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Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form stars too. In fact, dwarf galaxy IC 2574 shows clear evidence of intense star forming activity in its telltale reddish regions of glowing hydrogen gas. Just as in spiral galaxies, the turbulent star-forming regions in IC 2574 are churned by stellar winds and supernova explosions spewing material into the galaxy's interstellar medium and triggering further star formation. A mere 12 million light-years distant, IC 2574 is part of the M81 group of galaxies, seen toward the northern constellation Ursa Major. Also known as Coddington's Nebula, the faint but intriguing island universe is about 50,000 light-years across, discovered by American astronomer Edwin Coddington in 1898. from NASA https://ift.tt/udcMthG

Cradled in red-glowing hydrogen gas, stars are being born in Orion. These stellar nurseries lie at the edge of the giant Orion molecular cloud complex , some 1,500 light-years away. This detailed view spans about 12 degrees across the center of the well-known constellation, with the Great Orion Nebula , the closest large star -forming region, visible toward the lower right. The deep mosaic also includes, near the top center, the Flame Nebula and the Horsehead Nebula . Image data acquired with a hydrogen-alpha filter adds other remarkable features to this wide-angle cosmic vista: pervasive tendrils of energized atomic hydrogen gas and portions of the surrounding Barnard's Loop . While the Orion Nebula and many stars in Orion are easy to see with the unaided eye, emission from the extensive interstellar gas is faint and much harder to record , even in telescopic views of the nebula-rich complex. from NASA https://ift.tt/PBA0YeI

Some comets are regular guests of our solar neighborhood; others come by only once, never to return. We won’t have another chance to see Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś ), which is currently making its way through the inner Solar System . The hyperbolic orbit of this comet indicates that it will likely become an interstellar traveler. Comet Wierzchoś is today near its closest approach to the Earth, passing roughly the same distance from the Earth as is the Sun . The featured 30-minute exposure was taken last week in Chile and shows a 5-degree long ion tail as well as three shorter dust tails . The green hue of the coma comes from the breakdown of dicarbon molecules by sunlight, but that process does not last long enough to also tinge the tails . On the far right lies a spiral galaxy far in the distance: NGC 300 . from NASA https://ift.tt/aXiwNK5

How is RXJ0528+2838 creating such shock waves? A recently discovered white dwarf star , the farther left of the two largest white spots, RXJ0528+2838 , was found 730 light-years away from Earth . Most stars, when done fusing nuclei in their cores for energy, become red giant stars, the cores of which live on as faint dense white dwarfs that slowly cool down for the rest of time. White dwarfs are so dense that the only thing that stops them from collapsing further is quantum mechanics . In about 5 billion years, our Sun will become a white dwarf , too. The featured image , obtained with the European Southern Observatory ’s Very Large Telescope , shows unexplained bow shocks around RXJ0528+2838, similar to the bow wave of water around a fast-moving ship. Astronomers don’t yet know what is powering these shocks , which have existed for at least 1,000 years. The red, green and blue colors represent trace amounts of glowing hydrogen , nitrogen and oxygen gas. from NASA https:/...

What would it be like to fly free in space? About 100 meters from the cargo bay of a space shuttle , Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured , was floating free in space. During Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984, McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "un tether ed space walk ". The MMU worked by shooting jets of nitrogen and was used to help deploy and retrieve satellites . With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth , but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was later replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit. from NASA https://ift.tt/VwlHUOY

Roses are red, nebulas are too, and this Valentine's gift is a stunning view! Pictured is a loving look at the Rosette Nebula ( NGC 2237 ): a cosmic bloom of bright young stars sitting atop a stem of glowing hot gas. The rose’s blue-white speckles are among the most luminous stars in the galaxy , with some burning millions of times brighter than the Sun. Their stellar winds sculpt the famed rose shape by pushing gas and dust away from the center. Though only a few million years old, these massive stars are already nearing the end of their lives , while dimmer stars embedded in the nebula will burn for billions of years to come. The vibrant red hue comes from hydrogen gas , ionized by the ultraviolet light from the young stars . The rose’s blue-white center is color-mapped to indicate the presence of similarly ionized oxygen. The Rosette Nebula reminds us of the beauty and transformation woven into the fabric of the universe. from NASA https://ift.tt/Uo6k2uy

Dwarf galaxies NGC 147 (left) and NGC 185 stand side by side in this deep telescopic portrait. The two are not-often-imaged satellite galaxies of M31, the great spiral Andromeda Galaxy , some 2.5 million light-years away. Their separation on the sky, less than one degree across a pretty field of view toward the constellation Cassiopeia, translates to only about 35 thousand light-years at Andromeda's distance, but Andromeda itself is found well outside this frame. Brighter and more famous satellite galaxies of Andromeda, M32 and M110 , are seen much closer to the great spiral. NGC 147 and NGC 185 have been identified as binary galaxies, forming a gravitationally stable binary system. But recently discovered faint dwarf galaxy Cassiopeia II also seems to be part of their system, forming a gravitationally bound group within Andromeda's intriguing population of small satellite galaxies . from NASA https://ift.tt/HqDghxO

Dark, smooth regions that cover the Moon's familiar face are called by Latin names for oceans and seas. That naming convention is historical , though it may seem a little ironic to denizens of the space age who recognize the Moon as a mostly dry and airless world, and the smooth, dark areas as lava-flooded impact basins. For example, this telescopic lunar vista, looks over the expanse of the northwestern Mare Imbrium, or Sea of Rains and into the Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows . Ringed by the Jura Mountains (montes) , the bay is about 250 kilometers across. Seen after local sunrise, the mountains form part of the Sinus Iridum impact crater wall. Their rugged sunlit arc is bounded at the top by Cape (promontorium) Laplace reaching nearly 3,000 meters above the bay's surface. At the bottom of the arc is Cape Heraclides, depicted by Giovanni Cassini in his 1679 telescope-based drawings mapping the moon as a moon maiden seen in profile with long, flowing hair . from NAS...

How many sunspots can you see? The central image shows the many sunspots that occurred in 2025, month by month around the circle, and all together in the grand central image. Each sunspot is magnetically cooled and so appears dark -- and can last from days to months. Although the featured images originated from NASA 's Solar Dynamics Observatory , sunspots can be easily seen with a small telescope or binoculars equipped with a solar filter . Very large sunspot groups like recent AR 4366 can even be seen with eclipse glasses . Sunspots are still counted by eye , but the total number is not considered exact because they frequently change and break up . Last year, 2025, coincided with a solar maximum , the period of most intense magnetic activity during its 11-year solar cycle . Our Sun remains unpredictable in many ways, including when it ejects solar flare s that will impact the Earth , and how active the next solar cycle will be. from NASA https://ift.tt/NUJc0gV

Raise your arms if you see an aurora. With those instructions, two nights went by with, well, clouds -- mostly. On the third night of returning to same peaks, though, the sky not only cleared up but lit up with a spectacular auroral display . Arms went high in the air, patience and experience paid off , and the creative featured image was captured as a composite from three separate exposures. The setting is a summit of the Austnesfjorden (a fjord ) close to the town of Svolvear on the Lofoten islands in northern Norway . The year was 2014. This year, our Sun is just passing solar maximum , the peak in its 11-year surface activity cycle . As expected, some spectacular auroras have recently resulted . from NASA https://ift.tt/oLfR8cW

What is Miranda really like? Visually, old image s from NASA's Voyager 2 have been recently combined and remastered to result in the featured image of Uranus 's 500-kilometer-wide moon. In the late 1980s, Voyager 2 flew by Uranus , coming close to the cratered, fractured, and unusually grooved moon -- named after a character from Shakespeare ’s The Tempest . Scientifically, planetary scientists are using old data and clear images to theorize anew about what shaped Miranda's severe surface features. A leading hypothesis is that Miranda , beneath its icy surface, may have once hosted an expansive liquid water ocean which may be slowly freezing. Thanks to the legacy of Voyager 2, Miranda has joined the ranks of Europa , Titan , and other icy moons in the search for water, and, possibly, microbial life , in our Solar System . from NASA https://ift.tt/2QYXUMz

An unusually active sunspot region is now crossing the Sun. The region, labelled AR 4366 , is much larger than the Earth and has produced several powerful solar flare s over the past ten days. In the featured image, the region is marked by large and dark sunspots toward the upper right of the Sun's disk. The image captured the Sun over a hill in Zacatecas , Mexico , 5 days ago. AR 4366 has become a candidate for the most active solar region in this entire 11-year solar cycle . Active solar regions are frequently associated with increased auroral activity on the Earth . Now reaching the edge, AR 4366 will begin facing away from the Earth during the coming week. It is not known , though, if the active region will survive long enough to reappear in about two weeks' time, as the Sun rotates . from NASA https://ift.tt/cipr0KB

Peering from the shadows, the Saturn-facing hemisphere of tantalizing inner moon Enceladus poses in this Cassini spacecraft image. North is up in the dramatic scene captured during November 2016 as Cassini's camera was pointed in a nearly sunward direction about 130,000 kilometers from the moon's bright crescent. In fact, the distant world reflects over 90 percent of the sunlight it receives, giving its surface about the same reflectivity as fresh snow . A mere 500 kilometers in diameter, Enceladus is a surprisingly active moon. Data and images collected during Cassini's flybys have revealed water vapor and ice grains spewing from south polar geysers and evidence of an ocean of liquid water hidden beneath the moon's icy crust. from NASA https://ift.tt/bRvlciT

Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After only a few million years for the most massive stars, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space where star formation can begin anew. The expanding debris cloud known as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life cycle . Light from the supernova explosion that created this remnant would have been first seen in planet Earth's sky about 350 years ago, although it took that light 11,000 years to reach us. This sharp NIRCam image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the still-hot filaments and knots in the supernova remnant. The whitish, smoke-like outer shell of the expanding blast wave is about 20 light-years across. A series of light echoes from the massive star's cataclysmic explosion are also identified in Webb's detailed images of the surrounding ...

Active galaxy NGC 1275 is the central, dominant member of the large and relatively nearby Perseus Cluster of Galaxies . Wild-looking at visible wavelengths, the active galaxy is also a prodigious source of x-rays and radio emission. NGC 1275 accretes matter as entire galaxies fall into it, ultimately feeding a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's core. Narrowband image data used in this sharp telescopic image highlights the resulting galactic debris and filaments of glowing gas, some up to 20,000 light-years long. The filaments persist in NGC 1275, even though the turmoil of galactic collisions should destroy them. What keeps the filaments together? Observations indicate that the structures, pushed out from the galaxy's center by the black hole's activity, are held together by magnetic fields. Also known as Perseus A, NGC 1275 itself spans over 100,000 light years and lies about 230 million light years away. from NASA https://ift.tt/u3YPeCQ

Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy have three? To begin, a ring that's near NGC 1512 's center -- and so hard to see here -- is the nuclear ring which glows brightly with recently formed stars . Next out is a ring of stars and dust appearing both red and blue, called, counter-intuitively , the inner ring. This inner ring connects ends of a diffuse central bar of stars that runs horizontally across the galaxy. Farthest out in this wide field image is a ragged structure that might be considered an outer ring. This outer ring appears spiral-like and is dotted with clusters of bright blue stars. All these ring structures are thought to be affected by NGC 1512 's own gravitational asymmetries in a drawn-out process called secular evolution . The featured image was captured last month from a telescope at Deep Sky Chile in Chile . from NASA https://ift.tt/4JHkcGm

Oh what a tangled web a planetary nebula can weave. The Red Spider Planetary Nebula shows the complex structure that can result when a normal star ejects its outer gases and becomes a white dwarf star. Officially tagged NGC 6537 , this two-lobed symmetric planetary nebula houses one of the hottest white dwarfs ever observed, probably as part of a binary star system. Internal winds flowing out from the central stars, have been measured in excess of 1,000 kilometers per second. These winds expand the nebula, flow along the nebula's walls, and cause waves of hot gas and dust to collide. Atoms caught in these colliding shocks radiate light shown in the featured false-color infrared picture by the James Webb Space Telescope . The Red Spider Nebula lies toward the constellation of the Archer ( Sagittarius ). Its distance is not well known but has been estimated by some to be about 4,000 light-years . from NASA https://ift.tt/3ERPyIu

What part of Orion is this? Just north of the famous Orion Nebula is a picturesque star forming region in Orion's Sword that contains a lot of intricate dust -- some of which appears blue because it reflects the light of bright embedded stars . The region's popular name is the Running Man Nebula because, looked at from the right, part of the brown dust appears to be running legs. Cataloged as Sharpless 279 , the reflection nebula is not only part of the constellation of Orion , but part of the greater Orion molecular cloud complex . Light from the Running Man's bright stars, including 42 Orionis , the bright star closest to the featured image center, is slowly destroying and reshaping the surrounding dust, which will likely be completely gone in about 10 million years. The nebula spans about 15 light years and lies about 1,500 light years away. from NASA https://ift.tt/5rbxJAs

Mars has put on a happy face. The Martian crater Galle is famous because it has internal markings that make it look like a face that is both smiling and winking. These markings were originally discovered in the 1970s in pictures taken by the Viking Orbiter. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft that orbited Mars from 1996 to 2006 captured the featured picture . Happy Face Crater and its iconic features were formed by chance billions of years ago when a city-sized asteroid slammed into the Martian surface. All rocky planets and moons in our Solar System show impact craters , with the highest number of craters found on Earth's Moon and the planet Mercury . Earth and Venus would show the most, though, were it not for weather and erosion . from NASA https://ift.tt/jikvqz7

On flight day 13 (November 28, 2022) of the Artemis 1 mission, the Orion spacecraft reached its maximum distance from Earth. At over 430,000 kilometers from Earth, its distant retrograde orbit also puts Orion nearly 70,000 kilometers from the Moon. In the same field of view in this video frame from flight day 13, planet and large natural satellite even appear about the same apparent size from the spacecraft's perspective. On flight day 26 (December 11, 2022), the uncrewed spacecraft splashed down on its home world concluding the historic Artemis I mission. The Artemis II mission , carrying 4 astronauts around the moon and back again, will launch no earlier than February 8. from NASA https://ift.tt/iE4q8vj