Shine bright, NGC 5033 💖

The glowing heart of this galaxy is called an active galactic nucleus.

Seen at the center of this #hubbleclassic view, it's powered by a supermassive black hole and shines brightly across the whole electromagnetic spectrum.

NGC 5033 is located about 40 million light-years away, in the constellation Canes Venatici. It has many similar qualities to our home Milky Way Galaxy: NGC 5033 is also about 100,000 light-years across, and has spiral arms dotted with blue patches of ongoing star formation.

Its relative proximity to Earth makes it an ideal target for astronomers to study its active galactic nucleus in detail.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt

#nasa #hubble #classic #galaxy #space #stars #science #astronomy #universe #telescope

Tall, dark, and handsome 🌟

The nebula IRAS 05437+2502 billows out among the bright stars and dark dust clouds that surround it in this #hubbleclassic image.

It's located in the constellation of Taurus, close to the central plane of our Milky Way Galaxy.

The image of this nebula actually came about as part of a “snapshot” survey. These are observations that are fitted into Hubble’s busy schedule if and when possible. Because of this, the nebula hasn't been studied in great detail and its exact nature remains unclear.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble, R. Sahai and NASA

#nasa #hubble #classic #nebula #stars #space #science #astronomy #universe

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is a lot like this other galaxy pictured here: NGC 6744.
This #hubbleclassic view shows another spiral galaxy that has a prominent central region full of older, yellow stars – just like we do. It also has dusty spiral arms interlaced with regions of pink and blue. The blue sites are full of young star clusters, while the pink ones are regions of active star formation.
However, NGC 6744 spans over 200,000 light-years across. That's twice as big as the Milky Way's diameter!

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt
#nasa #hubble #classic #galaxy #space #science #astronomy #stars #universe

Let’s go on a journey to the center of our galaxy 🌌
Deep in the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy lie more than half a million stars. These stars are part of a massive nuclear star cluster clumped around a central supermassive black hole about 4 million times the mass of our Sun.
Hubble gives us a sharp view in infrared, piercing through the dust that obscures the star cluster. Scientists translated the infrared light into colors our eyes can see, and mapped the movement of the stars over four years.
The result is this #hubbleclassic, stitching a 50-light-year span of stars together from 27,000 light-years away!

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA, Acknowledgment: T. Do, A.Ghez (UCLA), V. Bajaj (STScI)
#nasa #hubble #classic #galaxy #space #science #stars #astronomy #universe

The spindly, spidery filaments seen throughout this image show why we call this cosmic object the Tarantula Nebula!
This #hubbleclassic view only shows a small portion of the sprawling star-forming region. It's located about 170,000 light-years away and resides within the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a small satellite galaxy that orbits our home Milky Way Galaxy.
Home to the most massive stars ever seen, the Tarantula Nebula is also known as 30 Doradus and Caldwell 103.
Plus, it's home to an interesting structure of "bubbles" at lower left, which make up the so-called Honeycomb Nebula!

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)
#nasa #hubble #classic #nebula #stars #space #science #astronomy #universe