Astrophysics Stories
![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.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/hubble-ic4709-potw2436a.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Hubble Examines a Busy Galactic Center
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy IC 4709 located around 240 million light-years away in the southern constellation Telescopium. Hubble beautifully captures its faint halo and swirling disk filled with stars and dust bands. The compact…
![An image of a celestial scene showing two bright stars against a dark background, with one star appearing larger and more luminous on the right, and a smaller, dimmer star to the left. A planet is silhouetted as it transits in front of the larger star. The background is filled with a soft glow and scattered faint stars.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ebpimage001.png?w=4096&format=png)
Join the Eclipsing Binary Patrol and Spot Rare Stellar Pairs!
Eclipsing binaries are special pairs of stars that cross in front of one another as they orbit—stars that take turns blocking one another from our view. At Eclipsing Binary Patrol, the newest NASA-funded citizen science project, you’ll have a chance to help…
![On a black background, a large orange and white orb is surrounded by a diffuse, grainy, orange halo. The halo appears to have more material on its right side than its left.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/hubble-maven-mars-feature-stsci-01j6a1t00q0jdpwn14jyqxyr95.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
NASA’s Hubble, MAVEN Help Solve the Mystery of Mars’ Escaping Water
Mars was once a very wet planet as is evident in its surface geological features. Scientists know that over the last 3 billion years, at least some water went deep underground, but what happened to the rest? Now, NASA’s Hubble…
![Amid a field of galaxies, a repeated, elongated red galaxy forms a shape like the top of a question mark, with another galaxy positioned like the question mark’s dot. In each occurrence, another white, clumpy galaxy with an overall circular shape appears perched on top of the red galaxy. A very bright foreground galaxy appears to the right of the bottom curve of the question mark shape. To the lower right, among other galaxies, another occurrence of the galaxy pair appears, unaffiliated with the question mark shape.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/webb-stsci-01j6cwrk073c5kh4qhgp1z6ka2-questionmarkgalaxy-nircam-2k.png?w=4096&format=png)
NASA’s Webb Reveals Distorted Galaxy Forming Cosmic Question Mark
It’s 7 billion years ago, and the universe’s heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found clues in the…
![The BurstCube and SNOOPI satellites deploy into space in this photograph.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/deployment.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
NASA’s Mini BurstCube Mission Detects Mega Blast
The shoebox-sized BurstCube satellite has observed its first gamma-ray burst, the most powerful kind of explosion in the universe, according to a recent analysis of observations collected over the last several months. “We’re excited to collect science data,” said Sean…
![Image of Tyler Groff and John Hagopian with coronagraph components and inset closeup of apodizer.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-5-tyler-groff-and-john-hagopian.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Carbon Nanotubes and the Search for Life on Other Planets
A NASA-developed material made of carbon nanotubes will enable our search for exoplanets—some of which might be capable of supporting life. Originally developed in 2007 by a team of researchers led by Innovators of the Year John Hagopian and Stephanie…
![Thousands of distant stars crowd the view against black space. A rosy, bloomlike tendril of red nebulosity shines near the center-top.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/and-field1-new-flat-2-cont-final.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Hubble Zooms into the Rosy Tendrils of Andromeda
Clusters of stars set the interstellar medium ablaze in the Andromeda Galaxy about 2.5 million light-years away. Also known as M31, Andromeda is the Milky Way’s closest major galaxy. It measures approximately 152,000 light-years across and, with almost the same…
![Several stars fill the image, more closely concentrated near the center. Foreground stars with diffraction spikes shine throughout as well.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/andromedaiii-acs-1-flat-crop-cont-final.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Hubble Observes An Oddly Organized Satellite
Andromeda III is one of at least 13 dwarf satellite galaxies in orbit around the Andromeda galaxy, or Messier 31, the Milky Way’s closest grand spiral galactic neighbor. Andromeda III is a faint, spheroidal collection of old, reddish stars that…
![A barn owl flying at night.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/owl-kelsey-perrett.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Eclipse Soundscapes AudioMoth Donations Will Study Nature at Night
During the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, approximately 770 AudioMoth recording devices were used to capture sound data as part of the Eclipse Soundscapes Project — a multisensory participatory science (also known as “citizen science”) project that is studying…
![Thousands of stars fill the image against black space, with a glowing, nebulous cloud of pink dominating most of the lower right half of the view.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/smc-swbarf12-1-flat-final.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Hubble Traces Star Formation in a Nearby Nebula
NGC 261 blooms a brilliant ruby red against a myriad of stars in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Discovered on Sept. 5, 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop, this nebula is located in one of the Milky…