Spectacular Photos of Nebulas in Deep Space

Dark Heart of a Nebula Finally Photographed

ESA and the SPIRE & PACS consortia, P. André (CEA Saclay) for the Gould’s Belt Key Programme Consortia

An inside view of the heart of the Eagle Nebula, captured by the Herschel space telescope on Oct. 24, 2009.

Glowing Nebula Reveals Cosmic Cat's Paw

ESO

This new portrait of NGC 6334 (the Cat's Paw Nebula) was created from images taken with the Wide Field Imager instrument at the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, combining images taken through blue, green and red filters, as well as a special filter designed to let through the light of glowing hydrogen.

Owl Nebula Wins Student's Choice Photo Contest

Émilie Storer (Collège Charlemagne, QUE), André-Nicolas Chené (HIA/NRC of Canada), and Travis Rector (U.Alaska, Anchorage)

Gemini North image of the planetary nebula M97, also known as the Owl Nebula, imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) as part of a Canadian contest for high school students. The approximately 6,000 year-old nebula is located about 2,600 light-years away, and has a diameter of about three light-years across. It is located in the constellation of Ursa Major (which contains the Big Dipper).

Soul Nebula's Heart Caught on Camera

NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team

NASA's WISE infrared space observatory mission team released this mosaic of the Soul Nebula (a.k.a. the Embryo Nebula, IC 1848, or W5) on April 2, 2010. The Soul Nebula is an open cluster of stars surrounded by a cloud of dust and gas over 150 light-years across and located about 6,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia, near the Heart Nebula.

Spectacular Space Bubble Photographed by Hubble

NASA/ESA Full Story

This new Hubble Space Telescope reveals a dazzling look at the N11 region of the Large Magellanic Cloud — a SATELLITE galaxy near the Milky Way — and was released on June 22, 2010.

Dying Star's Last Breath Frozen in Hubble Photo

ESA/Hubble and NASA [Full Story]

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this striking image of the curious planetary nebula NGC 6210, which is located about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation of Hercules.

Lagoon Nebula's Stellar Baby Boom

ESO/VVV Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

This new infrared view of the star formation region Messier 8, often called the Lagoon Nebula, was captured by the VISTA telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. This view was created from several other images acquired as in a huge survey of the central parts of the Milky Way.

Cosmic Nebulas Dazzle in New Space Telescope Photos

NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team

An image of the Flaming Star Nebula, taken in infrared light by NASA's WISE space telescope.

Keep Your Distance

NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team

The three nebulae in this image may appear close together, but in actuality they reside at different distances from the Earth. Nebula NGC 1491 glows on the right side of this WISE image, SH 2-209 sits on the left side and BFS 34 lies in between. NGC 1491 and BFS 34 are part of the same cloud complex at distance of about 10,700 light-years away in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. SH 2-209 lives farther away at about 16,000 light-years distance, located in the outer arm of the Milky Way.

Green Nebula Ring

NASA/JPL-Caltech

This glowing emerald nebula seen by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is reminiscent of the glowing ring wielded by the superhero Green Lantern.

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