Hubble’s latest image shows NGC 4654, which sits 72 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo, inside one of the densest collections of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster. An intermediate spiral, it carries only a weak bar near its center, placing its shape somewhere between galaxies with strong central bars and those that lack them entirely. A rounded, clearly defined edge marks one side of the disk, packed with stars and gas, while the opposite side fades into a long gaseous tail that stretches beyond the edge of the frame.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Radar signals from the joint US-India NISAR satellite have mapped a mountaintop in East Antarctica that forms a clear hummingbird shape once the data is processed into color. Scientists at the mission nicknamed the result “the hummingbird” almost as soon as the image appeared.

Sixteen million light-years away, in the constellation Canes Venatici, sits a spiral galaxy that refuses to look ordinary. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory recently delivered a composite view of Messier 94, also catalogued as NGC 4736, that layers high-energy X-rays over a ground-based optical photograph. The result shows a bright central region wrapped in a tight ring of intense star formation, with the whole structure set against a softer outer disk that stretches farther than early observers realized.

Astronomers released a fresh view of the southern sky this week that carries an unexpected artistic quality. Captured by the Dark Energy Camera mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile, the image highlights the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud and surrounding features in rich color and fine detail.

There has always been a lot of information that could be gathered from Beta Pictoris, which is the best place to learn about the formation of planets in our galaxy. It’s located just 63 light years away from us, and it was formed some 23 million years ago. There is a lot of debris material around this star, along with two heavy impacting planets.

Recent photos from NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope show magnificent crimson plasma and dazzling blue stars in all their glory. The image in question is from LH 95, a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way.

Photo credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
Eleven million light-years away, Centaurus A has served as a favorite target for telescopes for good reason. It sits close enough for serious study yet displays features that hint at a far more dramatic history than its current appearance first suggests. A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, released to mark four years of science operations, brings that history into much clearer view.

Photo credit: Sophie Adenot
French astronaut Sophie Adenot has shared images and video from one of the strongest aurora displays she has seen during her time aboard the International Space Station. The capture dates to day 127 of her εpsilon mission, logged as orbit 1968, and she called it the most spectacular one yet.

Right before crowds across the country prepare to mark the Fourth of July with displays of light and sound, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope offered a view from far beyond Earth that carries a similar sense of energy and new activity. Two protostars in the FS Tau system sit near the center of the frame. Both remain young enough that they still draw in gas and dust while pushing excess material outward through strong flows.