Press Releases
Showing 1 to 24 of 1338.
Astronomers Find Early Fast-Feeding Black Hole Using NASA Telescopes
2024.11.13
A rapidly feeding black hole at the center of a dwarf galaxy in the early universe, shown in this artist’s concept, may hold important clues to the evolution of supermassive black holes in general. Using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of astronomers discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole […]
Hubble Captures a Galaxy with Many Lights
2024.11.08
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features NGC 1672, a barred spiral galaxy located 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. This galaxy is a multi-talented light show, showing off an impressive array of different celestial lights. Like any spiral galaxy, shining stars fill its disk, giving the galaxy a beautiful glow. Along […]
NASA’s Hubble, Webb Probe Surprisingly Smooth Disk Around Vega
2024.11.01
In the 1997 movie “Contact,” adapted from Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm of debris encircling the star — but no obvious planets are visible. It looks like the filmmakers got it […]
‘Blood-Soaked’ Eyes: NASA’s Webb, Hubble Examine Galaxy Pair
2024.10.31
Stare deeply at these galaxies. They appear as if blood is pumping through the top of a flesh-free face. The long, ghastly “stare” of their searing eye-like cores shines out into the supreme cosmic darkness. It’s good fortune that looks can be deceiving. These galaxies have only grazed one another to date, with the smaller […]
NASA Successfully Integrates Coronagraph for Roman Space Telescope
2024.10.28
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully completed integration of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a piece of infrastructure that will hold the mission’s instruments, which will be integrated onto the larger spacecraft at a later date. The Roman Coronagraph is a technology demonstration that scientists will use to take […]
Hubble Sees a Celestial Cannonball
2024.10.25
The spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is IC 3225. It looks remarkably as if it was launched from a cannon, speeding through space like a comet with a tail of gas streaming from its disk behind it. The scenes that galaxies appear in from Earth’s point of view are fascinating; many […]
Hubble Captures a New View of Galaxy M90
2024.10.18
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the striking spiral galaxy Messier 90 (M90, also NGC 4569), located in the constellation Virgo. In 2019, Hubble released an image of M90 created with Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) data taken in 1994, soon after its installation. That WFPC2 image has a distinctive stair-step pattern […]
NASA’s Hubble Sees a Stellar Volcano
2024.10.16
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided a dramatic and colorful close-up look at one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy, weaving a huge spiral pattern among the stars. Located approximately 700 light-years away, a binary star system called R Aquarii undergoes violent eruptions that blast out huge filaments of glowing gas. The twisted […]
Hubble Spots a Grand Spiral of Starbursts
2024.10.11
The sparkling scene depicted in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is of the spiral galaxy NGC 5248, located 42 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Boötes. It is also known as Caldwell 45. The Caldwell catalog holds visually interesting celestial objects that are not as commonly observed by amateur astronomers as the more […]
NASA’s Hubble Watches Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Behave Like a Stress Ball
2024.10.09
Astronomers have observed Jupiter's legendary Great Red Spot (GRS), an anticyclone large enough to swallow Earth, for at least 150 years. But there are always new surprises – especially when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope takes a close-up look at it.
NASA’s Hubble, New Horizons Team Up for a Simultaneous Look at Uranus
2024.10.09
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very different viewpoints. The results inform future plans to study like types of planets around other stars. Astronomers used Uranus as a proxy for similar planets beyond our […]
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope’s ‘Exoskeleton’ Whirls Through Major Test
2024.10.08
A major component of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope just took a spin on the centrifuge at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Called the Outer Barrel Assembly, this piece of the observatory is designed to keep the telescope at a stable temperature and shield it from stray light.
Hubble Observes a Peculiar Galaxy Shape
2024.10.04
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the galaxy, NGC 4694. Most galaxies fall into one of two basic types. Spiral galaxies are young and energetic, filled with the gas needed to form new stars and sporting spiral arms that host these hot, bright youths. Elliptical galaxies have a much more pedestrian look, and their […]
NASA’s Webb Reveals Unusual Jets of Volatile Gas from Icy Centaur 29P
2024.10.02
Inspired by the half-human, half-horse creatures that are part of Ancient Greek mythology, the field of astronomy has its own kind of centaurs: distant objects orbiting the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has mapped the gases spewing from one of these objects, suggesting a varied composition and providing new insights […]
NASA’s TESS Spots Record-Breaking Stellar Triplets
2024.10.02
Professional and amateur astronomers teamed up with artificial intelligence to find an unmatched stellar trio called TIC 290061484, thanks to cosmic “strobe lights” captured by NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). The system contains a set of twin stars orbiting each other every 1.8 days, and a third star that circles the pair in just […]
Astrophysicist Gioia Rau Explores Cosmic ‘Time Machines’
2024.10.01
To shape NASA’s path of exploration forward, Dr. Gioia Rau unravels stars and worlds beyond our solar system. Name: Dr. Gioia RauTitle: AstrophysicistOrganization: Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Astrophysics Division, Science Mission Directorate (Code 667) What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? I’m an astrophysicist who studies […]
Hubble Captures Stellar Nurseries in a Majestic Spiral
2024.09.27
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy IC 1954, located 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Horologium. It sports a glowing bar in its core, majestically winding spiral arms, and clouds of dark dust across it.
NASA’s Hubble Finds that a Black Hole Beam Promotes Stellar Eruptions
2024.09.26
In a surprise finding, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. The stars, called novae, are not caught inside the jet, but apparently in a dangerous neighborhood nearby. The […]
In Odd Galaxy, NASA’s Webb Finds Potential Missing Link to First Stars
2024.09.25
Looking deep into the early universe with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found something unprecedented: a galaxy with an odd light signature, which they attribute to its gas outshining its stars. Found approximately one billion years after the big bang, galaxy GS-NDG-9422 (9422) may be a missing-link phase of galactic evolution between the […]
Hubble Lights the Way with New Multiwavelength Galaxy View
2024.09.20
The magnificent galaxy featured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is NGC 1559. It is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Reticulum, approximately 35 million light-years from Earth. The brilliant light captured in the current image offers a wealth of information. This picture is composed of a whopping ten different Hubble images, […]
NASA’s Webb Provides Another Look Into Galactic Collisions
2024.09.18
Smile for the camera! An interaction between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy, collectively known as Arp 107, seems to have given the spiral a happier outlook thanks to the two bright “eyes” and the wide semicircular “smile.” The region has been observed before in infrared by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in 2005, however […]
NASA’s Hubble Finds More Black Holes than Expected in the Early Universe
2024.09.17
With the help of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of researchers led by scientists in the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were created. Currently, scientists do not […]
NASA Completes Spacecraft to Transport, Support Roman Space Telescope
2024.09.17
The spacecraft bus that will deliver NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to its orbit and enable it to function once there is now complete after years of construction, installation, and testing. Now that the spacecraft is assembled, engineers will begin working to integrate the observatory’s other major components, including the science instruments and the […]
Hubble Examines a Spiral Star Factory
2024.09.13
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo named NGC 5668. It is relatively near to us at 90 million light-years from Earth and quite accessible for astronomers to study with both space- and ground-based telescopes. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like a remarkable galaxy. It is around […]
Showing 1 to 24 of 1338.