Eagle’s wings or galaxy 🦅? This is IRAS 16399-0937, a galaxy hosting a double nucleus that is enshrouded in wings of dust clouds. The nuclei are two distinct cores in the process of merging, which intensely radiates energy. This produces a megamaser, a phenomenon 100 million times brighter than a maser, which is essentially a laser that emits microwaves rather than visible light. Hubble’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer was key to discovering these twin nuclei, with its excellent sensitivity, resolution, and field of view. The two components are over 11,000 light-years apart, but they are still interacting within the same cosmic gas and dust swirl. Image description: A galaxy glowing with blue and yellow stars is wreathed by dark brown dust, all against black space. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla) #HubbleClassic #NASA #Hubble #galaxy #space #science #stars #astronomy #universe #cosmos

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1 days ago

Eye of the storm 👁️🌀 NGC 5643 is a grand design spiral galaxy, which refers to its two large, symmetrical spiral arms. The galaxy’s arms are home to young bright blue stars, as well as star-forming regions in pink and dust clouds that lace throughout in a dark reddish-brown. Forty million light-years away in the constellation Lupus, NGC 5643 hosts a galactic nucleus that shines bright. This core is powered by a supermassive black hole, which traps gas in a spinning disk that heats to hundreds of thousands of degrees. This releases wavelengths of light across the electromagnetic spectrum, but especially in X-ray wavelengths. Music credit: "Open World" by Dylan Forster Rogers [PRS] via Ninja Tune Production Music [PRS] and Universal Production Music Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess, D. Thilker, D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble) #NASA #Hubble #galaxy #science #space #universe #astronomy #cosmos #astrophotography #telescope

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2 days ago

This #AsteroidDay, learn how artificial intelligence is used with Hubble data to discover asteroids. With the help of citizen scientists, AI hunted for faint asteroid trails in over 37,000 Hubble images – helping us learn more about both the origin and evolution of our solar system's asteroid belt. AI is also changing how researchers analyze other astronomical data. Find out more at the link in our bio! #NASA #Hubble #asteroid #video #astronomy #science #space #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

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3 days ago

A cosmic weigh-in 💪 Using Hubble, researchers will study hundreds of galaxies that (like UGC 11397, pictured here) harbor a supermassive black hole that is gaining mass. Hubble observations will help scientists 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 center of a galaxy. This light collected for this new #HubbleFriday view of UGC 11397 traveled 250 million years to reach the telescope. The black hole at the galaxy's center contains 174 million times the mass of our Sun. Discover more at the link in our bio! Image description: A spiral galaxy, seen at an angle that gives it an oval shape. It has two spiral arms that curl out from the center. They start narrow but broaden out as they wrap around the galaxy before merging into a faint halo. The galaxy’s disk is golden in the center with a bright core, and pale blue outside that. A swirl of dark dust strands and speckled blue star-forming regions follow the arms through the disk. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth #NASA #Hubble #Friday #space #science #universe #cosmos #galaxy #stars

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6 days ago

Your July to-watch list is here 🔭 Hubble's Night Sky Challenge continues into another month! Get ready for July's cosmic targets, for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Find the stellar sights seen here (and more at the link in our bio!) and compare your views to Hubble's. If you don't have binoculars or a telescope, visit the link in our bio to get connected with a star party or club near you! Image descriptions/credits: 1 - Caldwell 82. A few large stars with glowing diffraction spikes shine against black space, dotted with smaller orange stars. (NASA, ESA, and J. Maiz Apellaniz (Centro de Astrobiologia [CSIC/INTA]); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)) 2 - Butterfly Nebula. Two glowing lobes of gas extend outward like wings, shining in shades of red, pink, and white. The black background of space is dotted with stars. (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team) 3 - Messier 107. Several stars fill the image, shining in shades of yellow, gold, and white, and more closely concentrated at the center. (ESA/Hubble & NASA) #Hubble35 #NightSkyChallenge #Hubble #NASA #space #stars #stargazing #astronomy #telescope #astrophotography

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7 days ago

Space is dusty! Especially this part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is located about 160,000 light-years away. This is the Tarantula Nebula. It's one of the most productive star-forming regions in the nearby universe, and home to the most massive stars known. It holds several dark clumps of dust, but not the sort that might be in your house. Cosmic dust is often made up of carbon or of molecules called silicates, which contain silicon and oxygen. Dust plays many important roles in our universe. Dust grains in disks around young stars clump together to form larger grains, and eventually entire planets! Dust also helps cool clouds of gas so that they can condense into new stars. Music credit: "Meetings in Underwater Ruins" by Philippe Andre Vandenhende [SACEM], Olivier Louis Perrot [SACEM], and Idriss-El-Mehdi Bennani [SACEM] via Sound Pocket Music [PRS] and Universal Production Music Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray #NASA #Hubble #nebula #space #science #astronomy #universe #stars #cosmos #tarantula

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8 days ago

What a tangled web NGC 4696 weaves. The dark red filaments of gas and dust in this 2016 image appear to be connected to the galaxy's core, where a supermassive black hole likely lurks. These filaments will likely circle and eventually be consumed by the black hole. Located about 150 million light-years away, NGC 4696 is the largest of the Centaurus cluster of galaxies. Image description: Dark red filaments of gas and dust surround a glowing point of light. The black background of space is dotted with distant stars. Image credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble, A. Fabian #HubbleClassic #NASA #Hubble #space #science #astronomy #universe #cosmos #stars #galaxy

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9 days ago

Pretty in pink 🎀 The dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 takes the spotlight in this week's new #HubbleFriday image. Despite its relatively small size, it's forming stars at a much faster rate than expected – which classifies it as a starburst galaxy. Though most starburst galaxies churn out stars mainly in their centers, NGC 4449 is alight with brilliant young stars throughout, seen as the bright pink patches of star formation. NGC 4449 is located about 12.5 million light-years away, making it a (relatively!) nearby galaxy that gives Hubble an excellent opportunity to examine how NGC 4449's interactions with other galaxies might influence the formation of new stars. Discover more at the link in our bio! Image description: This Hubble image shows the galaxy NGC 4449. The field is dominated by dust that appears dark red, with scattered brighter regions of star formation as bright pink globules. The background shows countless blue stars peeking around the dusty regions. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, E. Sabbi, D. Calzetti, A. Aloisi #NASA #Hubble #Friday #galaxy #space #science #astronomy #universe #cosmos

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13 days ago

Speckled with young, blue stars, the spiral galaxy NGC 4100 stretches across this Hubble image. This view was captured with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, which was installed during an astronaut servicing mission in 2002, and is still going strong today. Image description: A spiral galaxy spreads across two images, with a glowing yellow core and arms interlaced with dark brown dust and blue patches of young stars. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Ho #NASA #Hubble #HubbleClassic #galaxy #space #science #astronomy #universe #cosmos #telescope

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16 days ago