Wednesday, Jun 03, 2026

Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

Monday, 25 May 2026

Crystal Ball Nebula

NGC 1514, nicknamed the Crystal Ball Nebula, is showcased in this enchanting image captured by Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope, located on Maunakea in Hawai‘i. Gemini North is one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab.

German–British astronomer William Herschel discovered the Crystal Ball Nebula in 1790. It’s located in the constellation Taurus, near the border of Perseus. While, culturally, crystal balls are known for divining the future, the Crystal Ball Nebula provides us with a snapshot of the final stages of a star’s life from long ago. It sits around 1500 light-years from Earth. This means the light captured in this image left its source around 1500 years ago, traveling across the Universe before finally reaching Gemini North.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Tuesday, 26 May 2026

Martian South Pole

This is the highest-resolution view of the water ice-rich south polar cap of Mars captured by NASA’s Psyche mission after it made its close approach with the planet for a gravity assist. The image scale is around 1.14 kilometers per pixel. The cap itself extends across more than 700 kilometers. The image was acquired with Imager A on May 15, 2026, at about 1:53 p.m. PDT.

With Mars in the rearview mirror, the spacecraft will soon resume use of its solar-electric propulsion system to make a beeline to the main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. When it arrives in August 2029, it will insert itself into orbit around the asteroid Psyche, which is thought to be the partial core of a planetesimal, a building block of an early planet.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), with image processing credited to Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Wednesday, 27 May 2026

Ghostly Cloud Alive with Star Formation

While this eerie NASA Hubble Space Telescope image may look ghostly, it’s actually full of new life! Lupus 3 is a star-forming cloud about 500 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. Bright T Tauri stars shine at the left, bottom right, and upper center, while other young stellar objects dot the image.

Protostars are considered T Tauri stars when their enveloping cloud of gas and dust dissipates from radiation and stellar winds; they’re usually less than 10 million years old and vary in brightness, both randomly and periodically, due to the environment and nature of a forming star.

Credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Science

Thursday, 28 May 2026

The Impressive Rays of Mercury's Hokusai Crater

This mosaic of images taken on Oct. 6, 2008, by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows an impact crater on Mercury named Hokusai. The crater has an impressive system of rays that extends more than about 1,000 kilometers across the planet. Rays form when something impacts the surface of a celestial body. Material is kicked up from beneath the surface and thrown outward from the crater.

Mercury and other airless planetary bodies are constantly bombarded by micrometeoroids and energetic ions, producing a process known as space weathering. Craters with bright rays are thought to be relatively young because the rays are still visible, indicating they have had less exposure to weathering than craters without rays. Hokusai crater is named for Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849).

Credit: NASA, ESA, K. Alatalo (STScI); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Friday, 29 May 2026

Galaxy in Transition

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals an enigmatic galaxy with a bright center and a face that hints at spiral structure, yet it holds no obvious spiral arms. Reddish-brown clumps and filaments of dust partially obscure the galaxy’s full face, while red, blue, and orange light from distant galaxies shines through its diffuse outer regions, dotting the inky-black background.

NGC 1266 is a lenticular galaxy located some 100 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus (the Celestial River). Astronomers classify lenticulars as transitional galaxies that represent an evolutionary bridge between spirals and ellipticals. Lenticulars are “lens-shaped” and have a bright central bulge and flattened disk-like spirals, but they have no spiral arms and little to no star formation like ellipticals.

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