Astrophysics Division

Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Galaxies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Spiral Galaxies
The Universe
The subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is the stunning spiral galaxy NGC 5530. This galaxy is situated 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus, the Wolf, and classified as a ‘flocculent’ spiral, meaning its spiral arms are patchy and indistinct.
Posted March 28, 2025
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Galaxies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Magellanic Clouds
The Universe
Say hello to one of the Milky Way’s neighbors! This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image 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 […]
Posted March 21, 2025
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Science-enabling Technology
Technology Highlights
Astrophysics observations at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths often probe the most dynamic aspects of the universe. However, the high energy of ultraviolet photons means that their interaction with the materials that make up an observing instrument are less efficient, resulting in low overall throughput.
Posted March 18, 2025
Scientific Balloons
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Goddard Space Flight Center
Wallops Flight Facility
NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has returned to Wānaka, New Zealand, for two scheduled flights to test and qualify the agency’s super pressure balloon technology.
Posted March 14, 2025
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Elliptical Galaxies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Interacting Galaxies
Spiral Galaxies
The Universe
Arp 105 is a dazzling ongoing merger between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy drawn together by gravity, characterized by a long, drawn out tidal tail of stars and gas more than 362,000 light-years long. The immense tail, which extends beyond this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, was pulled from the two galaxies […]
Posted March 8, 2025
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Emission Nebulae
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Nebulae
Star-forming Nebulae
The Universe
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, […]
Posted March 8, 2025
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Magellanic Clouds
Star Clusters
Stars
The Universe
An open cluster of stars shines through misty, cocoon-like gas clouds in this Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 460. NGC 460 is located in a region of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. This particular region contains a number of young star clusters and nebulae of different sizes […]
Posted March 8, 2025
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Galaxies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Spiral Galaxies
The Universe
Sweeping spiral arms extend from NGC 4536, littered with bright blue clusters of star formation and red clumps of hydrogen gas shining among dark lanes of dust. The galaxy’s shape may seem a little unusual, and that’s because it’s what’s known as an “intermediate galaxy”: not quite a barred spiral, but not exactly an unbarred […]
Posted March 8, 2025
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Galaxies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Spiral Galaxies
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a vibrant spiral galaxy called NGC 5042 resides about 48 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra (the water snake).
Posted March 7, 2025
Astrophysics Division
Citizen Science
A “classification” is when a volunteer or citizen scientist finishes marking up or sorting one image or other piece of data. Each classification done by volunteers for the Redshift Wrangler project tells us something about the distance and age of a far-away galaxy, bringing us one step closer to understanding how galaxies evolve.
Posted March 6, 2025
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