]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[83.635615730036,22.015225537845847],"ReferenceDimension":[3864.0,3864.0],"ReferencePixel":[1932.0,1932.0],"Scale":[-2.7599905781471696e-05,2.7599905781471696e-05],"Rotation":-0.060000000000002524,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2606a","Title":"Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS): November 2025","Description":"This series of Hubble Space Telescope images of the fragmenting comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or K1 for short, was taken over the course of three consecutive days: November 8, 9, and 10, 2025. Captured by Hubble’s STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph) instrument, the sequence shows the progressive disintegration of the comet over this brief period. This is the first time Hubble has witnessed a comet so early in the process of breaking up.
\r\nHubble caught K1 fragmenting into at least four pieces, each with a distinct coma, the fuzzy envelope of gas and dust that surrounds a comet’s icy nucleus. Hubble cleanly resolved the fragments, but from the ground they only appeared as barely distinguishable blobs.
\r\n[Image description: A time sequence of three panels side by side. From left to right, the panels are labeled November 8, 2025; November 9, 2025; and November 10, 2025. This series of images from Hubble of the fragmenting comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or K1 for short. The sequence shows the progressive disintegration of the comet over this brief period. Each panel features several bright, fuzzy, blue, streaking lights in a diagonal line from the upper left to the lower right of a black background. In the first panel, four comet-like objects appear. The largest is the second from the upper left. In the second panel, the largest object has broken into two pieces. In the third panel, the pieces appear to be moving away from each other along the invisible diagonal line.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Bodewits (Auburn). Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-18T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["C/2025 K1"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2606a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2606a.tif","FileSize":8285218,"Dimensions":[5934,1629],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2606a.jpg","FileSize":1593720,"Dimensions":[5934,1629],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2606a.jpg","FileSize":61658,"Dimensions":[1280.0,352],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2606a.jpg","FileSize":5514,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2606a.jpg","FileSize":3990,"Dimensions":[60.0,17],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2606c","Title":"Illustration: Path of comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS)","Description":"This diagram shows the path the long-period comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or K1 for short, took as it swung past the Sun and began its journey out of the Solar System. On November 10, 2025, Hubble captured the inset image of the fragmenting comet. Hubble took this image just a month after K1’s closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion.
\r\nDuring perihelion, a comet experiences its most intense heating and maximum stress. Just past perihelion is when some long-period comets like K1 tend to fall apart. K1’s perihelion was inside Mercury’s orbit, about one-third the distance of the Earth from the Sun. This is the first time Hubble has witnessed a comet so early in the process of breaking up.
\r\n[Image description: Diagram showing comet K1’s path. With the Sun near middle right of image, truncated nearly circular orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars appear against black background. K1’s tight parabolic curve, marked by solid, light blue curving line, illustrates how K1 swooped toward the Sun from above. It curved around the Sun, coming closest inside Mercury’s orbit, and continued its outbound journey.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, R. Crawford (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-18T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["C/2025 K1"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2606c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2606c.tif","FileSize":42408320,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2606c.jpg","FileSize":1027750,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2606c.jpg","FileSize":79714,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2606c.jpg","FileSize":7900,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2606c.jpg","FileSize":4286,"Dimensions":[60.0,34],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2606b","Title":"Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS): November 2025 (annotated)","Description":"This series of Hubble Space Telescope images of the fragmenting comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or K1 for short, was taken over the course of three consecutive days: November 8, 9, and 10, 2025. Captured by Hubble’s STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph) instrument, the sequence shows the progressive disintegration of the comet over this brief period. This is the first time Hubble has witnessed a comet so early in the process of breaking up.
\r\nHubble caught K1 fragmenting into at least four pieces, each with a distinct coma, the fuzzy envelope of gas and dust that surrounds a comet’s icy nucleus. Hubble cleanly resolved the fragments, but from the ground they only appeared as barely distinguishable blobs.
\r\n[Image description: Three annotated panels side by side show K1 fragmenting over three consecutive days. Arrows show the orientation of object on sky. From left to right, panels are labeled November 8, 2025; November 9, 2025; and November 10, 2025. Each panel shows several bright, fuzzy, blue objects streaking diagonally from upper left to lower right of black background. In first panel, four comet-like objects are numbered 1 to 4. In second panel, the largest object has broken into two pieces, 2a and 2b. In third panel, pieces appear to be moving away from each other diagonally.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Bodewits (Auburn). Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-18T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["C/2025 K1"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2606b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2606b.tif","FileSize":7780126,"Dimensions":[5934,1629],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2606b.jpg","FileSize":1640860,"Dimensions":[5934,1629],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2606b.jpg","FileSize":60211,"Dimensions":[1280.0,352],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2606b.jpg","FileSize":5903,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2606b.jpg","FileSize":4017,"Dimensions":[60.0,17],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potm2602c","Title":"Euclid and Hubble's view of Cat's Eye Nebula","Description":"For this month’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, we turn our gaze to one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula lies roughly 4 400 light-years away in the constellation Draco, and has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure.
\r\nPlanetary nebulae, so-called because of their round shape when viewed through early telescopes, are in fact expanding gas thrown off by stars in their final stages of evolution. It was the Cat’s Eye Nebula itself where this fact was first discovered in 1864 — examining the spectrum of its light reveals the emission from individual molecules that’s characteristic of a gas, distinguishing planetary nebulae from stars and galaxies.
\r\nThe NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope also revolutionised our understanding of planetary nebulae; its detailed images showed that the simple, circular appearance of a planetary nebula seen from the ground belies a very complex morphology. This was particularly true of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, where Hubble’s images in 1995 revealed never-before-seen structures that broadened our understanding of how planetary nebulae come to be.
\r\nThis time, Hubble is joined by ESA’s Euclid space telescope to create a new image of NGC 6543. The nebula is showcased through the combined eyes of Hubble and Euclid, revealing the remarkable complexity of stellar death in this object. Though primarily designed to map the distant Universe, Euclid captures the Cat’s Eye Nebula as part of its deep imaging surveys, resulting in this broad view that situates the nebula against the deep space beyond.
\r\nIn Euclid’s wide, near-infrared and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colourful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the centre formed. Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with high-resolution visible-light images, adding extra detail in the centre of this image. The whole nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together in modern astronomical surveys.
\r\nTogether, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 — revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.
\r\n[Image Description: A planetary nebula in space. The star in the very centre is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. A multitude of golden and white stars, wisps of gas and distant galaxies of various sizes surround the nebula on the black background.]
\r\nFor this month’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, we turn our gaze to one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula lies in the constellation Draco and has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure. Observations with ESA’s Gaia mission place the nebula at a distance of 4 400 light years away.
\r\nPlanetary nebulae, so-called because of their round shape when viewed through early telescopes, are in fact expanding gas thrown off by stars in their final stages of evolution. It was the Cat’s Eye Nebula itself where this fact was first discovered in 1864 — examining the spectrum of its light reveals the emission from individual molecules that’s characteristic of a gas, distinguishing planetary nebulae from stars and galaxies.
\r\nThe NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope also revolutionised our understanding of planetary nebulae; its detailed images showed that the simple, circular appearance of a planetary nebula seen from the ground belies a very complex morphology. This was particularly true of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, where Hubble’s images in 1995 revealed never-before-seen structures that broadened our understanding of how planetary nebulae come to be.
\r\nThis time, Hubble is joined by ESA’s Euclid space telescope to create a new image of NGC 6543. The nebula is showcased through the combined eyes of Hubble and Euclid, revealing the remarkable complexity of stellar death in this object. Though primarily designed to map the distant Universe, Euclid captures the Cat’s Eye Nebula as part of its deep imaging surveys. In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colourful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the centre formed. The whole nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together with Euclid.
\r\nWithin this broad view of the nebula and its surroundings, Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with high-resolution visible-light images, adding extra detail in the centre of this image. The data reveal a tapestry of concentric shells, jets of high-speed gas and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost surreal in their intricacy. These structures are believed to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nebula’s centre, creating a kind of cosmic “fossil record” of its final evolutionary stages.
\r\nCombining the focused view of Hubble with Euclid’s deep field observations not only highlights the nebula’s exquisite structure, but also places it within the broader context of the Universe that both space telescopes explore. Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 — revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.
\r\n[Image Description: Two images of a planetary nebula in space. The image to the left, labelled “Euclid & Hubble”, shows the whole nebula and its surroundings. A star in the very centre is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. The background shows many stars and distant galaxies. A white box indicates the centre of the nebula and this region is the image to the right, labelled “Hubble”. It shows the multi-layered bubbles, pointed jets and circular shells of gas that make up the nebula, as well as the central star, in greater detail.]
\r\nFor this month’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, we turn our gaze to one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure. Observations with ESA’s Gaia mission place the nebula at a distance of 4 400 light years away.
\r\nPlanetary nebulae, so-called because of their round shape when viewed through early telescopes, are in fact expanding gas thrown off by stars in their final stages of evolution. It was the Cat’s Eye Nebula itself where this fact was first discovered in 1864 — examining the spectrum of its light reveals the emission from individual molecules that’s characteristic of a gas, distinguishing planetary nebulae from stars and galaxies.
\r\nThe NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope also revolutionised our understanding of planetary nebulae; its detailed images showed that the simple, circular appearance of a planetary nebula seen from the ground belies a very complex morphology. This was particularly true of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, where Hubble’s images in 1995 revealed never-before-seen structures that broadened our understanding of how planetary nebulae come to be.
\r\nIn this new image, Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with the High Resolution Channel sub-instrument on its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). This instrument is optimised for capturing very sharp images of fine details in a small area, such as the complex features at the heart of the Cat’s Eye Nebula. The data reveal a tapestry of concentric shells, jets of high-speed gas and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost surreal in their intricacy. These structures are believed to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nebula’s centre, creating a kind of cosmic “fossil record” of its final evolutionary stages.
\r\nPart of these data were also used in a previous image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, released in 2004. Previously unused data from ACS is combined with state-of-the-art image processing to create this new image, the sharpest yet taken of this nebula.
\r\n[Image Description: An image of the centre of a planetary nebula. A blue star sits at the centre within a series of overlapping, translucent bubbles of gas. The bubbles have a complex, filamentary structure. The two largest bubbles overlap halfway, creating an eye-like shape with the star at the centre. Jets of high-speed gas point out of the top and bottom of the nebula. Faint, concentric circles of gas also surround the star, out beyond the bubbles.]
\r\nThe low-surface-brightness galaxy CDG-2, shown in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is dominated by dark matter and contains only a sparse scattering of stars. This galaxy is nearly invisible, but by using advanced statistical techniques, scientists identified it by searching for tight groupings of stars called globular clusters. At left, the white box marks the area that was examined. At right is a magnified view of that area. The circle marked with a dashed red boundary indicates the location of the dark-matter dominated galaxy. Within the dashed circle are four globular clusters outlined by small, blue circles. Several background galaxies also appear within the red circle, but these are not related to the galaxy CDG-2.
\r\n[Image description: At left, a field of space with a dozen white foreground stars and a number of small, yellow background galaxies. An unremarkable area at centre is outlined with a dashed circle surrounded by a white box. Lines extend from the box to a pullout at right containing faint, grainy white light surrounded by a circle labeled “Candidate dark galaxy – diffuse emission.” Four white dots are circled in blue and labeled globular clusters.]
\r\nThe Hubble observations include those from programme 15235 (W. Harris).
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Li (Utoronto), Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-02-18T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2605b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2605b.tif","FileSize":5633446,"Dimensions":[3219,1330],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2605b.jpg","FileSize":1034184,"Dimensions":[3219,1330],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2605b.jpg","FileSize":129953,"Dimensions":[1280.0,529],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2605b.jpg","FileSize":10698,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2605b.jpg","FileSize":4329,"Dimensions":[60.0,25],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2605a","Title":"Galaxy field of low-surface-brightness galaxy CDG-2","Description":"The low-surface-brightness galaxy CDG-2, shown in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is dominated by dark matter and contains only a sparse scattering of stars. This galaxy is nearly invisible, but by using advanced statistical techniques, scientists identified it by searching for tight groupings of stars called globular clusters at the centre of this image.
\r\nThe Hubble observations include those from programme 15235 (W. Harris).
\r\n[Image description: A field of space with a dozen white foreground stars and a number of small, yellow background galaxies.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Li (Utoronto), Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-02-18T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2605a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2605a.tif","FileSize":3977092,"Dimensions":[1886,1330],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2605a.jpg","FileSize":713100,"Dimensions":[1886,1330],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2605a.jpg","FileSize":224649,"Dimensions":[1280.0,903],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2605a.jpg","FileSize":8824,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2605a.jpg","FileSize":4581,"Dimensions":[60.0,43],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["ACS","ACS"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Cyan","Orange"],"Band":["g","I"],"Bandpass":["g","I"],"CentralWavelength":[475,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[49.30259081181922,41.34910093817381],"ReferenceDimension":[1886.0,1330.0],"ReferencePixel":[943.0,665.0],"Scale":[-2.7785989977854368e-05,2.7785989977854368e-05],"Rotation":231.04000000000002,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2605c","Title":"Dark galaxy CDG-2 near Perseus Cluster (annotated compass image)","Description":"This image of dark galaxy CDG-2 was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s ACS (Advanced Camera for Surveys) with additional data from the European Space Agency’s Euclid space mission.
\r\nThe image shows a scale bar, compass arrows, and colour key for reference.
\r\nThe scale bar is labeled in light-years along the top, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year. (It takes about 36,000 years for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the scale bar.) One light-year is equal to about 9.46 trillion kilometers.
\r\nThe scale bar is also labeled in arcseconds, which is a measure of angular distance on the sky. One arcsecond is equal to an angular measurement of 1/3600 of one degree. There are 60 arcminutes in a degree and 60 arcseconds in an arcminute. (The full Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arcminutes.) The actual size of an object that covers one arcsecond on the sky depends on its distance from the telescope.
\r\nThe north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).
\r\nThe colour key shows which ACS filters were used when collecting the light. The colour of each filter name is the visible-light colour used to represent the light that passes through that filter.
\r\n[Image description: Image labeled “CDG 2 near Perseus Cluster, HST ACS WFC”. At left, a field of space with a dozen white foreground stars and a number of small, yellow background galaxies. An unremarkable area at center is outlined with a dashed red circle surrounded by a white box. Lines extend from the box to a pullout at right containing faint, grainy white light surrounded by a red circle labeled “Candidate dark galaxy – diffuse emission.” Four white dots are circled in blue and labeled globular clusters. Compass arrows at lower left show east pointing to 1 o’clock and north pointing to 4 o’clock. A scale bar is labeled 36,000 light-years and 30 arcseconds. It extends about one-eighth of the way across the image. A colour key shows F475W in blue, F814W in orange, and Euclid in gray.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Li (Utoronto), Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-02-18T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2605c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":49,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2605c.tif","FileSize":5643342,"Dimensions":[3219,1330],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2605c.jpg","FileSize":1058952,"Dimensions":[3219,1330],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2605c.jpg","FileSize":139423,"Dimensions":[1280.0,529],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2605c.jpg","FileSize":10869,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2605c.jpg","FileSize":4377,"Dimensions":[60.0,25],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2604a","Title":"The Egg Nebula","Description":"This newly processed image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the clearest view yet of the Egg Nebula. It is a preplanetary nebula, a structure of gas and dust created as a Sun-like star approaches the end of its life. The Egg that we see now will eventually hatch, revealing a white dwarf at its centre and leaving its shell to become a spectacular planetary nebula.
\r\nMany preplanetary nebulae are relatively dim and hard to spot. They are made of layers of gas ejected by the star, but that star is not yet hot enough to ionise the gas and cause it to glow. The Egg Nebula is relatively unique, easily visible as a sparkling jewelled egg in space. Powerful beams of starlight blast out of the inner cloud, two a-side, giving a breathtaking illumination to this cosmic structure. Fast-moving outflows of hot molecular hydrogen also emerge from within the dust cloud, visible just at the base of the searchlight beams. These outflows glow with infrared light, which is shown in this image by orange highlights.
\r\nThe central cloud of dust is surrounded by concentric rings, themselves made up from thin, faint arcs of gas. These were created by successive outbursts from the central star, which ejected a little more material from its outer surface every few hundred years. The beams of starlight are reflected by these layers of gas, creating an appearance like ripples on the surface of water. The way that gas molecules reflect and scatter light gives a bluish colour to the arcs. The reflected starlight reveals important details about the central star, which is impossible to view directly in its dusty shell.
\r\n[Image description: In the centre an opaque cloud of grey gas hides a star. Two strong beams of light from the star emerge from large holes in both sides of the cloud. The central cloud is surrounded by concentric, wispy shells of gas, illuminated by the star’s light. The shells reflect extra light where they’re hit by the twin beams. A crowd of smaller stars with cross-shaped spikes over them surround the nebula on a black background.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Balick (University of Washington)","PublicationDate":"2026-02-10T15:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Egg Nebula"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2604a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":80,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2604a.tif","FileSize":15566658,"Dimensions":[1668,1552],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2604a.jpg","FileSize":385175,"Dimensions":[1668,1552],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2604a.jpg","FileSize":148922,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1191],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2604a.jpg","FileSize":9655,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2604a.jpg","FileSize":5332,"Dimensions":[60.0,56],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Blue","Blue","Blue","Green","Green","Red"],"Band":["V","I","S II","YJ","YJ","H","H"],"Bandpass":["V","I","S II","YJ","YJ","H","H"],"CentralWavelength":[606,814,673,1100,1100,1600,1600]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[315.57752886827467,36.69344968540613],"ReferenceDimension":[1668.0,1552.0],"ReferencePixel":[834.0,776.0],"Scale":[-1.1021263702166489e-05,1.1021263702166489e-05],"Rotation":44.9599999999998,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potm2601a","Title":"Dark rings and new light","Description":"For this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, we have a sight of an uncommon galaxy with a striking appearance. This is NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.
\r\nA “lenticular”, meaning “lens-shaped”, galaxy is a type that sits in between the more familiar spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. It is also less common than these — partly because when a galaxy has an ambiguous appearance, it can be hard to determine if it is actually a spiral, actually an elliptical galaxy, or something in between. Many of the known lenticular galaxies sport features of both spiral and elliptical galaxies. In this case, NGC 7722 lacks the defined arms of a spiral galaxy, while it has an extended, glowing halo and a bright bulge in the centre similar to an elliptical galaxy. Unlike elliptical galaxies, it has a visible disc — concentric rings swirl around its bright nucleus. Its most prominent feature, however, is undoubtedly the long lanes of dark red dust coiling around the outer disc and halo.
\r\nThis new Hubble image, the sharpest yet taken of NGC 7722, brings the impressive dust lanes into sharp focus. Bands of dust like this are not uncommon in lenticular galaxies, and they stand out against the broad, smooth halo of light that typically surrounds lenticular galaxies. The distinctive dust lanes of NGC 7722 are thought to result from a merger with another galaxy in the past, similar to other lenticular galaxies. It is not yet fully understood how lenticular galaxies form, but mergers and other gravitational interactions are thought to play an important part, reshaping galaxies and exhausting their supplies of gas while bringing new dust.
\r\nWhile it doesn’t host as many new, young stars as a spiral galaxy, there’s still activity in NGC 7722: in 2020 it was host to the explosion of a star that could be detected from Earth. SN 2020SSF was a Type Ia supernova, an event which occurs when a white dwarf star in a binary system siphons enough mass away from its companion star that it grows unstable and explodes. These explosions output a remarkably consistent level of light: by measuring how bright they appear from Earth and comparing against how bright they really are, it’s possible to tell how far away they must be. Type Ia supernovae are one of the best ways to measure distances to galaxies, so understanding exactly how they work is of great importance to astronomers.
\r\nTaken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, this Hubble image was obtained as part of an observing programme (#16691, PI: R. J. Foley) that followed up on recent supernovae. SN 2020SSF is not visible in this image, as it was actually taken two years later, when the supernova had long faded. This was on purpose: the aim of the observations was to witness the aftereffects of the supernova and examine its surroundings, which can only be done once the intense light of the explosion is gone. With Hubble’s clear vision, astronomers can search for radioactive material created by the supernova, catalogue its neighbours to see how old the star likely was, and look for the companion star it left behind — all from almost 200 million light-years away.
\r\n[Image Description: A disc-shaped galaxy. It glows brightly at the centre and shines a faint white light all around it. The disc is made up of tightly-packed rings of dust, some darker and some lighter. Wide, long lanes of dark reddish dust cross the galaxy in front of its edge, blocking out some of its light; the long strands twist and break apart at each side. A couple of nearby stars and distant galaxies are also visible on the black background.]
\r\nFor this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, we have a sight of an uncommon galaxy with a striking appearance. This is NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.
\r\nA “lenticular”, meaning “lens-shaped”, galaxy is a type that sits in between the more familiar spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. It is also less common than these — partly because when a galaxy has an ambiguous appearance, it can be hard to determine if it is actually a spiral, actually an elliptical galaxy, or something in between. Many of the known lenticular galaxies sport features of both spiral and elliptical galaxies. In this case, NGC 7722 lacks the defined arms of a spiral galaxy, while it has an extended, glowing halo and a bright bulge in the centre similar to an elliptical galaxy. Unlike elliptical galaxies, it has a visible disc — concentric rings swirl around its bright nucleus. Its most prominent feature, however, is undoubtedly the long lanes of dark red dust coiling around the outer disc and halo.
\r\nThis new Hubble image, the sharpest yet taken of NGC 7722, brings the impressive dust lanes into sharp focus. Bands of dust like this are not uncommon in lenticular galaxies, and they stand out against the broad, smooth halo of light that typically surrounds lenticular galaxies. The distinctive dust lanes of NGC 7722 are thought to result from a merger with another galaxy in the past, similar to other lenticular galaxies. It is not yet fully understood how lenticular galaxies form, but mergers and other gravitational interactions are thought to play an important part, reshaping galaxies and exhausting their supplies of gas while bringing new dust.
\r\nWhile it doesn’t host as many new, young stars as a spiral galaxy, there’s still activity in NGC 7722: in 2020 it was host to the explosion of a star that could be detected from Earth. SN 2020SSF was a Type Ia supernova, an event which occurs when a white dwarf star in a binary system siphons enough mass away from its companion star that it grows unstable and explodes. These explosions output a remarkably consistent level of light: by measuring how bright they appear from Earth and comparing against how bright they really are, it’s possible to tell how far away they must be. Type Ia supernovae are one of the best ways to measure distances to galaxies, so understanding exactly how they work is of great importance to astronomers.
\r\nTaken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, this Hubble image was obtained as part of an observing programme (#16691, PI: R. J. Foley) that followed up on recent supernovae. SN 2020SSF is not visible in this image, as it was actually taken two years later, when the supernova had long faded. This was on purpose: the aim of the observations was to witness the aftereffects of the supernova and examine its surroundings, which can only be done once the intense light of the explosion is gone. With Hubble’s clear vision, astronomers can search for radioactive material created by the supernova, catalogue its neighbours to see how old the star likely was, and look for the companion star it left behind — all from almost 200 million light-years away.
\r\n[Image Description: A disc-shaped galaxy. It glows brightly at the centre and shines a faint white light all around it. The disc is made up of tightly-packed rings of dust, some darker and some lighter. Wide, long lanes of dark reddish dust cross the galaxy in front of its edge, blocking out some of its light; the long strands twist and break apart at each side. A couple of nearby stars and distant galaxies are also visible on the black background.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURAAcknowledgement: Mehmet Yüksek","PublicationDate":"2026-01-30T09:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 7722"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/potm2601b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/potm2601b.tif","FileSize":94939356,"Dimensions":[3877,4080],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/potm2601b.jpg","FileSize":4457192,"Dimensions":[3877,4080],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/potm2601b.jpg","FileSize":196846,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1348],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/potm2601b.jpg","FileSize":6585,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/potm2601b.jpg","FileSize":4530,"Dimensions":[60.0,64],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3"],"Distance":[187000000.0,null],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Green","Green","Red"],"Band":["V","V","I","I"],"Bandpass":["V","V","I","I"],"CentralWavelength":[555,555,814,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[354.6669566920089,15.953596817128483],"ReferenceDimension":[3877.0,4080.0],"ReferencePixel":[1938.5,2040.0],"Scale":[-1.1005722199886993e-05,1.1005722199886993e-05],"Rotation":98.70000000000009,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2603d","Title":"An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Merging galaxies 2","Description":"This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one.
\r\nA small collection of gravitationally interacting galaxies has been found here. Galaxy mergers are relatively common — they were the most abundant type of anomaly found by the researchers — and are easily identified by the distorted shapes of the galaxies’ discs and the tidal tails stretching out between them, caused by the massive gravitational forces slowly pulling each galaxy apart. Eventually the galaxies we see here will be totally disrupted and finally settle into the shape of a single galaxy, most likely an elliptical galaxy.
\r\nRead more about this new research here.
\r\n[Image description: A small image of several galaxies with distorted shapes. The central galaxy is bluish in colour with a bright centre. It is stretched out into a long, curled bar. At one end sits a reddish galaxy which the bar curves around.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. O’Ryan, P. Gómez (European Space Agency), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-27T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2603d/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2603d.tif","FileSize":2355836,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2603d.jpg","FileSize":66899,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2603d.jpg","FileSize":90095,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2603d.jpg","FileSize":7931,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2603d.jpg","FileSize":5073,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["ACS","ACS"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Cyan","Orange"],"Band":["V","I"],"Bandpass":["V","I"],"CentralWavelength":[606,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[62.23660825790325,-24.311848925331137],"ReferenceDimension":[623.0,623.0],"ReferencePixel":[311.5,311.5],"Scale":[-3.1089233647273557e-06,3.1089233647273557e-06],"Rotation":-1.2999999999999994,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2603c","Title":"An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Merging galaxies 1","Description":"This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one.
\r\nThis oval-shaped galaxy is perhaps most striking for the long, thin beam of light stretching across its centre. This is thought to be the result of a galaxy merger. A less conspicuous feature is the small arc of light just below the galaxy’s core. This is thought to be the secondary galaxy in the merger, or a potential image formed by gravitational lensing, where the mass of the foreground galaxy has bent light from a distant galaxy behind it to create the small arc of light.
\r\nRead more about this new research here.
\r\n[Image description: A small image of an elliptical galaxy. It is bright in the centre and a beam of light crosses it on the long axis. The rest of the galaxy is lit by the pale gold glow from the centre. Below the centre sits a small arc of light with a bright spot on it.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. O’Ryan, P. Gómez (European Space Agency), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-27T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2603c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2603c.tif","FileSize":2354952,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2603c.jpg","FileSize":57053,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2603c.jpg","FileSize":73739,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2603c.jpg","FileSize":6955,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2603c.jpg","FileSize":4723,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["ACS","ACS"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Cyan","Orange"],"Band":["V","I"],"Bandpass":["V","I"],"CentralWavelength":[606,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[70.90476881499492,-50.291337940634634],"ReferenceDimension":[623.0,623.0],"ReferencePixel":[311.5,311.5],"Scale":[-3.3300004103029383e-06,3.3300004103029383e-06],"Rotation":-0.5200000000000095,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2603b","Title":"An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Collisional ring galaxy","Description":"This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one.
\r\nThis object was classified by the research team as a “collisional ring” galaxy — one of only two that were found. These are galaxies which are partly or wholly ring-shaped, but with a disrupted or bent disc that is noticeably luminous. These ring formations arise when a galaxy collides with another by crashing right through its centre, creating a roiling, circular wave of star formation. Hubble has featured other collisional ring galaxies before, but the precise alignment between colliding galaxies needed to create them means they are quite rare, including in AI-assisted searches. This galaxy was not previously recorded.
\r\nRead more about this new research here.
\r\n[Image description: A small image of a mostly red galaxy. Unusually, it is ring-shaped with spots of light around the ring, a protruding arm on one side and a dark hole in the centre.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. O’Ryan, P. Gómez (European Space Agency), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-27T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2603b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2603b.tif","FileSize":2355752,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2603b.jpg","FileSize":68026,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2603b.jpg","FileSize":90205,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2603b.jpg","FileSize":7989,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2603b.jpg","FileSize":4895,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["ACS","ACS"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Cyan","Orange"],"Band":["B","I"],"Bandpass":["B","I"],"CentralWavelength":[435,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[210.79623473565135,15.524650639755903],"ReferenceDimension":[623.0,623.0],"ReferencePixel":[311.5,311.5],"Scale":[-2.877773778848426e-06,2.877773778848426e-06],"Rotation":0.0,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2603g","Title":"An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Gravitational lens 2","Description":"This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one.
\r\nTwo dramatically different galaxies are revealed in this Hubble image. A compact, reddish elliptical galaxy is accompanied by a blue spiral galaxy squashed into an arc shape. This is the result of gravitational lensing, where light from the spiral galaxy — actually residing in the background — has been bent by the mass of the heavy elliptical galaxy, creating this distorted image of the spiral.
\r\nRead more about this new research here.
\r\n[Image description: A small image of a galaxy. It is compact and oval-shaped, dark orange in colour with a white spot at the very centre. Along the right edge of this galaxy sits a bright blue arc, the same length as the elliptical galaxy. This is an image of a background galaxy, formed by gravitational lensing.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. O’Ryan, P. Gómez (European Space Agency), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-27T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2603g/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":32,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2603g.tif","FileSize":2355390,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2603g.jpg","FileSize":68412,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2603g.jpg","FileSize":88875,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2603g.jpg","FileSize":7722,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2603g.jpg","FileSize":4714,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["ACS","ACS","ACS"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Green","Red"],"Band":["B","V","I"],"Bandpass":["B","V","I"],"CentralWavelength":[435,606,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[43.611281064443496,-58.94203488225897],"ReferenceDimension":[623.0,623.0],"ReferencePixel":[311.5,311.5],"Scale":[-3.0005956214338916e-06,3.0005956214338916e-06],"Rotation":-0.15999999999999573,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2603e","Title":"An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Unknown object","Description":"This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one.
\r\nThe strange, bi-polar galaxy seen here is certainly anomalous, with its compact, swirling core and two open lobes at the sides. Exactly what kind of galaxy it is is unclear, and it was not previously known to astronomers. It’s an example of the kinds of new and unusual finds that can be made by AI-assisted data processing, even from well-known datasets.
\r\nRead more about this new research here.
\r\n[Image description: A small image of a galaxy. Its centre is a small disc containing blotches of light. Two arcs of light come out from the top, one curving around to the left and the other to the right, both then rejoining the galaxy at the bottom creating a lobe on each side. Light from some other object just enters the frame at the top-right.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. O’Ryan, P. Gómez (European Space Agency), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-27T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2603e/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":40,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2603e.tif","FileSize":2355292,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2603e.jpg","FileSize":60651,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2603e.jpg","FileSize":79500,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2603e.jpg","FileSize":7511,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2603e.jpg","FileSize":4944,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["ACS","ACS"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Cyan","Orange"],"Band":["V","I"],"Bandpass":["V","I"],"CentralWavelength":[606,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[32.39982825221214,-4.634339120880826],"ReferenceDimension":[623.0,623.0],"ReferencePixel":[311.5,311.5],"Scale":[-3.473222454179616e-06,3.473222454179616e-06],"Rotation":-0.7399999999999973,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2603f","Title":"An anomaly from Hubble’s archive — Gravitational lens 1","Description":"This is a previously-undiscovered astrophysical anomaly, found in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to sift through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just days, turning up rare and anomalous objects like this one.
\r\nThis image depicts a gravitational lens, where the enormous mass of one galaxy distorts, bends and magnifies light from another galaxy behind it, resulting in a warped image of the background galaxy. The gravitational lens is easily identifiable here, with the lensed galaxy forming an arc around the dense core of the foreground, lensing galaxy.
\r\nRead more about this new research here.
\r\n[Image description: A small image of a galaxy. It’s round with a bright white centre and a faint halo of light around that. A band of light runs down through the galaxy, notably bending around the galaxy’s core as if pushed away. This band is an image of a background galaxy, formed by gravitational lensing.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. O’Ryan, P. Gómez (European Space Agency), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-27T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2603f/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":40,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2603f.tif","FileSize":2355006,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2603f.jpg","FileSize":63635,"Dimensions":[623,623],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2603f.jpg","FileSize":81348,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2603f.jpg","FileSize":7324,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2603f.jpg","FileSize":4693,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["ACS","ACS"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Cyan","Orange"],"Band":["V","I"],"Bandpass":["V","I"],"CentralWavelength":[606,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[44.39805951737424,-22.15788467247315],"ReferenceDimension":[623.0,623.0],"ReferencePixel":[311.5,311.5],"Scale":[-3.3173985841594478e-06,3.3173985841594478e-06],"Rotation":-0.25999999999999995,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2603a","Title":"Astrophysical anomalies from Hubble’s archive","Description":"Six previously-undiscovered, weird and fascinating astrophysical objects are displayed in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. These were discovered by researchers from the European Space Agency using a new AI-assisted method. The AI tool allowed them to search nearly 100 million image cutouts and uncover anomalous objects including gravitational lenses, jellyfish galaxies with gaseous ‘tentacles’, merging and interacting galaxies, galaxies featuring rings and arcs and more.
\r\nThis collection features six galaxies, showing a cross-section of the discoveries with some of the more striking examples: three lenses with arcs distorted by gravity, one galactic merger, one ring galaxy, and one galaxy — not alone in the results — which defied classification.
\r\nTo detect anomalous objects like these six, the researchers developed an AI tool capable of searching and recognising patterns in images, and trained it with examples of types of unusual objects that they wanted to find. They then used their algorithm to examine the entire set of data from Hubble’s archive in search of further anomalous objects, over the course of just a couple of days. The result was a ranking of which images contained objects most likely to be anomalous.
\r\nAfter inspecting the results from their AI tool, the team confirmed almost 1400 anomalies, of which over 800 were previously unknown. With even larger datasets on the way from missions including ESA’s Euclid, the hope is that AI tools such as this one can help astronomers to make the absolute most of their observations.
\r\nRead more about this new research here.
\r\n[Image description: A collage of six images, showing different kinds of “anomalous” astrophysical objects. These are galaxies with unusual shapes, among them a ring-shaped galaxy, a bipolar galaxy, a group of merging galaxies, and three galaxies with warped arcs created by gravitational lensing.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. O’Ryan, P. Gómez (European Space Agency), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-27T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2603a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2603a.tif","FileSize":14843760,"Dimensions":[1920,1286],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2603a.jpg","FileSize":332524,"Dimensions":[1920,1286],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2603a.jpg","FileSize":125962,"Dimensions":[1280.0,858],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2603a.jpg","FileSize":9532,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2603a.jpg","FileSize":4978,"Dimensions":[60.0,41],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2602a","Title":"Globular cluster targets that revealed “forever young” stars","Description":"This image features two globular clusters from a recent Hubble study that provides some of the clearest evidence yet that blue stragglers owe their youthful appearance not to collisions, but to life in close stellar partnerships, and to the environments that allow those partnerships to survive.
\r\nThe international research team analysed ultraviolet Hubble observations of 48 globular clusters in the Milky Way, assembling the largest and most complete catalogue of blue straggler stars ever produced. The sample includes more than 3,000 of these enigmatic objects observed in clusters spanning the entire range of stellar densities, allowing astronomers to search for long-suspected links between blue stragglers and their surroundings.
\r\nThe above image features NGC 3201 (left), one of the looser clusters in the dataset, and Messier 70, which is the study’s densest cluster.
\r\n[Image description: A side-by-side visual of two globular clusters: NGC 3201 (left) and Messier 70 (right). The star cluster on the right is visibly compact in shape, as the stars near the centre of the object appear very close together. Contrastingly, the star cluster on the left is less compact, as the stars are more spread apart from one another in the field.]
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA","PublicationDate":"2026-01-21T10:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2602a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":75,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2602a.tif","FileSize":7294016,"Dimensions":[2658,984],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2602a.jpg","FileSize":1507641,"Dimensions":[2658,984],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2602a.jpg","FileSize":280711,"Dimensions":[1280.0,474],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2602a.jpg","FileSize":18336,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2602a.jpg","FileSize":4448,"Dimensions":[60.0,23],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"opo2602","Title":"Betelgeuse and wake of its companion star (artist's concept)","Description":"Using new observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, astronomers tracked the influence of a recently discovered companion star, Siwarha, on the gas around Betelgeuse. The research reveals a trail of dense gas swirling through Betelgeuse’s vast, extended atmosphere, shedding light on why the giant star’s brightness and atmosphere have changed in strange and unusual ways.
\r\nThis artist’s concept shows the red supergiant star Betelgeuse and an orbiting companion star. The companion, which is orbiting clockwise from this point of view, generates a dense wake of gas that expands outward. It is so close to Betelgeuse that it is passing through the extended outer atmosphere of the supergiant. The companion star is not to scale; it would be a pinprick compared to Betelgeuse, which is hundreds of times larger. The companion’s distance from Betelgeuse is to scale relative to the diameter of Betelgeuse.
\r\nThe results of the new study were presented at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society and are accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. More details about this new result can be read here.
\r\n[Image description: An illustration of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, its companion star, and a dense wake. The disk of a red-orange star is in the center. It is surrounded by a diffuse orange cloud representing its extended atmosphere. Below it, about one stellar diameter away, is a yellow dot representing a smaller companion star. From the companion, a dark red cloud wraps around in a counterclockwise direction. It begins very narrow and expands as it gets further from the companion, finally disappearing at the outer edge of the diffuse orange cloud. The words “artist’s concept” are at lower right.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, E. Wheatley (STScI), Science: A. Dupree (CfA)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-05T19:15:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/opo2602/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":77,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/opo2602.tif","FileSize":4508856,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/opo2602.jpg","FileSize":503395,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/opo2602.jpg","FileSize":62740,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/opo2602.jpg","FileSize":6590,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/opo2602.jpg","FileSize":4374,"Dimensions":[60.0,34],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2601c","Title":"Field surrounding Cloud-9","Description":"A team using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a new type of astronomical object —a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud that is considered a “relic” or remnant of early galaxy formation. Nicknamed “Cloud-9,” this is the first confirmed detection of such an object in the Universe
\r\nThis image shows the blank field of the surrounding region of Cloud-9. The image identifying its location can be found here.
\r\n[Image description: A dark field with stars and galaxies of various sizes speckled throughout the image. A particularly bright star is visible in the upper left region of the image.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA. G. Anand (STScI), and A. Benitez-Llambay (Univ. of Milan-Bicocca); Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-05T17:15:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2601c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2601c.tif","FileSize":8476022,"Dimensions":[2914,1790],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2601c.jpg","FileSize":1305449,"Dimensions":[2914,1790],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2601c.jpg","FileSize":143732,"Dimensions":[1280.0,787],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2601c.jpg","FileSize":7579,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2601c.jpg","FileSize":4092,"Dimensions":[60.0,37],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["ACS","ACS"],"Distance":[2000.0,null],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Orange"],"Band":["V","I"],"Bandpass":["V","I"],"CentralWavelength":[606,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[192.9633048747402,40.302418234874835],"ReferenceDimension":[2914.0,1790.0],"ReferencePixel":[1457.0,895.0],"Scale":[-1.3883467971030148e-05,1.3883467971030148e-05],"Rotation":-46.959999999999695,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2601b","Title":"Location of Cloud-9","Description":"This image shows the location of Cloud-9. The diffuse magenta is radio data from the ground-based Very Large Array (VLA) showing the presence of the cloud. The dashed circle marks the peak of radio emission,which is where researchers focused their search for stars. Follow-up observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys found no stars within the cloud. The few objects that appear within its boundaries are background galaxies. Before the Hubble observations, scientists could argue that Cloud-9 is a faint dwarf galaxy whose stars could not be seen with ground-based telescopes due to the lack of sensitivity. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows that, in reality, the failed galaxy contains no stars.
\r\n[Image description: An image labeled “Cloud 9 HST ACS WFC”. Below that, a color key shows F606W in blue, F814W in orange, and Radio VLA in purple. A region of space mostly filled with background galaxies, with one prominent star at upper left. A large blob of purple haze occupies much of the field. Within the purple region, an unremarkable area is outlined with a dashed white circle. At lower left, a scale bar extending about one-sixth of the image is labeled 2,000 light-years and 30 arcseconds. At lower right are compass arrows with east pointing to 10 o’clock and north pointing to 2 o’clock.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA. G. Anand (STScI), and A. Benitez-Llambay (Univ. of Milan-Bicocca); Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-05T17:15:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2601b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2601b.tif","FileSize":7356666,"Dimensions":[2914,1790],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2601b.jpg","FileSize":1181777,"Dimensions":[2914,1790],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2601b.jpg","FileSize":151102,"Dimensions":[1280.0,787],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2601b.jpg","FileSize":9398,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2601b.jpg","FileSize":4649,"Dimensions":[60.0,37],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2601a","Title":"Location of Cloud-9","Description":"This image shows the location of Cloud-9. The diffuse magenta is radio data from the ground-based Very Large Array (VLA) showing the presence of the cloud. The dashed circle marks the peak of radio emission,which is where researchers focused their search for stars. Follow-up observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys found no stars within the cloud. The few objects that appear within its boundaries are background galaxies. Before the Hubble observations, scientists could argue that Cloud-9 is a faint dwarf galaxy whose stars could not be seen with ground-based telescopes due to the lack of sensitivity. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows that, in reality, the failed galaxy contains no stars.
\r\n[Image description: A region of space mostly filled with background galaxies, with one prominent star at upper left. A large blob of purple haze occupies much of the field. Within the purple region, an unremarkable area is outlined with a dashed white circle.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA. G. Anand (STScI), and A. Benitez-Llambay (Univ. of Milan-Bicocca); Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-05T17:15:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2601a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2601a.tif","FileSize":7065266,"Dimensions":[2914,1790],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2601a.jpg","FileSize":1106114,"Dimensions":[2914,1790],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2601a.jpg","FileSize":131497,"Dimensions":[1280.0,787],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2601a.jpg","FileSize":8200,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2601a.jpg","FileSize":4428,"Dimensions":[60.0,37],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2552a","Title":"A neighbouring vista of stellar birth","Description":"Today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week highlights another view of a distant stellar birthplace. Captured in a parallel field to a recently released image, this scene reveals a neighbouring region of the N159 star-forming complex in the Large Magellanic Cloud, approximately 160 000 light-years away.
\r\nThick clouds of cold hydrogen gas dominate the scene, forming a complex network of ridges, cavities, and glowing filaments. Embedded within these dense clouds, newly formed stars begin to shine, their intense radiation causing the surrounding hydrogen to glow in deep red tones.
\r\nThe brightest regions mark the presence of hot, massive young stars whose powerful stellar winds and energetic light reshape their environment. These forces carve out bubble-like structures and hollowed cavities in the gas, clear signatures of stellar feedback in action. Dark clouds in the foreground are lit from behind by new stars. Together, the glowing clouds and sculpted bubbles reveal a dynamic interplay between star formation and the material from which stars are born, capturing the ongoing cycle of creation and transformation within this neighbouring galactic system.
\r\nN159 is one of the most massive star-forming clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. This image shows just a portion of this expansive star-forming complex, as the entire complex stretches over 150 light-years across.
\r\n[Image description: A field filled with stars and covered by clouds of gas and dust. In the centre, a thick column of dark black dust blocks light from stars that light it up from behind. More clouds behind those stars are illuminated in pale colours. Complex, layered filaments of red dust lie to the left and right. Blue, white and gold stars in various sizes can be seen around, within and through the colourful layers of dust.]
\r\nThis NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the largest planet-forming disc ever observed around a young star. It spans nearly 640 billion kilometers, roughly 40 times the diameter of our Solar System. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen from Earth, the dark, dusty disk resembles a hamburger. Hubble reveals it to be unusually chaotic, with bright wisps of material extending far above and below the disk—more than seen in any similar circumstellar disk. Cataloged as IRAS 23077+6707, the system is located approximately 1,000 light-years from Earth. The discovery marks a new milestone for Hubble and offers fresh insight into planet formation in extreme environments across the galaxy.
\r\n[Image description: Near the center is an object that resembles an edge-on view of a hamburger. There is a diagonal dark strip (the meat patty) of dust, running from 1 o’clock to 7 o’clock, that obscures a central star. Curving away from either side of the dark strip are glowing white clouds (the buns) where dust is reflecting starlight. Bright blue finger-like wisps of material extend far above and below the dark center plane. A few dozen stars, some with four diffraction spikes, are scattered on the black background of space.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, K. Monsch (CfA). Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI).","PublicationDate":"2025-12-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/opo2606/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":80,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/opo2606.tif","FileSize":2180562,"Dimensions":[1276,1409],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/opo2606.jpg","FileSize":355066,"Dimensions":[1276,1409],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/opo2606.jpg","FileSize":187809,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1414],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/opo2606.jpg","FileSize":8735,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/opo2606.jpg","FileSize":5776,"Dimensions":[60.0,67],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3"],"Distance":[1000.0,null],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Blue","Green","Green","Red","Red"],"Band":["B","V","I","Y","J","H"],"Bandpass":["B","V","I","Y","J","H"],"CentralWavelength":[438,606,814,1050,1250,1600]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[347.4332611382443,67.39551515366543],"ReferenceDimension":[1276.0,1409.0],"ReferencePixel":[638.0,704.5],"Scale":[-1.1017405419443127e-05,1.1017405419443127e-05],"Rotation":0.22000000000001813,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2551a","Title":"Long-distance relationship","Description":"These galaxies look to be close companions — a small, bright spiral galaxy flitting around the edge of a much larger spiral with a dark and disturbed countenance. But looks can be deceiving — how close are they really? The celestial pair featured in this week’s Hubble Picture of the Week is known by the name Arp 4, and lies in the constellation Cetus (the Whale).
\r\nThe designation Arp 4 comes from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, compiled in the 1960s by astronomer Halton Arp. “Unusual galaxies” were selected and photographed to provide examples of weird and non-standard shapes, the better to study how galaxies evolve into these forms. Throughout its mission the Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionised the study of galaxies and shown us some fantastically unusual examples from Arp’s atlas. In that catalogue, the first few galaxies like Arp 4 are “low surface brightness” galaxies, a type of galaxy that is unexpectedly faint and hard to detect. The large galaxy here — also catalogued as MCG-02-05-050 — fits this description well, with its fragmentary arms and dim disc. Its smaller companion, MCG-02-05-050a, is a much more bright and active spiral.
\r\nThe trick is that these galaxies are not actually very close. The large blue galaxy MCG-02-05-050 is located 65 million light-years from Earth; its brighter smaller companion MCG-02-05-050a, at 675 million light-years away, is over ten times the distance! Owing to this, MCG-02-05-050a is likely the larger galaxy of the two, and MCG-02-05-050 comparatively small. Their pairing in this image is simply an unlikely visual coincidence. Despite this lack of a physical relation between them, our point of view on Earth allows us to enjoy the sight of Arp 4 as an odd couple in the sky.
\r\n[Image Description: This image shows two galaxies side by side. The galaxy on the top left is smaller in size, and appears as a bright glowing spiral with clearly-defined arms. A larger blue galaxy dominates the full right field of the image. This galaxy is more irregularly shaped, with a glowing central bar, and varying regions of concentrated hues of blue. The background is black with various stars and galaxies in the distance.]
\r\nThis composite NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the debris ring and dust clouds cs1 and cs2 around the star Fomalhaut. For comparison, dust cloud cs1, imaged in 2012, is pictured with dust cloud cs2, imaged in 2023. The dashed circles mark the location of these clouds. When dust cloud cs2 suddenly appeared, astronomers quickly noticed they had witnessed the violent collision of two massive objects. Previously thought to be a planet, cs1 is now classified as a similar debris cloud. In this image, Fomalhaut itself is masked out to allow the fainter features to be seen. Its location is marked by the white star.
\r\nThis image was created from Hubble data from proposal #17139 (P. Kalas).
\r\n[Image description: Image labeled Fomalhaut system, Hubble Space Telescope. A grainy orange oval ring tilts slightly from upper right to lower left. At two o’clock, a white box outlines the ring’s edge and white lines extend to a larger pullout at lower right. Two spots are labeled cs1 2013 and cs2 2023. Inside the ring is a black circle with a white star symbol in the middle.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, P. Kalas (UC Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-12-18T19:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2512a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":78,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2512a.tif","FileSize":3670778,"Dimensions":[1887,1418],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2512a.jpg","FileSize":1265744,"Dimensions":[1887,1418],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2512a.jpg","FileSize":416231,"Dimensions":[1280.0,962],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2512a.jpg","FileSize":16265,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2512a.jpg","FileSize":6076,"Dimensions":[60.0,46],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2512b","Title":"Fomalhaut cs1 and cs2 (clean image)","Description":"This composite NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the debris ring and dust clouds cs1 and cs2 around the star Fomalhaut. For comparison, dust cloud cs1, imaged in 2012, is pictured with dust cloud cs2, imaged in 2023. The dashed circles mark the location of these clouds. When dust cloud cs2 suddenly appeared, astronomers quickly noticed they had witnessed the violent collision of two massive objects. Previously thought to be a planet, cs1 is now classified as a similar debris cloud. In this image, Fomalhaut itself is masked out to allow the fainter features to be seen.
\r\nThis image was created from Hubble data from proposal #17139 (P. Kalas).
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, P. Kalas (UC Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-12-18T19:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2512b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2512b.tif","FileSize":4283566,"Dimensions":[1887,1418],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2512b.jpg","FileSize":1358778,"Dimensions":[1887,1418],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2512b.jpg","FileSize":426675,"Dimensions":[1280.0,962],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2512b.jpg","FileSize":14312,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2512b.jpg","FileSize":5680,"Dimensions":[60.0,46],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["STIS "],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Red"]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[344.41311445338334,-29.6223342523007],"ReferenceDimension":[1887.0,1418.0],"ReferencePixel":[943.5,709.0],"Scale":[-2.37325422223993e-06,2.37325422223993e-06],"Rotation":9.939999999999994,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2512c","Title":"Fomalhaut cs2 (artist’s concept)","Description":"This artist’s concept shows the sequence of events leading up to the creation of dust cloud cs2 around the star Fomalhaut.
\r\n[Image description: This four-panel image labelled 1 to 4 shows the sequence of events leading up to, during, and following the collision of two objects in orbit around a star.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, R. Crawford (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-12-18T19:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2512c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2512c.tif","FileSize":7889364,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2512c.jpg","FileSize":458501,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2512c.jpg","FileSize":55571,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2512c.jpg","FileSize":7195,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2512c.jpg","FileSize":4513,"Dimensions":[60.0,34],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potm2511a","Title":"A dance of dwarf galaxies","Description":"For this new ESA/Webb Picture of the Month, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has spied a pair of dwarf galaxies engaged in a gravitational dance. These two galaxies are named NGC 4490 and NGC 4485, and they’re located about 24 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). Aside from the Milky Way’s own dwarf companions (the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds), this is the closest known interacting dwarf-dwarf system where astronomers have directly observed both a gas bridge and resolved stellar populations. Together NGC 4490 and NGC 4485 form the system Arp 269, which is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. At such a close distance (and with Webb’s impressive ability to peer through dusty cosmic clouds) these galaxies allow astronomers to witness up close the kinds of galaxy interactions that were common billions of years ago.
\r\nDwarf galaxies likely share many similarities with young galaxies in the early Universe: they are much less massive than galaxies like the Milky Way, they typically have small amounts of metals (what astronomers call elements heavier than helium), and they contain a lot of gas and relatively few stars. When nearby dwarf galaxies collide, merge, or steal gas from one another, it can tell us how galaxies billions of years ago might have grown and evolved.
\r\nThe nearby dwarf galaxies NGC 4490 and NGC 4485 form an intriguing pair. Nearly three decades ago, astronomers discovered a wispy bridge of gas connecting the two galaxies, showing that they have interacted in the past. Despite many studies with powerful telescopes like the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the history between NGC4490 and NGC 4485 has remained mysterious.
\r\nRecently, Webb observed this curious galactic pair as part of the Feedback in Emerging extrAgalactic Star clusTers (FEAST) programme (#1783; PI: A. Adamo). The FEAST programme used Webb’s sensitive infrared eyes to reveal the formation of new stars in different types of nearby galaxies.
\r\nThis image was developed using data from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), as well as a single narrow-band filter from Hubble (657N). It reveals NGC 4490 and NGC 4485 in never-before-seen detail and illuminates the bridge of gas and stars that connects them. NGC 4490 dominates the image as the larger object occupying the left side of the image, while NGC 4485 is the smaller galaxy that hosts the top-right portion of the image. By dissecting these galaxies star by star, researchers were able to map out where young, middle-aged, and old stars reside, and trace the timeline of the galaxies’ interaction.
\r\nRoughly 200 million years ago, these galaxies whirled close to one another before waltzing away. The larger galaxy, NGC 4490, ensnared a stream of gas from its companion, and this gas now trails between the galaxies like dancers connected by outstretched arms. Along the newly formed bridge of gas and within the two galaxies, this interaction spurred a burst of new stars. The concentrated areas of bright blue that appear throughout the field indicate highly ionised regions of gas by the recently formed star clusters. Just 30 million years ago, these galaxies burst alight with stars once more, with new clusters coalescing where the gas of the two galaxies mixed together.
\r\nBy capturing the history of the galactic dancers NGC 4490 and NGC 4485, Webb has revealed new details in how dwarf galaxies interact, giving us a glimpse of how small galaxies near and far grow and evolve.
\r\n[Image Description: This Webb image shows two interacting galaxies. NGC 4490 occupies the left side of the image, while NGC 4485 appears as a white glowing hue in the top right of the field. Both galaxies are connected by a bright stream of red stretching from the top left of the image, through the bottom centre, and ending at the right under galaxy NGC 4485. There are regions of bright blue ionised gas visible in concentrated areas of the red stream. The background is black with multiple galaxies in various shapes throughout.]
\r\nThis image shows an example of of HSLA products in eHST.
","Credit":"eHST","PublicationDate":"2025-12-15T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25010c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25010c.tif","FileSize":3849560,"Dimensions":[3120,1794],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25010c.jpg","FileSize":932662,"Dimensions":[3120,1794],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25010c.jpg","FileSize":178820,"Dimensions":[1280.0,736],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25010c.jpg","FileSize":13866,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25010c.jpg","FileSize":5192,"Dimensions":[60.0,35],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"sci25010a","Title":"eHST User Interface.","Description":"This image shows the eHST user interface.
","Credit":"eHST","PublicationDate":"2025-12-15T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25010a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25010a.tif","FileSize":4550920,"Dimensions":[3416,1800],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25010a.jpg","FileSize":1062605,"Dimensions":[3416,1800],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25010a.jpg","FileSize":166519,"Dimensions":[1280.0,675],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25010a.jpg","FileSize":14315,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25010a.jpg","FileSize":5342,"Dimensions":[60.0,32],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"sci25010b","Title":"UV spectral energy distribution of β Pictoris in eHST","Description":"This image shows the full UV spectral energy distribution of β Pictoris from the HLSA that combines data from three separate COS and STIS gratings.
","Credit":"STScI/MAST","PublicationDate":"2025-12-15T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25010b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25010b.tif","FileSize":362226,"Dimensions":[2626,1960],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25010b.jpg","FileSize":295686,"Dimensions":[2626,1960],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25010b.jpg","FileSize":106367,"Dimensions":[1280.0,956],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25010b.jpg","FileSize":13079,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25010b.jpg","FileSize":5098,"Dimensions":[60.0,45],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"sci25009c","Title":"MIRI footprint of GOALS High Level Science Product (HLSP) overlaid on the NIRCam image of VV 114","Description":"This image shows the MIRI footprint of GOALS High Level Science Product (HLSP) overlaid on the NIRCam image of VV 114.
","Credit":"eJWST","PublicationDate":"2025-12-15T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25009c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25009c.tif","FileSize":1364382,"Dimensions":[3012,1596],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25009c.jpg","FileSize":653824,"Dimensions":[3012,1596],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25009c.jpg","FileSize":156509,"Dimensions":[1280.0,679],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25009c.jpg","FileSize":12631,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25009c.jpg","FileSize":4955,"Dimensions":[60.0,32],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"sci25009b","Title":"eJWST Interactive image viewer","Description":"This image shows the new eJWST interactive image viewer.
","Credit":"eJWST","PublicationDate":"2025-12-15T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25009b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25009b.tif","FileSize":1263404,"Dimensions":[3008,1592],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25009b.jpg","FileSize":497283,"Dimensions":[3008,1592],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25009b.jpg","FileSize":128476,"Dimensions":[1280.0,678],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25009b.jpg","FileSize":10536,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25009b.jpg","FileSize":4557,"Dimensions":[60.0,32],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"sci25009a","Title":"New eJWST User Interface","Description":"This image shows the new eJWST user interface.
","Credit":"eJWST","PublicationDate":"2025-12-15T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25009a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":78,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25009a.tif","FileSize":3895934,"Dimensions":[3018,1594],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25009a.jpg","FileSize":972387,"Dimensions":[3018,1594],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25009a.jpg","FileSize":187180,"Dimensions":[1280.0,677],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25009a.jpg","FileSize":14972,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25009a.jpg","FileSize":5527,"Dimensions":[60.0,32],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"sci25007a","Title":"Cover page of the 2026 ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb calendar","Description":"This is the cover page for the 2026 ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb Calendar, featuring images released in 2025. The electronic version of the calendar is available in digital (low and high resolution) and print-ready versions for everyone to share and enjoy.
","Credit":"ESA/Hubble, ESA/Webb","PublicationDate":"2025-12-15T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25007a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":80,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25007a.tif","FileSize":27189120,"Dimensions":[6250,4223],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25007a.jpg","FileSize":3605927,"Dimensions":[6250,4223],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25007a.jpg","FileSize":150045,"Dimensions":[1280.0,865],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25007a.jpg","FileSize":12075,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25007a.jpg","FileSize":5258,"Dimensions":[60.0,41],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2550a","Title":"Galactic gas makes a getaway","Description":"A sideways spiral galaxy shines in today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week. Located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden), NGC 4388 is a resident of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The Virgo cluster contains more than a thousand galaxies and is the nearest large galaxy cluster to the Milky Way.
\r\nNGC 4388 is tilted at an extreme angle relative to our point of view, giving us a nearly edge-on vantage point. This perspective reveals a curious feature that wasn’t visible in a previous Hubble image of this galaxy released in 2016: a plume of gas from the galaxy’s nucleus, here seen billowing out from the galaxy’s disc towards the lower-right corner of the image. But where did this outflow come from, and why does it glow?
\r\nThe answer likely lies in vast stretches that separate the galaxies of the Virgo cluster. Though the space between the galaxies appears to be empty, this space is actually occupied by hot wisps of gas called the intracluster medium. As NGC 4388 journeys within the cluster, it plunges through the intracluster medium. The pressure from the hot intracluster gas whisks away the gas from within NGC 4388’s disc, causing it to trail behind as NGC 4388 moves.
\r\nThe source of the energy that ionises this gas cloud and causes it to glow is more uncertain. Researchers suspect that some of the energy comes from the centre of the galaxy, where a supermassive black hole has spun the gas around it into a superheated disc. The blazing radiation from this disc might ionise the gas closest to the galaxy, while shock waves might be responsible for ionising the filaments of gas farther out.
\r\nThis image incorporates new data including several additional wavelengths of light to bring the ionised gas cloud into view. The data used to create this image come from several observing programmes that aim to illuminate galaxies with active black holes at their centres.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen nearly edge-on. Its disk is filled with red and blue lights from star-forming nebulae and clusters of hot stars, respectively, as well as thick dark clouds of dust that block the strong white light from its centre. A faint, glowing halo of gas surrounds the disc, fading into the black background. A bluish plume of gas also extends from the galaxy’s core to the lower-right of the image.]
\r\nThis glittering blue galaxy and subject of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week is a blue compact dwarf galaxy called Markarian 178 (Mrk 178). This galaxy, which is substantially smaller than our own Milky Way, lies 13 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear).
\r\nMrk 178 is one of more than 1500 Markarian galaxies. These galaxies get their name from the Armenian astrophysicist Benjamin Markarian, who compiled a list of galaxies that were surprisingly bright in ultraviolet light.
\r\nWhile the bulk of the galaxy is blue owing to an abundance of young, hot stars with little dust shrouding them, Mrk 178 gets a red hue from a collection of massive stars, which are especially concentrated in the brightest, reddish region near the galaxy’s edge. This azure cloud is home to a large number of rare objects called Wolf–Rayet stars. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that are casting off their atmospheres through powerful winds. Because Mrk 178 contains so many Wolf–Rayet stars, the bright emission lines from these stars’ hot stellar winds are etched upon the galaxy’s spectrum. Particularly ionised hydrogen and oxygen appear as a red colour to Mrk 178 in this photo, observed using some of Hubble’s specialised light filters.
\r\nMassive stars enter the Wolf–Rayet phase just before they collapse into black holes or neutron stars. Because Wolf–Rayet stars last for only a few million years, researchers know that something must have triggered a recent burst of star formation in Mrk 178. At first glance, it’s not clear what could be the cause — Mrk 178 doesn’t seem to have any close galactic neighbours that could have stirred up its gas to form new stars. Astronomers believe that it was triggered by the interaction with a smaller satellite, as revealed by the presence of low surface brightness tidal features detected around Mrk178 in deep imaging acquired with the Large Binocular Telescope. Future high resolution Hubble data will be crucial to study the detailed star formation history of Mrk 178.
\r\n[Image Description: A pale blue dwarf galaxy seen on the black backdrop of space with some faraway galaxies. The galaxy itself resembles a fuzzy cloud of tightly-packed stars, with a broad halo of stars dispersed around it. Several small, glowing patches of gas are spread across the galaxy’s core, where very hot stars are concentrated.]
\r\nThe NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reobserved interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on 30 November with its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. At the time, the comet was about 286 million kilometers from Earth. Hubble tracked the comet as it moved across the sky. As a result, background stars appear as streaks of light.
\r\nHubble previously observed 3I/ATLAS in July, shortly after its discovery, and a number of observatories have since studied the comet as well. Observations are expected to continue for several more months as 3I/ATLAS heads out of the solar system.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-12-04T18:44:22Z","Subject":{"Name":["3I/ATLAS"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/opo2520/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/opo2520.tif","FileSize":3882720,"Dimensions":[3437,2597],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/opo2520.jpg","FileSize":498882,"Dimensions":[3437,2597],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/opo2520.jpg","FileSize":103074,"Dimensions":[1280.0,968],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/opo2520.jpg","FileSize":5777,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/opo2520.jpg","FileSize":4207,"Dimensions":[60.0,46],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2548a","Title":"A storm of new stars","Description":"The subject of the latest Hubble Picture of the Week is a stormy and highly active spiral galaxy named NGC 1792. Located over 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Columba (the Dove), the bright glow of the galaxy’s centre is offset by the flocculent and sparkling spiral arms swirling around it.
\r\nNGC 1792 is just as fascinating to astronomers as its chaotic look might imply. Classified as a starburst galaxy, it is a powerhouse of star formation, with spiral arms rich in star-forming regions. In fact, it is surprisingly luminous for its mass. The galaxy is close to a larger neighbour, NGC 1808, and the strong gravitational interaction between the two is believed to be what has stirred up the reserves of gas in this galaxy. The result is a torrent of star formation, concentrated on the side where gravity has a stronger effect. It’s a perfect target for astronomers seeking to understand the complex interactions between gas, star clusters and supernovae in galaxies.
\r\nHubble has shown off this galaxy before, in 2020. This week’s new image includes additional data collected throughout 2025, providing a deeper view of the tumultuous astrophysical activity taking place in the galaxy. Blossoming red lights in the arms mark out so-called H-alpha emission from dense clouds of hydrogen molecules. Stars form within these clouds and shine powerfully with ultraviolet radiation. They ionise the gas around them, causing the gas to emit a very particular red wavelength of light — a tell-tale sign of new stars.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, seen partly from the side, with a messy, turbulent appearance. Its disc is made of multiple patchy arms that contain numerous sparkling blue and glowing red regions — star clusters and star-forming nebulae. Thick clumps of dark reddish dust swirl through the disc. The glow of the disc extends out into the dark background, where both distant and nearby stars can be seen.]
\r\nToday’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week brings a distant stellar birthplace into focus. This gigantic cloud of cold hydrogen gas is called N159, and it’s located about 160 000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado. N159 is one of the most massive star-forming clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.
\r\nThis image shows just a portion of the N159 star-forming complex. The entire complex stretches over 150 light-years across. To put that into perspective, 150 light-years is nearly 10 million times the distance between Earth and the Sun!
\r\nIn the subzero interior of this gas cloud, subjected to the crushing pressure of gravity, young stars begin to gleam in the darkness. Particularly hot and high-mass stars illuminate their birthplaces with red light. This red glow is characteristic of excited hydrogen atoms, to which Hubble is exquisitely sensitive.
\r\nThough some of the bright stars in the cloud appear to be blanketed with reddish gas, others seem to lie at the centre of a reddish bubble, through which the dark backdrop of space is visible. These bubbles are evidence of stellar feedback, in which young stars fry their habitats with high-energy radiation and blow bubbles with their intense stellar winds.
\r\nA previous Hubble image of the full N159 star-forming cloud was released in 2016. This version incorporates an additional wavelength of light to highlight the hot gas that surrounds newborn stars.
\r\n[Image Description: A field filled with stars and covered by clouds of gas and dust. The centre and left side are totally blanketed with billowing, bright red clouds. They are opaque some places — showing clusters of stars forming within — and transparent others. Small patches are dark black in colour, while a large cloud below the centre is mostly pale blue. The right side of the view, mostly gas-free, glitters with stars near and far.]
\r\nToday’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features the spiral galaxy NGC 4535, which is situated about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). This galaxy has been nicknamed the ‘Lost Galaxy’ because it’s extremely faint when viewed through a small telescope. With a mirror spanning 2.4 metres across, Hubble is well equipped to observe dim galaxies like NGC 4535 and pick out features like its massive spiral arms and central bar of stars.
\r\nOn full display in this Hubble image are NGC 4535’s young star clusters, which dot the galaxy’s spiral arms. Many of the groupings of bright blue stars are enclosed by glowing pink clouds. These clouds, called H II (‘H-two’) regions, are a sign that the galaxy is home to especially young, hot, and massive stars that are blazing with high-energy radiation. By heating the clouds in which they were born, shooting out powerful stellar winds, and eventually exploding as supernovae, massive stars certainly shake up their surroundings.
\r\nThis Hubble image incorporates data from an observing programme that will catalogue roughly 50 000 H II regions in nearby star-forming galaxies like NGC 4535. A previous image of NGC 4535 was released in 2021. Both the 2021 image and today’s image incorporate observations from the PHANGS programme, which seeks to understand the connections between young stars and cold gas. Today’s image adds a new dimension to our understanding of NGC 4535 by capturing the brilliant red glow of the nebulae that encircle massive stars in their first few million years of life.
\r\n[Image Description: A close-in view of a spiral galaxy that faces the viewer. Brightly lit spiral arms swing outwards through the galaxy’s disc, starting from an elliptical region in the centre. Thick strands of dark reddish dust are spread across the disc, mostly following the spiral arms. The arms also contain many glowing pink-red spots where stars form. The galaxy is a bit fainter beyond the arms, but speckled with blue stars.]
\r\nThough interesting to look at, NGC 1511 is one galaxy you might not want for a neighbour. Seen in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week, NGC 1511 is a peculiar spiral galaxy located roughly 50 million light-years away in the constellation Hydrus.
\r\nLike many galaxies, NGC 1511 doesn’t travel through space alone. Instead, it does so with a pair of small galactic companions called NGC 1511A and NGC 1511B, both of which lie outside the frame of this Hubble image. NGC 1511B is situated closest to NGC 1511, and the two galaxies have apparently clashed in the past; a narrow strand of hydrogen gas connects them, and NGC 1511B has been stretched and distorted by the encounter. Researchers have even found evidence that NGC 1511 once had another small companion galaxy that it has disrupted entirely!
\r\nThese disruptions have an impact on NGC 1511, too. The galaxy is experiencing a burst of star formation, and its disc features strange loops and plumes that could point to past interactions with its neighbouring galaxies. Researchers will use Hubble’s keen observations of NGC 1511 to study star clusters embedded within its dusty gas, seeking to understand how matter is cycled from interstellar clouds to stars and back to clouds once again.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, tilted away so that it is seen mostly from the edge. The disc of the galaxy glows blue from its centre, due to younger stars in the spiral arms. There are large and small patches of gas, glowing in red and pink colours, where new stars are forming. Webs of dark dust are spread over the disc. The glow of the disc fades into a dark background, with a couple of stars.]
\r\nWhat lies at the heart of this unusual-looking spiral galaxy? The galaxy NGC 4102, featured in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week, is home to what astronomers call an active galactic nucleus. Active galactic nuclei are luminous galactic centres powered by supermassive black holes that contain millions to billion times the mass of our Sun. As these black holes ensnare gas from their surroundings and draw it close with their intense gravitational pull, the gas becomes so hot that it begins to glow and emits light from X-ray to radio wavelengths.
\r\nAt a distance of just 56 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear), NGC 4102 provides an ideal opportunity to study the ways in which active galactic nuclei interact with their home galaxies. Active galactic nuclei come in many different flavours, from extremely powerful types that consume massive amounts of matter and shoot out jets of charged particles, to calmer types that sip gas from their surroundings and glow more faintly.
\r\nNGC 4102 likely falls into the latter category. It’s classified as Compton-thick — a way of saying that its nucleus is obscured by a thick layer of gas — and a LINER, or low-ionisation nuclear emission-line region. LINER galaxies are identified by emission lines from certain weakly ionised elements, and they can be powered by a supermassive black hole that is lazily collecting gas from around it.
\r\nA previous image of this galaxy, made from data taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), was released in 2014. This new version presents an upgraded view of the galaxy, using data from the Wide Field Camera 3, which replaced WFPC2 in 2009 and improved upon its resolution and field of view. The new observations come from a programme that will combine visible-light images from Hubble with X-ray information from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to study the relationship between NGC 4102 and its active galactic nucleus.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy. The inner region immediately around the bright centre is golden in colour. A gap separates this region from a bright ring, itself surrounded by a glowing halo. Strands of dark brown dust swirl around the centre and the outer ring, joined in one spot by a curved arm. Bright, blue and pink specks of light dot the ring, showing where stars are concentrated or have recently formed.]
\r\nA star-studded spiral galaxy shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This galaxy is called NGC 4571, and it’s situated about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. NGC 4571 dominates the scene with its feathery spiral structure and sparkling star clusters.
\r\nThe galaxy’s dusty spiral arms are dotted with brilliant pink nebulae that contain massive young stars. Though the star-forming clouds that are seen here are heated to roughly 10 000 degrees by searing ultraviolet light from the young stars at their cores, stars get their start in much chillier environments. The sites of star birth are giant molecular clouds tens to hundreds of light-years across, in which the temperature hovers just a few tens of degrees above absolute zero.
\r\nThe dramatic transformation from freezing gas cloud to fiery young star happens thanks to the immense pull of gravity, which collects gas into dense clumps within a star-forming cloud. As these clumps yield to gravity’s pull and collapse inward, they eventually become hot and dense enough to spark nuclear fusion in their centres and begin to shine. The glowing clouds in this image surround particularly massive stars that are hot enough to ionise the gas of their birthplaces.
\r\nA Hubble image of NGC 4571 was previously released in 2022, using data from an observing programme the combines data from leading observatories like Hubble, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to study star formation in nearby spiral galaxies like NGC 4571. The new image released today adds data from a programme that seeks to understand how dust affects our observations of young stars deeply embedded within their natal clouds.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, seen face-on, fills the view. Swirling, patchy and broken spiral arms surround a softly glowing centre. The arms are filled with blue, speckled patches showing star clusters, shining pink and red dots where young stars are lighting up gas clouds, and a web of thin, dark red dust lanes. The glow of the galaxy’s arms extends out into the dark background. Individual tiny stars appear throughout.]
\r\nBanner image for the conference, “Enriching the Universe: From Primordial Nucleosynthesis to Exoplanet Atmospheres”, which will be held in Vienna, Austria on 13 to 16 April 2026. This is an ESA-sponsored conference, in collaboration with STScI, which highlights science with Hubble and Webb.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI","PublicationDate":"2025-10-23T08:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25005a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25005a.tif","FileSize":2810596,"Dimensions":[2400,600],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25005a.jpg","FileSize":408477,"Dimensions":[2400,600],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25005a.jpg","FileSize":142511,"Dimensions":[1280.0,320],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25005a.jpg","FileSize":15860,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25005a.jpg","FileSize":4302,"Dimensions":[60.0,15],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"sci25006a","Title":"GOODS-S field (NIRCam image)","Description":"How did the first stars and galaxies form? The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is already providing new insights into this question. One of the largest programs in Webb’s first years of science was the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, which devoted about 32 days of telescope time to uncover and characterize faint, distant galaxies. JADES has discovered hundreds of galaxies that existed when the Universe was less than 600 million years old. The team also has identified galaxies sparkling with a multitude of young, hot stars.
\r\nThis infrared image shows a portion of an area of the sky known as GOODS-South, which has been well studied by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories. More than 45,000 galaxies are visible here.
\r\nUsing these and other data, the JADES team has discovered hundreds of galaxies that existed when the Universe was less than 600 million years old. The sheer number of these galaxies was far beyond predictions from observations made before Webb’s launch. The team also has identified galaxies that existed during a time known as the Epoch of Reionization, when the Universe underwent a transformation from opaque to transparent. Many of these galaxies shown unusually strong emission line signatures due to the creation of multitudes of hot, massive stars.
\r\nIn this image, blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) data at 0.9, 1.15, and 1.5 microns; 2.0, 2.77, and 3.55 microns; and 3.56, 4.1, and 4.44 microns (F090W, F115W, and F150W; F200W, F277W, and F335M; and F356W, F410M, and F444W), respectively.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, CSA, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian), S. Tacchella (University of Cambridge, M. Rieke (Univ. of Arizona), D. Eisenstein (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian), A. Pagan (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-10-23T08:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25006a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25006a.tif","FileSize":127467636,"Dimensions":[12097,8482],"ProjectionType":"Observation","Checksum":"00f45fa09e2a5b355fa2cabdf47196b847b08c0e8fc141441b60ab855d4f7092"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25006a.jpg","FileSize":19199954,"Dimensions":[12097,8482],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25006a.jpg","FileSize":174858,"Dimensions":[1280.0,898],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25006a.jpg","FileSize":10205,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25006a.jpg","FileSize":4357,"Dimensions":[60.0,43],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["James Webb Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["NIRCam","NIRCam","NIRCam","NIRCam","NIRCam","NIRCam","NIRCam","NIRCam","NIRCam"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Blue","Blue","Green","Green","Green","Red","Red","Red"],"Band":[null,null,null,null,null,"PAH",null,null,null],"Bandpass":[null,null,null,null,null,"PAH",null,null,null],"CentralWavelength":[900,1150,1500,2000,2770,3350,3560,4100,4440]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[53.16480401563316,-27.785111304807568],"ReferenceDimension":[12097.0,8482.0],"ReferencePixel":[6048.5,4241.0],"Scale":[-8.326802709350506e-06,8.326802709350506e-06],"Rotation":-298.9800000000003,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potm2506a","Title":"A starburst shines in infrared","Description":"Featured in this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month is a nearby galaxy that outshines the Milky Way. This galaxy, called Messier 82 (M82) or the Cigar Galaxy, is situated just 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
\r\nDespite being smaller than the Milky Way, M82 is five times as luminous as our home galaxy and forms stars ten times faster. M82 is classified as a starburst galaxy because it is forming new stars at a rate much faster than expected for a galaxy of its mass, especially at its centre. In visible-light images of M82, the central hotbed of activity is obscured by a network of thick and dusty clouds. Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) has drawn back these clouds, revealing the full brilliance of the galactic centre.
\r\nWhat caused M82’s burst of star formation? The answer likely lies with its neighbour, the larger spiral galaxy M81. Researchers suspect that the two galaxies have interacted gravitationally, sending gas pouring into M82’s centre millions of years ago. The influx of gas provided the raw material for new stars to form — and form they did! M82 is home to more than 100 super star clusters, some of which are still in the process of forming and are blanketed with dense, dusty gas. Super star clusters are more massive and luminous than typical star clusters; these each contain hundreds of thousands of stars.
\r\nA previous Webb NIRCam image of M82 was released in 2024. The earlier image focused on the very core of the galaxy, where individual clusters of young stars stand out against the clumps and tendrils of gas. This new image takes a broader view of M82’s brilliant centre, capturing the light of billions of stars as well as the glow of organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.
\r\nResearchers used the new Webb data to identify plumes traced by the emission from PAH molecules. Each plume is only about 160 light-years wide, and the Webb images show that these plumes are made up of multiple individual clouds that are 16–49 light-years across — an incredible level of detail enabled by Webb’s sensitive instruments. These clouds appear to have been caught up in the galaxy’s powerful outflowing winds and whisked away from the galactic disc.
\r\nUltimately, this phenomenon points back to the galaxy’s remarkable abundance of massive star clusters: as these massive clusters form, their newborn stars sear the surrounding gas with high-energy radiation and particles, launching the outflowing wind that is traced by this NIRCam image.
\r\n[Image Description: An image of the central part of galaxy M82. The galaxy’s disc extends from the top to the bottom of the image, emitting a blue-white glow. Gas erupts from the brightly shining centre, forming an hourglass-shaped plume of red and orange dust clouds to the left and right. Ridges and cavities in the gas are visible in great detail. Many distant galaxies can be seen in the background, as well as tiny pinprick stars in M82.]
\r\nA selection of high-quality emission-line spectra from the latest JADES Data Release, sorted by redshift. Numerous emission line and continuum features are clearly visible, showcasing the richness of the dataset (from Curtis-Lake et al. 2025, in press).
","Credit":"Curtis-Lake et al.","PublicationDate":"2025-10-23T08:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25006b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25006b.tif","FileSize":7924572,"Dimensions":[2458,2821],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25006b.jpg","FileSize":1211187,"Dimensions":[2458,2821],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25006b.jpg","FileSize":346014,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1470],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25006b.jpg","FileSize":9945,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25006b.jpg","FileSize":5523,"Dimensions":[60.0,69],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2542b","Title":"NGC 3370 (wide view)","Description":"Today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features a galaxy that Hubble has captured multiple times over more than 20 years. The galaxy is called NGC 3370, and it is a spiral galaxy located nearly 90 million light-years away in the constellation Leo (The Lion).
\r\nWhat is it about this galaxy that makes it a popular target for researchers? NGC 3370 is home to two kinds of objects that astronomers prize for their usefulness in determining distances to faraway galaxies: Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae.
\r\nCepheid variable stars change in both size and temperature as they pulsate. As a result, the luminosity of these stars varies over a period of days to months. It does so in a way that reveals something important: the more luminous a Cepheid variable star is, the more slowly it pulsates. By measuring how long a Cepheid variable’s brightness takes to complete one cycle, astronomers can determine how bright the star actually is. Paired with how bright the star appears from Earth, this information gives the distance to the star and its home galaxy.
\r\nType Ia supernovae provide a way to measure distances in a single explosive burst rather than through regular brightness variations. Type Ia supernovae happen when the dead core of a star ignites in a sudden flare of nuclear fusion. These explosions peak at very similar luminosities, and much like for a Cepheid variable star, knowing the intrinsic brightness of a supernova explosion allows for its distance to be measured. Observations of Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae are both critical for precisely measuring how fast our Universe is expanding.
\r\nA previous Hubble image of NGC 3370 was released in 2003. The image released today zooms in on the galaxy, presenting a richly detailed view that incorporates wavelengths of light that were not included in the previous version. NGC 3370 is a member of the NGC 3370 group of galaxies along with other Hubble targets NGC 3447 and NGC 3455.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy occupies most of the image. It is a slightly tilted disc of stars, yellow-white in the centre and blue in the outskirts, showing light from different stars in the galaxy. Its spiral arms curl outwards from the centre, speckled with blue star clusters. Dark reddish threads of dust swirl around the galaxy’s centre. The backdrop is four medium-sized and many small, distant galaxies on a black background.]
\r\nToday’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features a galaxy that Hubble has captured multiple times over more than 20 years. The galaxy is called NGC 3370, and it is a spiral galaxy located nearly 90 million light-years away in the constellation Leo (The Lion).
\r\nWhat is it about this galaxy that makes it a popular target for researchers? NGC 3370 is home to two kinds of objects that astronomers prize for their usefulness in determining distances to faraway galaxies: Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae.
\r\nCepheid variable stars change in both size and temperature as they pulsate. As a result, the luminosity of these stars varies over a period of days to months. It does so in a way that reveals something important: the more luminous a Cepheid variable star is, the more slowly it pulsates. By measuring how long a Cepheid variable’s brightness takes to complete one cycle, astronomers can determine how bright the star actually is. Paired with how bright the star appears from Earth, this information gives the distance to the star and its home galaxy.
\r\nType Ia supernovae provide a way to measure distances in a single explosive burst rather than through regular brightness variations. Type Ia supernovae happen when the dead core of a star ignites in a sudden flare of nuclear fusion. These explosions peak at very similar luminosities, and much like for a Cepheid variable star, knowing the intrinsic brightness of a supernova explosion allows for its distance to be measured. Observations of Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae are both critical for precisely measuring how fast our Universe is expanding.
\r\nA previous Hubble image of NGC 3370 was released in 2003. The image released today zooms in on the galaxy, presenting a richly detailed view that incorporates wavelengths of light that were not included in the previous version. NGC 3370 is a member of the NGC 3370 group of galaxies along with other Hubble targets NGC 3447 and NGC 3455.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy occupies most of the image. It is a slightly tilted disc of stars, yellow-white in the centre and blue in the outskirts, showing light from different stars in the galaxy. Its spiral arms curl outwards from the centre, speckled with blue star clusters. Dark reddish threads of dust swirl around the galaxy’s centre. The backdrop is two medium-sized and many small, distant galaxies on a black background.]
\r\nThe celestial object that is displayed in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is NGC 7496, a galaxy located over 24 million light-years away in the constellation Grus (The Crane). NGC 7496 is a dusty spiral galaxy with a bar of stars stretching across its centre. Adding to its intrigue is an active galactic nucleus: a supermassive black hole that feasts on gas at the very heart of the galaxy.
\r\nAstronomers have observed NGC 7496 at wavelengths from radio to ultraviolet in order to study the galaxy’s active galactic nucleus, dust clouds, and star formation. Hubble first observed this galaxy as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) programme. This programme has enlisted the abilities of several powerful astronomical observatories, including the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA), the Very Large Telescope, and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, in addition to Hubble. NGC 7496 was the first galaxy in the PHANGS sample that Webb observed.
\r\nEach of these observatories offers a different perspective on this well-studied galaxy. With its unique ultraviolet capabilities and fine resolution, Hubble’s view reveals young star clusters bursting with high-energy radiation. Hubble’s observations of NGC 7496 help to reveal the ages and masses of these young stars, as well as the extent to which their starlight is blocked by dust.
\r\nA previous Hubble image of NGC 7496 was released in 2022. Today’s image incorporates new data that highlight the galaxy’s star clusters, which are surrounded by glowing red clouds of hydrogen gas. Astronomers collected these data in order to study nebulae like those that massive stars leave behind when they explode as supernovae and those from which newborn stars are made.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy featuring a bright, glowing core that is crossed by a horizontal bar of yellowish light. Spiral arms emerge from each end of this bar and wrap around it, creating a disc that is stretched out to the right. Some areas, mostly along the arms, glow pink where stars are forming in nebulae. Webs of dark reddish dust also follow the arms. A star in our galaxy shines prominently, off to the right.]
\r\nThe glittering galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is NGC 6951, which resides about 70 million light-years away in the constellation Cepheus.
\r\nAs this Hubble image shows, NGC 6951 is a spiral galaxy with plenty of intriguing structures. Most eye-catching are its spiral arms, which are dotted with brilliant red nebulae, bright blue stars and filamentary dust clouds. The spiral arms loop around the galactic centre, which has a golden glow that comes from a population of older stars. The centre of the galaxy is also distinctly elongated, revealing the presence of a slowly rotating bar of stars.
\r\nNGC 6951’s bar may be responsible for another remarkable feature: a white-blue ring that encloses the very heart of the galaxy. This is called a circumnuclear starburst ring — essentially, a circle of enhanced star formation around the nucleus of a galaxy. The bar funnels gas toward the centre of the galaxy, where it collects in a ring about 3800 light-years across. Two dark dust lanes that run parallel to the bar mark the points where gas from the bar enters the ring.
\r\nThe dense gas of a circumnuclear starburst ring is the perfect environment to churn out an impressive number of stars. Using data from Hubble, astronomers have identified more than 80 potential star clusters within NGC 6951’s ring. Many of the stars formed less than 100 million years ago, but the ring itself is longer-lived, potentially having existed for 1–1.5 billion years.
\r\nAstronomers have imaged NGC 6951 with Hubble for a wide variety of reasons, including mapping the dust in nearby galaxies, studying the centres of disc galaxies and keeping tabs on recent supernovae (of which NGC 6951 has hosted five or six).
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy with large, open arms. A bar of yellow light, where old stars are gathered, crosses the middle of the disk. The very centre is a white point surrounded by a small, shining ring of star clusters. Thin lanes of dust swirl around this ring, reaching out to follow the spiral arms; also visible across the arms are red, glowing spots where stars are forming. To the right a star shines large and bright.]
\r\nStars of all ages are on display in today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This sparkling spiral galaxy is called NGC 6000 and it is located 102 million light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.
\r\nThis galaxy has a glowing yellow centre and glittering blue outskirts. The colours reflect differences in the average ages, masses and temperatures of the galaxy’s stars. In the heart of the galaxy, the stars tend to be older and smaller. Less massive stars are cooler than more massive stars, and somewhat counterintuitively, cooler stars are redder, while hotter stars are bluer. Farther out along NGC 6000’s spiral arms, brilliant star clusters host young, massive stars that appear distinctly blue.
\r\nHubble collected the data for this image while surveying the sites of recent supernova explosions in nearby galaxies. NGC 6000 has hosted two recent supernovae: SN 2007ch in 2007 and SN 2010as in 2010. Using Hubble’s sensitive detectors, researchers are able to discern the faint glow of supernovae years after the initial explosion. These observations help to constrain the masses of supernova progenitor stars and can indicate if they had any stellar companions.
\r\nBy zooming in to the right side of the galaxy’s disc in this image, you may see something else yellow and blue: a set of four thin lines. These are an asteroid in our Solar System, which was drifting across Hubble’s field of view as it gazed at NGC 6000. The four streaks are due to different exposures that were recorded one after another with slight pauses in between. These were combined to create this final image. The colours appear this way because each exposure used a filter to collect only very specific wavelengths of light, in this case around red and blue. Having these separate exposures is important to study and compare stars by their colours — but it also makes asteroid interlopers very obvious!
\r\n[Image Description: An oval-shaped spiral galaxy, of which only the centre and lower half is in frame. Its centre is mainly golden in colour with a white glowing core, while its thick spiral arms are mostly blue, particularly at the outskirts; the colours merge in between. Dark lanes of dust swirl through the centre, blocking some of its light. Stars and distant galaxies can be seen around the edges on a black background.]
\r\nToday’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a galaxy that’s hard to categorise. The galaxy in question is NGC 2775, which lies 67 million light-years away in the constellation Cancer (The Crab). NGC 2775 sports a smooth, featureless centre that is devoid of gas, resembling an elliptical galaxy. It also has a dusty ring with patchy star clusters, like a spiral galaxy. Which is it, then: spiral or elliptical — or neither?
\r\nBecause we can only view NGC 2775 from one angle, it’s difficult to say for sure. Some researchers have classified NGC 2775 as a spiral galaxy because of its feathery ring of stars and dust, while others have classified it as a lenticular galaxy. Lenticular galaxies have features common to both spiral and elliptical galaxies.
\r\nIt’s not yet known exactly how lenticular galaxies come to be, and they might form in a variety of ways. Lenticular galaxies might be spiral galaxies that have merged with other galaxies, or that have mostly run out of star-forming gas and lost their prominent spiral arms. They also might have started out more similar to elliptical galaxies, then collected gas into a disk around them.
\r\nSome evidence suggests that NGC 2775 has merged with other galaxies in the past. Invisible in this Hubble image, NGC 2775 has a tail of hydrogen gas that stretches almost 100 000 light-years around the galaxy. This faint tail could be the remnant of one or more galaxies that wandered too close to NGC 2775 before being stretched apart and absorbed. If NGC 2775 merged with other galaxies in the past, it could explain the galaxy’s strange appearance today.
\r\nA Hubble image of NGC 2775 was previously released in 2020. The new version adds observations of a specific wavelength of red light that is emitted by clouds of hydrogen gas surrounding massive young stars.
\r\n[Image Description: A galaxy seen face-on, with a slightly elliptical disc that appears to have a hole in the centre like a doughnut. In the hole, the core is a brightly glowing point that shines light out beyond the edge of the disc. Around the hole is an inner ring of dust, and at the galaxy’s edge is a thicker outer ring of dust, with a swirling web of dust strands in between. Blue stars and red nebulae are visible behind the dust.]
\r\nThis artist’s concept shows a white dwarf surrounded by a large debris disc. Debris from pieces of a captured, Pluto-like object is falling onto the white dwarf.
\r\n[Image description: An illustration showing a glowing white object in the upper left corner. This object is encircled by hundreds of thin, concentric, pale-yellow rings on an angle from bottom left to top right. The rings are palest closest to the central, glowing white object. A curving trail of gray, rock-like fragments marches across the right side, through the thin rings and joins the rings at far right. The eight largest fragments of varying sizes appear in the foreground. These objects have white, comet-like tails streaking away from the glowing white object in the rings’ center. The curving trail of fragments bends toward the glowing white object. At the bottom left corner is the label Artist’s Concept.]
","Credit":"T. Pyle (Caltech, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory)","PublicationDate":"2025-09-18T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2511a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":80,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2511a.tif","FileSize":5534798,"Dimensions":[3000,2400],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2511a.jpg","FileSize":639564,"Dimensions":[3000,2400],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2511a.jpg","FileSize":137667,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1024],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2511a.jpg","FileSize":7819,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2511a.jpg","FileSize":4595,"Dimensions":[60.0,48],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2537c","Title":"M82 and its smouldering heart (vertical collage)","Description":"What lurks behind the dense, dusty clouds of this galactic neighbour? There lies the star-powered heart of the galaxy Messier 82 (M82), also known as the Cigar Galaxy. Located just 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear), the Cigar Galaxy is considered a nearby galaxy. As this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week shows in great detail, it’s home to brilliant stars whose light is shaded by sculptural clouds, clumps and streaks of dust and gas.
\r\nIt’s no surprise that the Cigar Galaxy is so packed with stars, obscured though they might be by the distinctive clouds pictured here. Forming stars 10 times faster than the Milky Way, the Cigar Galaxy is what astronomers call a starburst galaxy. The intense starburst period that grips this galaxy has given rise to super star clusters in the galaxy’s heart. Each of these super star clusters contains hundreds of thousands of stars and is more luminous than a typical star cluster. Researchers used Hubble to home in on these massive clusters and reveal how they form and evolve.
\r\nThis image compares two sets of data captured by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Below is an image of the Cigar Galaxy released in 2006, in celebration of Hubble’s 16th birthday. It was taken with ACS’s Wide Field Channel that is designed for broad surveys. Above, newly processed data from the ACS High Resolution Channel creates a new view of the highly active super star clusters in M82’s heart. The High Resolution Channel, operational from 2002 to 2007, excelled at detailed observations of crowded, starry environments like the centres of starburst galaxies.
\r\n[Image Description: At the bottom is an image of the galaxy M82, showing its blue disc from the side, with plumes of red gas erupting from the top and bottom. It is labelled “Hubble/ACS/WFC”. A small box in the galaxy’s centre is pulled out to a second image on top, labelled “Hubble/ACS/HRC”. This close-in view of the centre shows thick clumps of gas and dust obscuring the brilliant bluish light from newly forming star clusters.]
\r\nWhat lurks behind the dense, dusty clouds of this galactic neighbour? There lies the star-powered heart of the galaxy Messier 82 (M82), also known as the Cigar Galaxy. Located just 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear), the Cigar Galaxy is considered a nearby galaxy. As this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week shows in great detail, it’s home to brilliant stars whose light is shaded by sculptural clouds, clumps and streaks of dust and gas.
\r\nIt’s no surprise that the Cigar Galaxy is so packed with stars, obscured though they might be by the distinctive clouds pictured here. Forming stars 10 times faster than the Milky Way, the Cigar Galaxy is what astronomers call a starburst galaxy. The intense starburst period that grips this galaxy has given rise to super star clusters in the galaxy’s heart. Each of these super star clusters contains hundreds of thousands of stars and is more luminous than a typical star cluster. Researchers used Hubble to home in on these massive clusters and reveal how they form and evolve.
\r\nThis image compares two sets of data captured by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). On the left is an image of the Cigar Galaxy released in 2006, in celebration of Hubble’s 16th birthday. It was taken with ACS’s Wide Field Channel that is designed for broad surveys. On the right, newly processed data from the ACS High Resolution Channel creates a new view of the highly active super star clusters in M82’s heart. The High Resolution Channel, operational from 2002 to 2007, excelled at detailed observations of crowded, starry environments like the centres of starburst galaxies.
\r\n[Image Description: On the left is an image of the galaxy M82, showing its blue disc from the side, with plumes of red gas erupting from the top and bottom. It is labelled “Hubble/ACS/WFC”. A small box in the galaxy’s centre is pulled out to a second image on the right, labelled “Hubble/ACS/HRC”. This close-in view of the centre shows thick clumps of gas and dust obscuring the brilliant bluish light from newly forming star clusters.]
\r\nWhat lurks behind the dense, dusty clouds of this galactic neighbour? There lies the star-powered heart of the galaxy Messier 82 (M82), also known as the Cigar Galaxy. Located just 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear), the Cigar Galaxy is considered a nearby galaxy. As this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week shows in great detail, it’s home to brilliant stars whose light is shaded by sculptural clouds, clumps and streaks of dust and gas.
\r\nIt’s no surprise that the Cigar Galaxy is so packed with stars, obscured though they might be by the distinctive clouds pictured here. Forming stars 10 times faster than the Milky Way, the Cigar Galaxy is what astronomers call a starburst galaxy. The intense starburst period that grips this galaxy has given rise to super star clusters in the galaxy’s heart. Each of these super star clusters contains hundreds of thousands of stars and is more luminous than a typical star cluster. Researchers used Hubble to home in on these massive clusters and reveal how they form and evolve.
\r\nHubble’s views of the Cigar Galaxy have been featured before, both as a previous Picture of the Week in 2012 and as an image released in celebration of Hubble’s 16th birthday. The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has also turned toward the Cigar Galaxy, producing infrared images in 2024 and earlier this year.
\r\nThis image features something not seen in previously released Hubble images of the galaxy: data from the High Resolution Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The High Resolution Channel is one of three sub-instruments of ACS, which was installed in 2002. In five years of operation, the High Resolution Channel returned fantastically detailed observations of crowded, starry environments like the centres of starburst galaxies. An electronics fault in 2007 unfortunately left the High Resolution Channel disabled.
\r\n[Image Description: A close-in view of the centre of galaxy M82. Bright, bluish light radiating from the centre is due to stars actively forming there. A thick lane of gas, black in the centre and red around the edges, crosses the centre and blocks much of the light. Thinner strands and clumps of reddish dust cover much of the rest of the view.]
\r\nThis new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a cloudy starscape from an impressive star cluster. This scene is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy situated about 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa. With a mass equal to 10–20% of the mass of the Milky Way, the Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the dozens of small galaxies that orbit our galaxy.
\r\nThe Large Magellanic Cloud is home to several massive stellar nurseries where gas clouds, like those strewn across this image, coalesce into new stars. Today’s image depicts a portion of the galaxy’s second-largest star-forming region, which is called N11. (The most massive and prolific star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Tarantula Nebula, is a frequent target for Hubble.) We see bright, young stars lighting up the gas clouds and sculpting clumps of dust with powerful ultraviolet radiation.
\r\nThis image marries observations made roughly 20 years apart, a testament to Hubble’s longevity. The first set of observations, which were carried out in 2002–2003, capitalised on the exquisite sensitivity and resolution of the then-newly-installed Advanced Camera for Surveys. Astronomers turned Hubble toward the N11 star cluster to do something that had never been done before at the time: catalogue all the stars in a young cluster with masses between 10% of the Sun’s mass and 100 times the Sun’s mass.
\r\nThe second set of observations came from Hubble’s newest camera, the Wide Field Camera 3. These images focused on the dusty clouds that suffuse the cluster, bringing a new perspective on cosmic dust.
\r\n[Image Description: Stars in a star cluster shine brightly blue, with four-pointed spikes radiating from them. The centre shows a small, crowded group of stars while a larger group lies out of view on the left. The nebula is mostly thick, smoky clouds of gas, lit up in blue tones by the stars. Clumps of dust hover before and around the stars; they are mostly dark, but lit around their edges where the starlight erodes them.]
\r\nWhile it may appear unassuming at first glance, just another spiral galaxy among thousands in the Universe, this subject of the ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week has plenty to study. NGC 7456 is its name, located over 51 million light-years away in the constellation Grus (the Crane).
\r\nIn this image we see in fine detail the patchy spiral arms of this galaxy, followed by clumps of dark, obscuring dust. Blossoms of glowing pink are rich reservoirs of gas where new stars are forming, illuminating the clouds around them and causing the gas to emit this tell-tale red light. The Hubble programme which collected this data is focused on stellar activity just like this, tracking new stars, clouds of hydrogen and star clusters to learn how the galaxy has evolved through time.
\r\nHubble, with its ability to capture visible, ultraviolet and some infrared light, is not the only observatory focused on NGC 7456. ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite has imaged X-rays from the galaxy on multiple occasions, discovering a number of so-called ultraluminous X-ray sources. These small, compact objects emit terrifically powerful X-rays, much more than would be expected for their size. Astronomers are still trying to pin down what powers these extreme objects, and NGC 7456 contributes a few more examples.
\r\nOn top of that, the region around the galaxy’s supermassive black hole is spectacularly bright and energetic, making NGC 7456 an active galaxy. Whether looking at its core or its outskirts, at visible light or X-rays, this galaxy has something interesting to show!
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy. It shines brightly at the centre, and most of its disc also glows in warm colours. Its two spiral arms, which wind outwards from the centre, are made up mostly of large patches of bright blue specks. They also contain thin, reddish clouds of dust, and bright pink bubbles of glowing gas, where stars are forming. Distant galaxies can be seen around the galaxy as small orange spots, on a dark background.]
\r\nToday’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a galaxy whose asymmetric appearance may be the result of a galactic tug of war. Located 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo, the spiral galaxy Messier 96 is the brightest of the galaxies in its group. The gravitational pull of its galactic neighbours may be responsible for Messier 96’s uneven distribution of gas and dust, asymmetric spiral arms, and off-centre galactic core.
\r\nThis asymmetric appearance is on full display in a new Hubble image, which incorporates observations made in ultraviolet and optical light. Hubble images of Messier 96 have been released previously in 2015 and 2018. Each successive image has added new data, building up a beautiful and scientifically valuable view of the galaxy.
\r\nThis third version gives an entirely new perspective on Messier 96’s star formation. The bubbles of pink gas in this image surround hot, young, massive stars, illuminating a ring of star formation in the outskirts of the galaxy. These young stars are still embedded within the clouds of gas from which they were born. The new data included for the first time in this image will be used to study how stars are born within giant dusty gas clouds, how dust filters starlight, and how stars affect their environments.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, tilted nearly face-on to us, with a slightly unusual shape. Its spiral arms form an oval-shaped ring around the galaxy’s disc, filled with blue light from stars, as well as pink glowing gas bubbles where new stars are forming. Threads of dark red dust swirl around the brightly glowing core, blocking some of its light. The dust lanes extend into and follow the spiral arms.]
\r\nToday’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week offers a closeup of a nearby spiral galaxy. The subject is NGC 2835, which lies 35 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra (The Water Snake).
\r\nA previous Hubble image of this galaxy was released in 2020, and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope turned its gaze toward NGC 2835 in recent years as well. Do you see anything different between today’s image of NGC 2835 and the previously released versions? Overall, NGC 2835 looks quite similar in all of these images, with spiral arms dotted with young blue stars sweeping around an oval-shaped centre, where older stars reside.
\r\nThis image differs from previously released images because it incorporates new data from Hubble that captures a specific wavelength of red light called H-alpha. The regions that are bright in H-alpha emission can be seen along NGC 2835’s spiral arms, where dozens of bright pink nebulae appear like flowers in bloom. Astronomers are interested in H-alpha light because it signals the presence of several different types of nebulae that arise during different stages of a star’s life. Newborn massive stars create nebulae called H II regions that are particularly brilliant sources of H-alpha light, while dying stars can leave behind supernova remnants or planetary nebulae that can also be identified by their H-alpha emission.
\r\nBy using Hubble’s sensitive instruments to survey 19 nearby galaxies, researchers aim to identify more than 50 000 nebulae. These observations will help to explain how stars affect their birth neighbourhoods through intense starlight and winds.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen face-on. Its centre is a bright glowing yellow. The galaxy’s spiral arms contain sparkling blue stars, pink spots of star formation, and dark threads of dust that follow the arms.]
\r\nThis image is an illustration of a merging white dwarf remnant.
\r\nAn international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a stellar rarity: an ultra-massive white dwarf that formed when a white dwarf merged with another star, rather than through the evolution of a single star. This discovery, which was made possible by Hubble’s sensitive ultraviolet observations, suggests that these rare white dwarfs may be more common than previously suspected.
\r\n[Image description: This illustration depicts a white dwarf star siphoning material off of a red giant star. The white dwarf has a long tail behind it and an orange shockwave in front of it as it flies through the extended atmosphere of the red giant, shown as a red glow. A broad stream of red gas is being pulled up from the red giant’s surface to the white dwarf.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, R. Crawford (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-08-13T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2510a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2510a.tif","FileSize":33973490,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2510a.jpg","FileSize":908372,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2510a.jpg","FileSize":70304,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2510a.jpg","FileSize":8378,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2510a.jpg","FileSize":4805,"Dimensions":[60.0,34],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2532a","Title":"Low brightness, high interest","Description":"This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week zooms in on the feathery spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 45, which lies just 22 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).
\r\nThe data used to create this portrait were drawn from two complementary observing programmes. The first took a broad view of 50 nearby galaxies, leveraging Hubble’s ability to observe light from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared in order to study star formation in these galaxies. The second programme examined many of the same nearby galaxies as the first, narrowing in on a particular wavelength of red light called H-alpha. Star-forming nebulae are powerful producers of H-alpha light, and several of these regions can be identified across NGC 45 by their bright pink-red colour.
\r\nThese observing programmes aimed to study star formation in galaxies of different sizes, structures, and degrees of isolation — and NGC 45 makes for a particularly interesting target. Though it may appear to be a regular spiral galaxy, NGC 45 is actually a remarkable type called a low surface brightness galaxy.
\r\nLow surface brightness galaxies are fainter than the night sky itself, making them incredibly difficult to detect. They appear unexpectedly faint because they have relatively few stars for the amount of gas and dark matter they carry. In the decades since the first low surface brightness galaxy was serendipitously discovered in 1986, researchers have learned that 30–60% of all galaxies may fall into this category. Studying these hard-to-detect galaxies is key to understanding how galaxies form and evolve, and Hubble’s sensitive instruments are equal to the task.
\r\n[Image Description: This Hubble image features a close-up view of the outer arms of the spiral galaxy NGC 45. These spiral arms are filled with tiny blue dots - stars - and glowing pink clouds - star-forming nebulae. This is shown against a dark background.]
\r\nThis image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera on 21 July 2025.
\r\nThe scale bar is labeled in arcseconds, which is a measure of angular distance on the sky. One arcsecond is equal to an angular measurement of 1/3600 of one degree. There are 60 arcminutes in a degree and 60 arcseconds in an arcminute (the full Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arcminutes). The actual size of an object that covers one arcsecond on the sky depends on its distance from the telescope.
\r\nThe north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).
\r\nThis image shows visible wavelengths of light.
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-08-07T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["3I/ATLAS"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2509b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2509b.tif","FileSize":1498944,"Dimensions":[1546,1140],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2509b.jpg","FileSize":345789,"Dimensions":[1546,1140],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2509b.jpg","FileSize":153853,"Dimensions":[1280.0,944],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2509b.jpg","FileSize":9435,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2509b.jpg","FileSize":4854,"Dimensions":[60.0,45],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2509a","Title":"3I/ATLAS","Description":"This is a Hubble Space telescope image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Hubble photographed the comet on 21 July 21 2025, when the comet was 365 million kilometres from Earth. Hubble shows that the comet has a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off its solid, icy nucleus. Because Hubble was tracking the comet moving along a hyperbolic trajectory, the stationary background stars are streaked in the exposure.
\r\n[Image description: At the center of the image is a comet that appears as a teardrop-shaped bluish cocoon of dust coming off the comet’s solid, icy nucleus and seen against a black background. The comet appears to be heading to the bottom left corner of the image. About a dozen short, light blue diagonal streaks are seen scattered across the image, which are from background stars that appeared to move during the exposure because the telescope was tracking the moving comet.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-08-07T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["3I/ATLAS"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2509a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":80,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2509a.tif","FileSize":1475282,"Dimensions":[1546,1140],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2509a.jpg","FileSize":305242,"Dimensions":[1546,1140],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2509a.jpg","FileSize":125627,"Dimensions":[1280.0,944],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2509a.jpg","FileSize":7863,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2509a.jpg","FileSize":4512,"Dimensions":[60.0,45],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2531a","Title":"A sea monster and a Tarantula","Description":"A scene from a star-forming factory shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This Hubble picture captures incredible details in the dusty clouds in a star-forming region called the Tarantula Nebula. What’s possibly the most amazing aspect of this detailed image is that this nebula isn’t even in our galaxy. Instead, it’s in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is located about 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa.
\r\nThe Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the dozens of small satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is the largest and brightest star-forming region not just in the Large Magellanic Cloud, but in the entire group of nearby galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs.
\r\nThe Tarantula Nebula is home to the most massive stars known, some of which are roughly 200 times as massive as our Sun. The scene pictured here is located away from the centre of the nebula, where there is a super star cluster called R136, but very close to a rare type of star called a Wolf–Rayet star. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that have lost their outer shell of hydrogen and are extremely hot and luminous, powering dense and furious stellar winds.
\r\nThis nebula is a frequent target for Hubble, whose multiwavelength capabilities are critical for capturing sculptural details in the nebula’s dusty clouds. The data used to create this image come from an observing programme called Scylla, named for a multi-headed sea monster from the Greek myth of Ulysses. The Scylla programme was designed to complement another Hubble observing programme called ULLYSSES (Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards). ULLYSSES targets massive young stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, while Scylla investigates the structures of gas and dust that surround these stars.
\r\n[Image Description: A nebula. The top-left is dense with layers of fluffy pink and greenish clouds. Long strands of green clouds stretch out from here; a faint layer of translucent blue dust combines with them to create a three-dimensional scene. A sparse network of dark dust clouds in the foreground adds reddish-black patches atop the nebula. Blue-white and orange stars, from our galaxy and beyond, are spread amongst the clouds.]
\r\nRich with detail, the spiral galaxy NGC 1309 shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. NGC 1309 is situated about 100 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.
\r\nThis stunning Hubble image encompasses NGC 1309’s bluish stars, dark brown gas clouds and pearly white centre, as well as hundreds of distant background galaxies. Nearly every smudge, streak and blob of light in this image is an individual galaxy. The only exception to the extragalactic ensemble is a star, which can be identified near the top of the frame by its diffraction spikes. It is positively neighbourly, just a few thousand light-years away in the Milky Way galaxy.
\r\nHubble has turned its attention toward NGC 1309 several times; previous Hubble images of this galaxy were released in 2006 and 2014. Much of NGC 1309’s scientific interest derives from two supernovae, SN 2002fk in 2002 and SN 2012Z in 2012. SN 2002fk was a perfect example of a Type Ia supernova, which happens when the core of a dead star (a white dwarf) explodes.
\r\nSN 2012Z, on the other hand, was a bit of a renegade. It was classified as a Type Iax supernova: while its spectrum resembled that of a Type Ia supernova, the explosion wasn’t as bright as expected. Hubble observations showed that in this case, the supernova did not destroy the white dwarf completely, leaving behind a ‘zombie star’ that shone even brighter than it did before the explosion. Hubble observations of NGC 1309 taken across several years also made this the first time the white dwarf progenitor of a supernova has been identified in images taken before the explosion.
\r\n[Image Description: A top-down view of a spiral galaxy, showing its brightly shining centre, its broad spiral arms and the faint halo around its disc, as well as distant galaxies and stars on a dark background. Large blue clouds of gas speckled with small stars and strands of dark dust swirl around the galaxy’s disc. A couple of the background galaxies are large enough that their own swirling spiral arms can be seen.]
\r\nThe NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have teamed up to identify a new possible example of a rare class of black holes. Called NGC 6099 HLX-1, this bright X-ray source seems to reside in a compact star cluster in a giant elliptical galaxy.
\r\nJust a few years after its 1990 launch, Hubble discovered that galaxies throughout the Universe can contain supermassive black holes at their centers weighing millions or billions of times the mass of our Sun. In addition, galaxies also contain as many as millions of small black holes weighing less than 100 times the mass of the Sun. These form when massive stars reach the end of their lives.
\r\nFar more elusive are intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), weighing between a few hundred to a few 100,000 times the mass of our Sun. This not-too-big, not-too-small category of black holes is often invisible to us because IMBHs don’t gobble as much gas and stars as the supermassive ones, which would emit powerful radiation. They have to be caught in the act of foraging in order to be found. When they occasionally devour a hapless bypassing star — in what astronomers call a tidal disruption event— they pour out a gusher of radiation.
\r\nThe newest probable IMBH is located on the galaxy NGC 6099’s outskirts at approximately 40,000 light-years from the galaxy’s center, as described in a new study in the Astrophysical Journal. The galaxy is located about 450 million light-years away in the constellation Hercules.
\r\nThis Hubble Space Telescope image shows a pair of galaxies: NGC 6099 (lower left) and NGC 6098 (upper right). The white dot labeled HLX-1 is the visible-light component of the location of a compact star cluster where the intermediate-mass black hole is tearing apart a star.
\r\nThe swirling spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is NGC 3285B, which resides 137 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra (The Water Snake). Hydra has the largest area of the 88 constellations that cover the entire sky in a celestial patchwork. It’s also the longest constellation, stretching 100 degrees across the sky. It would take nearly 200 full Moons, placed side by side, to reach from one side of the constellation to the other.
\r\nNGC 3285B is a member of the Hydra I cluster, one of the largest galaxy clusters in the nearby Universe. Galaxy clusters are collections of hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound to one another by gravity. The Hydra I cluster is anchored by two giant elliptical galaxies at its centre. Each of these galaxies is about 150,000 light-years across, making them about 50% larger than our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
\r\nNGC 3285B sits on the outskirts of its home cluster, far from the massive galaxies at the centre. This galaxy drew Hubble’s attention because it hosted a Type Ia supernova in 2023. Type Ia supernovae happen when a type of condensed stellar core called a white dwarf detonates, igniting a sudden burst of nuclear fusion that briefly shines about 5 billion times brighter than the Sun. The supernova, named SN 2023xqm, is visible here as a blue-ish dot on the left edge of the galaxy’s disc.
\r\nHubble observed NGC 3285B as part of an observing programme that targeted 100 Type Ia supernovae. By viewing each of these supernovae in ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared light, researchers aim to disentangle the effects of distance and dust, both of which can make a supernova appear redder than it actually is. This programme will help refine cosmic distance measurements that rely on observations of Type Ia supernovae.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy with a disc made up of several swirling arms. Patchy blue clouds of gas are speckled over the disc, where stars are forming and lighting up the gas around them. The core of the galaxy is large and shines brightly gold, while the spiral arms are a paler and faint reddish colour. Neighbouring galaxies - from small, elongated spots to larger swirling spirals - can be seen across the black background.]
\r\nFor this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week, we gaze upon the field of stars that is NGC 1786. This object is a globular cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way Galaxy that is approximately 160 000 light-years away from Earth. NGC 1786 itself is in the constellation Dorado. It was discovered in the year 1835 by John Herschel.
\r\nThe data for this image comes from an observing programme comparing old globular clusters in nearby dwarf galaxies — the LMC, the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy — to the globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. Our galaxy contains over 150 of these old, spherical collections of tightly-bound stars, which have been studied in depth — especially with Hubble Space Telescope images like this one, which show them in previously-unattainable detail. Being very stable and long-lived, they act as galactic time capsules, preserving stars from the earliest stages of a galaxy’s formation.
\r\nAstronomers once thought that the stars in a globular cluster all formed together at about the same time, but study of the old globular clusters in our galaxy has uncovered multiple populations of stars with different ages. In order to use globular clusters as historical markers, we must understand how they form and where these stars of varying ages come from. This observing programme examined old globular clusters like NGC 1786 in these external galaxies to see if they, too, contain multiple populations of stars. This research can tell us more not only about how the LMC was originally formed, but the Milky Way Galaxy, too.
\r\n[Image Description: A cluster of stars in space. It’s bright in the centre, where the stars are densely packed together in the cluster’s core, and grows dimmer and more diffuse out to the edges, as the stars give way to the dark background of space. A few orange stars are spread across the cluster, but most are pale, bluish-white points of light. Three large stars with cross-shaped spikes around them lie between us and the cluster.]
\r\nA massive, spacetime-warping cluster of galaxies is the setting of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. The galaxy cluster in question is Abell 209, which is located 2.8 billion light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).
\r\nThis Hubble image of Abell 209 shows more than a hundred galaxies, but there’s more to this cluster than even Hubble’s discerning eye can see. Abell 209’s galaxies are separated by millions of light-years, and the seemingly empty space between the galaxies is actually filled with hot, diffuse gas that can be spotted only at X-ray wavelengths. An even more elusive occupant of this galaxy cluster is dark matter: a form of matter that does not interact with light. The Universe is understood to be comprised of 5% normal matter, 25% dark matter, and 70% dark energy.
\r\nHubble observations like the ones used to create this image can help astronomers answer fundamental questions about our Universe, including mysteries surrounding dark matter and dark energy. These investigations leverage the immense mass of a galaxy cluster, which can bend the fabric of spacetime itself and create warped and magnified images of background galaxies and stars in a process called gravitational lensing.
\r\nWhile this image lacks the dramatic rings that gravitational lensing can sometimes create, Abell 209 still shows subtle signs of lensing at work, in the form of streaky, slightly curved galaxies within the cluster’s golden glow. By measuring the distortion of these galaxies, astronomers can map the distribution of mass within the cluster, illuminating the underlying cloud of dark matter. This information, which Hubble’s fine resolution and sensitive instruments help to provide, is critical for testing theories of how our Universe has evolved.
\r\n[Image Description: A cluster of distant, mainly elliptical galaxies. They appear as brightly shining points radiating golden light that each take the shape of a smooth, featureless oval. They crowd around one that is extremely large and bright. A few spiral galaxies of comparable size appear too, bluer in colour and with unique shapes. Of the other, more small and distant galaxies covering the scene, a few are warped into long lines.]
\r\nThe subject of this week's Hubble Picture of the Week is a reflection nebula, identified as GN 04.32.8. Reflection nebulae are clouds of dust in space that don't emit their own light, as other nebulae do. Instead, the light from nearby stars hits and scatters off their dust, lighting them up. Because of the way the light scatters, many reflection nebulae tend to appear blue, GN 04.32.8 included.
\r\nGN 04.32.8 is a small part of the stellar nursery known as the Taurus Molecular Cloud. At only roughly 480 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, it's one of the best locations for studying newly forming stars. This reflection nebula is illuminated by the system of three bright stars in the centre of this image, mainly the variable star V1025 Tauri in the very centre. One of those stars overlaps with part of the nebula: this is another variable star that is named HP Tauri, but is classified as a T Tauri star, for its similarity to yet another variable star elsewhere in the Taurus Molecular Complex. T Tauri stars are very active, chaotic stars at an early stage of their evolution, so it's no surprise that they appear in a prolific stellar nursery like this one! The three stars are also named HP Tau, HP Tau G2 and HP Tau G3; they’re believed to be gravitationally bound to each other, forming a triple system.
\r\nEagle-eyed viewers might notice the small, squashed, orange spot, just left of centre below the clouds of the nebula, that’s crossed by a dark line. This is a newly-formed protostar, hidden in a protoplanetary disc that obstructs some of its light. Because the disc is edge-on to us, it’s an ideal candidate for study. Astronomers are using Hubble here to examine it closely, seeking to learn about the kinds of exoplanets that might be formed in discs like it.
\r\n[Image Description: A long, smoky, greyish-blue cloud in the centre of the image curves in an arc around three bright stars, each with long cross-shaped diffraction spikes. The cloud is lit more brightly on the inner side facing the stars, and fades into the dark background on the outer side. A few other stars and points of light surround the cloud: one small star below it has a dark band crossing its centre.]
\r\nThe light that the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope collected to create this Picture of the Week reached the telescope after a journey of 250 million years. Its source was the spiral galaxy UGC 11397, which resides in the constellation Lyra (The Lyre). At first glance, UGC 11397 appears to be an average spiral galaxy: it sports two graceful spiral arms that are illuminated by stars and defined by dark, clumpy clouds of dust.
\r\nWhat sets UGC 11397 apart from a typical spiral lies at its centre, where a supermassive black hole containing 174 million times the mass of the Sun is growing. As a black hole ensnares gas, dust, and even entire stars from its vicinity, this doomed matter heats up and puts on a fantastic cosmic light show. Material trapped by the black hole emits light from gamma rays to radio waves and can brighten and fade without warning. But in some galaxies, including UGC 11397, thick clouds of dust hide much of this energetic activity from view in optical light. Despite this, UGC 11397's actively growing black hole was revealed through its bright X-ray emission — high-energy light that can pierce the surrounding dust. This led astronomers to classify it as a Type 2 Seyfert galaxy, a category used for active galaxies whose central regions are hidden from view in visible light by a doughnut-shaped cloud of dust and gas.
\r\nUsing Hubble, researchers will study hundreds of galaxies that, like UGC 11397, harbour a supermassive black hole that is gaining mass. The Hubble observations will help researchers weigh nearby supermassive black holes, understand how black holes grew early in the Universe’s history, and even study how stars form in the extreme environment found at the very centre of a galaxy.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, seen at an angle that gives it an oval shape. It has two spiral arms that curl out from the centre. They start narrow but broaden out as they wrap around the galaxy before merging into a faint halo. The galaxy’s disc is golden in the centre with a bright core, and pale blue outside that. A swirl of dark dust strands and speckled blue star-forming regions follow the arms through the disc.]
\r\nThis new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a rare cosmic phenomenon called an Einstein ring. What at first appears to be a single, strangely shaped galaxy is actually two galaxies that are separated by a large distance. The closer foreground galaxy sits at the center of the image, while the more distant background galaxy appears to be wrapped around the closer galaxy, forming a ring.
\r\nEinstein rings occur when light from a very distant object is bent (or ‘lensed’) about a massive intermediate (or ‘lensing’) object. This is possible because spacetime, the fabric of the Universe itself, is bent by mass, and therefore light travelling through space and time is bent as well. This effect is much too subtle to be observed on a local level, but it sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales, such as when the light from one galaxy is bent around another galaxy or galaxy cluster.
\r\nWhen the lensed object and the lensing object line up just so, the result is the distinctive Einstein ring shape, which appears as a full circle (as seen here) or a partial circle of light around the lensing object, depending on the precision of the alignment. Objects like these are the ideal laboratory in which to research galaxies too faint and distant to otherwise see.
\r\nThe lensing galaxy at the center of this Einstein ring is an elliptical galaxy, as can be seen from the galaxy’s bright core and smooth, featureless body. This galaxy belongs to a galaxy cluster named SMACSJ0028.2-7537. The lensed galaxy wrapped around the elliptical galaxy is a spiral galaxy. Even though its image has been warped as its light travelled around the galaxy in its path, individual star clusters and gas structures are clearly visible.
The Webb data used in this image were taken as part of the Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey (programme 5594), which is led by Guillaume Mahler at University of Liège in Belgium, and consists of a team of international astronomers. This survey aims to trace 8 billion years of galaxy cluster evolution by targeting 182 galaxy clusters with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera instrument. This image also incorporates data from two of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s instruments, the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
[Image Description: In the centre is an elliptical galaxy, seen as an oval-shaped glow around a small bright core. Around this is wrapped a broad band of light, appearing like a spiral galaxy stretched and warped into a ring, with bright blue lines drawn through it where the spiral arms have been stretched into circles. A few distant objects are visible around the ring on a black background.]
\r\nLinks
\r\n","Credit":"ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. MahlerAcknowledgement: M. A. McDonald","PublicationDate":"2025-06-17T08:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25004a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25004a.tif","FileSize":7928288,"Dimensions":[1146,1146],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25004a.jpg","FileSize":179173,"Dimensions":[1146,1146],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25004a.jpg","FileSize":121172,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1280],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25004a.jpg","FileSize":7724,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25004a.jpg","FileSize":5111,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope","James Webb Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["ACS","ACS","NIRCam","NIRCam"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Cyan","Orange","Red"],"Band":["V","I",null,null],"Bandpass":["V","I",null,null],"CentralWavelength":[606,814,1500,3220]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[6.9711956471947945,-75.62486293885915],"ReferenceDimension":[1146.0,1146.0],"ReferencePixel":[573.0,573.0],"Scale":[-2.847435786001022e-06,2.847435786001022e-06],"Rotation":-7.580000000000367,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"sci25003a","Title":"Rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b (illustration)","Description":"Illustration showing what the hot rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b could look like. TRAPPIST-1 b, the innermost of seven known planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, orbits its star at a distance of 0.011 AU, completing one circuit in just 1.51 Earth-days. TRAPPIST-1 b is slightly larger than Earth, but has around the same density, which indicates that it must have a rocky composition. Webb’s measurement of mid-infrared light given off by TRAPPIST-1 b suggests that the planet does not have any substantial atmosphere. The star, TRAPPIST-1, is an ultracool red dwarf (M dwarf) with a temperature of only 2566 K and a mass just 0.09 times the mass of the Sun.
\r\nThis illustration is based on new data gathered by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) as well as previous observations from other ground- and space-based telescopes. Webb has not captured any images of the planet.
\r\nMIRI was developed as a partnership between Europe and the USA: the main partners are ESA, a consortium of nationally funded European institutes, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the University of Arizona. The instrument was nationally funded by the European Consortium under the auspices of the European Space Agency.
\r\n[Image description: Illustration of a rocky planet and its red dwarf star on an empty black background. The planet is large, in the foreground on the lower right and the star is smaller, in the background at the upper left. The planet is various shades of grey, with some small craters. There is no apparent atmosphere. The left quarter of the planet (the side facing the star) is lit, while the rest is in shadow.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI), T. P. Greene (NASA Ames), T. Bell (BAERI), E. Ducrot (CEA), P. Lagage (CEA)","PublicationDate":"2025-06-17T08:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25003a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25003a.tif","FileSize":4705972,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25003a.jpg","FileSize":712393,"Dimensions":[3840,2160],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25003a.jpg","FileSize":128420,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25003a.jpg","FileSize":6953,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25003a.jpg","FileSize":4177,"Dimensions":[60.0,34],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"sci25003b","Title":"Candidate targets for the Rocky Worlds DDT programme","Description":"Candidate targets for the Rocky Worlds DDT programme in the context of the ‘Cosmic Shoreline’, including the first four selected targets (highlighted in orange).
","Credit":"Néstor Espinoza & Mees Fix (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-06-17T08:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/sci25003b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/sci25003b.tif","FileSize":353476,"Dimensions":[1976,1276],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/sci25003b.jpg","FileSize":247921,"Dimensions":[1976,1276],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/sci25003b.jpg","FileSize":109403,"Dimensions":[1280.0,827],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/sci25003b.jpg","FileSize":10933,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/sci25003b.jpg","FileSize":5005,"Dimensions":[60.0,39],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2524a","Title":"Small but mighty","Description":"This portrait from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope puts the nearby galaxy NGC 4449 in the spotlight. The galaxy is situated just 12.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). It is a member of the M94 galaxy group, which is near the Local Group of galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs.
\r\nNGC 4449 is a dwarf galaxy, which means that it is far smaller and contains fewer stars than the Milky Way. But don’t let its small size fool you — NGC 4449 packs a punch when it comes to making stars! This galaxy is currently forming new stars at a much faster rate than expected for its size, which makes it known as a starburst galaxy. Most starburst galaxies churn out stars mainly in their centres, but NGC 4449 is alight with brilliant young stars throughout. Researchers believe that this global burst of star formation came about because of NGC 4449’s interactions with its galactic neighbours. Because NGC 4449 is so close, it provides an excellent opportunity for Hubble to study how interactions between galaxies can influence the formation of new stars.
\r\nA Hubble image of NGC 4449 was previously released in 2007. This new version incorporates several additional wavelengths of light that Hubble collected for multiple observing programmes. These programmes encompass an incredible range of science, from a deep dive into NGC 4449’s star-formation history to the mapping of the brightest, hottest, and most massive stars in more than two dozen nearby galaxies.
\r\nThe NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has also observed NGC 4449, revealing in intricate detail the galaxy’s tendrils of dusty gas, glowing from the intense starlight radiated by the flourishing young stars.
\r\n[Image Description: This Hubble image shows the galaxy NGC 4449. The field is dominated by dust that appears in dark red, with scattered brighter regions of star formation as bright pink globules. The background shows countless blue stars peeking around the dusty regions.]
\r\nAstronomers studied the four largest moons of Uranus with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. At a distance of 3.2 billion kilometres from Earth, the icy satellites Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon are tiny points of light. But by using Hubble’s ultraviolet capabilities, astronomers could deduce their surface characteristics.
\r\nScientists predicted that the planet’s magnetic field would make the moons two-toned, with each moon’s trailing side being darker than the leading side (the hemisphere facing its direction of travel around Uranus). But surprisingly, they found the opposite on the two outer large moons, Titania and Oberon. These moons appear darker on the leading side as they sweep up dust like bugs on a windshield as they travel along their orbits.
\r\nThey also appear to be shielding the two inner moons, Ariel and Umbriel, from the dark dust. The inner moons show no difference in brightness from side to side.
\r\n[Image description: Four small, white dots appear widely spaced in a steep, roughly jagged, diagonal line from top right to bottom left. These white dots appear against a solid black background. A fifth small, white dot is superimposed on a much larger blue sphere, which is also on the black background. This medium-blue sphere has pink, white, and lighter blue diagonal striations. Also superimposed on this striated sphere is a tiny black dot, which is just to the right and slightly beneath the white dot. Encircling the blue sphere at the same steep diagonal angle as the white dots and striations are thin, ghostly, white, Saturn-like rings. The four white dots are labeled, from top right to bottom left, “Titania,” “Oberon,” “Umbriel,” and “Miranda.” The white dot and its accompanying black dot, which are both superimposed on the blue sphere, are labeled “Ariel and shadow.” The faint, Saturn-like rings encircling the blue sphere are labeled simply “rings.”]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI","PublicationDate":"2025-06-10T18:15:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Uranus"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/opo2518/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/opo2518.tif","FileSize":5199864,"Dimensions":[3000,3304],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/opo2518.jpg","FileSize":347645,"Dimensions":[3000,3304],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/opo2518.jpg","FileSize":55134,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1410],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/opo2518.jpg","FileSize":4514,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/opo2518.jpg","FileSize":4041,"Dimensions":[60.0,67],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2523a","Title":"Stirring the interstellar soup","Description":"This serene spiral galaxy hides a cataclysmic past. The galaxy IC 758, shown here in today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week, is situated 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
\r\nIn this Hubble image captured in 2023, IC 758 appears peaceful, its soft blue spiral arms curving gently around its hazy barred centre. But in 1999, astronomers spotted a powerful explosion in this galaxy: the supernova SN 1999bg. SN 1999bg marked the dramatic end of a star far more massive than the Sun.
\r\nIt’s not yet known how massive this star was before it exploded. Researchers will use these Hubble observations to measure the masses of stars in SN 1999bg’s neighbourhood, which will help them estimate the mass of the star that went supernova. The Hubble data may also reveal whether SN 1999bg’s progenitor star had a companion, which would give additional clues about the star’s life and death.
\r\nA supernova represents more than just the demise of a single star — it’s also a powerful force that can shape its neighbourhood. When a massive star collapses, triggering a supernova, its outer layers rebound off its shrunken core. The explosion stirs the interstellar soup of gas and dust out of which new stars form. This interstellar shakeup can scatter and heat nearby gas clouds, preventing new stars from forming, or it can compress them, creating a burst of new stars. The cast-off layers also become ingredients for new stars.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy with a generally soft and slightly faint appearance. It glows most brightly around the pale yellow bar across its centre. It has two spiral arms which wrap around the centre, quickly broadening out to join a wide, faint circular halo around the galaxy. Glowing, sparkling patches in the disc show stars forming in nebulae. Behind the galaxy, distant galaxies appear as orange dots on a black background.]
\r\nThis selection of images of external galaxies illustrates three encounter scenarios between our Milky Way and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. In the top left panel, a wide-field DSS image showing galaxies M81 and M82 serves as an example of the Milky Way and Andromeda passing each other at large distances. The top right panel shows NGC 6786, a pair of interacting galaxies displaying the telltale signs of tidal disturbances after a close encounter. The bottom panel shows NGC 520, a cosmic train wreck as two galaxies are actively merging together.
\r\n[Image description: A three-panel image, two at the top and one stretched across the bottom. At top left, two spiral galaxies are widely separated against the black background of space. At top right, two face-on spiral galaxies are close together. Their spiral arms appear stretched toward each other. At bottom, two spiral galaxies have collided, resulting in a broad X-shaped patch of milky white. Mottled clouds of dark brown dust are superimposed.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, Till Sawala (University of Helsinki), DSS, J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-06-02T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2508a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2508a.tif","FileSize":19876644,"Dimensions":[3663,4184],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2508a.jpg","FileSize":3397313,"Dimensions":[3663,4184],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2508a.jpg","FileSize":237188,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1463],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2508a.jpg","FileSize":9448,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2508a.jpg","FileSize":5300,"Dimensions":[60.0,69],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2522a","Title":"Starry spectacle","Description":"A galaxy ablaze with young stars is the subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This galaxy is called NGC 685 and is situated about 64 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus (The River). NGC 685 is classified as a barred spiral because its feathery spiral arms sprout from the ends of a bar of stars at the galaxy’s centre. The Milky Way is also a barred spiral, but our galaxy is a little less than twice the size of NGC 685.
\r\nAstronomers used Hubble to study NGC 685 for two observing programmes, both of which focus on star formation. It’s no surprise that NGC 685 was chosen for these programmes: numerous patches of young blue stars highlight the galaxy’s spiral arms. Many of these star clusters are cocooned in pink gas clouds, which are called H II (pronounced ‘H-two’) regions. An H II region is a gas cloud that glows for a short time when particularly hot and massive stars are born. An especially eye-catching H II region peeks out at the bottom edge of the image. Despite the dozens of star-forming regions evident in this image, NGC 685 converts an amount of gas equivalent to less than half the mass of the Sun into stars each year.
\r\nThe Hubble data collected for the two observing programmes will allow astronomers to catalogue 50 000 H II regions and 100 000 star clusters in nearby galaxies. By combining Hubble’s sensitive visible and ultraviolet observations with infrared data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, researchers will peer into the depths of dusty stellar nurseries and illuminate the stars forming there.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen directly on. It glows strongly at its centre and has a short horizontal bar. Two spiral arms extend from this bar, but they are broad and irregularly-shaped. They are filled with tiny blue dots - stars - and glowing pink clouds - star-forming nebulae. The arms break apart into many strands at the edge of the disc. Beyond this is a dark background.]
\r\nA single member of a galaxy pair takes centre stage in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This beautiful spiral galaxy is NGC 3507, which is situated about 46 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. NGC 3507 is classified as a barred spiral because the galaxy’s sweeping spiral arms emerge from the ends of a central bar of stars rather than the central point of the galaxy.
\r\nThough pictured solo here, NGC 3507 actually travels the Universe with a galactic partner named NGC 3501 that is located outside the frame. NGC 3501 was featured in a previous Picture of the Week. While NGC 3507 is a quintessential galactic pinwheel, its partner resembles a streak of quicksilver across the sky. Despite looking completely different, both are spiral galaxies, simply seen from different angles.
\r\nFor galaxies that are just a few tens of millions of light-years away, like NGC 3507 and NGC 3501, features like spiral arms, dusty gas clouds, and brilliant star clusters are on full display. More distant galaxies appear less detailed. See if you can spot any faraway galaxies in this image: they tend to be orange or yellow and can be anywhere from circular and starlike to narrow and elongated, with hints of spiral arms. Astronomers use instruments called spectrometers to split the light from these distant galaxies to study the nature of these objects in the early Universe.
\r\nIn addition to these far-flung companions, NGC 3507 is joined by a far nearer object, marked by four spikes of light: a star within the Milky Way, a mere 436 light-years away from Earth.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen face-on. Its centre is crossed by a broad bar of light. A glowing spiral arm extends from each end of this bar, both making almost a full turn through the galaxy’s disc before fading out. The arms contain sparkling blue stars, pink spots of star formation, and dark threads of dust that follow both spiral arms into and across the central bar. A foreground star sits atop the galaxy.]
\r\nThe stately and inclined spiral galaxy NGC 3511 is the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. The galaxy is located 43 million light-years away in the constellation Crater (The Cup). From Hubble’s vantage point in orbit around Earth, NGC 3511 is tilted by about 70 degrees, intermediate between face-on galaxies that display picture-perfect spiral arms and edge-on galaxies that reveal only their dense, flattened discs.
\r\nAstronomers are studying NGC 3511 as part of a survey of the star formation cycle in nearby galaxies. For this observing programme, Hubble will record the appearance of 55 local galaxies using five filters that allow in different wavelengths, or colours, of light.
\r\nOne of these filters allows only a specific wavelength of red light to pass through. Giant clouds of hydrogen gas glow in this red colour when energised by ultraviolet light from hot young stars. As this image shows, NGC 3511 contains many of these bright red gas clouds, some of which are curled around clusters of brilliant blue stars. Hubble will help astronomers catalogue and measure the ages of these stars, which are typically less than a few million years old and several times more massive than the Sun.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy in space. It is seen tilted at an angle, as a stormy disc filled with clouds of stars and dust. It is coloured more yellowish in the centre, and bluer out to the edge of the disc, where the ends of curved spiral arms break away from the disc. Spots of red light scattered through the galaxy mark where stars are actively forming. The galaxy is on a black background.]
\r\nToday’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a sparkling cloudscape from one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbours, a dwarf galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Located 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the Milky Way’s many small satellite galaxies.
\r\nThis view of dusty gas clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud is possible thanks to Hubble’s cameras, such as the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) that was used to collect the observations for this image. WFC3 is equipped with a variety of filters, each of which lets through only specific wavelengths, or colours, of light. This image combines observations made with five different filters, including some that capture ultraviolet and infrared light that the human eye cannot see.
\r\nThe wispy gas clouds in this image resemble brightly coloured candyfloss. When viewing such a vividly coloured cosmic scene, it is natural to wonder whether the colours are ‘real’. After all, Hubble, with its 2.4 metre-wide mirror and advanced scientific instruments, doesn’t bear resemblance to a typical camera! When image-processing specialists combine raw filtered data into a multi-coloured image like this one, they assign a colour to each filter. Visible-light observations are typically matched to the colour that the filter allows through. Shorter wavelengths of light such as ultraviolet are usually coloured blue or purple, while longer wavelengths like infrared are typically coloured red.
\r\nThis colour scheme closely represents reality while adding new information from the portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot see. However, there are endless possible colour combinations that can be employed to achieve an especially aesthetically pleasing or scientifically insightful image.
\r\n[Image Description: A part of a nebula in space. It is made of layers of gas and dust clouds in different colours, from blue and green shades to pink, red and black, indicating light emitted by different molecules. The background cloud layers are thicker and puffier, though still translucent, and the upper layers are thin and bright at the edges. Behind the clouds are very many small, mostly orange and some blue, stars.]
\r\nLurking 600 million light-years away, within the inky black depths between stars, there is an invisible monster gulping down any wayward star that plummets toward it. The black hole revealed its presence in a newly identified tidal disruption event (TDE) where a hapless star was ripped apart and swallowed in a spectacular burst of radiation. These disruption events are powerful probes of black hole physics, revealing the conditions necessary for launching jets and winds when a black hole is in the midst of consuming a star, and are seen as bright objects by telescopes.
\r\nThe new TDE, called AT2024tvd, allowed astronomers to pinpoint a wandering supermassive black hole using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with similar supporting observations from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the NRAO Very Large Array telescope that also showed that the black hole is offset from the center of the galaxy.
\r\nSurprisingly, this one million-solar-mass black hole doesn’t reside exactly in the center of the host galaxy, where supermassive black holes are typically found, and actively gobble up surrounding material. Out of approximately 100 TDE events recorded by optical sky surveys so far, this is the first time an offset TDE has been identified. The rest are associated with the central black holes of galaxies.
\r\nIn fact, at the center of the host galaxy there is a different supermassive black hole weighing 100 million times the mass of the Sun. Hubble’s optical precision shows the TDE was only 2,600 light-years from the more massive black hole at the galaxy’s center. That’s just one-tenth the distance between our Sun and the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole.
\r\nAbove is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy located that is host to the roaming supermassive black hole. The TDE appears as an isolated blue point source of ultraviolet light, while the galaxy is colored orange in visible light. The source is one of the first examples of a TDE significantly offset from the host galaxy’s core by 2,600 light years – where an even more massive active black resides. Hubble’s precise angular resolution clearly shows this offset and confirms independent observations made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory. The Hubble data was captured on 16 January 2025, with Hubble’s WFC3 detector in UV and visible light wavelengths.
\r\nThe paper will be published in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
\r\n[Image description: A fuzzy orange-yellow oval occupies the middle fourth of the image. It extends from 10 o’clock to 4 o’clock. A bright white spot is located within the oval but offset to the upper left from the core. An additional smaller, grainy, orange disk is located at lower right. A couple of additional orange points are in the frame. The background of space is black.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, Y. Yao (UC Berkeley)","PublicationDate":"2025-05-08T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/opo2515/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/opo2515.tif","FileSize":3349204,"Dimensions":[2506,1718],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/opo2515.jpg","FileSize":541961,"Dimensions":[2506,1718],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/opo2515.jpg","FileSize":125645,"Dimensions":[1280.0,878],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/opo2515.jpg","FileSize":6019,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/opo2515.jpg","FileSize":4079,"Dimensions":[60.0,42],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["WFC2","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3"],"Distance":[600000000.0,null],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Green","Green","Red"],"Band":["UV","UV","r","r"],"Bandpass":["UV","UV","r","r"],"CentralWavelength":[225,225,625,625]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[257.6772078868766,28.83744793431463],"ReferenceDimension":[2506.0,1718.0],"ReferencePixel":[1253.0,859.0],"Scale":[-2.7367470303453126e-06,2.7367470303453126e-06],"Rotation":0.19999999999999993,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"potw2518a","Title":"Face to face with a spiral’s arms","Description":"The spiral galaxy NGC 3596 is on display in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week, which incorporates six different wavelengths of light. NGC 3596 is situated 90 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. The galaxy was discovered in 1784 by astronomer William Herschel, the namesake of ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory.
\r\nNGC 3596 appears almost perfectly face-on when viewed from Earth, showcasing the galaxy’s neatly wound spiral arms. The bright arms mark where the galaxy’s stars, gas and dust are concentrated. Star formation is also most active in a galaxy’s spiral arms, as shown by the brilliant pink star-forming regions and young blue stars tracing NGC 3596’s arms in this image.
\r\nWhat causes these spiral arms to form? It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer, partly because of the remarkable diversity of spiral galaxies. Some have clear spiral arms, while others have patchy, feathery arms. Some have prominent bars across their centres, while others have compact, circular nuclei. Some have close neighbours, while others are isolated.
\r\nEarly ideas of how spiral arms formed were stumped by what’s called the ‘winding problem’. If a galaxy’s spiral arms are coherent structures, the arms would be wound tighter and tighter as the galaxy spins, until the arms are no longer visible. Now, researchers believe that spiral arms represent a pattern of high-density and low-density areas rather than a physical structure. As stars, gas and dust orbit within a galaxy’s disc, they pass in and out of the spiral arms. Much like cars moving through a traffic jam, these materials slow down and bunch up as they enter a spiral arm, before emerging and continuing their journey through the galaxy.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy viewed face-on, with a slightly oval-shaped disc. The centre is a bright white spot surrounded by a golden glow. Two spiral arms extend out from the centre, wrapping around the galaxy and broadening out to form the thick outer edge of the disc. Thin reddish strands of dust and bright pink spots follow the arms through the disc. Faint strands of stars extend from the arms’ tips, out beyond the disc.]
\r\nA beautiful but skewed spiral galaxy dazzles in today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This galaxy, called Arp 184 or NGC 1961, sits about 190 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (The Giraffe).
\r\nThe name Arp 184 comes from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which was compiled by astronomer Halton Arp in 1966. The 338 galaxies in the atlas are oddly shaped, tending to be neither entirely elliptical nor entirely spiral-shaped. Many of the galaxies are in the process of interacting with other galaxies, while others are dwarf galaxies without well-defined structures. Arp 184 earned its spot in the catalogue thanks to its single broad, star-speckled spiral arm that appears to stretch toward us. The galaxy’s far side sports a few wisps of gas and stars but lacks a similarly impressive spiral arm.
\r\nThis Hubble image combines data from three Snapshot observing programmes, which are composed of short observations that can be slotted into time gaps between other proposals. One of the three programmes targeted Arp 184 for its peculiar appearance. This programme surveyed galaxies listed in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as well as A Catalogue of Southern Peculiar Galaxies and Associations, a similar catalogue compiled by Halton Arp and Barry Madore.
\r\nThe remaining two programmes were designed to check up on the aftermath of fleeting astronomical events like supernovae and tidal disruption events — when a star is ripped apart after wandering too close to a supermassive black hole. Since Arp 184 has hosted four known supernovae in the past three decades, it’s a rich target for a supernova hunt.
\r\n[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen at a skewed angle. Its centre is a bright spot radiating light. A thick, stormy disc of material surrounds this, with swirling strands of dark dust and bright spots of star formation strewn through the disc. A large spiral arm extends from the disc towards the viewer. Some foreground stars are visible atop the galaxy.]
\r\nThe Hubble Space Telescope captured in exquisite detail a face-on view of a remarkable-looking galaxy. NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disk. There is a striking lack of well-defined spiral arms that are commonly found among galaxies, including our Milky Way. A notable bar structure slices across the center of the galaxy. The bar channels gas inwards toward the galactic center, fueling star formation. Such bars are dynamic in galaxies and may come and go over two-billion-year intervals. They appear in about 30 percent of observed galaxies, including our Milky Way.
\r\n[Image description: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 observed by the Hubble Space Telescope takes up the majority of the view. At its center is a milky yellow, flattened oval that extends bottom left to top. Within the oval is a bright central region that looks circular, with the very center the brightest. In the bright central region is what looks like a bar, extending from top left to bottom right. Around this is a thick swath of blue stars speckled with white regions. Multiple arms wrap up and around in a counterclockwise direction, becoming fainter the farther out they are. Both the white core and the spiral arms are intertwined with dark streaks of dust. The background of space is black. Thousands of distant galaxies in an array of colors are speckled throughout.]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI","PublicationDate":"2025-04-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 5335"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2505i/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":40,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2505i.tif","FileSize":27156540,"Dimensions":[4076,4040],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2505i.jpg","FileSize":4906554,"Dimensions":[4076,4040],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2505i.jpg","FileSize":270327,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1269],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2505i.jpg","FileSize":9915,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2505i.jpg","FileSize":5206,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["WFC3","WFC3","WFC3"],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Green","Red"],"Band":["g","r","I"],"Bandpass":["g","r","I"],"CentralWavelength":[475,625,814]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[208.23574845673417,2.8124206044889295],"ReferenceDimension":[4076.0,4040.0],"ReferencePixel":[2038.0,2020.0],"Scale":[-1.1010029921102394e-05,1.1010029921102394e-05],"Rotation":-28.17999999999993,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]},{"Creator":"ESA/Hubble","URL":"https://esahubble.org","Contact":{"Address":"ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr","City":"Baltimore","Country":"United States","PostalCode":"21218","StateProvince":"MD"},"ID":"heic2505d","Title":"Planetary nebula NGC 2899","Description":"This Hubble Space Telescope image captures the beauty of the moth-like planetary nebula NGC 2899. This object has a diagonal, bipolar, cylindrical outflow of gas. This is propelled by radiation and stellar winds from a nearly 22 000 degree Celsius white dwarf at the center. In fact, there may be two companion stars that are interacting and sculpting the nebula, which is pinched in the middle by a fragmented ring or torus – looking like a half-eaten donut. It has a forest of gaseous “pillars” that point back to the source of radiation and stellar winds. The colours are from glowing hydrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies approximately 4,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Vela.
\r\n[Image description: The planetary nebula NGC 2899 is shaped like a single macaroni noodle, with its edges pointed up, but its edge-on central torus is semi-transparent in the middle. The top and bottom edges are thick and orange. The center is semi-transparent blue and green. The wider central region looks roughly like a moth, also filled with semi-transparent blue and green. There are two pinpoint-like white stars with diffraction spikes toward the center. Immediately below them, slightly toward the right, is a smaller blue orb, a central star. The next layer of gas and dust is whiter, with some thicker pillars that look like they are rising up at bottom center. The colour fades into reds and purples, and then to orange ]
","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI","PublicationDate":"2025-04-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 2899"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/images/heic2505d/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":40,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Image","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/original/heic2505d.tif","FileSize":26212126,"Dimensions":[3900,3894],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Large","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/large/heic2505d.jpg","FileSize":4645559,"Dimensions":[3900,3894],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Small","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/heic2505d.jpg","FileSize":254371,"Dimensions":[1280.0,1279],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/potwmedium/heic2505d.jpg","FileSize":10259,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Observation"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/images/newsmini/heic2505d.jpg","FileSize":5523,"Dimensions":[60.0,60],"ProjectionType":"Observation"}],"ObservationData":{"Facility":["Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope","Hubble Space Telescope"],"Instrument":["WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3","WFC3"],"Distance":[4500.0,null],"Spectral":{"ColorAssignment":["Blue","Green","Red","Blue","Green","Red"],"Band":["B","V","I","O III","H-alpha","N II"],"Bandpass":["B","V","I","O III","H-alpha","N II"],"CentralWavelength":[438,555,814,502,656,658]},"Spatial":{"CoordinateFrame":"ICRS","ReferenceValue":[141.7660630277589,-56.10445339809278],"ReferenceDimension":[3900.0,3894.0],"ReferencePixel":[1950.0,1947.0],"Scale":[-1.1005588268000837e-05,1.1005588268000837e-05],"Rotation":-4.000000000000002,"CoordsystemProjection":"TAN","Equinox":"J2000"}}}]}]}