Latest NGC objects Stories

WASHINGTON, May 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Ring Nebula's distinctive shape makes it a popular illustration for astronomy books. But new observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud around an old, dying, sun-like star reveal a new twist. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "The nebula is not like a bagel, but rather, it's like a jelly doughnut, because it's filled with material in the middle," said C. Robert O'Dell of...

WATCH VIDEOS: [Panning Across NGC 6559] | [Zooming In On NGC 6559] John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The Danish 1.54-metre telescope located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile has released a new image of the star-forming region NGC 6559. Located relatively nearby, a mere 5000 light-years from Earth, NGC 6559 is found in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The nebula is only a few light years across, a stark contrast to its more well-known...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A detailed study of an enormous cloud of hot gas that envelops two large, colliding galaxies has been made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This oversized gas reservoir contains as much mass as 10 billion Suns, is 300,000 light years across, and radiates more than 7 million degrees Kelvin. Scientists call this sort of cloud a “halo.” This particular halo is located in the system designated NGC 6240, which astronomers...

VIDEO: [Zooming Into The Horsehead Nebula] | VIDEO: [The Gaseous Landscape Of The Horsehead Nebula] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The Hubble Space Telescope is celebrating its 23rd year in orbit, and to commemorate the veteran observatory, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have released an amazing image of the Horsehead Nebula. For 23 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has been making cutting-edge observations of several of the sky's best objects....

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to photograph the iconic Horsehead Nebula in a new, infrared light to mark the 23rd anniversary of the famous observatory's launch aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. (Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books ever...

[ Watch the Video: Zooming In On The Planetary Nebula IC 1295 ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new image released by the European Space Observatory (ESO) shows the glowing green planetary nebula IC 1295. The new pictures taken by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) shows the nebula surrounding a dim and dying star located about 3300 light-years away in the constellation of Scutum (The Shield). "It has the unusual feature of being surrounded by multiple shells...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers writing in The Astrophysical Journal have answered a few more important questions about how so-called spiral galaxies get their arms. The team used powerful computer simulations to follow the motions of as many as 100 million "stellar particles" as gravity and other astrophysical forces began to give them shape. Their simulations have answered some long-standing questions about the origin and life history of spiral arms in...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers have found that a region of space known as the Wing has fewer “metals” (elements with more than two protons in the nucleus) compared to most other areas within our own Milky Way galaxy. There are also relatively lower amounts of gas, dust and stars in the Wing compared to the Milky Way. This knowledge makes the Wing an excellent candidate for the study of the life cycle of stars and the gas lying between them. Not...

Watch the videos "Panning Across Messier 77" and "Zooming in on Messier 77" Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A stunning new image of the spiral galaxy Messier 77 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope was released today. The image of one of the most famous and well-studied galaxies features patches of red throughout the photo, which highlights the pockets of star formation along its arms. Messier 77, or NGC 1068, sits in the constellation Cetus about 45 million...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers have unveiled a new image of recently formed bright blue stars in the cluster NGC 2547. Astronomers using the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Space Observatory's (ESO) La Silla Observatory in Chile took images of the stars while they were focusing in on the southern constellation of Vela (The Sail). Despite the universe being roughly 13.8 billion years old, new stars and objects are...