Spiral Galaxies

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This is an artist's depiction of a pair of active black holes at the heart of two merging galaxies. They are both surrounded by an accretion disk of hot gas. Some of the material is ejected along the spin axis of each black hole. Confined by powerful magnetic fields, the jets blaze across space at nearly the speed of light as devastating beams of energy.

NASA’s Hubble, Chandra Find Supermassive Black Hole Duo

5 min read

Like two Sumo wrestlers squaring off, the closest confirmed pair of supermassive black holes have been observed in tight proximity.…

Article3 days ago
A spiral galaxy with a bright-white core, a glowing disk thick with swirling patterns of dark dust, and a faint halo around the disk. It is on a black background with a few small, distant galaxies and some foreground stars around it.

Hubble Examines a Busy Galactic Center

2 min read

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy IC 4709 located around 240 million light-years away in the…

Article6 days ago
A spiral galaxy with three prominent arms wrapping around it. The galaxy holds plenty of extra gas and dark dust between the arms. There are shining blue points throughout the arms and some patches of gas out beyond the galaxy’s edge, where stars are forming. The center of the galaxy also shines brightly. It is on a dark background where some small orange dots mark distant galaxies.

Hubble Images a Classic Spiral 

2 min read

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image treats viewers to a wonderfully detailed snapshot of the spiral galaxy NGC 3430 that…

Article2 months ago
A spiral galaxy seen almost face-on. Large spiral arms whirl out from its center, filling the scene. They glow faintly blue from the stars within, with some small bright patches of blue and pink marking areas of star formation. Thin filaments of dark reddish dust that block light overlay the stars. The galaxy’s center shines brightly white.

Hubble Measures the Distance to a Supernova

3 min read

Measuring the distance to truly remote objects like galaxies, quasars, and galaxy clusters is a crucial task in astrophysics, particularly…

Article2 months ago
A barred spiral galaxy seen face-on. Its many arms and distinct, glowing, bar-shaped core are easily visible. The galaxy’s arms hold bluish patches of older stars, pink patches where new stars are forming, and dark threads of dust. A few bright stars with cross-shaped diffraction spikes lie between us and the galaxy and are visible in the foreground.

Hubble Examines a Barred Spiral’s Light

2 min read

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3059, which lies about 57 million light-years from…

Article3 months ago
A close-in view of a barred spiral galaxy. The bright, glowing bar crosses the center of the galaxy, with spiral arms curving away from the bar’s ends and continuing out of view. Bright patches of light where stars are forming surround the bar, which also holds dark lines of dust. The galaxy’s clouds of gas spread out from its arms and bar, giving way to a dark background with some foreground stars and small, distant galaxies.

Hubble Views the Lights of a Galactic Bar

2 min read

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the broad and sweeping spiral galaxy NGC 4731. It lies…

Article3 months ago

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