Category: Hubble

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3147 from Hubble

The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy NGC 3147 appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space in this Hubble Space Telescope image. They are actually long lanes of young blue stars, pinkish nebulas, and dust in silhouette. The beauty of the galaxy belies the fact that at its very center is a malnourished black hole surrounded by a thin, compact disk of stars, gas, and dust that have been caught up in a gravitational maelstrom. The black hole’s gravity is so intense that […]

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ARP 274 from Hubble

To celebrate my 18th birthday, I decided to process one of my favorite Hubble images! This was taken back in 2009 to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy by WFPC2. Given that it was taken by such a low-sensitivity sensor, this image actually had a whole lot of noise to deal with. I spent a while carefully removing hot pixels and cosmic rays to make the image look better. In case you’re wondering what exactly you’re looking at, here’s a little explanation about the galaxies: Arp 274 […]

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Dim spiral galaxy IC 5332 from HST and JWST

IC 5332, also known as PGC 71775 is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. IC 5332 is a delicate spiral galaxy that is unusually faint and beautifully symmetrical. As viewed from earth it is nearly face on. It has a very small central bulge and open spiral arms accounting for its classification (SABc). The galaxy lies in the direction of the celestial south pole. I wanted to highlight the JWST dust lanes more clearly, so I decided to stick to […]

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Perfect spiral M74 from JWST and Hubble

Processing galactic images with both JWST and HST data is just incredible. Normally, every spiral galaxy (and some elliptical ones too) have dark dust lanes obscuring the light from the stars behind. These dark spirals add depth to the image, but unfortunately don’t contain much information. But with the added infrared imagery, the glowing strands and flocks of dust, which would normally be dark in visible light imagery, are instead bright and glowing with infrared light from JWST. Below is a comparison of the Hubble visible-light image […]

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Hubble’s stunning 3-color mosaic of the Tarantula nebula

Below is a zoomable version of the tarantula nebula. You can also view this version here: http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/230324. If you have a minute or ten, I really hope you spend some time just looking at the various little complications in this image – I assure you that it will be well worth your time! The full jpg version is available for free use on my flickr, which you can access by clicking the link below: If you would like to use a higher-quality version, feel free to email […]

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Hershel’s image of the upper orion molecular complex

Stunning new view from ESAs Herschel space observatory of the iconic Horsehead Nebula in the context of its surroundings. The image is a composite of the wavelengths of 70 microns (blue), 160 microns (green) and 250 microns (red), and covers 4.5×1.5 degrees. The image is oriented with northeast towards the left of the image and southwest towards the right. The Horsehead Nebula resides in the constellation Orion, about 1300 light-years away, and is part of the vast Orion Molecular Cloud complex. The Horsehead appears to rise above […]

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NGC 4490 from Hubble

Compared to the other fundamental forces in the Universe, gravity is fairly weak. Despite this, gravity has an influence over huge distances and is the driving force behind the motions of the most massive objects in the cosmos. The scattered and warped appearance of the galaxy in this image, NGC 4490, is a prime example of the results of gravity’s unrelenting tug.

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Hubble’s infrared view of the Horsehead Nebula

Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books ever since its discovery over a century ago. The nebula is a favorite target for amateur and professional astronomers. In this new Hubble Space Telescope view, the nebula appears in a new light, as seen in infrared wavelengths. The nebula, shadowy in optical light, appears transparent and ethereal when seen in the infrared, represented here with visible shades. The rich tapestry of the Horsehead Nebula pops out against the […]

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Hypersonic superheated rainbow outflows from a dying star – NGC 6302 from Hubble

This image was featured as NASA’s astronomy picture of the day on 11/21/2022: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221121.html The spectacular planetary nebula NGC 6302 lies roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. More popularly known as the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula, this celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But what resemble dainty wings are actually roiling regions of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour — fast enough to travel from Earth to […]

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Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300 from Hubble

The Hubble telescope captured a display of starlight, glowing gas, and silhouetted dark clouds of interstellar dust in this 4-foot-by-8-foot image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300. NGC 1300 is considered to be prototypical of barred spiral galaxies. Barred spirals differ from normal spiral galaxies in that the arms of the galaxy do not spiral all the way into the center, but are connected to the two ends of a straight bar of stars containing the nucleus at its center. At Hubble’s resolution, a myriad of […]

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