https://deepfield.news/gallery/ 2026-09-29 /img/ee9f86fa75c0aad4.jpg Crew-13 Rocket and Spacecraft at Launch Pad Ahead of launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon spacecraft atop, is vertical at the launch pad of Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. /img/a8e4852bb091bbd9.jpg Sh2-188: The Shrimp Nebula What causes the swirl in the Shrimp Nebula? Its high speed is likely. What is sure is that Sh2-188 is one of the larger planetary nebulas on the night sky, by angular size, spanning about half the diameter of the Moon. Moreover, the white-dwarf core -- leftover from the Sun-like star that shed its outer atmosphere -- is moving unusually fast through interstellar space, creating a bow shock most visible on the upper… /img/8e511192cdf61ac4.jpg Galaxies in a cosmic house of mirrors This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features galaxies in incredible detail that have been warped and multiplied like they’ve stepped into a house of mirrors. The brilliant golden galaxies splashed across this image belong to a galaxy cluster called MACS J0454.1-0300. The orange galaxies concentrated on one side of the cluster are not actually part of the cluster; these galaxies are much… /img/3df255f6df3ce590.jpg Fire Cloud with a Pileus on Top Scientists captured rare observations of an ephemeral pileus cloud hovering over a smoke-infused cloud that rose above a wildfire in Montana. The post Fire Cloud with a Pileus on Top appeared first on NASA Science . /img/73ee3d9317a15d17.jpg Space Station View of Earth at Night This nighttime view of the United States, dotted with city lights looking toward New York City (center), was taken at approximately 3:40 a.m. local time from the International Space Station as it orbited 259 miles above Earth. /img/a5f913e75073b137.jpg Cosmic Latte: The Average Color of the Universe What color is the universe? More precisely, if the entire sky were smeared out, what color would the final mix be? This whimsical question came up when trying to determine what stars are commonplace in nearby galaxies. The answer, depicted here, is a conditionally perceived shade of beige. In computer parlance: #FFF8E7. To determine this, astronomers computationally averaged the light emitted by one of the larger… /img/f9f47913d8d69970.jpg Dark clouds and a starry night sky The centre of the Milky Way emerges between two telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, in Chile’s Atacama Desert, with splatters of light embedded in dark clouds. Two gleaming nebulae can be seen between the telescopes: the Trifid Nebula (left) and the Lagoon Nebula (right). They can be found in the constellation Sagittarius, and their red colour comes from hydrogen atoms ionised by young stars in these clouds… /img/16a5e4c91d2c5f94.jpg Uncovering the Valleys Hidden Below Greenland’s Ice A new map of the terrain beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet links hundreds of valleys that previous maps missed or left fragmented. The post Uncovering the Valleys Hidden Below Greenland’s Ice appeared first on NASA Science . /img/1dcb094d86f85b96.jpg Andromeda before Photoshop What does the Andromeda galaxy really look like? The featured image shows how our Milky Way Galaxy's closest major galactic neighbor really appears in a long exposure through Earth's busy skies and with a digital camera that introduces normal imperfections. The picture is a stack of 223 images, each a 300 second exposure, taken from a garden observatory in Portugal during 2019. Obvious image deficiencies include… /img/6cd708829dc7de87.jpg Mirrored Meteor and Milky Way On August 15, this perseid meteor streaked through night skies over the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos at La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. The bright and colorful meteor trail was captured next to the central Milky Way, whose dark interstellar dust clouds and luminous starlight reach above the horizon. In the foreground of this tantalizing celestial scene is the 23 meter diameter mirror of the prototype… /img/726143744c290650.jpg Hubble Spots Chaotic Secret in Galaxy Though the spiral galaxy in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret. /img/1f31593d1593a095.jpg Globular Cluster Omega Centauri Globular star cluster Omega Centauri packs about 10 million stars much older than the Sun into a volume some 150 light-years in diameter. Also known as NGC 5139, at a distance of 15,000 light-years it's the largest and brightest of 200 or so known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though most star clusters consist of stars with the same age and composition, the enigmatic Omega Cen… /img/81989a5dfdcc9bc4.jpg Explosive Intensification for Hurricane Polo Several ingredients came together off the Pacific coast of Mexico to generate one of the strongest storms the eastern Pacific basin has ever seen. The post Explosive Intensification for Hurricane Polo appeared first on NASA Science . /img/b533955b4b43db89.jpg Practicing for Safe Landings on the Moon and Beyond An Alta-X drone flies an advanced guidance and navigation system known as the Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) experiment near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. /img/08bde159d0d5b123.jpg The Ghosts of Five Supernovas The ghosts of five supernovas haunt this extraordinary image. It was acquired at Oukaïmeden Observatory in Morocco with approximately 200 hours of observations and shows a large patch of the sky, equivalent to the area of one thousand full moons tiled together, in the constellation of Auriga (the Charioteer). From left to right, the five supernova remnants visible across the field are G181.1+9.5, G182.4+4.3… /img/e001ec421d5f2a3d.jpg Cloudy Cloak Over the Northwest A low-lying cloud layer brought autumn ambience to western Washington and Oregon, while mountainous areas near the coast remained above the pall. The post Cloudy Cloak Over the Northwest appeared first on NASA Science . /img/0ab2f4f4aeadd640.jpg Rubin and the Seven Sisters The Pleiades glow in the southern sky above NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory from a viewpoint on Cerro Pachón in Chile. Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. Its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time ( LSST ) began earlier this year on 29 June 2026. This NOIRLab Image of the Week captures the seven bright stars of the… /img/7e6b3ab7b8db4c8d.jpg NASA's Hubble Telescope Reaches Milestone, Looks for Elusive Supernova An image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of galaxy cluster MACS J0417 is part of repeated observations to monitor for the reappearance of supernova Athena, which can help astronomers measure the expansion rate of the universe. /img/111d7f166a930b86.jpg Boom Year for Desert Blooms Carpets of wildflowers burst from arid, ochre-colored land in Western Australia following winter rains. The post Boom Year for Desert Blooms appeared first on NASA Science . /img/98c45e2299c90ab8.jpg NASA's Chandra Finds Unusual Objects in Pinwheel Galaxy Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have discovered a new class of objects behaving unlike any they have seen before. /img/f4f029257d53734c.jpg Chance Triple Alignment: Plane, Space Station, Sun This shot captured an unexpected silhouette. Which is it? It isn't the sunspots, the small dark regions caused by concentrated magnetic fields visible around the Sun's bright disk. Sunspots typically last for weeks and were expected, since these spots were seen previously. It isn’t the International Space Station (ISS), the small dark structure on the middle left. This is because the featured picture was planned… /img/16fbae4120346c59.jpg An Epic View of the Seasons The tilt in Earth's axis of rotation makes the apparent position of continents shift with the seasons in imagery from a NASA camera in deep space. The post An Epic View of the Seasons appeared first on NASA Science . /img/b3616151654fd64e.jpg Perseverance’s View of ‘Turquoise Bay’ Description NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture this 360-degree panorama of “Turquoise Bay,” a geologic area of interest in the “Margin Unit.” The 818 images used to create the natural-color panorama were captured between Oct. 5 and Oct. 16, 2023, the 933rd to 944th Martian days, or sols, of the mission. […] The post Perseverance’s View of ‘Turquoise Bay’ appeared first on NASA… /img/3a6d75148d5904da.jpg Cocoon Nebula Wide Field When does a nebula look like a comet? In this crowded starfield covering over two degrees within the high-flying constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), the eye is drawn to the Cocoon Nebula. A compact star forming region, the cosmic Cocoon punctuates a nebula bright in emission and reflection on the lower right, with a long trail of interstellar dust clouds to the left, making the entire complex appear a bit like a… /img/d18b1ebcdc170ce4.jpg A wheel fit for a giant In a cleanroom at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics ( MPE ) in Garching, Germany, two engineers look up at the heart of MICADO . One of the first instruments that will operate on ESO's Extremely Large Telescope ( ELT ) in Chile’s Atacama Desert, MICADO will observe the Universe in the infrared, and each slot in this giant rotating wheel carries a different filter that lets light through at… /img/e6c311fbf905aeab.jpg Arctic Melt Season Length Levels Off While the sea ice melt season has lengthened dramatically in most of the satellite era, the trend unexpectedly stabilized around 2010. The post Arctic Melt Season Length Levels Off appeared first on NASA Science . /img/0ac0f80a4af19a92.jpg Analemma over the Callanish Stones If you went outside at the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun's position change? A visual answer to that question is an analemma, a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at noon near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, UK. In the… /img/66af187fbe9e760e.jpg A Zodiacal Night Also known as the false dawn, a luminous band of zodiacal light is captured in this dark night skyscape. The serene view was recorded just before the beginning of astronomical twilight during September's star party at the remote Hanle Dark Sky Reserve, Ladakh, India, planet Earth. At about 4,500 meters altitude, the dark sky reserve presents a haven for hardy stargazing and astrophotography enthusiasts. While… /img/de9f9898ffe0815f.jpg COSI Telescope Comes Together UC Berkeley engineers and managers watch as the COSI (Compton Spectrometer and Imager) detector assembly is slowly raised from a table in this July 8, 2026, image. /img/00beb047381028b1.jpg Messier 33: The Triangulum Galaxy The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, Messier 33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy. M33 is over 50,000 light-years in diameter, third largest in the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way. About 3 million light-years from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of… /img/72dc8162853b9b43.jpg A galaxy spinning out of sync potm2609 - A galaxy spinning out of sync /img/72dc8162853b9b43.jpg A galaxy spinning out of sync Though the spiral galaxy in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret. This galaxy is NGC 4698, and it lies about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo . It’s one of over one thousand galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, the nearest large cluster of galaxies bound together by gravity. As a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way galaxy, NGC 4698 has spiral arms that… /img/169785b49558382d.jpg Lake Powell Drops to Record-Low Levels Snow drought and unusually warm temperatures in the Colorado Basin in 2026 helped drive down reservoir water storage in the U.S. West. The post Lake Powell Drops to Record-Low Levels appeared first on NASA Science . /img/ea96da24627c2066.jpg A Treasure Chest in the Carina Nebula This treasure chest is full of stars. The featured image was obtained with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and shows a dust pillar in the Carina Nebula inside our Galaxy, roughly 7500 light-years away. It is formed by interstellar gas and dust, and shaped by powerful stellar winds and radiation form neighboring stars like the nearby Eta Carinae stellar system which is more luminous than 5 million suns. The star… /img/7ff73c644f75a66a.jpg Summer Goes Out With a Heat Dome Temperature records toppled across the central and southern U.S. as the autumnal equinox approached. The post Summer Goes Out With a Heat Dome appeared first on NASA Science . /img/b1ed8d08d2126a27.jpg Three Faces of the Moon over Kitt Peak On 3 March 2026, the Moon showed us three of its “faces”: the full Moon, the blood Moon, and the distorted Moon. This image compares these views as seen from the U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) Kitt Peak National Observatory ( KPNO ) in Arizona, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. When full, the Moon is completely illuminated by the Sun. The full Moon appears on the left of the image, taken at 1:12 a.m., before the… /img/51266dfc120ab94a.jpg Three Faces of the Moon over Kitt Peak (Unannotated) On 3 March 2026, the Moon showed us three of its “faces”: the full Moon, the blood Moon, and the distorted Moon. This image compares these views as seen from the U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) Kitt Peak National Observatory ( KPNO ) in Arizona, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. An annotated version of this image was featured as a NOIRLab Image of the Week . Petr Horálek, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual… /img/2679c86bb21fd80c.jpg Indonesia's Anak Krakatau Anak Krakatau erupts ash and volcanic gases in this image acquired with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on Sept. 5, 2026. /img/44cd97aee0a7d012.jpg Curiosity Postcard Celebrates Rover’s 5,000th Day on Mars Description While parked at a sand ridge nicknamed “Chocolatal,” NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas at two times of day. The first was taken on Aug. 30, 2026, at 9:56 a.m. local Mars time; the second was taken on Sep. 2, 2026, at 5:39 p.m. local Mars time. Those […] The post Curiosity Postcard Celebrates Rover’s 5,000th Day on Mars appeared first on NASA… /img/c2c737fa18ec0da8.jpg Webb's View of M64 Sometimes where Hubble finds darkness, Webb sees light. An example is today’s composite images of Messier 64 (M64), a nearby spiral galaxy of many names. The dark band of dust partially blocking its bright core earned it the moniker “the Black Eye Galaxy.” Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) sees that dust, shown in red, as it absorbs and re-emits light from surrounding newborn stars. These young stars are… /img/011d96fba5324f3d.jpg Purple Haze Aurora 'Scuse me while some charged particles kiss the sky. The post Purple Haze Aurora appeared first on NASA Science . /img/44cd97aee0a7d012.jpg Curiosity Postcard Celebrates Rover’s 5,000th Day on Mars Description While parked at a sand ridge nicknamed “Chocolatal,” NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas at two times of day. The first was taken on Aug. 30, 2026, at 9:56 a.m. local Mars time; the second was taken on Sep. 2, 2026, at 5:39 p.m. local Mars time. Those […] /img/c69c85d930731bb0.jpg Artemis III Crew Visits NASA Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik (left) and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano view progress on the solid rocket booster integration in High Bay 3 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. /img/d4ab53229f5d4365.jpg Collage of cutouts of star-forming region IC 348 (Webb NIRCam image) This collage features a collection of cutouts from the massive star-forming region IC 348. Each of these six panels showcase features of interest that are visible throughout the field. 1: Star embedded in a nebula — This small portion of the field contains two stars deeply embedded in a cloud of gas and dust. The large star’s shorter-wavelength infrared light is absorbed by the dust, leaving it brightest at longer… /img/b593685df85ddcde.jpg Star-forming region IC 348 (NIRCam image) The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently observed IC 348, a star-forming region just 1000 light-years away. This is one of the largest Webb images released to the public so far. This near-infrared vista of IC 348 reveals a collection of objects called brown dwarfs, which are smaller than the smallest stars. Researchers used the unparalleled sensitivity of Webb’s NIRCam ( Near-Infrared Camera ) to track… /img/3f4e9d088cfb9756.jpg IC 348 Crop: Central star cluster This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar gas and dust reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars — what is known as a reflection nebula. The material also includes carbon-containing molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. The bright star closest to the centre of the… /img/f9b8ee0b8ace808e.jpg IC 348 Crop: Spiral galaxies This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows a few of the spiral galaxies that can be seen behind the clouds of gas that make up the nebula around IC 348. The nebula is located around 1000 light-years from Earth: these spiral galaxies are a thousand times further away than that, being millions of light-years distant. The small, featureless dots in the background are further galaxies, and these… /img/39906ff4b0efecc7.jpg IC 348 Crop: Gravitational lensing This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows an example of gravitational lensing hidden in the background of the star-forming region IC 348. The round blue dot in the centre of the image is a distant galaxy. The orange line which arcs around it on one side, and the small orange loop touching its centre, are both images of another, even more distant galaxy behind it. Because this orange galaxy… https://deepfield.news/gallery/2/ 2026-09-15 /img/cdf73c32314da94c.jpg IC 348 Crop: Herbig-Haro objects This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows stars and protostars in the vicinity of the star cluster IC 348. The long, narrow object that is oriented horizontally on the left side of this image is HH 797, which was featured previously as a Webb Picture of the Month . Upon close inspection, this source is revealed to be two protostars with nearly parallel outflows. To the right and oriented… /img/724fe03d8f9b65a8.jpg IC 348 Crop: Stars and faint outflows This image showcases a portion of the larger IC 348 field to highlight two stars among the outskirts of the nebula. These two stars appear equally-sized, because they are similarly bright, but one is orange while the other is blue. The reason for this is that the orange star is more deeply embedded in the clouds of interstellar gas and dust; these clouds block more of the shorter-wavelength infrared light that the… /img/dcc50e4aa90b5e89.jpg IC 348 Crop: Star embedded in a nebula This image showcases a portion of the larger IC 348 field to highlight two stars embedded within a cloud of gas and dust. The central star, despite being brighter and appearing larger than its companion to the lower-right, is in fact more deeply wrapped in the clouds of gas and dust. These clouds block more of the shorter-wavelength infrared light that the star emits, leaving it brightest in the longer wavelengths… /img/89f4584a35367441.jpg A Daytime Eclipse: Moon Occults Venus There was something behind the clouds. Upon close inspection, it was the Moon, which was hard to see yesterday around noon above the small village of Cessy, France. But soon, it was not only the Moon. As expected, a bright dot suddenly appeared from behind the Moon -- the planet Venus far in the distance. Captured in the single featured exposure, both appeared to show a crescent phase. The Moon's crescent was quite… /img/07dd830f4d55d6b3.jpg An Accidental Impact Crater Discovery An amateur astronomer scouting online satellite maps for campsites in Quebec found an impact crater instead. The post An Accidental Impact Crater Discovery appeared first on NASA Science . /img/ea99499864a0876f.jpg NASA Kicks Off Inspiration Tour with Steelers vs. Falcons Game Fans pose for a photo with an astronaut in the NASA Experience Zone at an NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Atlanta Falcons at Acrisure Stadium, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. /img/a9b9750e249294d6.jpg Where Your Elements Came From The hydrogen in your body and present in every molecule of water came from the Big Bang. There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the oxygen. Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars… /img/38066d1b282a1a37.jpg A starry night, in another galaxy When we look up at our own night sky, most of the stars we see are the familiar residents of our Milky Way galaxy. Only a few more distant objects, like the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds , our neighbouring galaxies, peek into our little corner of the cosmos. What this Picture of the Week shows us is a completely different stellar landscape, zooming in to the centre of the Large Magellanic Cloud to reveal what… /img/2bf53cb66b3080b4.jpg An Early Look at Fall Color in Canada Reds, yellows, and oranges are already sweeping across tundra landscapes in Nunavut. The post An Early Look at Fall Color in Canada appeared first on NASA Science . /img/0faec3ac9f3ae5b5.jpg A starry night, in another galaxy When we look up at our own night sky, most of the stars we see are the familiar residents of our Milky Way galaxy. Only a few more distant objects, like the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds , our neighbouring galaxies, peek into our little corner of the cosmos. What this Picture of the Week shows us is a completely different stellar landscape, zooming in to the centre of the Small Magellanic Cloud to reveal what… /img/9200ee06ba4b4197.jpg Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun Bright sunlight glints as long dark shadows mark this image of the surface of the Moon. It was taken on July 20, 1969, by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first to walk on the lunar surface. Pictured is the mission's lunar module, the Eagle, and spacesuited lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin is unfurling a long sheet of foil also known as the Solar Wind Composition Experiment. Exposed facing the Sun, the… /img/bc0554381e4d0993.jpg NASA's Chandra Spots Galactic Gem Galaxies are like cosmic gems, each with characteristics including size and shape that make them distinct. A gallery from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes displays a collection of galactic images that showcase this variety. /img/47f0681864fac444.jpg M83: The Southern Pinwheel Beautiful and bright spiral galaxy M83 lies some twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. Prominent spiral arms traced by dark dust lanes and blue star clusters lend this galaxy its popular name, the Southern Pinwheel. Still, reddish star forming regions that dot this cosmic pinwheel's spiral arms have suggested another nickname, the Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. A… /img/3f0db24d6a1ef2c7.jpg Monterrey Amid Mountains Mexico’s second-largest metropolitan area borders on folded rock layers of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The post Monterrey Amid Mountains appeared first on NASA Science . /img/b38837923d20b64c.png Dust and Water in Sagittarius A* Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers have discovered that dust and water can form and survive surprisingly close to the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. /img/0cf6f42152a3acbf.jpg LDN 1295: The Giraffe Nebula What does this image look like to you? Many see a giraffe facing right, with neck stretched high and long legs mid-stride (but some may see a squirrel instead). The featured image shows LDN 1295, also called the Giraffe Nebula, in the constellation of the mythical queen of Aethiopia (Cassiopeia). It is an object in the Lynds Catalogue of Dark Nebulas, compiled in 1962 by American astronomer Beverly Lynds, a pioneer… /img/4488ca5cbf3c65da.jpg Dust Storm Sweeps Over Mali At a time of year when dust storm activity winds down, a plume of dust blanketed parts of the West African nation and its neighbors. The post Dust Storm Sweeps Over Mali appeared first on NASA Science . /img/6ab9b275bfc5f289.jpg Mid-70s Spring in the Sonoran Desert Winter rains awakened this lush field of California poppies near U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) Kitt Peak National Observatory ( KPNO ), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Carey Portnoy, a former Technical Assistant at Kitt Peak, captured this image sometime between 1975 and 1977. This area along Arizona State Route 86 is known for its abundance of springtime wildflowers, but it is full of interesting desert flora… /img/bb2ae653f43ea577.jpg Artemis II Crew at NASA Marshall The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission visited NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama on Sept. 1, 2026. /img/637b5749e84f5ccf.jpg Anak Krakatau Rumbles Again A powerful eruption from the Indonesian volcano lofted ash into the atmosphere, disrupting thousands of flights and degrading air quality. The post Anak Krakatau Rumbles Again appeared first on NASA Science . /img/1f178e5a237598a2.jpg Most distant galaxy proto-supercluster (unannotated) Captured within this image is the newly discovered galaxy proto- supercluster named COSMOS-z3.1-A. A proto-supercluster is a loose collection of galaxies that will one day coalesce into a stable ‘cluster-of-clusters’ of galaxies. Having been observed when the Universe was only 2.1 billion years old, COSMOS-z3.1-A is the earliest, most distant proto-supercluster ever found, and it boasts an impressive mass 5000 times… /img/296e683719557f03.jpg Superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud N44 is a complex nebula filled with glowing hydrogen gas, dark lanes of dust, massive stars, and many populations of stars of different ages. One of its most distinctive features, however, is the dark, starry gap called a “superbubble,” visible in this Hubble Space Telescope image in the upper central region. /img/397869f76c175c04.jpg Hubble: Decagon Around Saturn's South Pole Why are Saturn’s poles geometric? Saturn’s North Pole has been known to be surrounded by a hexagonal (6 sides) cloud since discovery in 1987 in data taken by NASA’s Voyager spacecrafts, which quickly flew past the ringed world in the early 1980s. Now, recent observations of Saturn by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a slightly different geometric cloud pattern around the South Pole: a decagon (10 sides). The… /img/64da1f460b2c362f.jpg The Otherworldly Geology of Vasquez Rocks Layers of sedimentary rock that jut from the Soledad Basin at surprising angles have long enthralled television and film producers, including the team behind Star Trek. The post The Otherworldly Geology of Vasquez Rocks appeared first on NASA Science . /img/b1551fe8f99d3b69.jpg The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed. IC 5070 (an official designation) is divided from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The deep featured picture from Utah, USA incorporates 25 hours of exposure and brings out great details of this filamentary dust. The Pelican Nebula receives much study because it is a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas… /img/524c1a540362a765.jpg A Bright Spot at Mount Michael With austral winter nearing its end, clouds cleared for a satellite view of volcanic activity in the remote South Atlantic. The post A Bright Spot at Mount Michael appeared first on NASA Science . /img/e9feefa124cf87df.jpg It’s a new MOON(S)! Today’s Picture of the Week celebrates the intricate design of the Multi Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph, or MOONS , a new instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope ( VLT ) that recently performed its first observations . Shown here, suspended in darkness, are two of MOONS’ infrared cameras. These multi-tiered shiny metal structures, covered in bolts and cables, will be used to probe the construction of… /img/d6d9193ddb188bab.jpg Pluto in Enhanced Color Pluto is more colorful than we can see. Color data and high-resolution images of our Solar System's most famous dwarf planet, taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in 2015 July, have been digitally combined to give an enhanced-color view of this ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface. The featured enhanced color image is not only esthetically pretty but scientifically useful… /img/cad048196a0b6e2d.jpg Chasing the Moon's Shadow Chasing the shadow of a New Moon, NASA’s WB-57F high altitude research aircraft took to the skies off the coast of Iceland on August 12 to observe a total solar eclipse. At 50,000 feet the aircraft was piloted along the precisely determined path of totality to maximize its time in the Moon’s shadow. A suite of high-resolution cameras on board was able to record eclipse data from above the clouds, dust, and… /img/d5cca27a922671f5.jpg Lunar Occultation of Venus On Wednesday, June 17, skywatchers across the United States—and parts of Canada—enjoyed a rare event: a daytime lunar occultation of Venus. A lunar occultation occurs when the Moon moves directly in front of another celestial object from our viewpoint on Earth, briefly hiding it from sight. /img/b51f102ffb8a20ce.jpg Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola, is the Hawaiian name given to this image of a pair of spiral galaxies locked in a mutual gravitational embrace. Some 200 million light-years distant toward the high flying constellation Pegasus their spectacular, galactic scale merger is captured in sharp detail in the image from the 8.1 meter Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, Hawai‘i. The galaxy pair, known as NGC 7253 and Arp… /img/65c1e307c642541b.jpg A Trio of Tropical Cyclones in the Pacific The Pacific was buzzing with storms while the Atlantic was notably quiet. The post A Trio of Tropical Cyclones in the Pacific appeared first on NASA Science . /img/d3dcbf424c5e6ca7.jpg Igniting Roman's Journey Now on a three-month, million-mile journey to its final orbit, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon reveal the universe’s darkest secrets. The mission launched at 7:26 a.m. EDT on Aug. 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. /img/ce31b0675bccd968.jpg The Eclipse and the Stork How do animals react to a total solar eclipse? The featured image shows a stork roosting on her nest in Poland at a partial phase of the recent total solar eclipse. If you are lucky enough to experience a total eclipse somewhere quiet and close to nature, you may be able to notice unusual daytime animal behaviors. During totality, you may hear nighttime sounds like crickets and frogs and see fireflies. In the dark… /img/358d1d588d8d6c1f.jpg A superbubble scene potm2608 - A superbubble scene /img/358d1d588d8d6c1f.jpg A superbubble scene This sprawling cosmic vista and subject of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month comes from the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC. The LMC is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit our Milky Way galaxy. At just 160 000 light-years away, the LMC offers a close look at highly active stellar birthsites like the nebula shown here. This nebula is named LHA 120-N44, or N44 for short, and it’s located in the… /img/19131f5bcd957a88.jpg Peatland Fires Darken Skies in Indonesia With Indonesia gripped by drought, fires are smoldering on the surface and underground. The post Peatland Fires Darken Skies in Indonesia appeared first on NASA Science . /img/e5e0c0e231a25f9b.jpg Comet C/2025 K1 Caught in Color! The shattered remains of comet C/2025 K1 appear in color in this 2025 image from Gemini North . Gemini North is one half of the International Gemini Observatory , supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This color image of comet C/2025 K1 was taken on 24 December 2025, following earlier observations from 11 November and 6 December 2025. This comet has been… /img/c88337cc05d7bc13.jpg Decagon on Saturn’s south pole (single filter image) A single wavelength of light from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides a particularly clear view of the 10-sided atmospheric wave discovered encircling Saturn’s south pole. The feature, labeled “decagon,” is embedded within one of Saturn’s powerful jet streams. The wave is centered around 63 degrees south latitude, and its apparent position shifts slightly depending on the wavelength of light observed… /img/c204f597277b5766.jpg August Lunar Eclipse Rises Over Louisiana A lunar eclipse is visible over southern Louisiana. The lunar eclipse was visible throughout much of North and South America and part of Europe and Africa between Aug. 27-28. The Full Moon slipped through Earth’s shadow on Aug. 27, continuing into Aug. 28 for some parts of the world, resulting in the lunar eclipse. At maximum eclipse, the Moon takes on a dramatic dark, ruddy or coppery tint along the covered edge… /img/e5e0c0e231a25f9b.jpg Comet C/2025 K1 Caught in Color! The shattered remains of comet C/2025 K1 appear in color in this 2025 image from Gemini North . Gemini North is one half of the International Gemini Observatory , supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This color image of comet C/2025 K1 was taken on 24 December 2025, following earlier observations from 11 November and 6 December 2025. This comet has been… /img/2d6f02e6ca2df5b4.jpg Solar Eclipses and Culture Pretend you have never heard of a solar eclipse. The Sun’s behavior has been predictable your whole life. One day, you witness the sky transform as it does in today’s spliced image spanning two hours of the August 12, 2026 solar eclipse. The Sun disappears, leaving behind a bright, empty ring. What would you think had happened? Humans have interpreted eclipses in countless ways throughout history, embedding beliefs… /img/b1b6bbdd9e7ab7a5.jpg Drought Intensifies Across Puerto Rico Rainfall deficits and high temperatures have created unusually dry conditions and have spurred water shortages on much of the tropical archipelago. The post Drought Intensifies Across Puerto Rico appeared first on NASA Science . /img/1055bc745fbc6e38.jpg Project Hōkūlani Galaxy Presentation Project Hōkūlani intern Mylin Wilson describes what she learned about galaxies for her end-of-internship presentation at the International Gemini Observatory. /img/23bd02a7aa0d4fc5.jpg Project Hōkūlani Interns Shadow Nighttime Operations Project Hōkūlani interns shadowed a night of telescope observations with Science Operations Specialists, Leila Alamos and Sunny Stewart, to better understand how scientific data and beautiful astronomical images are captured by the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea. /img/d8784b502575f7a9.jpg Project Hōkūlani Interns Fall 2025 Project Hōkūlani interns Alia Tamanha, Raiyan Rahman, and Rafan Rahman visited the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea to learn about telescope operations and the diversity of careers that exist on the mauna . /img/de0d95baa7a36475.jpg Project Hōkūlani Stargazing on Maunakea Project Hōkūlani interns learn how to operate the Maunakea Visitor Information Station telescopes to host stargazing for their friends and family on the last day of their internship at the International Gemini Observatory. /img/21953ddd7baa7a50.jpg Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola is the Hawaiian name given to this image of NGC 7253 — a pair of spiral galaxies caught in each other’s gravity. This image was captured by the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, one half of the International Gemini Observatory , partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and operated by NSF NOIRLab. The name of the image, which translates to “The Twin Spirits…