nebula

Latest about nebula

Infrared WISE image of LBN 437, which is nicknamed the Gecko Nebula for its resemblance to a downturned lizard head with a pointed snout. This cloud of dust and gas is a region of star formation.

Behold! These gorgeous never-before-seen space images are from a NASA space telescope that should have died long ago

By Conor Feehly published

NEOWISE team members have unveiled six images from the spacecraft's archives to celebrate the late space telescope's long and productive scientific life.

Asteroid & Comet Missions
Red smoke with a black wolf-shaped clearing at its heart

Dark Wolf Nebula shows off a howling good view in awesome Halloween image (video)

By Robert Lea published

Halloween is here, and there is no better way to celebrate than with a blood-curdling image of the Dark Wolf Nebula looking like a cosmic werewolf poised to grab an unwitting victim.

Astronomy
Two glowing blue arcs joined by a bright red smeared sphere.

Happy 4th of July! Infant star creates red, white and blue fireworks in new JWST image

By Robert Lea published

Just in time for Independence Day, the James Webb Space Telescope has imaged a red, white and blue fireworks display, courtesy of an infant star at the heart of a dense cloud of gas and dust.

James Webb Space Telescope
a colorful pink and purple cloud in space surrounded by bright pinpoints of light

Hubble Telescope spies baby stars in their glowing stellar cocoon (photo)

By Samantha Mathewson published

The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a stunning new photo of infant stars nestled in a glowing cocoon of gas and dust.

Hubble Space Telescope
A rectangular image with black vertical rectangles at the bottle left and top right to indicate missing data. A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right, at the same angle. The center of the image is filled with mostly blue gas. At the center, there is one particularly bright star, that has an hourglass shadow above and below it. To the right of that is what looks a vertical eye-shaped crevice with a bright star at the center. The gas to the right of the crevice is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field, brightest sources in the field have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of the Webb Telescope.

James Webb Space Telescope spies never-before-seen star behavior in distant nebula (video, photo)

By Stefanie Waldek published

A new James Webb Space Telescope image shows perfectly aligned protostellar outflows in the Serpens Nebula, supporting a long-running theory of stellar formation.

James Webb Space Telescope
a wispy nebula colored red, blue, orange and pink against a black background speckled with stars.

Nebula: Definition, location and variants

By Andrew May last updated

Reference Among the most spectacular sights in the sky, nebula come in a range of different types.

Reference
a swath of pink gas stretches across a span of stars in space.

Cosmic 'koi fish' swims through starry sea in stunning telescope photo

By Samantha Mathewson published

The Gum 3 nebula, which resembles a swimming koi fish, is captured in a stunning new photo from the European Southern Observatory's VLT Survey Telescope.

Stars
a small bright blue point in the center is surrounded by exploding gas, hued red then diminishing to green before fading into the black of space.

Scientists reveal Southern Ring Nebula's unexpected structure: 'We were amazed'

By Keith Cooper published

The molecular gas ejected by a dying star within the Southern Ring Nebula will one day be recycled into a new generation of stars and planets.

Stars
A rich tapestry of orange and red hues, with swirling clouds of gas and dust. A bright blue hue shines at the center and the entire scene is full of stars.

Astrophotographer captures the Running Chicken Nebula in impeccable detail

By Daisy Dobrijevic published

Check out this incredibly detailed image of the Running Chicken Nebula — IC 2944 — captured by astrophotographer Rod Prazeres.

Astrophotography
An opaline view of a nebula in space in the shape of a puffy dumbbell.

Hubble telescope celebrates 34th anniversary with an iridescent Dumbbell Nebula (image)

By Sharmila Kuthunur published

Take a fresh look at the iconic Dumbbell Nebula on occasion of the Hubble Space Telescope's 34 years in space.

Hubble Space Telescope
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