{"Count":1692,"Next":"https://esahubble.org/videos/d2d/?page=2","Collections":[{"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":"potm2603b","Title":"Pan video: IC 486 (wide-field view)","Description":"

A 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. IC 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2026-03-27T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potm2603b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":24,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potm2603b.mp4","FileSize":112933864,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"389e1055930cb49f83461ffb4d208fe7c8e1d67c7515d0023b700b1636b29ddd"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potm2603b.jpg","FileSize":7116,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potm2603b.jpg","FileSize":4301,"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":"potm2603a","Title":"Pan Video: IC 486","Description":"

A 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. IC 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2026-03-27T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potm2603a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":23,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potm2603a.mp4","FileSize":116335625,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"976ad008725b513619920bbeca2097dd43a92e0914348e48559464ff5c76c7fa"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potm2603a.jpg","FileSize":7117,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potm2603a.jpg","FileSize":4314,"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":"heic2607c","Title":"Pan Video: The Crab Nebula (new Hubble 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), J. DePasquale (STScI), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2026-03-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Crab Nebula"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2607c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2607c.mp4","FileSize":113688616,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"746b763dfb8c3bed6210bfca2b3c707201211ab7186cd7ef4833f3c0c01de16c"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2607c.jpg","FileSize":14670,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2607c.jpg","FileSize":5222,"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":"heic2607a","Title":"The Crab Nebula","Description":"

The Crab Nebula is a dynamic supernova remnant that has been expanding and evolving for nearly one thousand years. Often nebulas and other objects in space appear frozen in time in a single snapshot from a telescope, providing stunning detail but no sense of change over time. However, thanks to the unparalleled longevity and resolution of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers and the public can observe the Crab’s change during a window of time spanning a quarter-century. Hubble began its observations of the full nebula in 1999 and returned for follow-up in 2024.

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The expansion of the nebula over those years is evident in Hubble’s images. Its filaments are driven outward by energy from the dense, rapidly spinning pulsar at the core of the nebula, which is the remaining core of the star that originally went supernova. Astronomers are still analyzing all of Hubble’s data to discover the chemical and structural changes the Crab is undergoing.

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Some differences between the images likely relate to the change in instruments on Hubble during the 25 years in-between. The 1999 image was taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) instrument, which was eventually replaced with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in 2009 during astronauts’ last mission to Hubble. Each instrument took several shots to create a mosaic image of the full nebula. WFC3 has a slightly greater range of detection, both in surface area and filters for imaging.

","Credit":"Science: NASA, ESA, STScI, W. Blair (JHU). Video: J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Crab Nebula"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2607a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_1080p25_screen/heic2607a.mp4","FileSize":6764202,"Dimensions":[1920.0,1080.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2607a.jpg","FileSize":13806,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2607a.jpg","FileSize":5925,"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":"heic2607b","Title":"Pan Video: The 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 colors 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.

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The 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), J. DePasquale (STScI), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2026-03-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Crab Nebula"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2607b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2607b.mp4","FileSize":114422456,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"9a075a8d891a7a4ffed2f4ef54c9861cf93e8b6c3b19fc67c084a0c3317b729e"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2607b.jpg","FileSize":15722,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2607b.jpg","FileSize":5548,"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":"heic2606a","Title":"Animation: Fragmenting comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS)","Description":"

This animation steps through the three Hubble Space Telescope images of the fragmenting comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS)], or K1 for short, taken consecutively on 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 the three-day period. This is the first time Hubble has witnessed a comet so early in the process of breaking up.

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Hubble 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 at that time as barely distinguishable blobs. Hubble chronicled the sequence of events and showed exactly how the breakup happened.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Bodewits (Auburn), J. DePasquale (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-18T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["C/2025 K1"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2606a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_1080p25_screen/heic2606a.mp4","FileSize":4660065,"Dimensions":[1920.0,1080.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2606a.jpg","FileSize":5240,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2606a.jpg","FileSize":4025,"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":"potm2602e","Title":"Space Sparks episode 25: Two observatories, one cosmic eye","Description":"

This video features the February 2026 ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month Target, which is one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543.

","Credit":"Credit:Directed by: Bethany Downer and Nico BartmannEditing: Nico BartmannWeb and technical support: Enciso SystemsWritten by: Bethany DownerMusic: Stan Dart - Organic LifeFootage and photos: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-03-03T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potm2602e/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":35,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potm2602e.mp4","FileSize":253306031,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"5aabde070ea3dc5df829bac19648b8eca4e94f6b5bba9d23e993d9113ca80393"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potm2602e.jpg","FileSize":14457,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potm2602e.jpg","FileSize":5510,"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":"heic2605a","Title":"Pan video: 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.

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The Hubble observations include those from programme 15235 (W. Harris). 

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Li (Utoronto), Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2026-02-18T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2605a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":45,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2605a.mp4","FileSize":112337960,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"2703b70ef3b2e326e80f05a3c1a6c1ed9dc07dd89156d08ffbe109371f072f6f"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2605a.jpg","FileSize":8478,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2605a.jpg","FileSize":4375,"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":"heic2605b","Title":"Location of the 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 left, the white box marks the area that was examined. The pullout shown 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.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, D. Li (Utoronto), Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - The Night Sky in Motion","PublicationDate":"2026-02-18T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2605b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":35,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2605b.mp4","FileSize":31798009,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2605b.jpg","FileSize":9914,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2605b.jpg","FileSize":4610,"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":"heic2604b","Title":"Space Sparks Episode 24: Revisiting the Egg Nebula","Description":"

This Space Sparks episode highlights a stunning image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This new image reveals a dramatic interplay of light and shadow in the Egg Nebula, sculpted by freshly ejected stardust.

","Credit":"Credit: Directed by: Bethany Downer and Nico Bartmann Editing: Nico Bartmann Web and technical support: Enciso Systems Written by: Bethany Downer Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour Footage and photos: ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Balick (University of Washington), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-02-10T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2604b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":19,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2604b.mp4","FileSize":189620632,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"c14cc2e3dd13e178afbe5a1f28460c6d4d1ba08c95265eda9ae11707010ecaf0"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2604b.jpg","FileSize":14101,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2604b.jpg","FileSize":5386,"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":"heic2604a","Title":"Pan video: Egg Nebula","Description":"

This stunning image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a dramatic interplay of light and shadow in the Egg Nebula, sculpted by freshly ejected stardust. Located approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Egg Nebula features a central star obscured by a dense cloud of dust. Only Hubble’s sharpness can unveil the intricate details that hint at the processes shaping this enigmatic structure.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Balick (University of Washington), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2026-02-10T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2604a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":18,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2604a.mp4","FileSize":92493459,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2604a.jpg","FileSize":9173,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2604a.jpg","FileSize":4772,"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":"potm2602d","Title":"Zoom Video: Cat's Eye Nebula","Description":"

This video takes the viewer on a journey through space 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov, G. Anselmi, E. Slawik, N. Risinger, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)Music: Tonelabs – The Red North (www.tonelabs.com)","PublicationDate":"2026-02-03T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potm2602d/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":43,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potm2602d.mp4","FileSize":331044175,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"5cccac46f4720a7449d36a353bf523821589c69eb59f3c8243d601b2cac6b153"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potm2602d.jpg","FileSize":11800,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potm2602d.jpg","FileSize":4878,"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":"potm2602c","Title":"Pullout video: Cat's Eye Nebula (Hubble and Euclid images)","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 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.

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Planetary 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. 

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The 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.

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This 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.

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Within 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\n

Combining 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Tonelabs – The Red North (www.tonelabs.com)","PublicationDate":"2026-02-03T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potm2602c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":42,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potm2602c.mp4","FileSize":37844261,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potm2602c.jpg","FileSize":14139,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potm2602c.jpg","FileSize":5266,"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":"potm2602b","Title":"Pan video: Cat's Eye Nebula (Hubble and Euclid image)","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 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\n

Planetary 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\n

The 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\n

This 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\n

Within 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\n

Combining 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2026-02-03T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potm2602b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":22,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potm2602b.mp4","FileSize":115394136,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"9d76c8247d6d82a6b371fd7281811e3a7c6c936823b7d2303309ac13cbaac59c"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potm2602b.jpg","FileSize":14199,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potm2602b.jpg","FileSize":5285,"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":"potm2602a","Title":"Pan video: Cat's Eye Nebula (Hubble image)","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. Observations with ESA’s Gaia mission place the nebula at a distance of 4 400 light years away.

\r\n

Planetary 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\n

The 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\n

In 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\n

Part 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Tsvetanov, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2026-02-03T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potm2602a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":42,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potm2602a.mp4","FileSize":112817241,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"c3ed7435be6f393c337754ed1510a77175a7159d3b0b7080c5a46716150b7c39"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potm2602a.jpg","FileSize":9923,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potm2602a.jpg","FileSize":4900,"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":"potm2601b","Title":"Space Sparks Episode 23: NGC 7722","Description":"

This Space Sparks episode highlights the January 2026 ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month feature: an uncommon galaxy with a striking appearance. NGC 7722 is a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.

","Credit":"Directed by: Bethany Downer and Nico BartmannEditing: Nico Bartmann Web and technical support: Enciso Systems Written by: Bethany Downer Music: Stellardrone - Stardome Footage and photos: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-30T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potm2601b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":34,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potm2601b.mp4","FileSize":241526387,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"df17001d409f8aed20e6c472f0aca5360a73048aa79b0e1f81e6eab96c2495f0"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potm2601b.jpg","FileSize":12877,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potm2601b.jpg","FileSize":5181,"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":"potm2601a","Title":"Pan Video: NGC 7722","Description":"

For this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, 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\n

You can learn more about this image here.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) Acknowledgement: Mehmet Yüksek\r\nMusic: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2026-01-30T09:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potm2601a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":35,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potm2601a.mp4","FileSize":114400399,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"fc4a8fea0a2b4d550d92f95033dc70b604bd0f77cbb6a567a1266392f07b0516"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potm2601a.jpg","FileSize":6753,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potm2601a.jpg","FileSize":4232,"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":"heic2603a","Title":"Space Sparks Episode 22: Researchers discover hundreds of cosmic anomalies","Description":"

This Space Sparks episode highlights how a team of astronomers have used a new AI-assisted method to search for rare astronomical objects in the Hubble Legacy Archive.

","Credit":"Directed by: Bethany Downer and Nico BartmannEditing: Nico BartmannWeb and technical support: Enciso SystemsWritten by: Bethany DownerMusic: Stellardrone - AscentFootage and photos: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. O’Ryan, P. Gómez (European Space Agency), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2026-01-27T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2603a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":32,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2603a.mp4","FileSize":147861692,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"b5a95f3bd9e1900ea90d68f49ee1a4430ff195be1bfc6cd46a9fbb0af68e27fa"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2603a.jpg","FileSize":13959,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2603a.jpg","FileSize":5318,"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":"heic2603b","Title":"Pan video: New astronomical objects","Description":"

Six previously-undiscovered, weird and fascinating astrophysical objects are highlighted in this video, which showcases images 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\n

This 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. To 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. After 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.

","Credit":"NASA & ESA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: STAN DART - Organic Life","PublicationDate":"2026-01-27T15:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2603b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":18,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2603b.mp4","FileSize":128420891,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"a099c316274e067ee272d1aa8cddc629c08bd9b64587c8e2990d7455e63851ea"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2603b.jpg","FileSize":9564,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2603b.jpg","FileSize":4777,"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":"potw2552a","Title":"Pan: N159","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\n

Thick 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\n

The 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\n

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. This image shows just a portion of this expansive star-forming complex, as the entire complex stretches over 150 light-years across.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Indebetouw, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)\r\nMusic: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-12-29T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["N159"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2552a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2552a.mp4","FileSize":113301313,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"76dfec22d937c1d8d0d6b2e91d9d97038d46b8c3432eca7edf3cd84863d5afd1"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2552a.m4v","FileSize":23222593,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2552a.jpg","FileSize":15667,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2552a.jpg","FileSize":5933,"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":"potw2551a","Title":"Pan: Arp 4","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\n

The 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\n

The 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)\r\nMusic: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-12-22T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Arp 4"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2551a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2551a.mp4","FileSize":117108388,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"8c2fe40eac900bddc9474ecb11a65f9121b76b60b0eadbc57d07e92d58dcca07"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2551a.m4v","FileSize":24087037,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2551a.jpg","FileSize":10135,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2551a.jpg","FileSize":4915,"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":"heic2512b","Title":"Space Sparks episode 21: Hubble sees asteroids colliding at nearby star for first time","Description":"

This episode highlights a historical milestone: catastrophic collisions in a nearby planetary system were witnessed for the first time by astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

","Credit":"Credit: Directed by: Bethany Downer and Nico Bartmann Editing: Nico Bartmann Web and technical support: Enciso Systems Written by: Bethany Downer Music: Stan Dart - Organic Life Footage and photos: NASA, ESA, STScI, R. Crawford (STScI), P. Kalas (UC Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI), L. Calçada (ESO), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2025-12-18T19:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2512b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":42,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2512b.mp4","FileSize":283468821,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"396a21fa41a4a2caf4cbe97d26d0d80a81851f9c0909f4ef497c7f30d2880701"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2512b.m4v","FileSize":58831341,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2512b.jpg","FileSize":19036,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2512b.jpg","FileSize":5705,"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":"heic2512a","Title":"Fomalhaut cs2 (artist’s concept animation)","Description":"

This artist’s concept animation shows the sequence of events leading up to the creation of dust cloud cs2 around the star Fomalhaut.

\r\n

Hubble captured the violent collision of two massive objects around the star Fomalhaut. This extraordinary event is unlike anything in our own present-day solar system. The huge debris cloud created by this impact looked like a newly found exoplanet.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, R. Crawford (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-12-18T19:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2512a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_1080p25_screen/heic2512a.mp4","FileSize":29855282,"Dimensions":[1920.0,1080.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2512a.jpg","FileSize":5319,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2512a.jpg","FileSize":3978,"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":"potw2549a","Title":"Pan: Mrk 178","Description":"

This 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\n

Mrk 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.

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While 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.

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Massive 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Annibali, S. Hong, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)\r\nMusic: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-12-18T00:42:18.903370Z","Subject":{"Name":["Markarian 178"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2549a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2549a.mp4","FileSize":114702353,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"dc481d493a864bc50b7593938c2c2f71603249545df5094fa218732cf9b3ef8e"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2549a.m4v","FileSize":23449922,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2549a.jpg","FileSize":10823,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2549a.jpg","FileSize":4431,"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":"potw2550a","Title":"Pan: NGC 4388","Description":"

p>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.

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NGC 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?

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The 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.

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The 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.

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This 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Veilleux, J. Wang, J. Greene, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-12-15T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 4388"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2550a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2550a.mp4","FileSize":114456533,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"f3453f25efec9eb660ee4024a175bf06fa659fff1bc5333e1edcb32e0a984055"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2550a.m4v","FileSize":23844323,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2550a.jpg","FileSize":7919,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2550a.jpg","FileSize":4459,"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":"potw2546a","Title":"Pan: NGC 4535","Description":"

Today’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.

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On 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. 

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This 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-12-01T18:49:30.656163Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 4535"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2546a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2546a.mp4","FileSize":112732072,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"8e1ec1421106011baaef8e05e1f0deabf33488c6ad8769521e5888ae91502b7a"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2546a.m4v","FileSize":23407768,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2546a.jpg","FileSize":11963,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2546a.jpg","FileSize":5295,"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":"potw2548a","Title":"Pan: NGC 1792","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.

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NGC 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.

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Hubble 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music:  Stellardrone -Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-12-01T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 1792"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2548a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2548a.mp4","FileSize":117243045,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"66116efcbbc4ad70a1c62710fc74940a3509be770d421d2d4128dfb98c531242"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2548a.m4v","FileSize":24992802,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2548a.jpg","FileSize":13563,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2548a.jpg","FileSize":5557,"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":"potw2547a","Title":"Pan: N159","Description":"

Today’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.

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This 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!

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In 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.

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Though 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.

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A 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Indebetouw, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)\r\nMusic: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-11-24T11:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["N159"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2547a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2547a.mp4","FileSize":113625199,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"fbd2121fb3852b8d8a1440117d0018b6f4d76ad4c17064ab98f3ea634cd81b35"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2547a.m4v","FileSize":23147954,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2547a.jpg","FileSize":15567,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2547a.jpg","FileSize":5514,"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":"potw2545a","Title":"Pan: NGC 1511","Description":"

Though 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.

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Like 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!

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These 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-11-14T03:04:07.104772Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 1511"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2545a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":56,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2545a.mp4","FileSize":117173934,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"d4ffcda3a9cc46327cccb791df2fb0ebd8cbc20701bb966d2b6d656eca86edd5"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2545a.m4v","FileSize":23966334,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2545a.jpg","FileSize":8105,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2545a.jpg","FileSize":4500,"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":"potw2544a","Title":"Pan: NGC 4102","Description":"

What 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.

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At 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.

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NGC 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. 

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A 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Fabbiano, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-11-03T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 4102"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2544a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2544a.mp4","FileSize":114212185,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"b4bc5aca28b8a306327413bd26c9d639b2f6d00d4e42f4290e09b3a681eb21f3"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2544a.m4v","FileSize":23914884,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2544a.jpg","FileSize":9054,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2544a.jpg","FileSize":4559,"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":"potw2543a","Title":"Pan: NGC 4571","Description":"

A 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.

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The 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.

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The 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.

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A 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-10-27T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 4571"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2543a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2543a.mp4","FileSize":115970980,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"25729af38ca14470019a7e1f912b8da5975d87991f934859c9ebd9bdd1e44514"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2543a.m4v","FileSize":24586770,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2543a.jpg","FileSize":11621,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2543a.jpg","FileSize":5088,"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":"potw2542a","Title":"Pan: NGC 3370","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).

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What 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.

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Cepheid 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.

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Type 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. 

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A 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess, K. Noll, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-10-22T13:55:24.403201Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 3370"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2542a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2542a.mp4","FileSize":116953328,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"d834550faeec5957d93d52c732f6ffa77ad905d3ea94e256ca1e1fdd05522e56"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2542a.m4v","FileSize":23565307,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2542a.jpg","FileSize":10800,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2542a.jpg","FileSize":4857,"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":"potw2541a","Title":"Pan: NGC 7496","Description":"

The 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.

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Astronomers 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.

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Each 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.

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A 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-10-22T13:53:03.416224Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 7496"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2541a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":52,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2541a.mp4","FileSize":114105297,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"68d20767c689dc45cfbfcb1337da23ae55cebd302df7bff1daae52fb9b75ed16"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2541a.m4v","FileSize":23632450,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2541a.jpg","FileSize":10028,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2541a.jpg","FileSize":4940,"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":"potw2540a","Title":"Pan: NGC 6951","Description":"

The 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.

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As 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.

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NGC 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.

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The 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.

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Astronomers 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).

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. C. Ho, G. Brammer, A. Filippenko, C. Kilpatrick, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-10-22T13:49:17.325292Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 6951"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2540a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2540a.mp4","FileSize":114665483,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"10379b46cc4041d7a84b996468f3c953043cfa50b7b192b4822a7ae2cfd6845f"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2540a.m4v","FileSize":24045121,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2540a.jpg","FileSize":10861,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2540a.jpg","FileSize":5029,"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":"potw2539a","Title":"Pan: NGC 6000","Description":"

Stars 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. 

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This 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.

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Hubble 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. 

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By 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!

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Acknowledgement: M. H. ÖzsaraçMusic: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-09-29T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 6000"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2539a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":74,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2539a.mp4","FileSize":117270052,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"7da16958d08ece8c63da6e8beb74f980103140fe352b062d5b856abedb8c6ca5"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2539a.m4v","FileSize":7934372,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2539a.jpg","FileSize":10479,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2539a.jpg","FileSize":4754,"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":"potw2538a","Title":"Pan: NGC 2775","Description":"

Today’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?

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Because 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.

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It’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.

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Some 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.

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A 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-09-25T12:38:07.097127Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2538a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":65,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2538a.mp4","FileSize":113799573,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"e3b94e61f4b273d4ad929b5c20c00707798479c3f5e0bdc6170823ebec6189c5"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2538a.m4v","FileSize":23640996,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2538a.jpg","FileSize":10959,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2538a.jpg","FileSize":4966,"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":"potw2537a","Title":"Pan: Messier 82","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.

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It’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.

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Hubble’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. 

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This 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. D. Vacca, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: zero project - Eden (https://zero-project.gr/)","PublicationDate":"2025-09-15T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["M82"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2537a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2537a.mp4","FileSize":120767037,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"f5c09f27c4a2016dca8165315cc4647d9559dfca9374638115a74c94a265fa4e"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2537a.m4v","FileSize":23515295,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2537a.jpg","FileSize":13368,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2537a.jpg","FileSize":5835,"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":"potw2536a","Title":"Pan: LMC N44C","Description":"

This 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.

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The 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.

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This 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. 

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The 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, J. Maíz Apellániz, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-09-08T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["LMC N44C"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2536a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2536a.mp4","FileSize":113734113,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"08d7a16206ee6312f34c233104926ae4b0974a07641f10f464966fef9bca4359"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2536a.m4v","FileSize":24251985,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2536a.jpg","FileSize":11421,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2536a.jpg","FileSize":5096,"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":"potw2535a","Title":"Pan: NGC 7456","Description":"

While 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).

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In 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.

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Hubble, 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.

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On 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!

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-09-01T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 7456"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2535a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2535a.mp4","FileSize":111824321,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"8ed2f5fc1124fff452658852c5aa2bea11d5ce9e85d43216ee91fff04813d4a6"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2535a.m4v","FileSize":23252698,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2535a.jpg","FileSize":10948,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2535a.jpg","FileSize":4931,"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":"potw2534a","Title":"Pan: Messier 96","Description":"

Today’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. 

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This 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.

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This 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, D. Calzetti, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-08-25T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Messier 96"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2534a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2534a.mp4","FileSize":113311116,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"17ab17a4c2ba5e872a920fa8c4695f48fd2deb6b62a6fa093d0f91e988b6a7ca"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2534a.m4v","FileSize":23231639,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2534a.jpg","FileSize":9107,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2534a.jpg","FileSize":4639,"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":"potw2533a","Title":"Pan: NGC 2835","Description":"

Today’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).

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A 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.

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This 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.

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By 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar, J. Lee, and the PHANGS-HST team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-08-18T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 2835"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2533a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":78,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2533a.mp4","FileSize":239924125,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"ad85fe9dbcd20f15e628c467c84c9cdda826347d47f57de5b7a2600ea04c08c8"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2533a.m4v","FileSize":23141065,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2533a.jpg","FileSize":11759,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2533a.jpg","FileSize":5133,"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":"Pan: NGC 45","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).

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The 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.

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These 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.

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Low 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Calzetti, R. Chandar, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Acknowledgement: M. H. ÖzsaraçMusic: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-08-11T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 45"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2532a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2532a.mp4","FileSize":114482586,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"8fb6b30a099f7f7d3b770198cbf28cf10bb0165a6ab69ae4154e3f95cc72450d"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2532a.m4v","FileSize":23238834,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2532a.jpg","FileSize":11471,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2532a.jpg","FileSize":4923,"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":"potw2531a","Title":"Pan: 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. 

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The 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.

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The 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.

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This 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-08-04T04:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2531a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":80,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2531a.mp4","FileSize":113137496,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"00747a9e10b25d24278767235bf719ff160f5042a2ef3a2560d30714be49f33f"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2531a.m4v","FileSize":23319395,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2531a.jpg","FileSize":12927,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2531a.jpg","FileSize":5365,"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":"potw2530a","Title":"Pan: NGC 1309","Description":"

Rich 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.

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This 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.

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Hubble 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.

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SN 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Galbany, S. Jha, K. Noll, A. Riess, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-07-28T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 1309"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2530a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2530a.mp4","FileSize":113920534,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"2d589c1833eedfa4cb61aed3c08270d5dc94a64926706903a7a5d9ed447a28ff"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2530a.m4v","FileSize":23252137,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2530a.jpg","FileSize":11223,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2530a.jpg","FileSize":4791,"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":"potw2529a","Title":"Pan: NGC 3285B","Description":"

The 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.

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NGC 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.

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NGC 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.

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Hubble 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: zero project - Eden (https://zero-project.gr/)","PublicationDate":"2025-07-21T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 3285B"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2529a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2529a.mp4","FileSize":112300826,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"12a909494eda046aa8349a0d1cd76a0c5729b2d7cc512f1dee958cd80253571e"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2529a.m4v","FileSize":23240744,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2529a.jpg","FileSize":8724,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2529a.jpg","FileSize":4668,"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":"potw2528a","Title":"Pan: NGC 1786","Description":"

For 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.

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The 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.

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Astronomers 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Monelli, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Acknowledgement: M. H. ÖzsaraçMusic: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-07-14T04:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2528a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2528a.mp4","FileSize":117514704,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"6207e79d38d249a0db45b5991043af85d5a8c4274c89d9ab67337dfce51189c3"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2528a.m4v","FileSize":24271520,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2528a.jpg","FileSize":14390,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2528a.jpg","FileSize":4768,"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":"potw2527a","Title":"Pan: Abell 209","Description":"

A 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).

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This 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.

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Hubble 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.

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While 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Postman, P. Kelly, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-07-07T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Abell 209"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2527a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":71,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2527a.mp4","FileSize":122474625,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"ed0220c03244411ebd2511808682f3d1e8a282872a4fe8c740731533544512ef"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2527a.m4v","FileSize":23478260,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2527a.jpg","FileSize":11403,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2527a.jpg","FileSize":5102,"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":"potw2526a","Title":"Pan: GN 04.32.8","Description":"

The 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.

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GN 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.

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Eagle-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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Duchêne, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-06-30T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["GN 04.32.8"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2526a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2526a.mp4","FileSize":112533279,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"beecc45092f0bb1b7cf23adb36568d7ac12e17ac9f6b50b5ca4127fe41e28d44"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2526a.m4v","FileSize":18432670,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2526a.jpg","FileSize":8859,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2526a.jpg","FileSize":4633,"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":"potw2525a","Title":"Pan: UGC 11397","Description":"

The 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.

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What 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.

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Using 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-06-23T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["UGC 11397"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2525a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2525a.mp4","FileSize":117178561,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"213ac5ddc2a9fdab744b68114b09b822576f77a7e42e51a1f66f4b59a2875355"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2525a.m4v","FileSize":23798806,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2525a.jpg","FileSize":8323,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2525a.jpg","FileSize":4578,"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":"potw2524a","Title":"Pan: NGC 4449","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.

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NGC 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.

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A 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.

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The 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, E. Sabbi, D. Calzetti, A. Aloisi, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-06-16T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 4449"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2524a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":71,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2524a.mp4","FileSize":113287475,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"5f70163845b0d3a67aab98fbef2df1882f80783c0d89cc142e78aeb69f3e9790"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2524a.m4v","FileSize":8194079,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2524a.jpg","FileSize":11762,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2524a.jpg","FileSize":5069,"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":"potw2523a","Title":"Pan: IC 758","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.

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In 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.

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It’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.

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A 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-06-09T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["IC 758"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2523a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":78,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2523a.mp4","FileSize":114112753,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"e218e3b18ca093a96c1354fd85620a2a3ca17ea88a8f31b73686d163f3ff0fab"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2523a.m4v","FileSize":23511169,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2523a.jpg","FileSize":9421,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2523a.jpg","FileSize":4426,"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":"potw2522a","Title":"Pan: NGC 685","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. 

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Astronomers 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. 

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The 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee, F. Belfiore, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-06-02T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 685"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2522a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2522a.mp4","FileSize":114292285,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"f63342798014f12bfa3d4594479a98ad5a029c774c2edff71478ee726aca2eef"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2522a.m4v","FileSize":24343901,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2522a.jpg","FileSize":10849,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2522a.jpg","FileSize":4944,"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":"potw2521a","Title":"Pan: NGC 3507","Description":"

A 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.

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Though 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. 

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For 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. 

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In 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: zero project - Eden (zero-project.gr)","PublicationDate":"2025-05-26T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 3507"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2521a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":80,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2521a.mp4","FileSize":114082097,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"c1b30ae9f24eabb39f907adf4bb804a2cfe27118a3cf7d7f58d8bfb8491573bd"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2521a.m4v","FileSize":23106948,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2521a.jpg","FileSize":10657,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2521a.jpg","FileSize":4901,"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":"potw2520a","Title":"Pan video: NGC 3511","Description":"

The 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.

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Astronomers 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.

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One 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. 

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-05-19T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 3511"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2520a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2520a.mp4","FileSize":113826926,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"fa86f53b0a33742d087a2c70b36cdccfa618476df65c9eefe055f3d0972654d5"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2520a.m4v","FileSize":23227113,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2520a.jpg","FileSize":11026,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2520a.jpg","FileSize":5083,"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":"potw2519a","Title":"Pan video: LMC 56","Description":"

Today’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.

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This 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. 

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The 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.

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This 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-05-12T04:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2519a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":53,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2519a.mp4","FileSize":112815457,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"3d48d2604c8c71a489e10476b35c5f96e71de8fc7d7f3045cf7fbdcaa6cb69ee"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2519a.m4v","FileSize":23051931,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2519a.jpg","FileSize":13490,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2519a.jpg","FileSize":5459,"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":"potw2518a","Title":"Pan video: NGC 3596","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. 

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NGC 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.

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What 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.

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Early 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-05-05T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 3596"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2518a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2518a.mp4","FileSize":115693097,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"bee2070212acd173f290f986aaef29c045fd7bb829c0a329e9a7ce2ad93f5e2f"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2518a.m4v","FileSize":24489035,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2518a.jpg","FileSize":11330,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2518a.jpg","FileSize":5000,"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":"potw2517a","Title":"Pan video: Arp 184","Description":"

A 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).

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The 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.

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This 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.

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The 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.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), C. Kilpatrick, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-04-28T17:04:21Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2517a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":0,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2517a.mp4","FileSize":122261550,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"c705d47990e2c60560edb8b98cdeaa166e3ddc17a30c09aabf74631d8f66319f"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2517a.m4v","FileSize":23680357,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2517a.jpg","FileSize":10519,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2517a.jpg","FileSize":4853,"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":"heic2505g","Title":"Zoom into the planetary nebula NGC 2899","Description":"

This video takes the viewer through space to reveal a new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image that 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.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Tonelabs – The Red North (www.tonelabs.com)","PublicationDate":"2025-04-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2505g/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":30,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2505g.mp4","FileSize":227564001,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"fef2cd552d3fa9b24afc0cba448ceb32131fdf29c0f4cc7c26121095990b1d83"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2505g.m4v","FileSize":46486621,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2505g.jpg","FileSize":14403,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2505g.jpg","FileSize":4968,"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":"heic2505f","Title":"Pan: NGC 5335","Description":"

The 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.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-04-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2505f/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":0,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2505f.mp4","FileSize":114497992,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"e15325ce73ba5b96bb9f2a6e90fe1772b6ee352e7d784126c3fdb2d515325458"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2505f.m4v","FileSize":24690683,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2505f.jpg","FileSize":10397,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2505f.jpg","FileSize":4759,"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":"heic2505e","Title":"Pan: Rosette Nebula","Description":"

This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of a small portion of the Rosette Nebula, a huge star-forming region spanning 100 light-years across and located 5,200 light-years away. Hubble zooms into a small portion of the nebula that is only 4 light-years across (the approximate distance between our Sun and the neighbouring Alpha Centauri star system.) Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image. The clouds are being eroded and shaped by the seething radiation from the cluster of larger stars in the center of the nebula (NGC 2440). An embedded star seen at the tip of a dark cloud in the upper right portion of the image is launching jets of plasma that are crashing into the cold cloud around it. The resulting shock wave is causing a red glow. The colours come from the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-04-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2505e/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":34,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2505e.mp4","FileSize":115390251,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"efd1f994ccaaa9dd3a2bf218897a986bfdd86ac92d7a9fedf14d8fd5c7ea2c45"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2505e.m4v","FileSize":23524385,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2505e.jpg","FileSize":11399,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2505e.jpg","FileSize":5060,"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":"heic2505b","Title":"Hubble celebrates 35th anniversary","Description":"

In celebration of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 35 years in Earth orbit, an assortment of compelling images have been released today that were recently taken by Hubble. This stretches from the planet Mars, to dramatic images of stellar birth,  and death (top right), to a magnificent neighbouring galaxy (bottom right). After over three decades of perusing the restless universe, Hubble remains a household word as the most well-recognized telescope in scientific history.

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","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Tonelabs - Happy Hubble","PublicationDate":"2025-04-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2505b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":0,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2505b.mp4","FileSize":426386319,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"512791fd56d9385bdb70ffc47698d5feca8c59ca0a10f7cb655c62f62eb529e5"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2505b.m4v","FileSize":89998632,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2505b.jpg","FileSize":12375,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2505b.jpg","FileSize":5444,"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":"heic2505c","Title":"Pan: Mars (December 2024)","Description":"

This is a combination of Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars taken from December 28th to 30th, 2024. At the midpoint of the observations, Mars was approximately 98 million kilometres from Earth. Thin water-ice clouds that are apparent in ultraviolet light give the Red Planet a frosty appearance. The icy northern polar cap was experiencing the start of Martian spring.

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","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - The Night Sky in Motion","PublicationDate":"2025-04-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2505c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":13,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2505c.mp4","FileSize":39817100,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2505c.m4v","FileSize":4599006,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2505c.jpg","FileSize":10034,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2505c.jpg","FileSize":5132,"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":"heic2505d","Title":"Pan: 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.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)\r\nMusic: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-04-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2505d/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":0,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2505d.mp4","FileSize":115397186,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"6c0b5ab051e7d6e9e43ef0404ba9f5d5a28d9c5cc933f4c937308b6920ee146c"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2505d.m4v","FileSize":23105155,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2505d.jpg","FileSize":10417,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2505d.jpg","FileSize":5138,"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":"heic2505a","Title":"Space Sparks episode","Description":"

This Space Sparks episode celebrates the 35th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope by showcasing four beautiful new images. 

","Credit":"Directed by: Bethany Downer and Nico BartmannEditing: Nico BartmannWeb and technical support: Enciso SystemsWritten by: Bethany DownerMusic: Noizefield - Expect the UnexpectedFootage and photos: NASA, ESA, STScI, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2025-04-23T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2505a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":37,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2505a.mp4","FileSize":726902551,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"ada49c70417fca622af14343b3675228d6908f3ef3a2b392f215fd460313ec9e"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/medium_podcast/heic2505a.mp4","FileSize":50154202,"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2505a.jpg","FileSize":16714,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2505a.jpg","FileSize":5587,"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":"potw2516a","Title":"Pan: Messier 72","Description":"

As part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations, a new image series has been shared throughout April to revisit stunning Hubble targets that were previously released. New images of NGC 346, the Sombrero Galaxy, and the Eagle Nebula have already been published. Now, ESA/Hubble is revisiting the star cluster Messier 72 (M72) with new data and image processing techniques.

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M72 is a particularly special target because it was the first image ever published in the ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week series, on 22 April 2010. For fifteen years, the ESA/Hubble team has been publishing a new Hubble image every Monday for everyone to enjoy. This has resulted in nearly 800 images being added to the vast Hubble image archive over the years.

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M72 is a collection of stars, formally known as a globular cluster, located in the constellation Aquarius roughly 50 000 light years from Earth. The intense gravitational attraction between the closely packed stars gives globular clusters their regular, spherical shape. Roughly 150 clusters such as this have been discovered in the Milky Way galaxy.

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The striking variety in the colour of the stars in this image of M72, particularly compared to the original image, results from adding ultraviolet observations to the previous visible-light data. The colours indicate groups of different types of stars. Blue stars are those in the cluster that were originally more massive, and have now reached hotter temperatures after burning through much of their hydrogen fuel; the bright red objects are lower-mass stars that have now become red giants. Studying these different groups help astronomers to understand how globular clusters, and the galaxies they were born in, initially formed. 

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Pierre Méchain, a French astronomer and colleague of Charles Messier, discovered M72 in 1780. It was the first of five star clusters that Méchain would discover while assisting Messier. It was recorded as the 72nd entry in Messier’s famous collection of astronomical objects, and the object is also one of the most remote clusters in the catalogue.

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The ESA/Hubble science outreach team invites members of the public as well as all scientists who have had (or will have) approved Hubble observing time to contact us if you feel you have aesthetically appealing yet visually informative image data that could be featured in this series!

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto, M. Libralato, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-04-21T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Messier 72"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2516a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":62,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2516a.mp4","FileSize":121711289,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"2724fc3ce8d72768da8a2ab7d42f1722b731ca259fc74b5077643246cfacb504"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2516a.m4v","FileSize":24820132,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2516a.jpg","FileSize":19493,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2516a.jpg","FileSize":5515,"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":"heic2507a","Title":"Pan of the Eagle Nebula","Description":"

This towering structure of billowing gas and dark, obscuring dust might only be a small portion of the Eagle Nebula, but it is no less majestic in appearance for it. 9.5 light-years tall and 7000 light-years distant from Earth, this dusty sculpture is refreshed with the use of new processing techniques. The new Hubble image is part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-04-18T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2507a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2507a.mp4","FileSize":227583403,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"68908e94e722f7a187609e71c61efbf97a55452d49454e2e965157bbfd10882f"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2507a.m4v","FileSize":46027021,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2507a.jpg","FileSize":11320,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2507a.jpg","FileSize":5158,"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":"heic2506a","Title":"Pan video: Sombrero Galaxy","Description":"

Located around 30 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, the Sombrero Galaxy is instantly recognisable. Viewed nearly edge on, the galaxy’s softly luminous bulge and sharply outlined disc resemble the rounded crown and broad brim of the Mexican hat from which the galaxy gets its name.

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Though the Sombrero Galaxy is packed with stars, it’s surprisingly not a hotbed of star formation. Less than one solar mass of gas is converted into stars within the knotted, dusty disc of the galaxy each year. Even the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, which at 9 billion solar masses is more than 2000 times more massive than the Milky Way’s central black hole, is fairly calm.

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The galaxy is too faint to be spotted with unaided vision, but it is readily viewable with a modest amateur telescope. Seen from Earth, the galaxy spans a distance equivalent to roughly one third of the diameter of the full Moon. The galaxy’s size on the sky is too large to fit within Hubble’s narrow field of view, so this image is actually a mosaic of several images stitched together.

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","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-04-16T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2506a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":19,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2506a.mp4","FileSize":122704109,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"eb9d33df181c9af13c45ef643a74ef6a8b583891e247d23f47f5c6958c15ea11"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2506a.m4v","FileSize":21239803,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2506a.jpg","FileSize":7297,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2506a.jpg","FileSize":4188,"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":"potw2515a","Title":"Pan: Messier 77","Description":"

Today’s rather aquatic-themed NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy, which sits 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).

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The designation Messier 77 comes from the galaxy’s place in the famous catalogue compiled by the French astronomer Charles Messier. Another French astronomer, Pierre Méchain, discovered the galaxy in 1780. Both Messier and Méchain were comet hunters who catalogued nebulous objects that could be mistaken for comets.

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Messier, Méchain, and other astronomers of their time mistook the Squid Galaxy for either a spiral nebula or a star cluster. This mischaracterisation isn’t surprising. More than a century would pass between the discovery of the Squid Galaxy and the realisation that the ‘spiral nebulae’ scattered across the sky were not part of our galaxy and were in fact separate galaxies millions of light-years away. The Squid Galaxy’s appearance through a small telescope — an intensely bright centre surrounded by a fuzzy cloud — closely resembles one or more stars wreathed in a nebula.

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The name ‘Squid Galaxy’ only came about recently. This name comes from the extended, filamentary structure that curls around the galaxy’s disc like the tentacles of a squid. The Squid Galaxy is a great example of how advances in technology and scientific understanding can completely change our perception of an astronomical object — and even what we call it!

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A Hubble image of the Squid Galaxy was previously released in 2013. This new version incorporates recent observations made with different filters and updated image processing techniques.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. C. Ho, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-04-15T17:56:48Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2515a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":21,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2515a.mp4","FileSize":113022004,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"5a7f41a0b959f9e4f83ce8d0b9ff36902dbe93768ebe7b824747f8adc30ac872"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2515a.m4v","FileSize":23564744,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2515a.jpg","FileSize":12717,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2515a.jpg","FileSize":5330,"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":"potw2514a","Title":"Pan: Kohoutek 4-55","Description":"

The swirling, paint-like clouds in the darkness of space in this stunning image seem surreal, like a portal to another world opening up before us. In fact, the subject of this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week is very real. We are seeing vast clouds of ionised atoms and molecules, thrown into space by a dying star. This is a planetary nebula named Kohoutek 4-55, a member of the Milky Way galaxy situated just 4600 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan).

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Planetary nebulae are the spectacular final display at the end of a giant star’s life. Once a red giant star has exhausted its available fuel and shed its last layers of gas, its compact core will contract further, enabling a final burst of nuclear fusion. The exposed core reaches extremely hot temperatures, radiating very energetic ultraviolet light that energises the enormous clouds of cast-off gas. Molecules in the gas are ionised and glow brightly; here, red and orange indicate nitrogen molecules, green is hydrogen and blue shows oxygen in the nebula. Kohoutek 4-55 has an uncommon, multi-layered form: a bright inner ring is surrounded by a fainter layer of gas, all wrapped in a broad halo of ionised nitrogen. The spectacle is bittersweet, as the brief phase of fusion in the core will end after mere tens of thousands of years, leaving a white dwarf that will never illuminate the clouds around it again.

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This image itself is also a swan song, the final work of one of Hubble’s instruments: the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Installed in 1993 to replace the original Wide Field and Planetary Camera, WFPC2 was responsible for some of Hubble’s most enduring images and fascinating discoveries. It in turn was replaced by the Wide Field Camera 3 in 2009, during Hubble’s final servicing mission. The data for this image were taken a mere ten days before the instrument was removed from the telescope, as a fitting send-off for WFPC2 after 16 years’ work. The latest and most advanced processing techniques have been used to bring the data to life one more time, producing this breathtaking new view of Kohoutek 4-55.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-04-07T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["PN K 4-55"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2514a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":72,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2514a.mp4","FileSize":113442460,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"ba04d771412582be94c356913e28a4d35e1d607bd915220aaf8a0bd6067a3d99"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2514a.m4v","FileSize":23482690,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2514a.jpg","FileSize":8134,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2514a.jpg","FileSize":4667,"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":"heic2502b","Title":"Zoom video: NGC 346","Description":"

This video takes the viewer on a journey through space to NGC 346, a dazzling young star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Small Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located 200 000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana. The Small Magellanic Cloud is less rich in elements heavier than helium — what astronomers call metals — than the Milky Way. This makes conditions in the galaxy similar to what existed in the early Universe.

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Although several images of NGC 346 have been released previously, this view includes new data and is the first to combine Hubble observations made at infrared, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths into an intricately detailed view of this vibrant star-forming factory.

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NGC 346 is home to more than 2500 newborn stars. The cluster’s most massive stars, which are many times more massive than our Sun, blaze with an intense blue light in this image. The glowing pink nebula and snakelike dark clouds are the remnant of the birthsite of the stars in the cluster.

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The inhabitants of this cluster are stellar sculptors, carving out a bubble from the nebula. NGC 346’s hot, massive stars produce intense radiation and fierce stellar winds that pummel the billowing gas of their birthplace and begin to disperse the surrounding nebula.

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The nebula, named N66, is the brightest example of an H II (pronounced ‘H-two’) region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. H II regions are set aglow by ultraviolet light from hot young stars like those in NGC 346. The presence of the brilliant nebula indicates the young age of the star cluster, as an H II region shines only as long as the stars that power it — a mere few million years for the massive stars pictured here.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Tonelabs – The Red North (www.tonelabs.com)","PublicationDate":"2025-04-04T08:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2502b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":30,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2502b.mp4","FileSize":230527427,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"980c0321bd863d37b9ac83044275a76018fa93774d66afbe224eab1a31d6b8d7"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2502b.m4v","FileSize":46393486,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2502b.jpg","FileSize":11972,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2502b.jpg","FileSize":4897,"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":"heic2502a","Title":"Pan video: NGC 346","Description":"

This new image showcases NGC 346, a dazzling young star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Small Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located 200 000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana. The Small Magellanic Cloud is less rich in elements heavier than helium — what astronomers call metals — than the Milky Way. This makes conditions in the galaxy similar to what existed in the early Universe.

\r\n

Although several images of NGC 346 have been released previously, this view includes new data and is the first to combine Hubble observations made at infrared, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths into an intricately detailed view of this vibrant star-forming factory.

\r\n

NGC 346 is home to more than 2500 newborn stars. The cluster’s most massive stars, which are many times more massive than our Sun, blaze with an intense blue light in this image. The glowing pink nebula and snakelike dark clouds are the remnant of the birthsite of the stars in the cluster.

\r\n

The inhabitants of this cluster are stellar sculptors, carving out a bubble from the nebula. NGC 346’s hot, massive stars produce intense radiation and fierce stellar winds that pummel the billowing gas of their birthplace and begin to disperse the surrounding nebula.

\r\n

The nebula, named N66, is the brightest example of an H II (pronounced ‘H-two’) region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. H II regions are set aglow by ultraviolet light from hot young stars like those in NGC 346. The presence of the brilliant nebula indicates the young age of the star cluster, as an H II region shines only as long as the stars that power it — a mere few million years for the massive stars pictured here.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-04-04T08:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2502a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":27,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2502a.mp4","FileSize":114050919,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"1985c8343844be76b7cb85117dab5cc96c01bf6e3680b003bf3923c762a1b731"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2502a.m4v","FileSize":23460796,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2502a.jpg","FileSize":14356,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2502a.jpg","FileSize":5493,"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":"potw2513a","Title":"Pan: NGC 4941","Description":"

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the picturesque spiral galaxy NGC 4941, which lies about 67 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). Because this galaxy is nearby, cosmically speaking, Hubble’s keen instruments are able to pick out exquisite details such as individual star clusters and filamentary clouds of gas and dust.

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The data used to construct this image were collected as part of an observing programme that investigates the star formation and stellar feedback cycle in nearby galaxies. As stars form in dense, cold clumps of gas, they begin to influence their surroundings. Stars heat and stir up the gas clouds in which they are born through winds, starlight, and — eventually, for massive stars — by exploding as supernovae. These processes are collectively called stellar feedback, and they impact the rate at which a galaxy can form new stars.

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As it turns out, stars aren’t the only entities providing feedback in NGC 4941. At the heart of this galaxy lies an active galactic nucleus: a supermassive black hole feasting on gas. As the black hole amasses gas from its surroundings, the gas swirls into a superheated disc that glows brightly at wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum. Similar to stars — but on a much, much larger scale — active galactic nuclei shape their surroundings through winds, radiation, and powerful jets, altering not only star formation but also the evolution of the galaxy as a whole.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-04-03T19:53:41.472353Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 4941"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2513a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":68,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2513a.mp4","FileSize":119490809,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"7bb5b324e63b37a11491587865f61e4bf3d22ce6aa1d8da8929acfcbfad21c2b"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2513a.m4v","FileSize":23412940,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2513a.jpg","FileSize":9488,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2513a.jpg","FileSize":4686,"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":"potw2512a","Title":"Pan: NGC 5530","Description":"

The subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is the stunning spiral galaxy NGC 5530. NGC 5530 is situated 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus (The Wolf). This galaxy is classified as a ‘flocculent’ spiral, meaning that its spiral arms are patchy and indistinct.

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While some galaxies have extraordinarily bright centres where they host a feasting supermassive black hole, the bright source near the centre of NGC 5530 is not an active black hole but instead a star within our own galaxy, only 10 thousand light-years from Earth. This chance alignment gives the appearance that the star is at the dense heart of NGC 5530.

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If you had pointed a backyard telescope at NGC 5530 on the evening of 13 September 2007, you would have seen another bright point of light adorning the galaxy. That night, Australian amateur astronomer Robert Evans discovered a supernova, named SN 2007IT, by comparing NGC 5530’s appearance through the telescope to a reference photo of the galaxy. While it’s remarkable to discover even one supernova using this painstaking method, Evans has in fact discovered more than 40 supernovae this way! This particular discovery was truly serendipitous: it’s likely that the light from the supernova had completed its 40-million-year journey to Earth just days before the explosion was discovered. 

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: zero project - Eden","PublicationDate":"2025-03-24T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 5530"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2512a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":68,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2512a.mp4","FileSize":117849201,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"9f1bb85fb9cee721d6d43824fb0570c1f69bea5ce1fe2b2219b56bb976e89e8e"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2512a.m4v","FileSize":23972064,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2512a.jpg","FileSize":11504,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2512a.jpg","FileSize":5056,"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":"potw2511a","Title":"Pan: NGC 346","Description":"

Say hello to one of the Milky Way’s neighbours! Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a scene from one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The SMC is a dwarf galaxy located about 200 000 light-years away. Most of the galaxy resides in the constellation Tucana, but a small section crosses over into the neighbouring constellation Hydrus.

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Thanks to its proximity, the SMC is one of only a few galaxies that can be seen from Earth without the help of a telescope or binoculars. For viewers in the southern hemisphere and some latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the SMC resembles a piece of the Milky Way that has broken off, though in reality it’s much farther away than any part of our own galaxy.

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With its 2.4-metre ‘eye’ and sensitive instruments, Hubble’s view of the SMC is far more detailed and vivid than what humans can see. Researchers used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument to observe this scene through four different filters. Each filter admits different wavelengths of light, creating a multicoloured view of dust clouds drifting across a field of stars. Hubble’s view, however, is much more zoomed-in than our eyes, the better for it to observe very distant objects. This image captures a small region of the SMC near the centre of NGC 346, a star cluster that is home to dozens of massive young stars.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-03-18T18:34:04.704516Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2511a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":49,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2511a.mp4","FileSize":114040768,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"f0ea1bc71a64290181dbf5681770a9393d5abb1799a186a2a3ce1d6571c68bd9"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2511a.m4v","FileSize":23179757,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2511a.jpg","FileSize":16330,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2511a.jpg","FileSize":5679,"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":"potw2510a","Title":"Pan: NGC 4900","Description":"

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a sparkling spiral galaxy paired with a prominent star, both in the constellation Virgo. While the galaxy and the star appear to be close to one another, even overlapping, they’re actually a great distance apart. The star, which is marked with four long diffraction spikes, is in our own galaxy. It’s just 7109 light-years away from Earth. The galaxy, which is named NGC 4900, lies about 45 million light-years from Earth.

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This image combines data from two of Hubble’s instruments: the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which was installed in 2002 and is still in operation today, and the older Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, which was in use from 1993 to 2009. The data used here were taken more than 20 years apart for two different observing programmes — a real testament to Hubble’s long scientific lifetime!

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Both programmes aimed to understand the demise of massive stars. In one, researchers studied the sites of past supernovae, aiming to estimate the masses of the stars that exploded and investigate how supernovae interact with their surroundings. NGC 4900 was selected for study because it hosted a supernova named SN 1999br.

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In the other programme, researchers laid the groundwork for studying future supernovae by collecting images of more than 150 nearby galaxies. After a supernova is detected in one of these galaxies, researchers can examine these images, searching for a star at the location of the supernova. Identifying a supernova progenitor star in pre-explosion images gives valuable information about how, when and why supernovae occur.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. J. Smartt, C. Kilpatrick, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-03-18T18:30:30Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2510a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":62,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2510a.mp4","FileSize":113011799,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"a2ced41a36d805c677902a5659430ce25261005902bf1673e43d099ad8b56f3b"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2510a.m4v","FileSize":23515959,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2510a.jpg","FileSize":11273,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2510a.jpg","FileSize":4766,"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":"potw2509a","Title":"Pan: NGC 5042","Description":"

This vibrant spiral galaxy and the subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is NGC 5042, which resides about 48 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra (the water snake). The galaxy nicely fills the frame of this Hubble image, with a single Milky Way star marked by cross-shaped diffraction spikes attempting to blend in with the bright stars along the galaxy’s edge.

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Hubble observed NGC 5042 in six wavelength bands from the ultraviolet to the infrared to create this multicoloured portrait. The galaxy’s cream-coloured centre is packed with ancient stars, and the galaxy’s spiral arms are decorated with patches of young blue stars. The elongated yellow-orange objects that are scattered around the image are background galaxies far more distant than NGC 5042.

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Perhaps NGC 5042’s most striking feature is its collection of brilliant pink gas clouds that are studded throughout its spiral arms. These flashy clouds are called H II (pronounced “H-two”) regions, and they get their distinctive colour from hydrogen atoms that have been ionised by ultraviolet light. If you look closely at this image, you’ll see that many of these reddish clouds are associated with clumps of blue stars, often appearing to form a shell around the stars. 

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H II regions arise in expansive clouds of hydrogen gas, and only hot and massive stars produce enough high-energy light to create an H II region. Because the stars capable of creating H II regions only live for a few million years — just a blink of an eye in galactic terms — this image represents a fleeting snapshot of life in this galaxy.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-03-03T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 5042"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2509a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2509a.mp4","FileSize":113624305,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"324910a89d72a327e1485ce01cff2803434769805a80ae46e311421866665f3f"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2509a.m4v","FileSize":23051929,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2509a.jpg","FileSize":10484,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2509a.jpg","FileSize":4806,"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":"potw2508a","Title":"Pan: Veil Nebula","Description":"

In this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week, Hubble has once again lifted the veil on a famous — and frequently photographed — supernova remnant: the Veil Nebula. This nebula is the remnant of a star roughly 20 times as massive as the Sun that exploded about 10 000 years ago. Situated about 2400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, this photogenic nebula made an appearance as the Picture of the Week previously in 2021.

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This view combines images taken in three different filters by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, highlighting emission from hydrogen, sulphur and oxygen atoms. This image shows just a small fraction of the Veil Nebula; if you could see the entire nebula without the aid of a telescope, it would be as wide as six full Moons placed side by side. Look in the sidebar of this page to see this image superimposed on its location in the sky, and try zooming out to compare the size of the full nebula!

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Although this image captures the Veil Nebula at just a single point in time, it will help researchers understand how the supernova remnant has evolved over decades. Combining this snapshot with Hubble observations from 1994 will reveal the motion of individual knots and filaments of gas over that span of time, enhancing our understanding of this stunning nebula.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sankrit, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-02-24T05:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2508a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":50,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2508a.mp4","FileSize":113912500,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"6c82dc35f14821d7fabbce0818b9080c60ec98ae0398431190410379a834343e"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2508a.m4v","FileSize":23296269,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2508a.jpg","FileSize":10425,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2508a.jpg","FileSize":5169,"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":"potw2507a","Title":"Pan: UGC 5460","Description":"

The sparkling spiral galaxy gracing this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is UGC 5460, which sits about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This image combines four different wavelengths of light to reveal UGC 5460’s central bar of stars, winding spiral arms and bright blue star clusters. Also captured in the upper left-hand corner of this image is a far closer object: a star just 577 light-years away in our own galaxy.

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UGC 5460 has hosted two recent supernovae named SN 2011ht and SN 2015as. It’s because of these two stellar explosions that Hubble targeted this galaxy, collecting data for three observing programmes that aim to study various kinds of supernovae. 

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SN 2015as was what’s known as a core-collapse supernova: a cataclysmic explosion that happens when the core of a star far more massive than the Sun runs out of fuel and collapses under its own gravity, initiating a rebound of material outside the core. Hubble observations of SN 2015as will help researchers understand what happens when the expanding shockwave of a supernova collides with the gas that surrounds the exploded star.

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SN 2011ht might have been a core-collapse supernova as well, but it could also be an impostor called a luminous blue variable. Luminous blue variables are rare stars that experience eruptions so large that they can mimic supernovae. Crucially, luminous blue variables emerge from these eruptions unscathed, while stars that go supernova do not. Hubble will search for a stellar survivor at SN 2011ht’s location, and the explosion’s identity may be revealed at last.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Jacobson-Galán, A. Filippenko, J. Mauerhan, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-02-17T05:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2507a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2507a.mp4","FileSize":119689183,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"cf0a0e244bd69b0935f599900866319774b65c2085061c107bd39a6305558b61"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2507a.m4v","FileSize":23542326,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2507a.jpg","FileSize":10963,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2507a.jpg","FileSize":4698,"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":"potw2506a","Title":"Pan: Tarantula Nebula","Description":"

The Universe is a dusty place, as this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week shows. Featured in this image are swirling clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. About 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is the most productive star-forming region in the nearby Universe, home to the most massive stars known.

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The colourful gas clouds of this nebula are crossed by wispy tendrils and dark clumps of dust. This dust is different from ordinary household dust, which can be made of bits of soil, skin cells, hair and even plastic. Cosmic dust tends to be made of carbon or of molecules called silicates, which contain silicon and oxygen. The data used to create this image were collected as part of an observing programme that aims to characterise the properties of cosmic dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud and other nearby galaxies.

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Dust plays several important roles in the Universe. Even though individual dust grains are incredibly tiny, far smaller than the width of a single human hair, dust grains in discs around young stars clump together to form larger grains and eventually planets. Dust also helps cool clouds of gas so that they can condense into new stars. Dust even plays a role in making new molecules in interstellar space, providing a venue for individual atoms to find each other and bond together in the vastness of space.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-02-10T05:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2506a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":69,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2506a.mp4","FileSize":112874484,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"bc762577264ebd7b263de9ac87143132abfea83727a16fee3f063aacc8cf7bfc"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2506a.m4v","FileSize":23197282,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2506a.jpg","FileSize":12796,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2506a.jpg","FileSize":5496,"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":"potw2505a","Title":"Pan: LEDA 132905","Description":"

A supernova and its host galaxy are the subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. The galaxy in question is LEDA 132905, which is situated in the constellation Sculptor. Even at over 400 million light-years away, LEDA 132905’s spiral structure is faintly visible, as are patches of bright blue stars.

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The bright white dot directly in the centre of the image, between the bright centre of the galaxy and its faint left edge, is a supernova named SN 2022abvt. SN 2022abvt was discovered in late 2022, and Hubble observed the explosion about two months later. This image was constructed from data collected to study Type Ia supernovae, which occur when the exposed core of a dead star ignites in a sudden, destructive burst of nuclear fusion. Researchers are interested in this type of supernova because they can be used to measure precise distances to other galaxies.

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The Universe is a big place, and supernova explosions are fleeting. How is it possible to be in the right place at the right time to catch a supernova when it happens? Today, most supernovae are discovered by robotic telescopes that continuously scan the night sky. But some are still found the old-fashioned way, by careful observers who take repeated images of the sky and search for changes. SN 2022abvt was spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS. As the name suggests, ATLAS was designed to track down the faint, fast-moving signals from asteroids close to Earth. In addition to searching out asteroids, ATLAS also keeps tabs on objects that brighten or fade suddenly, like supernovae, variable stars and galactic centres powered by hungry black holes.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2025-02-03T05:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2505a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":74,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2505a.mp4","FileSize":118373740,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"1e1daa2dd51fc40952e25c97d343a23bd51e64553835cf84607a943453c6b8bd"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2505a.m4v","FileSize":23715922,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2505a.jpg","FileSize":7428,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2505a.jpg","FileSize":4308,"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":"potw2504a","Title":"Pan: SN 2022aajn","Description":"

Other than the announcement of its discovery in November 2022, SN 2022aajn has never been the subject of published research. Why, then, would Hubble observe this supernova? SN 2022aajn is what’s known as a Type Ia supernova, which results from the explosion of the core of a dead star. Supernovae of this type help astronomers measure the distance to faraway galaxies. This is possible because Type Ia supernovae are thought to be of the same intrinsic luminosity — no matter how bright they seem from Earth, they put out the same amount of light as other Type Ia supernovae. Thus, by comparing the observed brightness to the expected brightness, researchers can calculate the distance to the supernova and its host galaxy.

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This seemingly simple measurement method is complicated by cosmic dust. The farther away a supernova is, the fainter and redder it will appear — but intergalactic dust can make a supernova appear fainter and redder as well. To understand this complication, researchers will use Hubble to survey a total of 100 Type Ia supernovae in seven wavelength bands from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared. This image combines data taken at four infrared wavelengths. Infrared light passes through dust more easily than visible or ultraviolet light. By comparing the brightness of the sampled supernovae across different wavelengths, researchers can disentangle the effects of dust and distance, helping to improve measurements of galaxies billions of light-years away and even the expansion of our Universe. 

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-01-27T05:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2504a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":73,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2504a.mp4","FileSize":112361375,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"489bea6e2d77da4fcb4ebcd6caf1603cb2775af9a399e60095c3a240590ec338"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2504a.m4v","FileSize":19873809,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2504a.jpg","FileSize":6166,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2504a.jpg","FileSize":4212,"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":"potw2503a","Title":"Pan: The Large Magellanic Cloud","Description":"

Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a dusty yet sparkling scene from one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy situated about 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa. 

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Despite being only 10–20% as massive as the Milky Way galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud contains some of the most impressive star-forming regions in the nearby Universe. The scene pictured here is on the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula, the largest and most productive star-forming region in the local Universe. At its centre, the Tarantula Nebula hosts the most massive stars known, which weigh in at roughly 200 times the mass of the Sun.

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The section of the nebula shown here features serene blue gas, brownish-orange dust patches and a sprinkling of multicoloured stars. The stars within and behind the dust clouds appear redder than those that are not obscured by the dust. Dust absorbs and scatters blue light more than red light, allowing more of the red light to reach our telescopes and making the stars appear redder than they are. This image incorporates ultraviolet and infrared light as well as visible light. Using Hubble observations of dusty nebulae in the Large Magellanic Cloud and other galaxies, researchers will study these distant dust grains, helping to understand the role that cosmic dust plays in the formation of new stars and planets.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2025-01-20T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["Large Magellanic Cloud","Tarantula Nebula"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2503a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":71,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2503a.mp4","FileSize":116544762,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"cb5e90014a42e6e38b280706faf34a2ab9872cd7cf740ad4d854d30b48918ffc"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2503a.m4v","FileSize":23105252,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2503a.jpg","FileSize":12672,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2503a.jpg","FileSize":5548,"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":"heic2501a","Title":"Video tour of Hubble’s panoramic view of the Andromeda Galaxy","Description":"

This video features the largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble Space Telescope observations. It is a panoramic view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, located 2.5 million light-years away. It took over 10 years to make this vast and colorful portrait of the galaxy, requiring over 600 Hubble snapshots. The galaxy is so close to us, that in angular size it is six times the apparent diameter of the full Moon, and can be seen with the unaided eye. For Hubble’s pinpoint view, that’s a lot of celestial real estate to cover. This stunning, colorful mosaic captures the glow of 200 million stars. That’s still a fraction of Andromeda’s population. And the stars are spread across about 2.5 billion pixels. The detailed look at the resolved stars will help astronomers piece together the galaxy’s past history that includes mergers with smaller satellite galaxies.

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[Video description: This video shows a panoramic view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, located 2.5 million light-years away. The spiral disk galaxy is inclined to our view, making it look elliptical. Young blue stars are around the outer rim. Yellowish older stars are toward the center. The bright hub of the galaxy looks like the center of a fried egg. It took over 10 years to make this vast and colorful portrait of the galaxy, requiring over 600 Hubble snapshots. This stunning mosaic captures the glow of 200 million stars. The camera zooms into the central portion of the galaxy, resolving a sea of myriad older stars. The camera pans along the galaxy’s vast disk which is over 200,000 light-years across. The view is etched with dark dust clouds. The stellar population looks bluer as we move toward the galaxy’s outer rim, rich in bright blue star clusters.]

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, B. Williams (University of Washington), G. Bacon (STScI)","PublicationDate":"2025-01-16T19:15:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2501a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":70,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_1080p25_screen/heic2501a.mp4","FileSize":274283890,"Dimensions":[1920.0,1080.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"6f4d1e244526cc03a18d78d3e38d8a112a0e81adf24da9a957974b0a28f0d0ba"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2501a.jpg","FileSize":10141,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2501a.jpg","FileSize":4690,"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":"potw2502a","Title":"Pan: HOPS 150 and HOPS 153","Description":"

These protostars get their names from the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey, which was carried out with ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory. The object that can be seen in the upper-right corner of this image is HOPS 150: it’s a binary system, two young protostars orbiting each other. Each has a small, dusty disc of material surrounding it that it is feeding from. The dark line that cuts across the bright glow of these protostars is a cloud of gas and dust, over 2 000 times wider than the distance between Earth and the Sun, falling in on the pair of protostars. Based on the amount of infrared versus other wavelengths of light HOPS 150 is emitting, the protostars are mid-way down the path to becoming mature stars.

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Extending across the left side of the image is a narrow, colourful outflow called a jet. This jet comes from the nearby protostar HOPS 153, out of frame. HOPS 153 is a significantly younger stellar object than its neighbour, still deeply embedded in its birth nebula and enshrouded by a cloud of cold, dense gas. While Hubble cannot penetrate this gas to see the protostar, the jet HOPS 153 has emitted is brightly visible as it plows into the surrounding gas and dust of the Orion Nebula.

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The transition from tightly swaddled protostar to fully fledged star will dramatically affect HOPS 153’s surroundings. As gas falls onto the protostar, its jets spew material and energy into interstellar space, carving out bubbles and heating the gas. By stirring up and warming nearby gas, HOPS 153 may regulate the formation of new stars in its neighbourhood and even slow its own growth.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Megeath, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: zero project - Eden (zero-project.gr)","PublicationDate":"2025-01-13T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["HOPS 150","HOPS 153"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2502a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":72,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2502a.mp4","FileSize":113230562,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"989fedd98bdca4f7a928d3b79877f49db39dc9ea52ce8815012672d5cf35e08e"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2502a.m4v","FileSize":23711051,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2502a.jpg","FileSize":7873,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2502a.jpg","FileSize":4502,"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":"potw2501a","Title":"Pan: LEDA 803211","Description":"

Behind this star is a galaxy named LEDA 803211. At 622 million light-years distant, this galaxy is close enough that its bright galactic nucleus is clearly visible, as are numerous star clusters scattered around its patchy disc. Many of the more distant galaxies in this frame appear star-like, with no discernible structure, but without the diffraction spikes of a star in our galaxy.

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Of all the galaxies in this frame, one pair stands out in particular: a smooth golden galaxy encircled by a nearly complete ring in the upper-right corner of the image. This curious configuration is the result of gravitational lensing, in which the light from a distant object is warped and magnified by the gravity of a massive foreground object, like a galaxy or a cluster of galaxies. Einstein predicted the curving of spacetime by matter in his general theory of relativity, and galaxies seemingly stretched into rings like the one in this image are called Einstein rings.

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The lensed galaxy, whose image we see as the ring, lies incredibly far away from Earth: we are seeing it as it was when the Universe was just 2.5 billion years old. The galaxy acting as the gravitational lens itself is likely much closer. A nearly perfect alignment of the two galaxies is necessary to give us this rare kind of glimpse into galactic life in the early days of the Universe.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Erb, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2025-01-06T05:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2501a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":68,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2501a.mp4","FileSize":110329985,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"9b1a58985d9f15fa5487bba2b92750502420e62259cc48ce11a729a07439bfdd"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2501a.m4v","FileSize":23178135,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2501a.jpg","FileSize":8637,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2501a.jpg","FileSize":4716,"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":"potw2453a","Title":"Pan: LEDA 22057","Description":"

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the galaxy LEDA 22057, which is located about 650 million light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like the subject of last week’s Picture of the Week, LEDA 22057 is the site of a supernova explosion. This particular supernova, named SN 2024PI, was discovered by an automated survey in January 2024. The survey covers the entire northern half of the night sky every two days and has catalogued more than 10 000 supernovae.

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The supernova is visible in this image: located just down and to the right of the galactic nucleus, the pale blue dot of SN 2024PI stands out against the galaxy’s ghostly spiral arms. This image was taken about a month and a half after the supernova was discovered, so the supernova is seen here many times fainter than its maximum brilliance.

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SN 2024PI is classified as a Type Ia supernova. This type of supernova requires a remarkable object called a white dwarf, the crystallised core of a star with a mass less than about eight times the mass of the Sun. When a star of this size uses up the supply of hydrogen in its core, it balloons into a red giant, becoming cool, puffy and luminous. Over time, pulsations and stellar winds cause the star to shed its outer layers, leaving behind a white dwarf and a colourful planetary nebula. White dwarfs can have surface temperatures higher than 100 000 degrees and are extremely dense, packing roughly the mass of the Sun into a sphere the size of Earth. 

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While nearly all of the stars in the Milky Way will one day evolve into white dwarfs — this is the fate that awaits the Sun some five billion years in the future — not all of them will explode as Type Ia supernovae. For that to happen, the white dwarf must be a member of a binary star system. When a white dwarf syphons material from a stellar partner, the white dwarf can become too massive to support itself. The resulting burst of runaway nuclear fusion destroys the white dwarf in a supernova explosion that can be seen many galaxies away.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2024-12-30T05:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2453a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":67,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2453a.mp4","FileSize":83549220,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2453a.m4v","FileSize":11048178,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2453a.jpg","FileSize":8567,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2453a.jpg","FileSize":4511,"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":"potw2452a","Title":"Pan: NGC 337","Description":"

The subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is the spiral galaxy NGC 337, located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).

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This image combines observations made at two wavelengths, highlighting the galaxy’s golden centre and blue outskirts. The golden central glow comes from older stars, while the sparkling blue edges get their colour from young stars. If Hubble had observed NGC 337 about a decade ago, the telescope would have spotted something remarkable among the hot blue stars along the galaxy’s edge: a brilliant supernova.

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The supernova, named SN 2014cx, is remarkable for having been discovered nearly simultaneously in two vastly different ways: by a prolific supernova hunter, Koichi Itagaki, and by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN). ASAS-SN is a worldwide network of robotic telescopes that scans the sky for sudden events like supernovae. 

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Researchers have determined that SN 2014cx was a Type IIP supernova. The “Type II” classification means that the exploding star was a supergiant at least eight times as massive as the Sun. The “P” stands for plateau, meaning that after the light from the supernova began to fade, the level reached a plateau, remaining at the same brightness for several weeks or months before fading further. This type of supernova occurs when a massive star can no longer produce enough energy in its core to stave off the crushing pressure of gravity. SN 2014cx’s progenitor star is estimated to have been ten times more massive than the Sun and hundreds of times as wide. Though it has long since dimmed from its initial brilliance, researchers are still keeping tabs on this exploded star, not least through the Hubble observing programme which produced this image.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2024-12-23T05:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2452a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":71,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2452a.mp4","FileSize":113606137,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"6a07b386d9f1285b889b69192e77d3dd1df8e890c9c4b3c3a1b2b5d9524d613d"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2452a.m4v","FileSize":23535680,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2452a.jpg","FileSize":9881,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2452a.jpg","FileSize":4560,"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":"potw2451a","Title":"Pan: NGC 2566","Description":"

Featured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is the spiral galaxy NGC 2566, which sits 76 million light-years away in the constellation Puppis. A prominent bar of stars stretches across the centre of this galaxy, and spiral arms emerge from each end of the bar. Because NGC 2566 appears tilted from our perspective, its disc takes on an almond shape, giving the galaxy the appearance of a cosmic eye.

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As NGC 2566 gazes at us, astronomers gaze right back, using Hubble to survey the galaxy’s star clusters and star-forming regions. The Hubble data are especially valuable for studying stars that are just a few million years old; these stars are bright at the ultraviolet and visible wavelengths to which Hubble is sensitive. Using these data, researchers will measure the ages of NGC 2566’s stars, helping to piece together the timeline of the galaxy’s star formation and the exchange of gas between star-forming clouds and stars themselves.

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Several other astronomical observatories have examined NGC 2566, including the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The Webb data complement this Hubble image, adding a view of NGC 2566’s warm, glowing dust to Hubble’s stellar portrait. At the long-wavelength end of the electromagnetic spectrum, NGC 2566 has also been observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). ALMA is a network of 66 radio telescopes that work together as one to capture detailed images of the clouds of gas in which stars form. Together, Hubble, Webb and ALMA provide an overview of the formation, lives and deaths of stars in galaxies across the Universe.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2024-12-17T17:37:17Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 2566"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2451a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":73,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2451a.mp4","FileSize":114184377,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"8e6e63af839583b0ceeeacb64fee8f58c77ae7e43b0ab4ffecb0e461a9972167"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2451a.m4v","FileSize":23211549,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2451a.jpg","FileSize":10840,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2451a.jpg","FileSize":4957,"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":"potw2450a","Title":"Pan: NGC 5643","Description":"

Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the glorious spiral galaxy NGC 5643, which is located roughly 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus. NGC 5643 is what’s known as a grand design spiral, referring to how the galaxy’s two large, winding spiral arms are clear to see. The spiral arms are defined by bright blue stars, lacy reddish-brown dust clouds and pink star-forming regions.

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As fascinating as the galaxy appears at visible wavelengths, some of NGC 5643’s most interesting features are invisible to the human eye. Ultraviolet and X-ray images and spectra of NGC 5643 show that the galaxy hosts an active galactic nucleus: an especially bright galactic core powered by a feasting supermassive black hole. When a supermassive black hole ensnares gas from its surroundings, the gas collects in a disc that heats up to hundreds of thousands of degrees. The superheated gas shines brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum, but especially at X-ray wavelengths.

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NGC 5643’s active galactic nucleus isn’t the brightest source of X-rays in the galaxy, though. Researchers using ESA’s XMM-Newton discovered an even brighter X-ray-emitting object, called NGC 5643 X-1, on the galaxy’s outskirts. What could be a more powerful source of X-rays than a supermassive black hole? Surprisingly, the answer appears to be a much smaller black hole! While the exact identity of NGC 5643 X-1 is not yet known, evidence points to a black hole that is about 30 times more massive than the Sun. Locked in an orbital dance with a companion star, the black hole ensnares gas from its stellar companion, creating a superheated disc that outshines the galactic centre.

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NGC 5643 was also the subject of a previous Picture of the Week. The new image incorporates additional wavelengths of light, including the red color that is characteristic of gas heated by massive young stars. 

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess, D. Thilker, D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2024-12-11T15:15:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 5643"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2450a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":71,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2450a.mp4","FileSize":113796363,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"3b42d6e32a11b5eef0811c797d624ec1caea2357d6311d9b77e3e69799716a6b"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2450a.m4v","FileSize":23376221,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2450a.jpg","FileSize":13518,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2450a.jpg","FileSize":5467,"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":"potw2449a","Title":"Pan: NGC 1637","Description":"

The subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is NGC 1637, a spiral galaxy located 38 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus.

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This image comes from an observing programme dedicated to studying star formation in nearby galaxies. Stars form in cold, dusty gas clouds that collapse under their own gravity. As young stars grow, they heat their nurseries through starlight, winds, and powerful outflows. Together, these factors play a role in controlling the rate at which future generations of stars form. 

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Evidence of star formation is scattered all around NGC 1637, if you know where to look. The galaxy’s spiral arms are dotted with what appear to be pink clouds, many of which are accompanied by bright blue stars. The pinkish colour comes from hydrogen atoms that have been excited by ultraviolet light from young, massive stars. This contrasts with the warm yellow glow of the galaxy’s centre, which is home to a densely packed collection of older, redder stars. 

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The stars that set their birthplaces aglow are comparatively short-lived, and many of these stars will explode as supernovae just a few million years after they’re born. In 1999, NGC 1637 played host to a supernova, pithily named SN 1999EM, that was lauded as the brightest supernova seen that year. When a massive star expires as a supernova, the explosion outshines its entire home galaxy for a short time. While a supernova marks the end of a star’s life, it can also jump start the formation of new stars by compressing nearby clouds of gas, beginning the stellar lifecycle anew.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2024-12-02T05:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2449a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":74,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2449a.mp4","FileSize":113428502,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"dc6669b7b83355cc6982e6fb7d90370ded90defa15aa3084dcdec621c5107d86"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2449a.m4v","FileSize":23402745,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2449a.jpg","FileSize":11668,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2449a.jpg","FileSize":5102,"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":"potw2448a","Title":"Pan: NGC 2090","Description":"

Featured in this new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is the spiral galaxy NGC 2090, located in the constellation Columba.

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This galaxy is notable as a part of the group of galaxies studied in Hubble’s Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project, which aimed to determine a new state-of-the-art value for the Hubble constant, one of the then-new telescope’s primary science goals. The contribution of NGC 2090 was in calibrating the Tully-Fisher (TF) distance method, by observing Cepheid variable stars in the galaxy. The Cepheid-based measurement from that study in 1998 put NGC 2090 as 37 million light-years away; the newest measurement from 2020, using the TF method, has NGC 2090 slightly farther away, at 40 million light-years.

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Before and since that project, NGC 2090 has been well studied as a very prominent nearby example of star formation. It has been described as a flocculent spiral, meaning a spiral galaxy with a patchy, dusty disc and arms that are flaky or not visible at all. This Hubble image shows well why NGC 2090 earned that description, but its spiral arms do appear among the dust as winding lanes of light.

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NGC 2090 is a galaxy still full of activity, with clusters of star formation at various stages of evolution spread across the disc. Examining star formation and the movement of matter in galaxies was the motivation for these Hubble observations, taken in October of this year. Likewise Hubble’s partner in space astronomy, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, has also spied on this galaxy to add infrared data to this overall picture of galaxy evolution. 

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2024-11-25T11:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 2090"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2448a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":72,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2448a.mp4","FileSize":116232948,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"971ee9b250af8c20e6c9025be3423cb5ebd5ffa4cd29f3b78419a241c7d6d839"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2448a.m4v","FileSize":24413274,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2448a.jpg","FileSize":9636,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2448a.jpg","FileSize":4665,"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":"potw2447a","Title":"Pan: UGC 10043","Description":"

What kind of astronomical object is this? It doesn’t look quite like the kinds of galaxies, nebulae, star clusters or galaxy clusters which Hubble normally brings us images of. In fact, this is a spiral galaxy, named UGC 10043 — we just happen to be seeing it directly from the side! Located roughly 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens, UGC 10043 is one of the somewhat rare spiral galaxies that are seen edge-on.

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From this point of view, we see the galaxy’s disc as a sharp line through space, overlain with a prominent dust lane. This dust is spread across the spiral arms of UGC 10043, but it looks very thick and cloudy when viewed from the side. You can even see the lights of some active star-forming regions in the arms, shining out from behind the dust. Strikingly, we can also see that the centre of the galaxy sports a glowing, almost egg-shaped ‘bulge’, rising far above and below the disc. All spiral galaxies have a bulge like this one as part of their structure, containing stars that orbit the galactic centre on paths above and below the whirling disc; it’s a feature that isn’t normally obvious in pictures of galaxies. The unusually large size of this bulge compared to the galaxy’s disc is possibly thanks to UGC 10043 siphoning material from a nearby dwarf galaxy. This may also be why the disc is warped, bending up at one end and down at the other.

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Like most of the full-colour Hubble images released by ESA/Hubble, this image is a composite, made up of several individual snapshots taken by Hubble at different times and capturing different wavelengths of light. You can see the exact images used in the sidebar on this page. A notable aspect of this image is that the two sets of Hubble data used were collected 23 years apart, in 2000 and 2023! Hubble’s longevity doesn’t just afford us the ability to produce new and better images of old targets; it also provides a long-term archive of data which only becomes more and more useful to astronomers.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Windhorst, W. Keel, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2024-11-18T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["UGC 10043"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2447a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":67,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2447a.mp4","FileSize":116517320,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"8f2dacb92d251c440941c6f426cf9c9764e381b63499ada9a18755773bb4950c"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2447a.m4v","FileSize":22581498,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2447a.jpg","FileSize":7370,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2447a.jpg","FileSize":4222,"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":"potw2446a","Title":"Pan: MCG+05-31-045","Description":"

Previously the Hubble Picture of the Week series has featured a jewel in the queen’s hair — a spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, named for the hair of the historical Egyptian queen. However, that galaxy is only one of many known in this constellation. This week’s new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts the cosmic tangle that is MCG+05-31-045, a pair of interacting galaxies located 390 million light-years away and a part of the so-called Coma galaxy cluster.

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The Coma cluster is a particularly rich cluster and contains over a thousand known galaxies. Several can be easily seen with amateur telescopes. Most of them are elliptical galaxies, and that’s typical of a dense galaxy cluster like the Coma cluster: many elliptical galaxies are formed in close encounters between galaxies that stir them up, or even collisions that rip them apart. While the stars in the interacting galaxies can stay together, the gas in the galaxies is a different story — it’s twisted and compressed by gravitational forces, and rapidly used up to form new stars. When the hot, massive, blue stars die, there is little gas left to replace them with new generations of young stars. For interacting spiral galaxies, the regular orbits that produce their striking spiral arms are also disrupted. Whether through mergers or simple near misses, the result is a galaxy almost devoid of gas, with ageing stars orbiting in uncoordinated circles: an elliptical galaxy.

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It’s very likely that a similar fate will befall MCG+05-31-045. As the smaller spiral galaxy is torn up and integrated into the larger galaxy, many new stars will form, and the hot, blue ones will quickly burn out, leaving cooler, redder stars behind in an elliptical galaxy much like the others in the Coma cluster. But this process won’t be complete for many millions of years — until then, Queen Berenice II will have to suffer the knots in her hair!

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2024-11-11T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["MCG+05-31-045"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2446a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":79,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2446a.mp4","FileSize":50467653,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2446a.m4v","FileSize":9726335,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2446a.jpg","FileSize":6854,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2446a.jpg","FileSize":4122,"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":"potw2445a","Title":"Pan: NGC 1672","Description":"

This Hubble Picture of the week features NGC 1672, a barred spiral galaxy located 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. This galaxy is a multi-talented light show, showing off an impressive array of different celestial lights. Like any spiral galaxy, its disc is filled with billions of shining stars that give it a beautiful glow. Along its two large arms, bubbles of hydrogen gas are made to shine a striking red light by the powerful radiation of newly-forming stars within. Near to the centre lie some particularly spectacular stars; newly-formed and extremely hot, they are embedded in a ring of hot gas and are emitting powerful X-rays. And in the very centre sits an even more brilliant source of X-rays, an active galactic nucleus created by the heated accretion disc around NGC 1672’s supermassive black hole; this makes NGC 1672 a Seyfert galaxy.

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But a highlight of this image is the most fleeting and temporary of these lights: supernova SN 2017GAX, visible in just one of the six Hubble images that make up this composite image. This was a Type I supernova caused by the core-collapse and subsequent explosion of a giant star, going from invisibility to a new light in the sky in just a matter of days. In that image from later that year, the supernova is already fading, and so is only just visible here as a small green dot, just below the crook of the spiral arm on the right side. In fact this was on purpose, as astronomers wanted to look for any companion star that the supernova progenitor may have had — something impossible to spot beside a live supernova! For a closer look at the supernova’s appearance, you can compare the two images with this slider tool.

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Recently, NGC 1672 was also among a crop of galaxies imaged with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, showing the ring of gas and the structure of dust in its spiral arms. A Hubble image was also released previously in 2007.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Fox, L. Jenkins, S. Van Dyk, A. Filippenko, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, D. de Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Ascent","PublicationDate":"2024-11-04T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 1672"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2445a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":73,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2445a.mp4","FileSize":113370279,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"dc7899e5fef41e71ea29a27f144ae14f6e7dca71b04edf940afb7d86e26890ba"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2445a.m4v","FileSize":23410876,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2445a.jpg","FileSize":11083,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2445a.jpg","FileSize":5031,"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":"heic2414a","Title":"Pan video: NGC 2207 (Webb and Hubble image)","Description":"

These galaxies have only grazed one another so far, with the smaller spiral on the left, catalogued as IC 2163, ever so slowly ‘creeping’ behind NGC 2207, the spiral galaxy on the right, millions of years ago.The pair’s macabre colours represent a combination of mid-infrared light from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and visible and ultraviolet light from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music:  Kevin MacLeod - Rising","PublicationDate":"2024-10-31T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2414a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":0,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2414a.mp4","FileSize":114847349,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"0efd797c86c6ebf5ade1978337e5e8cd95120d8c45dd1bf2076b66e4555da596"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2414a.m4v","FileSize":23721971,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2414a.jpg","FileSize":12277,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2414a.jpg","FileSize":5236,"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":"heic2414b","Title":"Pan video: NGC 2207 (Webb MIRI image)","Description":"

The James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared image of galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 recalls the iciness of long-dead bones mixed with eerie vapours. Two large luminous ‘eyes’ lie at the galaxies’ cores, and gauzy spiral arms reach out into the vast distances of space.

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Webb’s mid-infrared image excels at showing where the cold dust glows throughout these galaxies — and helps pinpoint where stars and star clusters are buried within the dust. Find these regions by looking for the pink dots along the spiral arms. Many of these areas are home to actively forming stars that are still encased in the gas and dust that feeds their growth. Other pink dots may be objects that lie well behind these galaxies, including extremely distant active supermassive black holes known as quasars.

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The largest, brightest pink region that glimmers with eight prominent diffraction spikes at the bottom right is a mini starburst — a location where many stars are forming in quick succession. Find the lace-like holes in the spiral arms. These areas are brimming with star formation.

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Finally, scan the black background of space, where objects shine brightly in a rainbow of colours. Blue circles with tiny diffraction spikes are foreground stars. Objects without spikes are very distant galaxies.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)\r\nMusic: zero project - The Lower Dungeons","PublicationDate":"2024-10-31T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2414b/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":0,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2414b.mp4","FileSize":114635247,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"6782bd5b340cd5f772ce431e637c7fc75222ff01f4c921b2d0ec5d569d87b97a"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2414b.m4v","FileSize":23565660,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2414b.jpg","FileSize":12593,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2414b.jpg","FileSize":4710,"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":"heic2414c","Title":"NGC 2207 (Hubble/Webb image and Webb MIRI image)","Description":"

These galaxies have only grazed one another so far, with the smaller spiral on the left, catalogued as IC 2163, ever so slowly ‘creeping’ behind NGC 2207, the spiral galaxy on the right, millions of years ago.

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This first image is a combination of mid-infrared light from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and visible and ultraviolet light from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The second image features the pair as seen by Webb's MIRI instrument.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)\r\nMusic: Composed and Produced by STAN DART","PublicationDate":"2024-10-31T14:00:00Z","Subject":{},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/heic2414c/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":0,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/heic2414c.mp4","FileSize":116487532,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"776ee035d5b1fcf9d98b3b52d4fc632453ed8af7a1ed3fdaedefdedc41f9d4b4"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/heic2414c.m4v","FileSize":24337458,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/heic2414c.jpg","FileSize":13849,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/heic2414c.jpg","FileSize":5187,"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":"potw2444a","Title":"Pan: NGC 4414","Description":"

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 4414, roughly 51 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices.

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You can see an old image of NGC 4414 that features Hubble data from 1995 and 1999 here, which was captured as one of the telescope’s primary missions to determine the distance to galaxies. This was achieved as part of an ongoing research effort to study Cepheid variable stars. Cepheids are a special type of variable star with very stable and predictable brightness variations. The period of these variations depends on physical properties of the stars such as their mass and true brightness. This means that astronomers, just by looking at the variability of their light, can find out about the Cepheids' physical nature, which then can be used very effectively to determine their distance. For this reason cosmologists call Cepheids 'standard candles'.

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Astronomers have used Hubble to observe Cepheids, like those that reside in NGC 4414, with extraordinary results. The Cepheids have then been used as stepping-stones to make distance measurements for supernovae, which have, in turn, given a measure for the scale of the Universe. Today we know the age of the Universe to a much higher precision than before Hubble: around 13.7 billion years.

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Graur, S. W. Jha, A. Filippenko, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Billions and Billions","PublicationDate":"2024-10-28T05:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["NGC 4414"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2444a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":42,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2444a.mp4","FileSize":118188471,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"67b7aed1ebdbda5ebbd423ff95e3df861d81569968d58d721897cf0b5075b566"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2444a.m4v","FileSize":23631734,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2444a.jpg","FileSize":12846,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2444a.jpg","FileSize":5054,"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":"potw2443a","Title":"Pan: IC 3225","Description":"

The spiral galaxy appearing in this week’s Hubble Picture of the Week is named IC 3225. It looks remarkably as if it’s been launched from a cannon, speeding through space like a comet with a tail of gas streaming from its disc behind it. The scenes that galaxies appear in from Earth’s point of view are fascinating; many seem to hang calmly in the emptiness of space as if hung from a string, while others star in much more dynamic situations!

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Appearances can be deceiving with objects so far from Earth — IC 3225 itself is about 100 million light-years away — but the galaxy’s location suggests some causes for this active scene, because IC 3225 is one of over 1300 members of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The density of galaxies in the Virgo cluster creates a rich field of hot gas between them, the so-called ‘intracluster medium’, while the cluster’s extreme mass has its galaxies careening around its centre in some very fast orbits. Ramming through the thick intracluster medium, especially close to the cluster’s centre, places an enormous ‘ram pressure’ on the moving galaxies that strips gas out of them as they go.

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IC 3225 is not so close to the cluster core right now, but astronomers have deduced that it has undergone this ram pressure stripping in the past. The galaxy looks as though it’s been impacted by this: it is compressed on one side and there has been noticeably more star formation on this leading edge, while the opposite end is stretched out of shape. Being in such a crowded field, a close call with another galaxy could also have tugged on IC 3225 and created this shape. The sight of this distorted galaxy is a reminder of the incredible forces at work on astronomical scales, which can move and reshape even entire galaxies!

","Credit":"ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour","PublicationDate":"2024-10-21T04:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["IC 3225"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/potw2443a/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":80,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/potw2443a.mp4","FileSize":117791821,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan","Checksum":"843a0b805e8810bc7ed7d4c51d69d56462fa86b61b7510989b77895500f02487"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/potw2443a.m4v","FileSize":23338903,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/potw2443a.jpg","FileSize":9032,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/potw2443a.jpg","FileSize":4603,"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":"v-r-aquarii_2","Title":"Time-lapse: Evolution of R Aquarii (2014 to 2023)","Description":"

This video features five frames spanning from 2014 to 2023 of R Aquarii, a symbiotic binary star that lies only roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. This is a type of binary star system consisting of a white dwarf and a red giant that is surrounded by a large, dynamic nebula.

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These frames show the brightness of the central binary changing over time due to strong pulsations in the red giant star. The central structures can also be seen to be spiralling outwards due to their interaction with material previously ejected by the binary. 

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This time-lapse highlights the value of Hubble’s high resolution optical observations in the changing Universe, known as time-domain astronomy.

","Credit":"NASA, ESA, M. Stute, M. Karovska,  D. de Martin & M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)","PublicationDate":"2024-10-16T14:00:00Z","Subject":{"Name":["R Aqr"]},"ReferenceURL":"https://esahubble.org/videos/v-r-aquarii_2/","Rights":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License","Priority":60,"Assets":[{"MediaType":"Video","Resources":[{"ResourceType":"Original","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/ultra_hd/v-r-aquarii_2.mp4","FileSize":40021919,"Dimensions":[3840.0,2160.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Preview","MediaType":"Video","URL":"https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/videos/hd_and_apple/v-r-aquarii_2.m4v","FileSize":15922649,"Dimensions":[1280.0,720.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Thumbnail","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/potwmedium/v-r-aquarii_2.jpg","FileSize":8836,"Dimensions":[220.0,140.0],"ProjectionType":"Tan"},{"ResourceType":"Icon","MediaType":"Image","URL":"https://esahubble.org/media/archives/videos/newsmini/v-r-aquarii_2.jpg","FileSize":4804,"Dimensions":[60.0,34],"ProjectionType":"Tan"}]}]}]}