Astrophysical Hoodies

Hercules globular cluster (M13), optical image. Globular clusters are groups of old stars that orbit a galaxy. They are tightly bound by gravity, giving them a spherical shape. The Hercules cluster, orbiting the Milky Way galaxy, consists of hundreds of thousands of stars and is 168 light years across. It lies around 25,100 light years from Earth in the constellation Hercules.

Rosette nebula (NGC 2237), optical image. This nebula is an emission nebula, known as the Rosette nebula because of its round, flower-like shape. Emission nebulae are clouds of gas and dust that are ionised by radiation from hot stars within them, causing them to glow. At the heart of the nebula (centre) is the cluster of young stars (NGC 2244) responsible for this ionisation. The strong stellar wind from these stars has cleared a hole around them. The whole Rosette nebula measures around 50 light years across; it lies approximately 4500 light years away in the constellation Monoceros.

The John A Galt 25.6 metre metal-mesh telescope was used in the first successful measurements using very long baseline interferometry.

Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) and the star Eta Carinae (upper centre), composite image. Eta Carinae is a variable hypergiant star. This region is 10,000 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Carina. This composite image combines data in infrared (red and green) and optical (blue). The infrared data is from the IRAC instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope and 2MASS (Two Micron All Sky Survey). The optical data is from the DSS (Digitized Sky Survey). This allows study of the structure of the nebula. Red areas are hidden behind dark clouds of dust in visible light. Blue areas are not obscured by dust. Image published in 2011.

Hubble eXtreme Deep Field. Optical and infrared image of distant galaxies in an area of the constellation Fornax, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This combines data from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and Hubble Ultra Deep Field Infrared. The area includes 5500 galaxies, some of them among the most distant known, existing when the universe was only a few hundred million years old. Some are the most distant objects ever identified. Image data from the HST's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Image published in 2012.

Spiral galaxy NGC 3521. This image was obtained in visible and near-infrared light. NGC 3521, which is 50,000 light years across, is 35 million light years from Earth in the constellation of Leo. The data for this image was obtained using the FORS1 (focal reducer and low dispersion spectrograph) instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). The VLT is an array of telescopes where the data is combined using interferometry to produce high-resolution images. The VLT is located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. Here, visible light is blue and green, and infrared light is red. Image published in August 2011.

Stephan's Quintet galaxies (Hickson Compact Group 92), Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image. At upper left is NGC 7320, which is a foreground galaxy around 40 million light years distant in the constellation of Pegasus. The other galaxies are about 290 million light years away. They are: NGC 7319 (upper right), NGC 7317 (bottom left), and two interacting galaxies (centre) NGC 7318A (lower) and NGC 7318B (upper). The image covers an area 345,000 light years across. Image obtained in July and August 2009 by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) as part of the Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Early Release Observations (SM4 ERO).

Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) infrared image of distant galaxies in a region of the sky in the constellation of Fornax. This region was chosen for its lack of foreground stars, enabling long-exposure times for observations of distant galaxies billions of years distant, showing their appearance only a few million years after the origin of the universe. Image data obtained with the HST's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument, and published in 2012.

Butterfly planetary nebula (NGC 6302), Hubble Space Telescope image. This is a bipolar planetary nebula, a glowing shell of gas cast off by a star near the end of its life. Red areas are nitrogen gas, the coolest gas visible here, white areas are sulphur. The star at the centre of this nebula was very large, with a mass of around five times that of the Sun. This planetary nebula, some 3800 light years from Earth, is located in the constellation Scorpius. Image obtained on 27 July 2009 by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) as part of the Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Early Release Observations (SM4 ERO).

Hubble Ultra Deep Field, ultraviolet coverage. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field was first obtained in 2003 and 2004, and has been extended over the years with the addition of coverage in other wavelengths such an infrared. This image includes new coverage in ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. The area shown (in the constellation of Fornax) includes 5500 galaxies, some of them among the most distant known, existing when the universe was only a few hundred million years old. Some are the most distant objects ever identified. The study is called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UVUDF) project. Image data obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)'s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Image publi...

Pinwheel Galaxy (M101, NGC 5457), optical HST image. This is one of the largest spiral galaxies known, at over 170,000 light years across. The nucleus contains mainly stars that are older and yellower than the arms. The arms appear bluer as they contain younger stars, and numerous bright starbirth regions. The Pinwheel Galaxy lies around 27 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This image was obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

Pale Blue Dot. Image of the Earth taken by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on-board the Voyager 1 spacecraft. This image, known as the 'Pale Blue Dot', is part of the first ever 'family portrait' of the solar system taken by Voyager 1 on 14th February 1990, from a distance of around 4 billion miles (6 billion kilometres) from Earth. It is composed of three images taken through different colour filters - violet, blue and green - and recombined to create the final version seen here.

Running Man Nebula, optical image. Popularly known as the Running Man Nebula and usually called NGC 1977, this area actually comprises three nebulae, NGC 1973, NGC 1975, and NGC 1977, forming a complex of blue reflection nebulae mixed with red emission nebulosity divided by dark lanes. They are around 1500 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Orion. Photographed in 2018 from the Cumeada Observatory in the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, Portugal.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) with an exoplanet, illustration. TESS is NASA's next step in the search for planets outside the solar system, also known as exoplanets. It is shown here with a lava planet (red) orbiting its host star, an example of the type of planets that may be detected. TESS launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on 18 April 2018, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA. It was placed in a highly elliptical lunar resonant orbit (P/2) to carry out its all-sky survey. Illustration published in September 2017.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), artwork. This is an infrared telescope that is scheduled to be launched in 2018. It will have a 6.5-metre-diameter mirror (yellow), with which it will study the formation of stars and planetary systems, and the history of the universe. By using infrared wavelengths, the JWST will be able to see through much of the dust that obscures visible light. It will also study dark matter, which is thought to form the majority of the matter in the universe. The telescope dimensions are 24 by 12 by 12 metres. Structures include the primary mirror (yellow), the sunshield (folded), and the control system (lower centre).

Cygnus X-1 black hole, illustration. Cygnus X-1 is located near large active regions of star formation in the Milky Way. This illustration depicts what astronomers think is happening within the Cygnus X-1 system. Cygnus X-1 is a so-called stellar-mass black hole, a class of black holes that comes from the collapse of a massive star. The black hole (left) pulls material from a massive, blue companion star (right) toward it. This material forms a disk (red and orange) that rotates around the black hole before falling into it or being redirected away from the black hole in the form of powerful jets. Cygnus X-1 is around 6000 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Cygnus. Image published in 2011.

Conceptual fractal illustration of material falling into a black hole, an object of extreme density, with such strong gravitational attraction that even light cannot escape from their grasp if it comes near enough. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact black hole can deform spacetime. Quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation. Hawking radiation is black body radiation that is predicted to be released by black holes, due to quantum effects near the event horizon. In general relativity, an event horizon is a boundary in spacetime beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. It is defined as "the point of no return", i.e., the point at which the gra...

Pale Blue Dot. Image of the Earth taken by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on-board the Voyager 1 spacecraft. This image, known as the 'Pale Blue Dot', is part of the first ever 'family portrait' of the solar system taken by Voyager 1 on 14th February 1990, from a distance of around 6 billion kilometres from Earth. It is composed of three images taken through different colour filters - violet, blue and green - and recombined to create the final version seen here. For the image's 30th anniversary it has been updated using modern image-processing software and techniques.

Carina Nebula. Optical image of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), a starbirth region about 7500 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Carina. This image was obtained by the OmegaCAM sensor on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO's Paranal Observatory. The image was published in 2012 to mark the inauguration of the VST. Acknowledgement: VPHAS+ Consortium and the Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.

Spiral galaxy UGC 2885, NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. UGC 2885 is located in the constellation Perseus about 230 million light-years from Earth. There is a bright central region and spiral arms, which have a blue colour due to the formation of hot, young stars. Also shown are two bright foreground stars. UGC 2885 is known as the Godzilla Galaxy because of it's large size, two and half times wider than the Milky Way and containing ten times as many stars.

Dark matter distribution. Image 3 of 4. Supercomputer simulation, known as the Millennium Run, showing the distribution of dark matter in the local universe. The frame is 63 megaparsecs (206 million light years) in distance across. Dark matter is a form of matter that cannot be detected by telescopes as it emits no radiation. It is thought that cold dark matter first formed after the Big Bang. This matter then collapsed under its own weight to form vast halos (bright yellow) which sucked in normal matter to form visible matter, such as galaxies. This simulation was created in 2005 by the Virgo Consortium of international scientists using supercomputers at the Max Planck Society, Germany. For complete sequence, see images R980/209 - R980...

Constellation of Ursa Minor. Optical image of the stars of the northern constellation of Ursa Minor (the Little Bear). Within this constellation is also called the Little Dipper. The brightest star is Polaris (the North Star or Pole Star) or Alpha Ursae Minoris (blue, centre left). This constellation has 7 main stars. It is one of the 88 modern constellations adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922.

Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. 2014 Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image showing dark pillars of dense molecular hydrogen and dust in the Eagle Nebula (M16). Ultraviolet light from young stars (out of frame) evaporates gas from the one light-year-long pillars, creating the halo-like effect. The small protrusions on the pillars contain globules of even denser gas which are embryonic stars; these have been dubbed Evaporating Gaseous Globules, or EGGs. The evaporation of the pillar limits the amount of gas and dust which these embryonic stars can gather. The Eagle Nebula is about 7000 light years from Earth, in the constellation Serpens. This iconic image was first obtained in 1995 (see image C032/1712) and was titled 'Pillars of Cr...

Kepler-62f. Computer illustration of the super Earth-sized planet Kepler-62f, which lies around 1200 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Lyra. This planet orbits the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the Earth's. The habitable zone is the region around a star where liquid water, an essential ingredient for life as we know it, could potentially be present.

Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Obtained in 2003 and 2004, this view shows distant galaxies in an area of the constellation Fornax, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The view shows nearly 10,000 galaxies in what is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The galaxies are of various ages, sizes, shapes, and colours. The smallest, reddest galaxies may be among the most distant known, existing when the universe was just 800 million years old. The nearest galaxies (brighter spirals and ellipticals) are from about 1 billion years ago, when the universe was 13 billion years old. This image consists of 800 exposures taken over 11 days, between September 2003 and January 2004. Image data in optical and infrared, from the HST's Advanced Camera fo...

Earth from Saturn, Cassini image. Earth is the point of light at centre, with the Moon to its left. Some of the rings of Saturn are visible above and below Earth. At top is the A ring, with the Keeler and Encke gaps visible, and the F ring at bottom. The distance to Earth is 1.4 billion kilometres. Saturn is a large gas giant planet, with a ring system that consists of thousands of chunks of rock and ice. This image was obtained on 12 April 2017 by Cassini's Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS). The Cassini spacecraft has been surveying the Saturnian system since 2004, with its mission scheduled to end in September 2017.

Hand of God pulsar wind nebula. Composite image showing the pulsar wind nebula nicknamed the 'Hand of God'. This cloud of material was ejected from a star that blew up in a supernova explosion. The dead remains of the star at the centre (not visible) is a pulsar named B1509 (PSR B1509-58), which fires out a particle wind into the material around it. These particles are interacting with magnetic fields around the material, causing it to glow with X-rays. Image composed of high-energy X-ray data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR, blue) and lower-energy X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (green and red).

Dark matter distribution. Image 2 of 4. Supercomputer simulation, known as the Millennium Run, showing the distribution of dark matter in the local universe. The frame is 253 megaparsecs (824 million light years) in distance across. Dark matter is a form of matter that cannot be detected by telescopes as it emits no radiation. It is thought that cold dark matter first formed after the Big Bang. This matter then collapsed under its own weight to form vast halos (bright yellow) which sucked in normal matter to form visible matter, such as galaxies. This simulation was created in 2005 by the Virgo Consortium of international scientists using supercomputers at the Max Planck Society, Germany. For complete sequence, see images: R980/209 - R9...

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), computer illustration. This infrared telescope is scheduled to be launched in 2018. It will have a 6.5-metre-diameter mirror (yellow), with which it will study the formation of stars and planetary systems, and the history of the universe. By using infrared wavelengths, the JWST will be able to see through much of the dust that obscures visible light. It will also study dark matter, which is thought to form the majority of the matter in the universe.

Starbirth region LH 95, Hubble Space Telescope image. Large stars within LH 95 generate strong stellar winds and high levels of ultraviolet radiation. This heats the interstellar gas, creating the blue glow seen here. The dark lanes of dust (left and lower centre) are areas that have survived the effects of the stellar winds. Due to the filters used, the hot, bright stars in this image are blue, and cooler stars appear red in colour. LH 95 is in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), some 176,000 light years from Earth in the constellations Mensa and Dorado. Image data obtained by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument, and published in 2006.

Eta Carinae nebula. Coloured Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of part of the Eta Carinae nebula. This large pillar of cold hydrogen gas and dust is the site of star birth. The narrow pillar (pointing towards top left) alone measures one light year in length. Two stellar jets, or Herbig- Haro objects (white streaks) are seen bursting from the cloud. The ultraviolet radiation in these jets, which are formed by the young hot stars, is slowly eroding the pillar. The Eta Carinae Nebula is around 10,000 light years from Earth in the constellation of Carina. Image taken using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Active Sun, Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) ultraviolet image. This image was obtained during a period when the Sun had a number of active regions. The bright, spindly strands that extend out of these active regions are particles spinning along magnetic field lines that connect between areas of opposite polarity. The SDO is an Earth-orbiting spacecraft launched in 2010 by NASA and used to observe the Sun. Here, the Sun and its atmosphere (not seen in visible light) is seen at a wavelength of 171 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet). Such images are usually tinted a gold colour, but here the image has been coloured in red. This image was obtained on 1 October 2011.

Dark matter distribution. Image 1 of 4. Supercomputer simulation, known as the Millennium Run, showing the distribution of dark matter in the local universe. The frame is 1 gigaparsecs (3.3 billion light years) in distance across. Dark matter is a form of matter that cannot be detected by telescopes as it emits no radiation. It is thought that cold dark matter first formed after the Big Bang. This matter then collapsed under its own weight to form vast halos (bright yellow) which sucked in normal matter to form visible matter, such as galaxies. This simulation was created in 2005 by the Virgo Consortium of international scientists using supercomputers at the Max Planck society, Germany. For complete sequence, see images: R980/209 - R980...

Aurora on Jupiter, combined ultraviolet and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image. This image combines an optical image (spring 2014) taken by the HST, with ultraviolet observations in 2016 of its aurorae (blue). Aurorae are produced by the interaction of the solar wind with a planet's atmosphere. Charged particles collide with gases in the upper atmosphere, causing them to emit light. On Jupiter, as on Earth, they occur in polar regions. This is because the magnetic field of the planet channels the charged particles to these regions. Image published in June 2016.

Aurora borealis in the night sky. The aurora borealis is a coloured light display (the northern lights) that is visible in the night sky, usually only at high latitudes. It occurs when charged and energetic particles from the Sun (the solar wind) are drawn by Earth's magnetic field to the polar regions. Hundreds of kilometres up, they collide with gas molecules and atoms, causing them to emit light. This image shows the full colours of the aurora as captured by camera, showing colours not visible to the naked eye. Photographed at the Gulfoss waterfall in Iceland in August 2014 during the Shelios 2014 expedition.

Arecibo message, computer artwork. This image was beamed into space by the Arecibo radio telescope on 16th November 1974. It was aimed at the globular star cluster M13, 25,000 light years away. The original image, which is not coloured, consists of a 73 row by 23 column grid and contains a binary message divided into seven parts. From the top down, and reading right to left, they are: numbers from ten to one (magenta), atomic numbers for phosphorus, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen (white), sugar and bases in nucleotides of DNA formulas (green), number of nucleotides in DNA (white), DNA double helix (light blue), population of Earth (pink), human figure (red), height of humans (dark blue), planets of the solar system with the Sun at...