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Welcome to the Universe

Discover the universe: Learn about the history of the cosmos, what it's made of, and so much more.

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Worlds beyond our solar system.

Giant balls of hot gas that burn for millions to billions of years. 

Concentrations of matter with gravity so powerful not even light can escape.

Collections of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust bound together by gravity.

Dark Clouds in Rosette Nebula

The Rosette Nebula is a prime example of a star-forming region, providing valuable insights into how stars are born and how the interstellar medium is affected by their formation.

In this image, dark clouds of hydrogen gas are eroded and shaped by the radiation from the cluster of stars in the center of the nebula.

NASA Celebrates Hubble's 35th Year in Orbit about Dark Clouds in Rosette Nebula
A tiny portion of the Rosette Nebula. Very dark gray material shaped like a triangle or shark fin extends from just below top left all the way down to the lower right corner and back up toward the top right.

Dying Star Comes into Full Focus

With its sharp infrared vision, NASA's Webb captured the remains of a dying star in NGC 1514 – sculpted rings of gas and dust, shaped into an hourglass structure. A companion star may have helped mold this cosmic formation by getting very close as the dying star expelled its outer layers.

Studying nebulae like this helps scientists better understand how stars enrich the galaxy with elements needed for new stars and planets.

Learn More about Dying Star Comes into Full Focus
What looks like a single large, bright star (but is two) shines with bright purple diffraction spikes at the center of a large, diffuse cylinder of gas and dust that is tipped to the right. At the center is a bright pink clumpy cloud that takes up about 25% of the view. The pink region has some holes and diffuse areas. Beyond that are two large rings seen at a roughly 60-degree angle that appear joined at top left and bottom right. The edges are denser, and form shallow V-shapes that go inward. The rings appear orange at top left and bottom right, and are blue at bottom and center right. There is diffuse orange material around the body. The black background of space is speckled with tiny stars and galaxies mostly in blues and yellows. A bigger blue star with spikes is just below and to the left of the central stars, but it is slightly smaller. Areas Webb did not observe are along the top edges, a thin vertical near the nebula at top left, and at the bottom left and right corners.
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