6+ hour, 33+ min ago  (145+ words) NASA (. gov) Astronomy Picture of the Day Explanation: Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula. They are gravitationally contracting in pillars of dense gas and dust. The intense radiation of these newly-formed bright stars is causing surrounding material to…...

14+ hour, 35+ min ago  (317+ words) NASA (. gov) Astronomy Picture of the Day Explanation: What is happening inside this unusual nebula? Planetary nebula Tc 1, captured here in exquisite detail by the James Webb Space Telescope, is the celestial site where buckyballs were first identified in 2010. Buckminsterfullerene…...

1+ day, 5+ hour ago  (80+ words) NASA (. gov) Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply. NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices; A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U....

2+ day, 5+ hour ago  (181+ words) NASA (. gov) Astronomy Picture of the Day Explanation: A gorgeous spiral galaxy, Messier 104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes. Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge of stars, the swath…...

3+ day, 5+ hour ago  (172+ words) NASA (. gov) Astronomy Picture of the Day Explanation: What do you see in this crystal ball? The featured image shows NGC 1514, known as the Crystal Ball Nebula, observed by the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, in Hawai'i. NGC 1514 is 1, 500 light-years…...

4+ day, 6+ hour ago  (165+ words) NASA (. gov) Astronomy Picture of the Day Explanation: What is a pair of headphones doing in the sky? Today's image features the Headphone Nebula, also known as PK 164 +31. 1 or Jones-Emberson 1. This planetary nebula, the remnant of a dying Sun-like star,…...

5+ day, 4+ hour ago  (46+ words) NASA (. gov) Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply. NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices; A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U....

1+ week, 1+ day ago  (149+ words) NASA (. gov) Astronomy Picture of the Day Explanation: After the Crab Nebula, this giant star cluster is the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the largest globular star…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago  (172+ words) NASA (. gov) Astronomy Picture of the Day Explanation: What are these strange space globules? Situated in rich star fields and glowing hydrogen gas, these opaque clouds of interstellar dust and gas are so large they might be able to form…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago  (180+ words) NASA (. gov) Astronomy Picture of the Day Explanation: This cosmic snapshot covers a field of view over twice as wide as the full Moon within the boundaries of the high-flying constellation Cygnus. Made using astronomical narrowband filters, the image highlights…...