Celestial Star Clusters

Astrophotography showcasing star clusters, galaxies, and celestial objects, presenting a beautiful array of stars against a dark night sky.

A wide field view around the bright star Sirius with the Messier 41 star cluster below it.
A wide field view around the bright star Sirius with the Messier 41 star cluster below it.
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This still from a sequence of images shows comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko moving against the background star field.
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This image of the dwarf spiral galaxy NGC 247 was taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer on October 13, 2003, in a single orbit exposure of 1600 seconds.
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Rigel is the brightest star in the constellation Orion
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Cat's Eye Nebula, NGC 6543.
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Celestial Objects
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Supernova Core pulsar neutron star, Space galaxy Background. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Retouched image
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Since its launch five years ago, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer has photographed hundreds of millions of galaxies in ultraviolet light. M106 is one of those galaxies, 22 light years away.
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A Lenticular Galaxy on Edge
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Planetary Nebula Abell31
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This image highlights the hidden spiral arms (blue) that were discovered around the nearby galaxy NGC 4625 by the ultraviolet eyes of NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer.
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Engraving depicting the Great Comet of 1811. Dated 19th Century
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Messier 12 globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus.
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Space galaxy Background. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Retouched image
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NASA image release October 5, 2010 Hubble Space Telescope observations of comet 103P/Hartley 2, taken on September 25, are helping in the planning for a November 4 flyby of the comet by NASA's Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI) spacecraft. Analysis of the new Hubble data shows that the nucleus has a diameter of approximately 0.93 miles (1.5 km), which is consistent with previous estimates. The comet is in a highly active state, as it approaches the Sun. The Hubble data show that the coma is remarkably uniform, with no evidence for the types of outgassing jets seen from most "Jupiter Family" comets, of which Hartley 2 is a member. Jets can be produced when the dust emanates from a few specific icy regions, while most of the surface is covered with relatively inert, meteoritic-like material. In stark contrast, the activity from Hartley 2's nucleus appears to be more uniformly distributed over its entire surface, perhaps indicating a relatively "young" surface t
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How did scientists know that NASA's Voyager spacecraft entered interstellar space Increase in the density of charged particles was the key piece of evidence. Our sun sits in a bubble, called the heliosphere, carved out by wind emitted from the hot sun.
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Barred spiral galaxy NGC4236 in Draco constellation
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This little-known galaxy, officially named J04542829-6625280, but most often referred to as LEDA 89996, is a classic example of a spiral galaxy. The galaxy is much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The disk-shaped galaxy is seen face on, revealing the winding structure of the spiral arms. Dark patches in these spiral arms are in fact dust and gas the raw materials for new stars. The many young stars that form in these regions make the spiral arms appear bright and bluish. The galaxy sits in a vibrant area of the night sky within the constellation of Dorado (The Swordfish), and appears very close to the Large Magellanic Cloud one of the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. The observations were carried out with the high resolution channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
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Comet 1P/Halley as taken March 8, 1986 by W. Liller, Easter Island, part of the International Halley Watch
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This montage combines observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft showing three examples of colliding galaxies from a new photo atlas of galactic 'train wrecks.'
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NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer found a tail behind a galaxy called IC 3418. This star-studded tail was created as the galaxy plunged into gas in a family of galaxies known as the Virgo cluster.
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The Enceladus Ring
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Near-Infrared Image Of The Milky Way.
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Photograph of Elliptical Galaxy H.1, 163 (NGC 3115) in the constellation of Sextans. Dated 20th century
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Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy.
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Photograph of spiral galaxy (M 64) in constellation Coma Berenices, showing obscuring matter in central regions. Dated 20th century
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Galaxy in space, illustration.
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The Triangulum Galaxy.
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Juno's Radiation Monitoring Investigation used the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) star camera to collect this image of Jupiter's ring -- half in Jupiter's shadow -- during Juno's 13th science orbit on July 16, 2018. The image was collected from a unique high latitude vantage point (55 degrees north latitude) just as Juno flew inside the ring. The bright inner band is Jupiter's main ring, the halo ring is to its left, and the gossamer rings are to its right.
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star sky Meteor going through the dark blue star sky Copyright: xZoonar.com/gannaxacheretx 2342435
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Portion of Plate b41215 of Halley's comet taken on April 21, 1910 from Arequipa, Peru with the 8-inch Bache Doublet, Voigtlander. The exposure was 30 minutes
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This ultraviolet color image of the galaxy UGC10445 was taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer on June 7 and June 14, 2003. UGC10445 is a spiral galaxy located 40 million light-years from Earth.
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Northwestern North Dakota is one of the least-densely populated parts of the United States. Cities and people are scarce, but satellite imagery shows the area has been aglow at night in recent years. The reason: the area is home to the Bakken shale formation, a site where oil production is booming.Companies hoping to extract oil from the Bakken formation have drilled hundreds of new wells in the last few years; natural gas often bubbles up to the surface as part of the process. Lacking the infrastructure to pipe the gas away, many drillers simply burn it in a practice known as flaring.On November 12, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of widespread gas flaring throughout the area. Many of the specks of light are evidence of gas flaring, though others may be the lights around drilling equipment. Some of the brighter areas correspond to towns and cities including Williston, Minot, and Dickinson.The ima