Astrophysics Division

Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Mars
MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)
Missions
Planetary Science
Planets
Science Mission Directorate
The Solar System
Mars was once a very wet planet as is evident in its surface geological features. Scientists know that over the last 3 billion years, at least some water went deep underground, but what happened to the rest? Now, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) missions are helping unlock that mystery. […]
Posted September 5, 2024
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Nebulae
Stars
The Universe
A bubbling region of stars both old and new lies some 160,000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado. This complex cluster of emission nebulae is known as N11, and was discovered by American astronomer and NASA astronaut Karl Gordon Henize in 1956. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope brings a new image of the cluster in the […]
Posted August 19, 2024
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Galaxies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Missions
Science & Research
Science Mission Directorate
The Universe
The subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is situated in the Perseus Cluster, also known as Abell 426, 320 million light-years from Earth. It’s a barred spiral galaxy known as MCG+07-07-072, seen here among a number of photobombing stars that are much closer to Earth than it is. MCG+07-07-072 has quite an unusual shape for a […]
Posted August 16, 2024
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Missions
Science & Research
Science Mission Directorate
Supernovae
The Universe
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy LEDA 857074, located in the constellation Eridanus. LEDA 857074 is a barred spiral galaxy, with partially broken spiral arms. The image also captured a supernova, named SN 2022ADQZ, shining brightly on the right side of the galaxy’s bar.
Posted August 9, 2024
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Elliptical Galaxies
Galaxies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Missions
Science Mission Directorate
The Universe
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the subtle glow of the galaxy named IC 3430, located 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. This dwarf elliptical galaxy is part of the Virgo cluster, a rich collection of galaxies both large and small, many of which are very similar in type to this […]
Posted August 2, 2024
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Galaxies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Irregular Galaxies
Missions
The Universe
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238, located 14.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. Its unexciting, blob-like appearance seems to resemble an oversized star cluster more than a classic image of a galaxy.
Posted July 19, 2024
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Galaxies
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Missions
Spiral Galaxies
Stars
Supernovae
The Universe
Measuring the distance to truly remote objects like galaxies, quasars, and galaxy clusters is a crucial task in astrophysics, particularly when it comes to studying the early universe, but it’s a difficult one to complete. We can only measure the distances to a few nearby objects like the Sun, planets, and some nearby stars directly. […]
Posted July 12, 2024
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Dark Matter
Dark Matter & Dark Energy
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Missions
The Universe
The qualities and behavior of dark matter, the invisible “glue” of the universe, continue to be shrouded in mystery. Though galaxies are mostly made of dark matter, understanding how it is distributed within a galaxy offers clues to what this substance is, and how it’s relevant to a galaxy’s evolution. While computer simulations suggest dark […]
Posted July 11, 2024
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Black Holes
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Missions
Stars
The Universe
Most known black holes are either extremely massive, like the supermassive black holes that lie at the cores of large galaxies, or relatively lightweight, with a mass of under 100 times that of the Sun. Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are scarce, however, and are considered rare “missing links” in black hole evolution.
Posted July 10, 2024
COSI (Compton Spectrometer and Imager)
Astrophysics Division
Astrophysics Explorers Program
Science Mission Directorate
Space Operations Mission Directorate
NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the COSI (Compton Spectrometer and Imager) mission. The firm-fixed-price contract has a value of approximately $69 million, which includes launch services and other mission related costs.
Posted July 2, 2024
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