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NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured a breathtaking panorama of the Red Planet surface depicted in false-color under a blue sky.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have teamed up to identify a new possible example of a rare class of black holes. Called NGC 6099 HLX-1, this bright X-ray source seems to reside in a compact star cluster in a giant elliptical galaxy.

Science: NASA, ESA, CXC, Yi-Chi Chang (National Tsing Hua University); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory teamed up to identify a new possible example of a rare class of black holes, identified by X-ray emission (in purple) in this image released on July 24, 2025. Called NGC 6099 HLX-1, this bright X-ray source seems to reside in a compact star cluster in a giant elliptical galaxy. These rare black holes are called intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) and weigh between a few hundred to a few 100,000 times the mass of our Sun.

Learn more about IMBHs and what studying them can tell us about the universe.

Image credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CXC, Yi-Chi Chang (National Tsing Hua University); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Science: NASA, ESA, CXC, Yi-Chi Chang (National Tsing Hua University); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory teamed up to identify a new possible example of a rare class of black holes, identified by X-ray emission (in purple) in this image released on July 24, 2025. Called NGC 6099 HLX-1, this bright X-ray source seems to reside in a compact star cluster in a giant elliptical galaxy. These rare black holes are called intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) and weigh between a few hundred to a few 100,000 times the mass of our Sun.

Learn more about IMBHs and what studying them can tell us about the universe.

Image credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CXC, Yi-Chi Chang (National Tsing Hua University); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Ahead of Alien: Earth's two-episode premiere, we talked to series creator Noah Hawley and executive producer David W. Zucker.

A perfect storm of conditions priming the atmosphere for extreme heat could result in devastating droughts and deadly temperatures lasting for weeks across Europe

A perfect storm of conditions priming the atmosphere for extreme heat could result in devastating droughts and deadly temperatures lasting for weeks across Europe

While moonlight might steal the spotlight, it won't steal the Perseids' show.

The latest observations of 3I/ATLAS suggest it resembles comets from the outer reaches of our solar system, but may be smaller than initially estimated

The latest observations of 3I/ATLAS suggest it resembles comets from the outer reaches of our solar system, but may be smaller than initially estimated

It’s a disappointing star projector, but the Discovery Space Projector has some nice scientific images of moons and planets.

The LaView Galaxy Star Projector posits itself as a premium option, but doesn’t quite live up to the competition.

New Hubble Telescope imagery of the interstellar interloper comet 3I/ATLAS reveals a dusty coma and the beginning of a tail.

Scientists have spotted a mysterious mineral on Mars that may be new to science — and could help reveal some Red Planet mysteries.

Week in images: 04-08 August 2025

Discover our week through the lens

A survey of more than 1,000 physicists finds deep disagreements in what quantum theories mean in the real world

The MetOp-SG-A1 weather satellite is loaded onto the Ariane 6 launch adapter as part of a mission for the European Space Agency.

The first analysis of mushroom bitterness reveals ultrapotent compounds

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Hubble Captures a Tarantula This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a portion of the Tarantula Nebula. ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures incredible details in the dusty clouds of a star-forming factory called the Tarantula Nebula. Most of the nebulae Hubble images are in our galaxy, but this nebula is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa.

The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the dozens of small satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is the largest and brightest star-forming region, not just in the Large Magellanic Cloud, but in the entire group of nearby galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs.

The Tarantula Nebula is home to the most massive stars known, some roughly 200 times as massive as our Sun. This image is very close to a rare type of star called a Wolf–Rayet star. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that have lost their outer shell of hydrogen and are extremely hot and luminous, powering dense and furious stellar winds.

This nebula is a frequent target for Hubble, whose multiwavelength capabilities are critical for capturing sculptural details in the nebula’s dusty clouds. The data used to create this image come from an observing program called Scylla, named for a multi-headed sea monster from Greek mythology. The Scylla program was designed to complement another Hubble observing program called ULLYSES (Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards). ULLYSES targets massive young stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, while Scylla investigates the structures of gas and dust that surround these stars.

Explore More:
Hubble’s Image Shows Turbulent Star-making Region

30 Doradus: A Massive Star-Forming Region

Large Magellanic Cloud’s Star-Forming Region, 30 Doradus

Explore the Night Sky: Caldwell 103/Tarantula Nebula

Multiple Generations of Stars in the Tarantula Nebula

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Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

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Last Updated

Aug 08, 2025

Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Related Terms

• Hubble Space Telescope
• Astrophysics
• Astrophysics Division
• Emission Nebulae
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• Nebulae
• Star-forming Nebulae
• The Universe

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