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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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These stars, though still shrouded in dust and hydrogen gas, are some of the youngest and most massive stars in the galaxy. They're part of the Omega Nebula, which for 200 years has been a sort of cosmic inkblot test. 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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The little number you see up top — titled "Chart of comets, star clusters and nebula" — was engraved in 1856 by one W. G. Evans for Burritt's Atlas to Illustrate the Geography of the Heavens. More »
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A few different nebulae have picked up the nickname "Butterfly Nebula", but NGC 6302 has a particularly good claim to that title. But coleopterists are advised to keep their distance, as the central star of this nebula is unimaginably hot. More »
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A giant star known as IRS 4 is one of the rare stars that's actually younger than the human race. Formed just 100,000 years ago, it's already leaving its mark on the cosmos, creating that huge hourglass-shaped nebula. More »
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Just like regular clouds here on Earth, it's easy to see shapes in the interstellar clouds of dust and gas that make up nebulae. But this waterfall-shaped nebula is particularly spectacular... and nobody quite knows why it looks like that. More »
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This is NGC 2467, an energetic star-forming region found in the constellation Puppis. This image from the European Southern Observatory captures a gorgeous range of colors and countless stars being born...but I just can't stop staring into the nebula's eyes. More »
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About 6500 light years from earth, there's a red chicken in the sky. There may even be more than one. Many people report seeing a chicken in this new Hubble image of the Lambda Centauri Nebula, earning it the nickname "Angry Bird Nebula" and "Chicken Nebula," but they clash over exactly where the bird is. Some see the dark outline of a chicken in the center of the red cloud, while others see an animated-looking bird face with a tuft of feathers on its head, with bright star eyes and a red curved beak. More »
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This is the Orion Nebula, a vast stellar nursery located 1,500 light-years away. We have the Spitzer Space Telescope and its infrared camera to thanks for this incredible image, which pretty much shatters the scale for gorgeous cosmic vistas. More »
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Between those bizarre structures, the impossible colors up in the night sky, and the fact that this photo was apparently taken in the middle of a busy star cluster, how can this not be from some far distant alien world? More »
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The evocatively named Eight-Burst Nebula is formed from the gases spewing forth from two dying stars. But that's about all we know for sure about this strangely shaped cosmic oddity. More »
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This amazing image reveals the Great Carina Nebula, one of the most active star-forming regions in our galaxy. But it isn't just new stars that are being born in the nebula, as old stars are also dying in spectacular supernovas. More »
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The most recently discovered mineral is krotite, which was recently discovered in a meteorite fragment. Krotite has never been seen in nature before now, and yet its origins reach right back to the birth of the solar system. More »
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This nebula is located about 2,400 light-years from Earth. It gets its nickname from its elongated, trunk-like shape, but this close-up on the main body of the nebula reveals something else...is that a monster staring back at us? More »
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This might look like some weird cosmic gateway straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey or a particularly trippy old-school Doctor Who adventure, but the Red Square Nebula is completely real. Just don't ask astronomers to explain its bizarre shape. More »
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The stellar nursery NGC 6729 is packed with young, super hot stars that blow huge jets of material far into space, creating this insane, illuminated cloud that is shaped by shock waves. This picture was taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, and is color-enhanced. Hydrogen is shown as orange and glowing ionized sulfur is shown as blue. More »
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California has always been a little different from the rest of the US, but this is just ridiculous. Its outline is etched into the cosmic dust in the California Nebula, while Nevada has apparently collapsed into a single bright star. More »
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This is nebula NGC 2174, located about 6400 light-years away. This amazing photograph makes the nebula look like the peak of a giant dust mountain, with strange pink stars dominating its summit. In fact, the stars are locked in cosmic battle with the gas mountain, and it's only a matter of time before the stars emerge victorious and destroy this ghostly peak. More »
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This is the Flaming Star Nebula, a gigantic nebula 1,500 light-years away with the blazing runaway star AE Aurigae at its center. This is just one of the amazing new images revealed by NASA's powerful infrared telescope. More »
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This dying star in the constellation of Cygnus will soon complete its transformation into what's known as a planetary nebula, which will play a vital role in returning enriched elements to the galaxy at large. More »
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7500 light-years from Earth, the radiation of nearby stars is carving the cold molecular clouds of the Carina nebula into these strange, fantastical shapes. It's a bit like carving ice figures here on Earth...except these sculptures are one light-year tall. More »
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This dazzling image is of the Rosette Nebula, a rose-shaped nebula in the Unicorn constellation. The nebula's central star cluster is so bright that it was discovered a century and a half before the rest of the nebula. More »
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This nebula looks like a hand reaching out to grab the stars above it... and that fanciful explanation is as good as any astronomers have come up with to explain that baffling ghostly shape in the center of the image. More »
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Get your young ones started on space porn early with these incredible quilts from Jimmy McBride. Each handmade quilt depicts some aspect of our universe, so you can cozy up with your favorite nebula any time of day. [via Make] More »
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NASA celebrates Halloween with this image of the Witch Head Nebula, cackling from space and ready to scare spacefaring trick or treaters. And it's not the only nebula whose shape fills us with terror and dread. Take a gander at the other nebulae that are all dressed up for Halloween. More »
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I've been struggling to avoid blogging about the Star Trek/Nebula controversy for the past week, because it seemed so silly, and I was sure it was blowing over. But now it seems like the controversy that will not die. In case you missed it, an episode of fan-made Trek show Star Trek: Phase II got nominated for a Nebula Award, but some science fiction boffins are upset that an "amateur" production has gotten a nod. So why does this controversy keep rattling on? More »
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Photographer Eric Africa obtained this image of the Garnet Star Nebula (IC 1396) by spending several nights in his "light-polluted backyard." Africa's images of IC 1396, the Rosette Nebula and M 31 are proof that an Earthbound photographer can score some amazing pics. His telescope, the Takahashi FSQ-106, is commercially available for around $4,000. Click through for a gallery. More »
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