It’s always better when we’re together 💕

Hubble ✨ + Webb 🌌 = A Cosmic Duet

The open star clusters **NGC 460** and **NGC 456** lie in the Small Magellanic Cloud — a nearby dwarf galaxy orbiting our own. These clusters are stellar nurseries where stars are not only being born, but also shaping the clouds that formed them.

This new composite image blends:

• **Hubble’s visible & near-infrared view**, showing bright, glowing gas shaped by intense starlight


• **Webb’s deep infrared vision**, revealing hidden dust structures and faint young stars still forming

What Makes These Clusters Special:
• They are “open” clusters — loose groups of stars born together from the same cloud
• Their stars range from newborn, hot blue giants to older, cooler stars
• The interplay of gas, wind, and gravity keeps triggering *new* star formation
• They show what star birth looked like *billions of years ago* when the universe had fewer heavy elements

A Living Star-Birth Cycle 💫
Stars are forming → producing powerful winds → sculpting the nebula → causing more collapses → forming more stars.

It’s a cosmic chain reaction — a heartbeat of creation still echoing across the galaxy.

Why This Matters:
Because the Small Magellanic Cloud has fewer heavy elements than our Milky Way, it acts like a “time machine,” letting astronomers study how early galaxies formed stars when the universe was young.

Conclusion:
In this stunning blend of Hubble and Webb data, we see both the **spark** (newborn stars) and the **sculptor** (the clouds they shape). It’s a reminder that beauty in the universe is rarely created alone — it’s made together. 💞

📖 Source: NASA / ESA / CSA
📸 Image Processing: NASA / STScI

#jameswebb #hubble #starclusters #ngc460 #ngc456 #smallmagellaniccloud #astronomy #cosmicnursery #spaceisbeautiful

Hey, Saturn! 👋

This weekend, the ringed planet reaches opposition. That means it's orbiting opposite to the Sun, so Saturn will appear brighter in the night sky – be sure to look up!

Hubble captured this view of Saturn when it was near opposition back in 2020. Two if its icy moons are also visible in this image: Mimas at right, and Enceladus at bottom.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and the OPAL Team

#nasa #hubble #saturn #planet #stargazing #astronomy #astrophotogrpahy #universe #cosmos #telescope

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

📍 Andromeda Galaxy
➡️ 2.5 million light-years
🏠 Andromeda constellation

We’ve reached our final #meetyourcosmicneighbors destination: the Andromeda Galaxy! With almost the same mass as our home galaxy, Andromeda is headed for a collision with the Milky Way in 2-4 billion years. For now, we can admire its beauty from afar.

As a spiral galaxy, Andromeda’s winding arms are one of its most remarkable features. Hubble zoomed in to get a close look at its rosy tendrils, revealing swathes of ionized gas. These regions — which are common in spiral and irregular galaxies — often indicate the presence of recent star formation.

To investigate the spiral galaxy’s stellar properties, Hubble’s instruments peered through hedges of gas and observed a valuable sample of stars.

This concludes our intergalactic journey for Meet Your Cosmic Neighbors! We hope you enjoyed this series, and that you look forward to more Hubble science.

Image credits: NASA, ESA, M. Boyer (Space Telescope Science Institute), and J. Dalcanton (University of Washington); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

#nasa #hubble #andromeda #galaxy #space #science #stars #astronomy #universe

📍 NGC 261
➡️ 200,000 light-years
🏠 Tucana constellation

This emission nebula, located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, blooms a brilliant red in our next #meetyourcosmicneighbors image!

NGC 261 is home to numerous stars hot enough to irradiate surrounding hydrogen gas, causing the cloud to emit a pinkish-red glow.

The region contains molecular clouds, which are extremely dense and compact regions of gas and dust. Here, cradled in the cold areas of molecular hydrogen, is where most stars form.

The combined power of Hubble’s instruments form a wide spectral coverage that helped capture the star-forming properties within the nebula.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and L. C. Johnson (Northwestern University); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

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