Across The Universe, Cont. -- "Starry Chandelier"

 

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From NASA/ ESA, June 26, 2026: The subject of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month is an ancient inhabitant of our galaxy. This sparkling scene is of a globular cluster: a collection of tens of thousands to millions of stars, all tightly bound together under the influence of gravity. Astronomers know of more than 150 globular clusters in our galaxy, though there may be others yet to be discovered, hidden from view by dust or densely packed fields of stars.

This particular globular cluster is NGC 6723, sometimes called the Chandelier Cluster. Much like its namesake, this cluster sparkles with countless lights — but each ‘lightbulb’ in this chandelier is an individual star 27 000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius (the Archer).

Globular clusters like NGC 6723 contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy. The ages of these clusters often exceed 10 billion years old, and some are nearly as old as the Universe itself. Globular clusters are thought to be some of the first structures to have formed in our galaxy, coalescing potentially billions of years before the thin disk of stars in which our Sun orbits. The details of how globular clusters formed, however, are not yet certain.

Astronomers initially thought that all stars in a globular cluster formed at the same time in a single flourish of star formation. This would mean that all stars in a globular cluster would be the same age and be made of the same mixture of chemical elements. Now, thanks to observations from telescopes like Hubble, researchers know that these seemingly simple stellar populations have more complex histories than originally thought.

Hubble first observed NGC 6723 as part of an ambitious survey dedicated to demystifying the properties of globular clusters in our Milky Way galaxy. In this observing programme (#10775, PI: Sarajedini), researchers used Hubble to study 65 globular clusters in our galaxy in visible and near-infrared light. These data allowed researchers to study everything from the ages of globular clusters to the process through which massive stars sink to the centre of a star cluster and lower-mass stars drift toward the cluster outskirts. This survey has been immensely scientifically valuable, and these observations have inspired several hundred published research papers.

In a later observing programme (#13297, PI: Piotto), researchers set their sights again on many of these same clusters, including NGC 6723. This time, they used Hubble’s unique sensitivity to ultraviolet light to detect the subtle variations in chemical composition between the stars of globular clusters and determine the age spread among the clusters’ stars. For NGC 6723, researchers found evidence of two closely-spaced periods of star formation, the second occurring within 634 million years of the first. (‘Closely-spaced’ is relative; 634 million years is a blink of an eye for a star cluster that is more than 10 billion years old!)

Thanks to these findings, astronomers are on the path to understanding how and when globular clusters formed — and Hubble observations of celestial chandeliers like NGC 6723 are lighting the way.

[Image Description: A globular cluster. It is made up of many thousands of bright stars, tightly-packed in the centre and more spread out at the corners, but filling the entire view. The stars are coloured either orange or bright blue, with the blue stars mainly concentrated in the centre. Orange stars are located mainly around the edge, and also vary in size from small dots to glowing stars with four points, based on their position in the foreground or background of the cluster.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto

 

Across The Universe, Cont.

 

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From NASA/ ESA, June 16, 2026: Terzan 5 is a stellar system orbiting within the Milky Way galaxy’s bulge, which is an incredibly bright, crowded central region of the galaxy. Not only are stars within the bulge tightly packed together — every bit of this region is laced with thick clouds of gas and dust.

The James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to study Terzan 5. Astronomers already knew that this star cluster was unusual in that it contained two stellar populations of very different ages. New research found strong evidence for two more stellar populations, one that formed 3.8 billion years ago and another only 2.5 billion years ago. The research team also was able to determine the ages of the previously known stellar populations with unprecedented precision, finding that they formed 12.5 billion and 4.7 billion years ago.

This finding proved that Terzan 5 is not a globular star cluster, as originally classified. Instead, Terzan 5 belongs to a new category, known as a bulge fossil fragment — a self-contained, self-enriching stellar system with multiple star populations of different ages and with different iron abundances.

Terzan 5 is 22,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. It contains about 2 million times the Sun's mass packed into a stellar system only a few tens of light-years across, making it one of the most massive and densely populated globular-cluster-like systems in the Milky Way.

This image was created with Hubble data from proposal: 12933 (F. R. Ferraro) and Webb data from proposal: 5502 (F. R. Ferraro). 

[Image description: A dramatically crowded starfield that looks like a just-shaken snow globe. The black background of space, which is clearer at the edges, is covered by thousands of tiny white, orange, and blue points of light, which are stars. The stars are most concentrated in the centre, forming a roughly circular orb, and sparser at the edges of the image. Several larger orange stars, particularly those largest near the edges of the frame, have prominent diffraction spikes.]

Credit:  NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, G. Zullo (University of Bologna), F. R. Ferraro (University of Bologna). Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

 

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Active Spiral Galaxy

 

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From NASA/ ESA, May 29, 2026: The focus of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month is an active spiral galaxy on a journey lasting hundreds of millions of years. The galaxy Messier 88 (M88), which is also known as NGC 4501, is located about 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). 

M88 is an active galaxy, which means that its centre harbours a supermassive black hole that is snacking on gas and dust. This black hole is estimated to be around 100 million times as massive as the Sun, and it appears to be powering outflows of gas from the galaxy’s centre.

Around this black hole is a population of old, reddish stars that give M88 its warmly glowing heart. Spreading out from the centre are several tightly wound, symmetrical spiral arms, each outlined by sparkling pink and blue star clusters and knotted clouds of dust. We see M88 from an angle so that it appears elongated, and its spiral arms delicately fan out before it.

M88 is a member of the Virgo Cluster, a collection of more than a thousand galaxies held together by gravity — and therefore linked by fate. As this massive group of galaxies moves through space, the galaxies themselves are in constant motion as they orbit the cluster’s centre of gravity. M88 itself is on a long and somewhat perilous cosmic journey that will bring it to the innermost reaches of the cluster.

As is the case with any epic journey, M88 will be fundamentally changed by its trek to the centre of the Virgo Cluster, about 2 million light-years from where it is today. In 200–300 million years, M88 will make its closest approach to Messier 87, the massive elliptical galaxy that anchors the entire cluster. As it draws close to this gravitational behemoth, M88 will experience intense ram pressure stripping. Ram pressure stripping is a process through which a galaxy’s gas is swept away as it pushes through the ever-present gas between the galaxies in a cluster.

Researchers have already seen this process at work in M88. The galaxy’s swirling disc of gas is truncated, and it appears to have been compressed on the leading edge of the galaxy, piling up like snow before a plough. In fact, M88 appears to have considerably less cold gas — the raw fuel for star formation — than expected for a galaxy of its size, especially in its outer regions. This is a clear sign that M88 will be altered by its journey, which will affect its ability to form stars and alter the course of its evolution.

Astronomers observed M88 with Hubble as part of an observing programme (#18103; PI: D. Thilker) dedicated to understanding the lives of spiral galaxies in crowded environments. This programme uses Hubble’s highly capable Wide Field Camera 3, which can finely resolve individual star clusters and nebulae in galaxies tens of millions of light-years away. By studying galaxies on these scales, astronomers can understand how a journey through a cluster impacts galaxies’ evolution and ability to form new stars.

[Image Description: A large spiral galaxy. It is seen tilted at an angle, so that it is foreshortened and appears very wide. Its tightly-wound, blue spiral arms swirl out from its glowing centre, spreading apart at the tips. They are followed by strands and clumps of dark red dust, and spotted with pink dots where stars are forming in clouds of gas. The galaxy is surrounded by a slight glow and lies on a dark background.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker and the MAUVE-HST Team

 

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Trifid Nebula

 

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From NASA/ ESA, April 20, 2026:  The colours in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope tell a story about density in the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region about 5000 light-years from Earth. The top left, where it is bright blue, has the smallest amount of dust. Here, powerful ultraviolet light stripped electrons from nearby gas, creating a glow, with winds creating a bubble by clearing out surrounding dust.

An example of active cloud destruction is toward the top of the head-shaped area with two “horns.” Bright yellow gas streams upward where gas and dust are being destroyed.

Thicker dust appears dark brown, like mud. In the far-right corner, which is nearly pitch black, the dust is the densest.

Fully formed stars (bright orange orbs) are scattered across the scene. Their light and stellar winds have also cleared the immediate areas around them.

Over millions of years, the gas and dust that make up this nebula (also known as Messier 20 or M20) will disappear and only stars will remain.

[Image description: A tightly cropped Hubble view of a vast star-forming region known as the Trifid Nebula. The top left is bright blue. Brown and amber colours run from top right through the center in irregular, overlapping lines to the bottom-center. At bottom right, the view is almost black. Tiny, amber-coloured stars appear throughout the scene. Toward the left there is a prominent brown shape that looks like a head with two horns. The left horn points left and is wavy. The right horn is triangular and points up. The brown dust continues, flowing down, as if along a back, and up toward the top right. A prominent line, about the same length as the left horn, appears below the middle of the body, and changes from orange to red. A small, separate semi-transparent pillar is left of the head. A few slightly larger, blue foreground stars with four diffraction spikes appear in the bottom half.]

Credit:  NASA, ESA, STScI. Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

 

Across The Universe, Cont.

 

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From NASA/ ESA, April 30, 2026: In this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, a spiral galaxy glittering with star clusters is the centre of attention. NGC 3137 is located 53 million light-years away in the constellation Antlia (The Air Pump). As a nearby spiral galaxy, this target offers astronomers an excellent opportunity to study the cycle of stellar birth and death, as well as giving researchers a glimpse of a galactic system similar to our own.

NGC 3137 is of particular interest to astronomers because it travels through space with a group of galaxies that is thought to be similar to the Local Group, the galaxy group that contains the Milky Way. Similar to the Local Group, the NGC 3175 group contains two large spiral galaxies: NGC 3137 and NGC 3175, which Hubble has also observed. In the Local Group, the largest members are the Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda, another spiral galaxy. In addition to two large spiral galaxies, both groups also contain a number of smaller dwarf galaxies, although it’s not yet known how many of these tiny companions the NGC 3175 group has; researchers have found more than 500 dwarf galaxy candidates. By studying this nearby galaxy group, astronomers can learn about the dynamics of our own galactic home.

NGC 3137 is revealed in fantastic detail by Hubble. This image is crafted from observations in six different colour bands, creating a view that highlights several facets of this beautiful spiral. The galaxy’s centre, which is encircled by a network of fine, dusty clouds, hosts a black hole estimated to be 60 million times more massive than the Sun. NGC 3137 is highly inclined from our point of view, giving a unique perspective on its loose, feathery spiral structure. A couple of photobombing Milky Way stars and a smattering of far more distant background galaxies complete the image.

As stunning as each of these features may be, it’s the galaxy’s brilliant star clusters that steal the show. The galaxy is peppered with dense clusters of bright blue stars and glowing red gas clouds, which signal the presence of hot, young stars still encased in their birth nebulae.

Unsurprisingly, these star clusters are exactly what has drawn Hubble’s keen eye. Researchers are using Hubble to carry out an observing programme (#17502; PI: D. Thilker) focusing on star clusters in 55 nearby galaxies. The data collected will help astronomers identify star clusters and the glowing nebulae that surround them, providing a way to measure the ages of stars in galaxies like NGC 3137. These observations give an in-depth view of stellar life in spiral galaxies, from the young stars still in the process of forming to the ancient stellar populations that grew up in the early years of their galactic hosts.

The PHANGS-HST programme for which these observations were taken is part of a larger effort by some of the most powerful observatories on (and around) Earth. Hubble contributes greatly to this massive undertaking, which combines data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA). Together, Hubble’s powerful optical and ultraviolet capabilities, Webb’s sensitive infrared eyes, and ALMA’s broad network of radio dishes bring us an unmatched view of star formation in the local Universe.

[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen close up and tilted at an angle, so that its disc fills the view from corner to corner. Its disc is yellow near to the centre and pale blue farther out, showing cooler and hotter stars, respectively. Thin brown clouds of dust, glowing pink spots of star formation, and sparkling blue patches filled with star clusters swirl through the galaxy. Behind it, small orange dots are very distant galaxies.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker and the PHANGS-HST Team

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Barred Spiral Galaxy

 

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From NASA/ ESA, March 27, 2026:

IC 486 lies in the constellation Gemini (the Twins), around 380 million light-years from Earth. Classified as a barred spiral galaxy, it features a bright central bar-shaped structure from which its spiral arms unfurl, wrapping around the core in a smooth, almost ring-like pattern.

This wide-field view also features a vibrant scene of distant background galaxies and foreground stars. Some stars appear with characteristic diffraction spikes. However, much of the field is dominated by the more diffuse, orange-red smudges of far more distant galaxies.

[Image Description: The face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486 dominates the right side of this image. The wide-field view is dominated against a black background of space by many distant galaxies that appear as orange-red dots throughout the scene. A few foreground stars are also visible.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Black Eye Galaxy

 

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From NASA/ ESA, March 20, 2026: Easily identified by the spectacular band of dark dust that partially obscures its bright core, Messier 64, or the Black Eye Galaxy, is characterized by its bizarre internal motion. The gas in the outer regions of this spiral galaxy is rotating in the opposite direction from the gas and stars in its inner regions. This strange behavior may be the result of a merger between M64 and a satellite galaxy over a billion years ago.

New stars are forming in the region where the oppositely rotating gases collide, are compressed, and then contract. Particularly noticeable in this stunning Hubble image of the galaxy’s core are recently formed hot, blue stars and pink clouds of glowing hydrogen gas that fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light from the newly-formed stars.

This image is a composite view from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. It shows Messier 64 captured at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths by Webb, while Hubble’s image shows the galaxy in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. These observations were taken to learn more about star formation in nearby galaxies.

Image description: Hubble and Webb image of M64. A massive spiral galaxy glows with a yellow core, surrounded by arms full of orange-brown dust and pink and blue patches of star formation. Framed by a haze of dark dust, the galaxy shines against black space dotted with a few stars.

Credit: NASA, CSA, ESA, F. Belfiore (European Southern Observatory – Germany), J. Lee (Space Telescope Science Institute), A. Leroy (The Ohio State University), and D. Thilker (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

 

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Glittering Stellar Nursery

 

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From NASA/ ESA, March 8, 2026: A tiny fraction of the stellar nursery known as Sh2-284 is visible in this glittering, star-filled NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. This immense region of gas and dust is the birthing place of stars, which shine among the clouds. Bright clusters of newborn stars glow pink in infrared light, and clouds of gas and dust, resembling puffy cumulus clouds, are dotted with dark knots of denser dust.

This image shows an infrared view from Hubble, giving an excellent view of the stars that might otherwise be obscured by Sh2-284’s clouds. Unlike visible light, infrared wavelengths can travel through clouds of gas and dust, providing a glimpse of the stars forming within the obscuring clouds.

The nebula is shaped by a young central star cluster, Dolidze 25 (not visible in the Hubble image), whose stars range from 1.5 to 13 million years old (our Sun, in contrast, is 4.6 billion years old). The cluster blasts out ionizing winds and radiation, pushing at the gas and dust of the nebula and carving out intricate shapes and pillars, as seen in detail here. This ionizing radiation gives Sh2-284 its classification as an HII region, an emission nebula consisting primarily of ionized hydrogen. An emission nebula like Sh2-284 glows with its own light as stars within or nearby energize its gas with a flood of intense ultraviolet radiation.

Sh2-284 is also a low-metallicity region, which means it is poor in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. These conditions mimic the early universe, when matter was mostly helium and hydrogen and heavier elements were just beginning to form via nuclear fusion within massive stars. Hubble took these images as part of an effort to examine how low metallicity influences stellar formation and how this would apply to the early universe.

Sh2-284 resides 15,000 light-years away at the end of an outer spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy, in the constellation Monoceros.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Andersen (European Southern Observatory - Germany); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Cat's Eye Nebula

 

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From NASA/ESA, March 3, 2026: For this month’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, we turn our gaze to one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula lies roughly 4 400 light-years away in the constellation Draco, and has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure.

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.

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.

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, resulting in this broad view that situates the nebula against the deep space beyond.

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. Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with high-resolution visible-light images, adding extra detail in the centre of this image. The whole nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together in modern astronomical surveys.

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.

[Image Description: A planetary nebula in space. The star in the very centre is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. A multitude of golden and white stars, wisps of gas and distant galaxies of various sizes surround the nebula on the black background.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov

BONUS:  On this day in 1934, Edwin Hubble was responsible for a giant leap in our understanding of the Universe (see "Sunday Reflection").

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Egg Nebula

 

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From NASA/ ESA, February 10, 2026:  This newly processed image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the clearest view yet of the Egg Nebula. It is a preplanetary nebula, a structure of gas and dust created as a Sun-like star approaches the end of its life. The Egg that we see now will eventually hatch, revealing a white dwarf at its centre and leaving its shell to become a spectacular planetary nebula.

Many preplanetary nebulae are relatively dim and hard to spot. They are made of layers of gas ejected by the star, but that star is not yet hot enough to ionise the gas and cause it to glow. The Egg Nebula is relatively unique, easily visible as a sparkling jewelled egg in space. Powerful beams of starlight blast out of the inner cloud, two a-side, giving a breathtaking illumination to this cosmic structure. Fast-moving outflows of hot molecular hydrogen also emerge from within the dust cloud, visible just at the base of the searchlight beams. These outflows glow with infrared light, which is shown in this image by orange highlights.

The central cloud of dust is surrounded by concentric rings, themselves made up from thin, faint arcs of gas. These were created by successive outbursts from the central star, which ejected a little more material from its outer surface every few hundred years. The beams of starlight are reflected by these layers of gas, creating an appearance like ripples on the surface of water. The way that gas molecules reflect and scatter light gives a bluish colour to the arcs. The reflected starlight reveals important details about the central star, which is impossible to view directly in its dusty shell.

[Image description: In the centre an opaque cloud of grey gas hides a star. Two strong beams of light from the star emerge from large holes in both sides of the cloud. The central cloud is surrounded by concentric, wispy shells of gas, illuminated by the star’s light. The shells reflect extra light where they’re hit by the twin beams. A crowd of smaller stars with cross-shaped spikes over them surround the nebula on a black background.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Balick (University of Washington)

 

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Lenticular Galaxy

 

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From NASA/ ESA, January 30, 2026: For this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, we have a sight of an uncommon galaxy with a striking appearance. This is NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.

A “lenticular”, meaning “lens-shaped”, galaxy is a type that sits in between the more familiar spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. It is also less common than these — partly because when a galaxy has an ambiguous appearance, it can be hard to determine if it is actually a spiral, actually an elliptical galaxy, or something in between. Many of the known lenticular galaxies sport features of both spiral and elliptical galaxies. In this case, NGC 7722 lacks the defined arms of a spiral galaxy, while it has an extended, glowing halo and a bright bulge in the centre similar to an elliptical galaxy. Unlike elliptical galaxies, it has a visible disc — concentric rings swirl around its bright nucleus. Its most prominent feature, however, is undoubtedly the long lanes of dark red dust coiling around the outer disc and halo.

This new Hubble image, the sharpest yet taken of NGC 7722, brings the impressive dust lanes into sharp focus. Bands of dust like this are not uncommon in lenticular galaxies, and they stand out against the broad, smooth halo of light that typically surrounds lenticular galaxies. The distinctive dust lanes of NGC 7722 are thought to result from a merger with another galaxy in the past, similar to other lenticular galaxies. It is not yet fully understood how lenticular galaxies form, but mergers and other gravitational interactions are thought to play an important part, reshaping galaxies and exhausting their supplies of gas while bringing new dust.

While it doesn’t host as many new, young stars as a spiral galaxy, there’s still activity in NGC 7722: in 2020 it was host to the explosion of a star that could be detected from Earth. SN 2020SSF was a Type Ia supernova, an event which occurs when a white dwarf star in a binary system siphons enough mass away from its companion star that it grows unstable and explodes. These explosions output a remarkably consistent level of light: by measuring how bright they appear from Earth and comparing against how bright they really are, it’s possible to tell how far away they must be. Type Ia supernovae are one of the best ways to measure distances to galaxies, so understanding exactly how they work is of great importance to astronomers.

Taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, this Hubble image was obtained as part of an observing programme (#16691, PI: R. J. Foley) that followed up on recent supernovae. SN 2020SSF is not visible in this image, as it was actually taken two years later, when the supernova had long faded. This was on purpose: the aim of the observations was to witness the aftereffects of the supernova and examine its surroundings, which can only be done once the intense light of the explosion is gone. With Hubble’s clear vision, astronomers can search for radioactive material created by the supernova, catalogue its neighbours to see how old the star likely was, and look for the companion star it left behind — all from almost 200 million light-years away.

[Image Description: A disc-shaped galaxy. It glows brightly at the centre and shines a faint white light all around it. The disc is made up of tightly-packed rings of dust, some darker and some lighter. Wide, long lanes of dark reddish dust cross the galaxy in front of its edge, blocking out some of its light; the long strands twist and break apart at each side. A couple of nearby stars and distant galaxies are also visible on the black background.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Acknowledgement: Mehmet Yüksek

 

Across The Universe, Cont. -- A Vista Of Stellar Birth

 

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After a several week hiatus, we need to feast our eyes on the jewels of the Universe again, courtesy of NASA/ ESA.

From NASA/ ESA, December 29, 2025:  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.

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.

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.

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.

[Image description: A field filled with stars and covered by clouds of gas and dust. In the centre, a thick column of dark black dust blocks light from stars that light it up from behind. More clouds behind those stars are illuminated in pale colours. Complex, layered filaments of red dust lie to the left and right. Blue, white and gold stars in various sizes can be seen around, within and through the colourful layers of dust.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Indebetouw

 

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Vista Of Stellar Birth

 

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From NASA/ ESA, December 29, 2025:  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.

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.

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.

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.

[Image description: A field filled with stars and covered by clouds of gas and dust. In the centre, a thick column of dark black dust blocks light from stars that light it up from behind. More clouds behind those stars are illuminated in pale colours. Complex, layered filaments of red dust lie to the left and right. Blue, white and gold stars in various sizes can be seen around, within and through the colourful layers of dust.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Indebetouw

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Circumstellar Disc

 

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From NASA/ESA, December 23, 2025: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the largest planet-forming disc ever observed around a young star. It spans nearly 640 billion kilometers, roughly 40 times the diameter of our Solar System. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen from Earth, the dark, dusty disk resembles a hamburger. Hubble reveals it to be unusually chaotic, with bright wisps of material extending far above and below the disk—more than seen in any similar circumstellar disk. Cataloged as IRAS 23077+6707, the system is located approximately 1,000 light-years from Earth. The discovery marks a new milestone for Hubble and offers fresh insight into planet formation in extreme environments across the galaxy.

[Image description: Near the center is an object that resembles an edge-on view of a hamburger. There is a diagonal dark strip (the meat patty) of dust, running from 1 o’clock to 7 o’clock, that obscures a central star. Curving away from either side of the dark strip are glowing white clouds (the buns) where dust is reflecting starlight. Bright blue finger-like wisps of material extend far above and below the dark center plane. A few dozen stars, some with four diffraction spikes, are scattered on the black background of space.]

Credit:  NASA, ESA, STScI, K. Monsch (CfA). Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI).

Across The Universe, Cont.

 

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From NASA/ESA, December 8, 2025: 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).

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.

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.

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.

[Image Description: A pale blue dwarf galaxy seen on the black backdrop of space with some faraway galaxies. The galaxy itself resembles a fuzzy cloud of tightly-packed stars, with a broad halo of stars dispersed around it. Several small, glowing patches of gas are spread across the galaxy’s core, where very hot stars are concentrated.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Annibali, S. Hong

 

Across The Universe, Cont. -- A Storm Of New Stars

 

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From NASA/ ESA, December 1, 2025: 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.

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.

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.

[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, seen partly from the side, with a messy, turbulent appearance. Its disc is made of multiple patchy arms that contain numerous sparkling blue and glowing red regions — star clusters and star-forming nebulae. Thick clumps of dark reddish dust swirl through the disc. The glow of the disc extends out into the dark background, where both distant and nearby stars can be seen.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Blowing Bubbles

 

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From NASA/ESA, November 24, 2025: 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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

[Image Description: A field filled with stars and covered by clouds of gas and dust. The centre and left side are totally blanketed with billowing, bright red clouds. They are opaque some places — showing clusters of stars forming within — and transparent others. Small patches are dark black in colour, while a large cloud below the centre is mostly pale blue. The right side of the view, mostly gas-free, glitters with stars near and far.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Indebetouw

Across The Universe, Cont. -- The Lost Galaxy

 

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From NASA/ ESA, November 17, 2025:  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.

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. 

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.

[Image Description: A close-in view of a spiral galaxy that faces the viewer. Brightly lit spiral arms swing outwards through the galaxy’s disc, starting from an elliptical region in the centre. Thick strands of dark reddish dust are spread across the disc, mostly following the spiral arms. The arms also contain many glowing pink-red spots where stars form. The galaxy is a bit fainter beyond the arms, but speckled with blue stars.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team

 

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Disruptive Neighbor

 

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From NASA/ESA, November 10, 2025:  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.

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!

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.

[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, tilted away so that it is seen mostly from the edge. The disc of the galaxy glows blue from its centre, due to younger stars in the spiral arms. There are large and small patches of gas, glowing in red and pink colours, where new stars are forming. Webs of dark dust are spread over the disc. The glow of the disc fades into a dark background, with a couple of stars.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker

 

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Red Spider Nebula

 

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From NASA/ ESA, October 28, 2025: The subject of this month’s ESA/Webb Picture of the Month is NGC 6537, a planetary nebula commonly called the Red Spider Nebula.

The nebula got its name from its reddish colour and distinctive shape, which resembles the narrow body of a spider with four outstretched ‘legs’. This image gives the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s view of the nebula, using observations made in 1997.

Along each of the Red Spider’s ‘legs’ are billowing clouds of gas, which are captured in great detail by Hubble. Each of the wave-like features is estimated to be 100 billion kilometres high, providing evidence for a clash between the gas that surrounds the nebula and its fierce outflowing winds, which scream into space at thousands of kilometres per second.

These winds are powered by the central star of the nebula, which is seen faintly in optical images like this one. The central star was once an ordinary star, but it has evolved into a bare, searingly hot stellar core that has cast off its outer layers to form the nebula.

[Image Description: A planetary nebula. The central star sits within brightly lit pink dust, and thick, darker orange dust clouds surround that. An arm of dust reaches away from the central nebula at the top and bottom of both sides, creating the shape of a four-legged spider. Some dimly-lit dust clouds are visible outside of these arms. Stars appear as white dots scattered on the black background.]

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands)