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Exotic 'blazar' is part of most extreme double black hole system ever found, crooked jet suggests
Big lake in Quebec suddenly disappears, satellite finds | Space photo of the day for August 1, 2025
Astronaut savors the moment and shares a stunning aurora shot | On the International Space Station July 28-Aug. 1, 2025
Week in images: 28 July - 1 August 2025
Week in images: 28 July - 1 August 2025
Discover our week through the lens
Stunning 'sun dogs' could sparkle in alien skies, James Webb Space Telescope suggests
U.S. Science Has Weathered Attacks Before and Won
Federal officials seized 3,000 copies of Scientific American in 1950 in a “red scare” era of attacks on science. The move backfired and offers lessons for today
SpaceX fires up Starship spacecraft ahead of 10th test flight (video, photos)
A New Lunar Far Side Radio Telescope Is Ready For Testing
We’ve been talking about sending a radio telescope to the far side of the Moon for awhile now. Now that reality is one step closer with the completion of the design and construction phase of the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) radio telescope project. This milestone marks a major step in the development of the system, which is planned to launch on a lunar lander in 2026.
JWST Reveals Four Distinct CO₂ Types on Saturn’s Moons
What can carbon dioxide (CO₂) on Saturn’s moons teach scientists about their formation and evolution? This is what a recent study submitted to The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the different types of CO₂ that exist on several of Saturn’s mid-sized moons. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the existence of CO₂ on planetary bodies and what this could mean for their formation and evolution, and potentially whether they could possess life as we know it.
Primordial Black Holes Could Act As Seeds For Quasars
Plenty of groups have been theorizing about Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) recently. That is in part because of their candidacy as a potential source of dark matter. But, if they existed, they also had other roles to play in the early universe. According to a recent draft paper released on arXiv by Jeremy Mould and Adam Batten of Swinburne University, one of those roles could be as the seeds that eventually form both quasars and radio galaxies.
Cameras that work like our eyes could give boost to astronomers
Cameras that work like our eyes could give boost to astronomers
Hubble Surveys Supernova-Rich Spiral
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2 min read
Hubble Surveys Supernova-Rich Spiral This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 1309. ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Galbany, S. Jha, K. Noll, A. Riess
Rich with detail, the spiral galaxy NGC 1309 shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. NGC 1309 is about 100 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.
This stunning Hubble image encompasses NGC 1309’s bluish stars, dark brown gas clouds, and pearly-white core, as well as hundreds of distant background galaxies. Nearly every smudge, streak, and blob of light in this image is an individual galaxy, some shining through less dense regions of NGC 1309 itself. The only exception to this extragalactic ensemble is a star near the top of the frame identified by its diffraction spikes. The star is positively neighborly at just a few thousand light-years away in the Milky Way galaxy.
Hubble turned its attention toward NGC 1309 several times; previous Hubble images of this galaxy were released in 2006 and 2014. Much of NGC 1309’s scientific interest derives from two supernovae, SN 2002fk in 2002 and SN 2012Z in 2012. SN 2002fk was a perfect example of a Type Ia supernova, which happens when the stripped-down core of a dead star (a white dwarf) explodes.
SN 2012Z, on the other hand, was a bit of a renegade. It was classified as a Type Iax supernova: while its spectrum resembled that of a Type Ia supernova, the explosion wasn’t as bright as expected. Hubble observations showed that in this case, the supernova did not destroy the white dwarf completely, leaving behind a ‘zombie star’ that shone even brighter than it did before the explosion. Hubble observations of NGC 1309 taken across several years also made this the first time astronomers spotted a star system that later produced an unusual supernova explosion of a white dwarf.
Text Credit: ESA/Hubble
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubbleMedia Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Tracing the Growth of Galaxies
Hubble e-Books
Hubble’s 35th Anniversary
Hubble Surveys Supernova-Rich Spiral
- Hubble Home
- Overview
- Impact & Benefits
- Science
- Observatory
- Team
- Multimedia
- News
- More
2 min read
Hubble Surveys Supernova-Rich Spiral This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 1309. ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Galbany, S. Jha, K. Noll, A. RiessRich with detail, the spiral galaxy NGC 1309 shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. NGC 1309 is about 100 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.
This stunning Hubble image encompasses NGC 1309’s bluish stars, dark brown gas clouds, and pearly-white core, as well as hundreds of distant background galaxies. Nearly every smudge, streak, and blob of light in this image is an individual galaxy, some shining through less dense regions of NGC 1309 itself. The only exception to this extragalactic ensemble is a star near the top of the frame identified by its diffraction spikes. The star is positively neighborly at just a few thousand light-years away in the Milky Way galaxy.
Hubble turned its attention toward NGC 1309 several times; previous Hubble images of this galaxy were released in 2006 and 2014. Much of NGC 1309’s scientific interest derives from two supernovae, SN 2002fk in 2002 and SN 2012Z in 2012. SN 2002fk was a perfect example of a Type Ia supernova, which happens when the stripped-down core of a dead star (a white dwarf) explodes.
SN 2012Z, on the other hand, was a bit of a renegade. It was classified as a Type Iax supernova: while its spectrum resembled that of a Type Ia supernova, the explosion wasn’t as bright as expected. Hubble observations showed that in this case, the supernova did not destroy the white dwarf completely, leaving behind a ‘zombie star’ that shone even brighter than it did before the explosion. Hubble observations of NGC 1309 taken across several years also made this the first time astronomers spotted a star system that later produced an unusual supernova explosion of a white dwarf.
Text Credit: ESA/Hubble
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubbleMedia Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Tracing the Growth of Galaxies
Hubble e-Books
Hubble’s 35th Anniversary
Why Do Black Holes Spin?
Scientists are uncovering how spinning black holes launch jets, warp spacetime and shape the cosmos
Anthropic’s Claude 4 Chatbot Suggests It Might Be Conscious
A conversation with Anthropic’s chatbot raises questions about how AI talks about awareness.