nebula
Star Birth and Death Seen Near the Beginning of Time
Until recently, astronomers could not observe the first stars and galaxies that formed in the Universe. This occurred during what…
A Dying Red Giant Star has Thrown Out Giant Symmetrical Loops of Gas and Dust
The Gemini South telescope has captured a new image of the glowing nebula IC 2220. Nicknamed the Toby Jug Nebula,…
New Images Reveal the Magnetic Fields in the Horsehead Nebula
A high-school student and an international team of astronomers created the first-ever map of the Horsehead Nebula's magnetic field.
Prelude to a Supernova: The James Webb Captures a Rare Wolf-Rayet Star
Massive stars are sprinters. It might seem counterintuitive that stars 100 or 200 times more massive than our Sun could…
Hubble’s New View of the Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula, also called 30 Doradus, is the brightest star-forming region in our part of the galaxy. It's in…
Why Does the Butterfly Nebula Look Like This?
The Butterfly Nebula is changing, and astronomers are puzzled as to why these changes are occurring. Observations of this planetary…
Astronomers Simulate the Cat’s Eye Nebula in 3D
In a recent study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, an international team of researchers led by…
Latest Hubble Image Shows the Star-Forming Chamaeleon Cloud
Stars form inside vast collections of molecular hydrogen called molecular clouds, sometimes called stellar nurseries or star forming regions. Instabilities…
This is a Classic Example of a Reflection Nebula, Where the Reflected Light From Young Hot Stars Illuminates a Protostellar Cloud of Gas and Dust
The interplay of energy and matter creates beautiful sights. Here on Earth, we enjoy rainbows, auroras, and sunsets and sunrises.…
Apparently, This Nebula Looks Like Godzilla. Do you see it?
We’ve written often about how pareidolia -- the human tendency to see faces or other features in random images --…