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Think of all the work that goes into getting a birds-eye view of our home planet. Now imagine how hard it would be to snap a photo that manages to capture our entire galaxy. More »
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We usually think of black holes as cosmic destroyers, heartlessly devouring anything — even a star — that enters their enormous gravitational pull. But there might be another, more helpful side to supermassive black holes that we're only just discovering. More »
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Most images of nebulas make them look flat, so you aren't able to appreciate the true splendor of what a nebula would really look like if you were to fly toward it through space. But now you can. The Space Telescope Science Institute, which runs the Hubble and Webb telescopes, has been using data gathered by the telescopes to create 3D images of familiar nebulae. And as you can see from these videos, it looks breathtaking. Above, you can see a fly-by of the Helix Nebula, created when gas was blown off as a Sun-sized star collapsed into a white dwarf. This vid also lets you compare the original 2D image with the 3D rendering. More »
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One lure of space travel is the possibility that we might find a source of energy on another world. Now, a study published this month in The Astronomical Journal suggests that remote, frozen planetoid Pluto may harbor complex hydrocarbons like ethane and butane that are used as fuel here on Earth. These hydrocarbons, if confirmed, would also help explain the reddish-brown color we've seen on Pluto's surface. More »
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We humans are wired to see shapes and patterns in randomness, which makes us see faces on Mars and everything from butterflies to California in faraway nebulae. Well, this is the holiday edition of that phenomenon... and it's pretty wonderfully ridiculous. More »
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Four newly discovered galaxies are so dim, so dusty, so impossibly distant that even the Hubble telescope couldn't spot them. But that's not all: these galaxies are so insanely red that astronomers are declaring them a new "species" of galaxy. More »
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Situated 5,000 meters above sea level, atop a vast, arid plateau in northern Chile, sits the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). Despite being only one-third complete, ALMA is already the most powerful telescope of its kind, and is well on its way to becoming the most technologically advanced telescope we've ever built. And now, for select research teams, it's finally open for business. More »
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Colliding galaxies may be common, but cosmic cacophony on this scale is still unusual. What we have here are two galaxies merging together in your standard collision...and then a third galaxy sidling in, just to complete the intergalactic chaos. More »
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Physicists have long studied the nature of the universe. But some go a step further into the unknown (and probably unknowable), contemplating what lies outside the boundaries of our universe. More »
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This gorgeous image of the Meathook Galaxy captures the bizarre distortion in what was once a spiral galaxy. But a recent supernova, combined with ancient encounters with other galaxies and birthing stars, has given it this strange S shape. More »
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This dramatic look at Arp 273 shows the very photogenic group of interacting galaxies that glow bright with intense star formation, perhaps triggered by a little carousing the two galaxies are doing with each other as they approach and interact. More »
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Everything in this image is so far away that it defies our comprehension. And yet we're also looking at two vastly different scales here, as stars from well within our own galaxy share space with a far distant spiral galaxy. More »
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Hubble telescope has captured this incredible, highly-detailed shot of the Tarantula Nebula, which is an enormous, many-legged cloud of dust created by multiple supernovae - one of which was visible from Earth back in the 17th century. Many new, hot stars burn in the heart of the nebula, ionizing its gas and giving it that lurid red glow. The nebula is so bright that it's visible with the naked eye on clear nights here on Earth, 170,000 light years away.Click here to see the embiggened image!According to a release from NASA about the photo:

The part of the nebula visible in this image from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys is criss-crossed with tendrils of dust and gas churned up by recent supernovae. These supernova remnants include NGC 2060, visible above and to the left of the centre of this image, which contains the brightest known pulsar . . . Near the edge of the nebula, outside the frame, below and to the right, lie the remains of supernova SN 1987a, the closest supernova to Earth to be observed since the invention of telescopes in the 17th century. Hubble and other telescopes have been returning to spy on this stellar explosion regularly since it blew up in 1987, and each subsequent visit shows an expanding shockwave lighting up the gas around the star, creating a pearl necklace of glowing pockets of gas around the remains of the star. Find out more about the extraordinary volume of space where the Tarantula nebula resides, with neighbors that include the heaviest known star and ultra-bright star clusters, via ESA/HubbleImage via NASA/ESA More »
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The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, and we don't know why. Dark energy is needed to explain this, but what is this strange phenomenon? We don't know, but NASA has conclusively ruled out an alternative to dark energy. More »
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The Hubble telescope has spotted the oldest galaxy in the universe. It's a frenetic cauldron of hot blue stars, and it's only about 480 million years younger than the Big Bang itself. More »
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This amazing image of the center of our galaxy is the work of three different space telescopes - Hubble, which photographs objects in the visual wavelengths, Chandra, which looks at X-rays, and Spitzer, which investigates the infrared. More »
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Back in 2007, Dutch schoolteacher and amateur astronomer Hanny van Arkel spotted a strange object near a distant spiral galaxy...and nobody had any idea what it was. Now, four years later, we're finally learning the truth about this mysterious object More »
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This delicate red bubble of gas floats in a small galaxy about 160,000 light years from Earth. Its the result of an extraordinary supernova, caused by a binary star system where one star consumes the other - then explodes. More »
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Mount Doom doesn't lay inside the heart of the black land of Mordor after all — it's in a stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, judging from a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. More »
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We're used to images from space revealing the universe's distant past, but now the Hubble Space Telescope, with the help of a powerful computer simulation, has revealed the movements of a swarm of stars for the next 10,000 years. More »
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When astronomers discovered a mysterious X-shaped object in space last January, they initially thought it was a comet. Further investigation by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed it to be the aftermath of two asteroids smashing into each other. More »
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The Hubble Space Telescope needs repair work just like every other large piece of equipment. But servicing an orbital telescope 350 miles above the Earth is no simple task. Here's a closeup look at how it's done. More »
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The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted evidence of this cosmic buffet taking place 600 light years away in the constellation Auriga, where the WASP-12 yellow dwarf star is eating one of its planets. More »
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The biggest galaxy in the Leo Triplet swaggers in the constellation of Leo, in this new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Notice those assymetrical arms, which come from a powerful attraction to two neighboring galaxies. More »
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The Hubble Telescope's tour of duty is coming to an end, but it's still good for some incredible finds. And it's hard to top these images of ancient galaxies that date to a mere billion years after the Big Bang. More »
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Here are some vampires we don't mind sparkling. This globular cluster, Messier 30, contains two types of ancient stars that have managed to keep themselves brilliant and young. One type relies on interstellar collisions; the other drinks from its neighbors. More »
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We've kept you updated with all manner of space porn from the Hubble Telescope, but Coolvibe went one better and collected 100 of the best images the space telescope has sent back to Earth. Here're some of our favorites. [Coolvibe] More »
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This area near the core of the Pinwheel Galaxy turns out to be bursting with newborn stars, some only a few million years old. And there are about 60 supernova remnants, showing the full stellar life-cycle. [Hubble via Wired] More »
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Europe and the USA have joined forces to bring the world some beautiful images of distant galaxies. The image above, of the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, combines pictures from the European Space Agency's Herschel space observatory and the Hubble telescope. More »
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The opportunity to capture a quadruple transit, when Saturn's ring plane is nearly "edge on" as seen from Earth, only happens every 14 to 15 years. [Hubblesite] More »
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Every one of Saturn's rings has had a known moon — except the mysterious "G" ring. Now NASA's Cassini Space Probe has found the planet's 61st satellite. Meanwhile, you've voted for your next space-porn fix. More »
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Hubble just shot this picture of M13, a "globular cluster" of 100,000 stars all whirling around in extremely close proximity to each other. This cluster, which is about 150 light-years across, would make for a lovely home if you wanted to see a sky full of suns every day. And who doesn't want that? More »
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For those looking to mix a little space porn with their holiday cheer, the folks at the Space Telescope Science Institute offer a small gift from the cosmos. They’ve made templates for two dozen holiday cards available free for download, each featuring an image from the Hubble Telescope. More »
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Meet the neighbors. The Hubble Space Telescope has managed to snap our first picture of a planet outside our solar system, only 25 light years away in the constellation Piscis Australis. More »
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As our sister site Gizmodo reported yesterday, the European Space Agency's cargo craft Jules Verne returned from its mission to the International Space Station — and went out in a blazing ball of glory. You all saw the photos yesterday, but now the ESA has released a high-res video of Jules Verne's destructive re-entry — and hey, since it looks like the Hubble's going to be out of commission until 2009, thank goodness they did. More »
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Almost six billion years ago, two of the largest gravitational structures in the universe slammed into each other with velocities in the millions of miles per hour. Galactic clusters are collections of galaxies (sometimes thousands of them) that seem to hang together in violation of the known laws of physics. Not only did this ancient collision result in a stunningly beautiful image, but it's given astrophysicists an important clue about the nature of dark matter. More »
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Here's a detail of a new image the Hubble Space Telescope released to celebrate its 100,000th orbit of Earth. It shows the "firestorm" of star creation in the nebula near star cluster NGC 2074. The three-dimensional image shows off "dramadramatic ridges and valleys of dust, serpent-head 'pillars of creation,' and gaseous filaments glowing fiercely under torrential ultraviolet radiation," says NASA. The high-energy radiation from all those hot young stars is slowly eating away at the wall of the nebula. Click through to see the whole thing. More »
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Jupiter seems to be sprouting lots of Red Spots these days. Of course the original gangsta, the multiple Earth-sized Great Red Spot has been around for just about four centuries. But back in 2006 Red Spot Jr. appeared and as this picture shows, researchers have just observed a third spot west of big daddy. What's causing the outbreak? Engineer Phil Marcus of the University of California, Berkeley thinks climate change is to blame. More »
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Today, a satellite was involved in your life. Whether you checked a weather report, watched SportsCenter or looked for your mom's house on Google Maps, you did something that would have been impossible without an automated spacecraft orbiting hundreds of miles above your head. But how many of these satellites do you know by name? Here are the top ten you need to know, because they make modern life possible. More »
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