NGC 1275 in the Perseus ClusterActive 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…Read More

Spiral Galaxy NGC 1512: Wide FieldMost 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,…Read More

Red Spider Planetary Nebula from WebbOh 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…Read More

Orion: The Running Man NebulaWhat 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…Read More

Galle: Happy Face Crater on MarsMars 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…Read More