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

We can learn things from our neighbors! Take the Large Magellanic Cloud for example.

It’s a nearby dwarf galaxy that’s home to lots of star clusters like this one, NGC 1898. Because the LMC is close to us we can use it like a laboratory to study star formation.

NGC 1898 is a globular cluster, which is a roughly spherical group of stars bound together by their mutual gravity. These sorts of clusters are some of the oldest known objects in the universe.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

#meetyourcosmicneighbors #nasa #hubble #space #stars #science #astronomy #universe #cosmos #telescope

📍 NGC 346
➡️ 210,000 light-years
🏠 Small Magellanic Cloud

Nestled within one of our Milky Way’s closest galaxy neighbors, the Small Magellanic Cloud, the star cluster NGC 346 is home to hot stars that unleash a torrent of radiation and energetic outflows. This erodes the denser portions of gas and dust in the surrounding nebula, N66.

Dozens of hot, high-mass stars shine in NGC 346. They might look a little unusual in this new view because Hubble captured them with its unique ability to observe in ultraviolet light.

Ultraviolet light helps astronomers understand more about star formation and evolution. These specific observations were gathered to learn more about how star formation shapes the interstellar medium, which is the gas distributed throughout seemingly empty space, in a low-metallicity galaxy like the SMC.

Astronomers call any element heavier than hydrogen and helium “metals,” and the SMC contains fewer metals when compared to most parts of our Milky Way. This condition makes it an excellent example of a galaxy similar to those that existed in our early universe, when very few heavy elements were around to incorporate.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and C. Murray (Space Telescope Science Institute); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

#meetyourcosmicneighbors #nasa #hubble #stars #science #astronomy #universe #cosmos #telescope #space

📍VV124
➡️ 4 million light-years
🏠 Ursa Major constellation

As you #meetyourcosmicneighbors, take a look at this new Hubble view of a dwarf irregular galaxy.

It’s relatively isolated, and because of this, astronomers are studying this galactic neighbor to try and determine if VV124 is a relatively undisturbed, older galaxy. Astronomy theories suggest that the lowest mass dwarf galaxies may have been some of the very first to form in our universe!

Hubble’s incredible resolution is able to detect the individual stars within VV124, even at its densest parts.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, K. Chiboucas (NOIRLab - Gemini North (HI), and M. Monelli (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

#nasa #hubble #galaxy #space #stars #astronomy #universe #cosmos #telescope