Images of space

Solar eclipse, SpaceX rocket launch, Vesta asteroid and more.

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May 22, 2012

The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifts off from space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch marks the first time a private company sent its own rocket to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

John Raoux / AP

May 22, 2012

The SpaceX Falcon 9 test rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. The rocket blasted off for a mission designed to be the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. The mock shuttle Explorer, in the foreground, had been on display at the Kennedy Space Center Complex and will be moved to the Johnson Space Center in Houston this week to make room for the arrival of Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Pierre DuCharme / Reuters

May 20, 2012

The moon appears to cover the sun during an annular eclipse of the sun from the Pueblo Bonito ancient building at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in Nageezi, Ariz.

Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images

May 20, 2012

The Annular eclipse from "Nine Mile Hill" in Albuquerque.

Clyde Mueller / The New Mexican via AP

May 20, 2012

Brendon Ladd of La Habra, Calif., leans over as daughter Mary Carson, 5, of Palm Springs, Calif., looks through a telescope during an eclipse viewing event held at the Westin Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The eclipse was visible as a partial eclipse in the Coachella Valley, but in other parts of the country it was visible as an annular eclipse creating a visual ring of fire around the moon. Palm Springs, Calif., astronomer Bob Victor said that for the Coachella Valley, this will be the biggest portion of the sun covered by area until an eclipse in 2044.

Crystal Chatham / The Desert Sun via AP

May 20, 2012

In this handout provided by NASA, sun spots are seen as the moon moves into a partial eclipse position after reaching annularity during the first annular eclipse seen in the U.S. since 1994. Differing from a total solar eclipse, the moon in an annular eclipse appears too small to cover the sun completely, leaving a ring of fire effect around the moon. The eclipse is casting a shallow path crossing the West from West Texas to Oregon then arcing across the northern Pacific Ocean to Tokyo.

NASA / Getty Images

May 20, 2012

Nick Bremner, Aaron Bremner, and Joel Bremner, from Sonoma, Calif., take a look at the solar eclipse through homemade masks out of welding glass in Upper Bidwell Park at the Kiwanis Chico Community Observatory in Chico, Calif. Millions of people in the U.S. West and Asia viewed a "ring of fire" eclipse cross their skies Sunday.

Ty Barbour / Chico Enterprise Record via AP

May 10, 2012

This NASA image shows an artist's concept of an active black hole as it squashes a star formation.

/ AFP/Getty Images

This undated image provided by NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a close-up view of a huge crater in the southern hemisphere of the Vesta asteroid. A recent analysis of images taken by the Dawn spacecraft reveals that there are two overlapping craters in Vesta's south pole created by separate impact events.

/ AP

May 10, 2012

This NASA image is a portion of the MDIS global mosaic basemap that was acquired during Messenger's first year in orbit. The scene shows a close-up of Munch crater, named for the Norwegian impressionist painter, printmaker and draftsman Edvard Munch. Munch crater is situated within the Caloris basin, the youngest large impact basin on Mercury. The floor of Caloris has been flooded with volcanic flows. The ejecta blanket surrounding Munch contains dark material that originated at depth and was excavated by the Munch-forming impact. This dark material may correspond to rock types, termed lithologies, that are mineralogically distinct from those we see on the surface.

/ AFP/Getty Images

May 10, 2012

Members of the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity team, including rover drivers and scientists, run a test between an engineering model of the current rover on Mars, front, and its successor, dubbed Curiosity, back, in the desert near Baker, Calif. According to a news release from NASA, the rover is 89 days away from its August appointment with Mars.

Gene Blevins / Reuters

May 10, 2012

Members of the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity team test out an engineering model of its next-generation Mars rover, dubbed Curiosity, in the desert near Baker, Calif.

Gene Blevins / Reuters

May 9, 2012

This image of the sun provided by the Solar Dynamic Observatory's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly shows activity at the huge sunspot complex, known as AR 1476 (Upper-L), that rotated into Earth's view over the weekend.

/ AFP/Getty Images

May 7, 2012

A photo provided by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) shows an image of the globular star cluster Messier 55 in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) obtained in infrared light with the VISTA survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This vast ball of ancient stars is located at a distance of about 17 000 light-years from Earth. A new image of Messier 55 from ESO's VISTA infrared survey telescope shows tens of thousands of stars crowded together like a swarm of bees. Besides being packed into a relatively small space, these stars are also among the oldest in the universe. Astronomers study Messier 55 and other ancient objects like it, called globular clusters, to learn how galaxies evolve and stars age.

J. Emerson / AFP/Getty Images

This undated image provided by NASA shows the Mars rover Opportunity looking back at an outcrop where it spent the Martian winter. Opportunity started driving again this week after spending 19 weeks in one spot conducting experiments.

/ AP

May 2, 2012

This NASA image shows an outburst produced by a black hole in a nearby galaxy, providing direct evidence for a population of old, volatile stellar black holes. The discovery, made by astronomers using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, provides new insight into the nature of a mysterious class of black holes that can produce as much energy in X-rays as a million suns radiate at all wavelengths. Researchers used Chandra to discover a new ultraluminous X-ray source, or ULX. These objects give off more X-rays than most binary systems, in which a companion star orbits the remains of a collapsed star.

/ AFP/Getty Images

April 25, 2012

This NASA Earth Observatory image shows a photo, captured during an IceBridge flight, of a glacier in eastern Greenland flowing through a long and narrow valley — a fjord — carved by the movement of ice. Where the edge of the glacier meets the sea, there’s a layer of floating ice dimpled with chunks of icebergs that have broken off from the glacier. Understanding ice melanges, as these conglomerations are called, is important because there is evidence that they can slow the rate that glaciers such as this one slip into the sea. The photograph was taken with a camera aboard NASA’s P-3B aircraft.

/ AFP/Getty Images

April 25, 2012

This NASA Earth Observatory image captured by the Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite shows Popocatepetl, a volcano about 40 miles southeast of Mexico City that is one of Mexico’s most active. The towering stratovolcano has been erupting since January 2005, with near-constant venting from fumaroles, punctuated by minor steam, gas and ash emissions. A plume of steam and ash blows south from the volcano’s main vent. The ongoing eruption has flung hot rock fragments onto the northeast flank of the mountain, and a tan patch of what is probably new material — tephra — is visible just north of the main vent. Older lava flows are visible cutting into forests on the western slope. A portion of a cloud northwest of the main vent obscures part of the plume.

/ AFP/Getty Images

April 26, 2012

This image shows lava flows in the shape of coils near the equatorial region of Mars. Analyzing high-resolution images of the region, researchers have determined that the area was sculpted by volcanic activity in the recent geological past.

NASA / AP

This undated NASA image shows lava coils on Mars.

/ AFP/Getty Images

April 28, 2012

A scientist from Association Planete Mars tests the CRV Cliffbot during a field test led by the Austrian Space Forum inside the Eisriesenhoehle, a giant ice cave, at Dachstein mountain near the village of Obertraun, Austria. Scientists tested spacesuit technology, three-dimensional cameras, radar, rover vehicles, communications and sterile testing systems during an 11-nation field test in the icy Alpine caves.

Lisi Niesner / Reuters

April 28, 2012

Physicist Daniel Schildhammer wears the Aouda.X spacesuit simulator during a field test led by the Austrian Space Forum inside the Eisriesenhoehle ice cave at Dachstein mountain near Obertraun, Austria. Scientists picked the area for experiments because ice caves would be a natural refuge for any microbes on Mars seeking steady temperatures and protection from damaging cosmic rays. The Aouda.X is a spacesuit simulator for manned missions to Mars, which is being developed under the Mars Analog Research Program PolAres and allows scientists to simulate environmental conditions that a real spacesuit would be faced with on Mars.

Lisi Niesner / Reuters

April 24, 2012

This NASA image shows bright stars, shining through what looks like a haze in the night sky, part of a young stellar grouping in one of the largest known star formation regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The image was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The stellar grouping, known to stargazers as NGC 2040 or LH 88, is a loose star cluster whose stars have a common origin and are drifting together through space. These are high-mass stars that have short but brilliant lives.

/ AFP/Getty Images

April 24, 2012

The infrared vision of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is shown in this photo released by NASA. The telescope has revealed that the Sombrero galaxy, named after its similarity in visible light to a wide-brimmed hat, is, in fact, two galaxies in one, according to NASA. Previous visible-light images led astronomers to believe the Sombrero was simply a regular flat-disk galaxy. Spitzer's infrared view highlights the stars and dust. This image allowed astronomers to sample the full population of stars in the galaxy in addition to its structure.

/ Reuters

April 25, 2012

Robert Ward displays one of two pieces of a meteorite he found at a park in Lotus, Calif. Ward found the pieces from a meteor that was probably about the size of a minivan when it entered the Earth's atmosphere with a loud boom about 8 a.m. Sunday. The rocks came from a meteor believed to between 4 to 5 billion years old. Ward, who has been hunting and collecting meteorites for more than 20 years, said they are believed to be "one of the oldest things known to man and one of the rarest types of meteorites there is."

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

April 26, 2012

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-19 blasts off, carrying the country's first radar imaging satellite RISAT-1 from the Satish Dhawan space center at Sriharikota, north of the southern Indian city of Chennai. The satellite is a remote sensing satellite with a synthetic aperture radar that can penetrate clouds and picture the Earth day and night, local media reported.

/ Reuters

This computer-generated image provided by Planetary Resources, a group of high-tech tycoons that wants to mine nearby asteroids, shows a conceptual rendering of satellites prospecting a water-rich, near-Earth asteroid. The group's mega-million-dollar plan is to use commercially built robotic ships to squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals like platinum and gold out of the lifeless rocks that routinely whiz by Earth. One of the company founders predicts they could have their version of a space-based gas station up and running by 2020.

/ AP

This computer-generated image provided by Planetary Resources shows a conceptual rendering of a spacecraft preparing to capture a water-rich, near-Earth asteroid. The group's mega-million-dollar plan is to use commercially built robotic ships to squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals like platinum and gold out of the lifeless rocks that routinely whiz by Earth.

/ AP

April 23, 2012

This NASA composite handout shows a dramatic new image of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula because its glowing filaments resemble spider legs. The nebula is located in the neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, and is one of the largest star-forming regions located close to the Milky Way. At the center of 30 Doradus, thousands of massive stars are blowing off material and producing intense radiation along with powerful winds.

/ AFP/Getty Images

April 16, 2012

This image provided by NASA and taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the sun releasing a M1.7 class flare. This explosion occurred on the sun's northeastern limb, left, and was not Earth-directed.

/ AP

This new Hubble telescope image comprises one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from Hubble photos and includes observations taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys released by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore in celebration of Hubble's 22nd anniversary on April 17. Several million young stars are vying for attention in a new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, a star-forming complex in the heart of the Tarantula nebula.

/ Reuters

This undated image provided by NASA shows the Gale Crater on Mars, the landing site for the rover Curiosity. The rover is scheduled to touch down in August 2012 near the foot of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crater on the red planet. NASA says it is drawing up a new, cheaper plan to go to Mars in 2018 and beyond and has asked scientists for mission ideas.

/ AP

April 12, 2012

Baby stars are creating chaos 1,500 light-years away in the cosmic cloud of the Orion Nebula. Four massive stars make up the bright yellow area in the center of this false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Green indicates hydrogen and sulfur gas in the nebula, which is a cocoon of gas and dust. Red and orange indicate carbon-rich molecules. Infant stars appear as yellow dots embedded in the nebula.

NASA / AFP/Getty Images

March 27, 2012

This ultraviolet image of the Cygnus Loop Nebula taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows glowing, wispy tendrils of hot dust and gas. The nebula lies about 1,500 light-years away and is a supernova remnant, left over from a massive stellar explosion that occurred 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. The Cygnus Loop extends more than three times the size of the full moon in the night sky and is tucked next to one of the "swan's wings" in the constellation of Cygnus. The filaments of gas and dust visible here in ultraviolet light were heated by the shock wave from the supernova, which is still spreading outward from the original explosion. The original supernova would have been bright enough to be seen clearly from Earth with the naked eye.

NASA / AFP/Getty Images

March 22, 2012

This image shows the far side of the moon with Earth in the background. It was among more than 60 images taken by one of NASA's spacecraft in orbit around the moon. The cameras are operated by middle-school students as part of a project.

/ AP

Jan. 5, 2012

This image shows bright and dark material at the rim of the Marcia crater on the Vesta asteroid, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. The lighter areas of the crater's edge is causing high interest and speculation by NASA scientists.

NASA / AP

March 18, 2012

The surface of Mercury is seen in this handout picture from the spacecraft Messenger. Messenger began a yearlong extended mission that includes a number of new scientific observation campaigns.

NASA / Reuters

March 14, 2012

A handout photo taken by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and released by the European Space Agency (ESA) shows the most detailed image so far of Messier 9, a globular star cluster located close to the center of the galaxy. This ball of stars is too faint to see with the naked eye, yet Hubble can see over 250 000 individual stars shining in it. Messier 9 is a globular cluster, a roughly spherical swarm of stars that lies around 25,000 light years from Earth, near the center of the Milky Way, so close that the gravitational forces from the galactic center pull it slightly out of shape.

ESA / AFP/Getty Images

March 3, 2012

This handout image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, shows the Popocatpetl volcano in Mexico.

NASA / AFP/Getty Images

March 10, 2012

A portion of Saturn's moon Rhea is seen in this image taken from a distance of about 26,000 miles.

NASA / AP

March 14, 2012

A central bright cloud of dust moves through interstellar space, heating up dust as it goes. The blast wave travels at an average speed of about 11,000 miles per second. By the time this image was taken, the blast wave had expanded out to about a distance of 21 light-years from the original explosion. The flash of light from the explosion, traveling at the speed of light, has covered well over 300 light-years.

/ Reuters

March 7, 2012

An image of the northern lights in Abisko, Swedish Lapland.

Francois Campredon / AFP/Getty Images

March 8, 2012

A strong geomagnetic storm racing from the sun toward Earth was expected to arrive on Earth on Thursday. Its arrival could affect power grids, airplane routes and space-based satellite navigation systems, U.S. space weather experts said.

/ Reuters/NOAA

March 7, 2012

A towering dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface. The image was acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona / AFP/Getty Images

A solar flare is shown heading toward Earth. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center said it is the biggest in five years and growing.

/ AP

Feb. 29, 2012

A new view of the Orion Nebula highlights fledgling stars hidden in the gas and clouds, showing infrared observations. A star forms as a clump of this gas and dust collapses, creating a warm glob of material fed by an encircling disk. These dusty envelopes glow brightest at longer wavelengths, appearing as red dots in this image. The Orion Nebula is about 1,500 light-years from Earth and cannot quite be seen with the naked eye. The colors in this image relate to the different wavelengths of light, and to the temperature of material, mostly dust, in this region of Orion.

/ Reuters

Feb. 22, 2012

NASA administrator Charles Bolden, second from left, examines a replica of the Mars Science Laboratory Rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Damian Dovarganes / AP

Feb. 22, 2012

NASA administrator Charles Bolden, third from right, checks out a replica of the Mars Science Laboratory Rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. President Obama's proposed budget calls for a 20 percent cut in NASA's planetary budget, forcing a restructuring of the Mars exploration program.

Damian Dovarganes / AP

Feb. 22, 2012

Barchan sand dunes are seen in the north polar region of Mars. Seen during the northern spring season, the dunes and ground are still covered in seasonal frost. The speckled appearance is due to the warming of the area — as the carbon dioxide frost and ice on the dunes warms, small areas warm and sublimate (turn from solid to gas) faster, creating small jets that expose/deposit dark sand and dust onto the surface.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 22, 2012

This NASA image of clouds over the southern Indian Ocean, captured by the Multi-Angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer instrument on NASA's polar-orbiting Terra spacecraft.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 10, 2012

A picture acquired by the Advanced Land Imager aboard the Earth Observing-1 satellite shows the site of an underwater volcanic eruption off the southern coast of El Hierro, the youngest of the Canary Islands, near the village of La Restinga. Four months after it began, the underwater volcanic eruption off El Hierro Island persists. Bright aquamarine water indicates high concentrations of volcanic material. Immediately above the vent is a patch of brown water that can resemble a turbulent hot tub when the eruption is strongest.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 15, 2012

Blue star clusters surround a wayward black hole named HLX-1 in the cannibal galaxy ESO 243-49. The discovery suggests that the black hole formed in the core of a now-disintegrated dwarf galaxy. The findings have important implications for understanding the evolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 13, 2012

A sinuous filament of cosmic dust more than 10 light-years long is captured in this image. In it, newborn stars are hidden, and dense clouds of gas are on the verge of collapsing to form yet more stars. It is one of the regions of star formation closest to Earth. The Taurus Molecular Cloud, in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull), lies about 450 light-years from Earth. This image shows two parts of a long, filamentary structure in this cloud, which are known as Barnard 211 and Barnard 213.

ESO / AFP/Getty Images

This NASA image from video shows a spectacular aurora borealis captured Jan. 25, 2012, by the crew aboard the international space station. The image was captured on a pass from near the border of British Columbia and Washington state, near Vancouver Island, to southern Alberta, near Calgary.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Tim Pickens, Rocket City Space Pioneers team leader, speaks as the Rocket City Space Pioneers and the Alabama Google Lunar X PRIZE team led by Dynetics announce an educational partnership with the Alabama Tourism Department and the Alabama Department of Education to engage students in their mission to the moon, Jan. 31, 2012, in Huntsville, Ala. The team also unveiled the prototype lander it plans to send to the moon to claim the Google Lunar X Prize.

Eric Schultz / AP

A satellite view of Antarctica is seen in this undated NASA handout photo obtained Feb. 6, 2012.

NASA / Reuters

Nov. 29, 2011

An enhanced-color image of sand dunes trapped in an impact crater in Noachis Terra, Mars. Dunes and sand ripples of various shapes and sizes display the natural beauty created by physical processes. The area covered in the image is about six-tenths of a mile across. Sand dunes are among the most widespread wind-formed features on Mars. Their distribution and shapes are affected by changes in wind direction and wind strength. Patterns of dune erosion and deposition provide insight into the sedimentary history of the surrounding terrain.

NASA / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 31, 2012

A close-up view of Eros, an asteroid with an orbit that takes it somewhat close to Earth. Eros will come closer to Earth than it has in 37 years on Feb. 7, traveling across the night sky in the constellations Leo, Sextans and Hydra. At its closest pass, at 16.6 million miles, the relatively bright 21-mile-wide asteroid will be visible with modest backyard telescopes. It has not come this close since 1975, and will not do so again until 2056. Eros should remain visible until Feb. 10.

NASA / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 25, 2012

This image of Earth was taken by the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite, Suomi NPP. This composite uses a number of swaths of Earth’s surface taken Jan. 4. The image combines four passes of the satellite over the planet, which are then digitized to look like a single photo taken from about 1,200 miles above the point at 20 degrees north and 100 degrees west. VIIRS captured light in four wave lengths, most of which were in the visible spectrum, and added them together.

NASA / Via Reuters

A view of the eastern hemisphere of Earth from space is shown in this undated NASA handout photo obtained Feb. 6, 2012. NASA's second "Blue Marble" image was created from data acquired by a new instrument aboard the Earth-observing satellite Suomi NPP, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).

NASA / Reuters

Jan. 24, 2012

The aurora borealis, or northern lights, is seen near the city of Tromsoe, Norway. Stargazers were out in force in northern Europe, hoping to be awed by a spectacular showing after the most powerful solar storm in six years.

Rune Stoltz Bertinussen / AP

Jan. 22, 2012

A solar flare erupts on the sun's northeastern hemisphere. Space weather officials say the strongest solar storm in more than six years is already bombarding Earth with radiation with more on the way. It can cause communication problems for airplanes that go over the poles.

/ AP

A solar prominence erupts from the surface of the sun.

NASA / Getty Images

This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the spiral galaxy NGC 2841, which is about 46 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy is helping astronomers solve one of the oldest puzzles in astronomy: Why do galaxies look so smooth, with stars sprinkled evenly throughout? An international team of astronomers has discovered that rivers of young stars flow from their hot, dense stellar nurseries, dispersing out to form large, smooth distributions.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

When seen in visible light, Zeta Ophiuchi — the blue star near the center of the image — appears as a relatively dim red star surrounded by other dim stars and no dust. But in this infrared image taken with NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, a completely different view emerges. Zeta Ophiuchi is actually a massive, hot, bright-blue star plowing its way through a large cloud of interstellar dust and gas. Astronomers theorize that this juggernaut was likely once part of a binary star system with an even more massive partner. It's believed that when the partner exploded as a supernova, blasting away most of its mass, Zeta Ophiuchi was suddenly freed from its partner's pull and shot away like a bullet moving 54,000 mph. Zeta Ophiuchi is about 20 times more massive and 65,000 times more luminous than the sun. If it weren't surrounded by so much dust, it would be one of the brightest stars in the sky and appear blue to the eye.

/ NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

The growing Tarantula Nebula, also known as the 30 Doradus, is one of the largest nebulae near the Milky Way and is found in the neighboring galaxy Large Magellanic Cloud. About 2,400 massive stars in the center of 30 Doradus are producing intense radiation and powerful winds as they blow off material. Multimillion-degree gas detected in X-rays (the blue areas of the photo) by the Chandra X-ray Observatory comes from shock fronts — similar to sonic booms — formed by these stellar winds and by supernova explosions.

NASA/JPL/PSU/L

The Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 27, pumps out infrared light in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The nebula was named after its resemblance to a dumbbell, as seen in visible light. It was discovered in 1764 by Charles Messier, who included it as the 27th member of his famous catalog of nebulous objects. Though he did not know it at the time, this was the first in a class of objects, now known as "planetary nebulae," to make it into the catalog. Planetary nebulae, historically named for their resemblance to gas-giant planets, are now known to be the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our sun. When sunlike stars die, they puff out their outer gaseous layers. These layers are heated by the hot core of the dead star, called a white dwarf, and shine with infrared and visible-light colors. Our own sun will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about five billion years.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

A new image of two tangled galaxies has been released by NASA's Great Observatories. The Antennae Galaxies are about 62 million light-years from Earth and take their name from the long, antennalike arms seen in wide-angle views of the system. These features were produced in a collision that began more than 100 million years ago and is still occurring. The collision triggered the formation of millions of stars in clouds of dust and gas in the galaxies. The most massive of these young stars have already sped through their evolution in a few million years and exploded as supernovas.

/ NASA/CXC/SAO/JPL-Caltech/STScI

An image of the Wreath Nebula, more formally known as Barnard 3 or IRAS Ring G159.6-18.5. The green ring is made of tiny particles of warm dust whose composition is very similar to smog found here on Earth. The red cloud in the middle is likely made of dust that is more metallic and cooler than the surrounding regions. The bright star in the middle of the red cloud, called HD 278942, is so luminous that it is likely what is causing most of the surrounding ring to glow. The "wreath" is near the boundary between the constellations of Perseus and Taurus, but at a relatively close distance of only about 1,000 light-years, the cloud is a still part of our Milky Way.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Astronomers, using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, have spotted a "dust factory" 30 million light-years away in the spiral galaxy M74. The factory is at the scene of a massive star's explosive death, or supernova.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI

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