Hubble spied a collection of spiral galaxies, located at various distances from Earth and gathered for a stunning festive image released on Christmas Day. The largest galaxy in the Hubble Space Telescope image from Monday (Dec. 25) is NGC 1356, which can be seen on the right side of the picture. This spiral galaxy is […]
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. The Hubble Space Telescope captured a newly revealed image of the mysterious, ghostly shadows on Saturn’s rings — the latest sighting of the so-called “spokes” that continue to baffle scientists. The composite photo, released Thursday […]
It’s been about 30 years since NASA astronauts saved the Hubble Space Telescope on an immensely daring mission. At the time, it was perhaps the most daring mission scientists had conceived of.. In short, Hubble was launched in 1990 with faulty optics that produced blurred images. Fortunately, however, the space telescope, which orbits Earth, was […]
Even if dreams of a white Christmas fail to come true this year, the Hubble Space Telescope has ensured at least one snowball gets thrown during the festive season. Hubble collected data that was used to build a stunning image of a tightly bound cluster of stars that looks like a cosmic snowball. It’s situated […]
On Christmas morning two years ago, astronomers and space fans received the gift they’d been waiting on for 30 years: the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the world’s biggest, most daring endeavor to probe the earliest stars and galaxies in the universe. This year, the space observatory has continued to deliver breathtaking […]
At first glance, this image of Saturn looks as if it could be a shot from an old Star Trek” episode, thanks to its slightly grainy appearance and analog-esque glow. But this composite photo was taken on Oct. 22, 2023, by the Hubble Space Telescope — and most importantly, it captured a very interesting detail. If […]
Two supernovas in a galaxy, and one that’s so utterly far away that we see it as it was 10 billion years ago, could be vital in helping reveal the expansion rate of the universe. This is a measurement that has rather created some tension among the scientific community. The galaxy and the two supernovas […]
Something is awry in our expanding cosmos. Nearly a century ago, the astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered the balloon-like inflation of the universe and the accelerating rush of all galaxies away from each other. Following that expansion backward in time led to our current best understanding of how everything began — the Big Bang. But over […]
‘Tis the season for twinkling lights, both in your neighborhood and deep in space. To celebrate the festive season, NASA has published this composite image, which resembles something of a wonderland of Christmas lights — or perhaps a colorful snow globe. The image’s subject is the billion-star-containing UGC 8091, an irregular dwarf galaxy located within the […]
Astronomers watched 35 explosive outbursts from a rare repeating “fast radio burst” (FRB) as it shifted in frequency like a “cosmic slide whistle,” blinking in a puzzling pattern never seen before. FRBs are millisecond-long flashes of light from beyond the Milky Way that are capable of producing as much energy in a few seconds as […]
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has spotted the oldest black hole ever seen, an ancient monster with the mass of 1.6 million suns lurking 13 billion years in the universe’s past. The James Webb Space Telescope, whose cameras enable it to look back in time to our universe’s beginnings, spotted the supermassive black hole at the center […]
The “forbidden” light of a distant spiral galaxy shines brightly in a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Located about 275 million light-years from Earth, the galaxy, called MCG-01-24-014, has two prominent, well-defined spiral arms and an energetic glowing core known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The galaxy is seen face-on with its […]