Feed aggregator

Video: 00:05:23

For over a decade, ESA’s Gaia mission has mapped our galaxy with stunning precision—rewriting the story of the Milky Way. As its mission enters a new phase, we look back at its most groundbreaking discoveries.

When the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in December 2021, one of its primary purposes was to see the first galaxies in the Universe forming just a few million years after the Big Bang. In true JWST style though, it has surpassed all expectations and now, a team of astronomers think they have gone even further back, seeing one galaxy clearing the early fog that obscured the Universe! The image represents a point in time 330 million years after the Big Bang and reveals a bright hydrogen emission from the fog surrounding a galaxy. It was somewhat unexpected though as current models predict it would have been blown away long ago!

Here's everything you need to know to make the most of the partial solar eclipse on March 29, as the moon takes a 'bite' out of the sun.

What's the sound of

Data from 300,000 births reveal how essential biological measurements are altered by carrying and delivering a baby

Explore Hubble

• Hubble Home
• Overview
• Impact & Benefits
• Science
• Observatory
• Team
• News
• Multimedia
• More

2 min read

Hubble Spots a Chance Alignment This NASA/ESA Hubble image features the spiral galaxy NGC 5530. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker

The subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is the stunning spiral galaxy NGC 5530. This galaxy is situated 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus, the Wolf, and classified as a ‘flocculent’ spiral, meaning its spiral arms are patchy and indistinct.

While some galaxies have extraordinarily bright centers that host a feasting supermassive black hole, the bright source near the center of NGC 5530 is not an active black hole but a star within our own galaxy, only 10,000 light-years from Earth. This chance alignment gives the appearance that the star is at the dense heart of NGC 5530.

If you pointed a backyard telescope at NGC 5530 on the evening of September 13, 2007, you would have seen another bright point of light adorning the galaxy. That night, Australian amateur astronomer Robert Evans discovered a supernova, named SN 2007IT, by comparing NGC 5530’s appearance through the telescope to a reference photo of the galaxy. While it’s remarkable to discover even one supernova using this painstaking method, Evans has in fact discovered more than 40 supernovae this way! This particular discovery was truly serendipitous: it’s likely that the light from the supernova completed its 40-million-year journey to Earth just days before Evans spotted the explosion.

Facebook logo @NASAHubble

@NASAHubble

Instagram logo @NASAHubble

Share

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Details

Last Updated

Mar 28, 2025

Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Related Terms

• Hubble Space Telescope
• Astrophysics
• Astrophysics Division
• Galaxies
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• Spiral Galaxies
• The Universe

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble

Hubble Space Telescope

Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Hubble’s Galaxies

Hubble’s 35th Anniversary

Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge

Explore Hubble

• Hubble Home
• Overview
• Impact & Benefits
• Science
• Observatory
• Team
• News
• Multimedia
• More

2 min read

Hubble Spots a Chance Alignment This NASA/ESA Hubble image features the spiral galaxy NGC 5530. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker

The subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is the stunning spiral galaxy NGC 5530. This galaxy is situated 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus, the Wolf, and classified as a ‘flocculent’ spiral, meaning its spiral arms are patchy and indistinct.

While some galaxies have extraordinarily bright centers that host a feasting supermassive black hole, the bright source near the center of NGC 5530 is not an active black hole but a star within our own galaxy, only 10,000 light-years from Earth. This chance alignment gives the appearance that the star is at the dense heart of NGC 5530.

If you pointed a backyard telescope at NGC 5530 on the evening of September 13, 2007, you would have seen another bright point of light adorning the galaxy. That night, Australian amateur astronomer Robert Evans discovered a supernova, named SN 2007IT, by comparing NGC 5530’s appearance through the telescope to a reference photo of the galaxy. While it’s remarkable to discover even one supernova using this painstaking method, Evans has in fact discovered more than 40 supernovae this way! This particular discovery was truly serendipitous: it’s likely that the light from the supernova completed its 40-million-year journey to Earth just days before Evans spotted the explosion.

Facebook logo @NASAHubble

@NASAHubble

Instagram logo @NASAHubble

Share

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Details

Last Updated

Mar 28, 2025

Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Related Terms

• Hubble Space Telescope
• Astrophysics
• Astrophysics Division
• Galaxies
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• Spiral Galaxies
• The Universe

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble

Hubble Space Telescope

Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Hubble’s Galaxies

Hubble’s 35th Anniversary

Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge

A bioengineer highlights the potential of low-intensity ultrasound for multiple uses, from enhanced drug delivery to the brain to combating cancer

The outer planets remain somewhat of a mystery and Neptune is no exception. Voyager 2 has been the only probe that has visited the outermost planet but thankfully the James Webb Space Telescope is powerful enough to reveal it in all its glory. With its cameras regularly fixed on Neptune it has even picked up auroral activity in some of its latest images. The data was gathered back in 2023 using Webb’s Near-Infrared spectrograph which detected the tell tale sign of auroral activity, an emission line of trihydrogen cation. The element appears on other giant planets too when aurora are present.

Some researchers propose that countries should start to rack up a carbon debt once they exceed their carbon budget, obliging them to do more to draw down carbon dioxide, but the idea is unlikely to form part of international climate agreements

Some researchers propose that countries should start to rack up a carbon debt once they exceed their carbon budget, obliging them to do more to draw down carbon dioxide, but the idea is unlikely to form part of international climate agreements

By going after Social Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Education, Donald Trump is signaling his belief that having “good genes” means not having a disability

The first image from a new Italian Earth observation satellite mission was published today: a high-resolution image of a strip of the Italian peninsular showing the city of Rome at a resolution of 2.66 metres. This is three times higher than the resolution currently available for systematic acquisition over Italy.

Evidence of alien worlds goes back farther than you think

NASA and Boeing are still working on the thruster issues that Starliner experienced on its first crewed flight last year, so the capsule's next liftoff is a ways off yet.

We’re taking you inside MIT.nano, a clean laboratory facility that is critical to nanoscale research, from microelectronics to medical nanotechnology.

As fires burned in Los Angeles this year, newer toxin monitors found contaminants that aren’t measured by standard methods. Now scientists and officials are pushing for better detection

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captures the striking landscape surrounding the Waza National Park in Cameroon.

Can the cosmic rays bombarding the lunar surface be used to identify subsurface water ice deposits? This is what a recent study and iposter presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) hopes to address as a team of researchers developed a novel method called the Cosmic Ray Lunar Sounder (CoRaLS) capable of detecting subsurface lunar water ice deposits that are elusive to current radar systems. This study has the potential to help expand the human presence on the Moon since water ice deposits are currently being focused on the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the Moon for the upcoming Artemis missions.

When researchers asked people to work on a computer with their phones 1.5 metres away, the amount of time they spent on their phone went down – but they just scrolled social media on their laptop instead