Skip Navigation
menu close modal

Explore the Universe

Related

This illustration explains the gravitational force, one of the four fundamental forces in the universe.
More
This infographic is done mostly in shades of blue. At the top left is the title: "Gravitational Force." Below that is a block of text that reads: "Gravity, the force that draws objects together, can be understood as bends and curves in the fabric of space-time. Anything with mass makes these dents, from the Earth and Moon to turtles and cats." Below the text, taking up most of the image, is an illustration of Earth and the Moon which is on top of an oval that contains concentric rings outlined in orange representing the fabric of space-time. Directly beneath Earth and the Moon are dips in space-time.
Gravitational Force
Algo extraño y misterioso se arrastra por el cosmos. Los científicos lo llaman materia oscura.
More
Una red luminosa es visible en el cielo nocturno más allá del límite de un bosque. Dispersa entre los nodos de la red está la oscuridad, que denota la presencia de materia oscura. En el centro de la telaraña, la oscuridad se funde para crear la forma de una araña.
Materia Oscura – "Galaxy of Horrors" póster (En Español)
¡Esta fuerza escalofriante te dejará temblando de terror!
More
Este póster muestra un murciélago verde siniestro que emerge del cosmos, empujando objetos como galaxias y estrellas hacia el vacío del espacio exterior.
Energía oscura – "Galaxy of Horrors" póster (En Español)
Explore this infographic to learn more about SuperTIGER, cosmic rays, and scientific ballooning.
More
This infographic shows many factoids about the SuperTIGER balloon mission. The poster has the header: “SuperTIGER Catching heavy cosmic rays.” There is a cut-out line drawing of the SuperTIGER payload as if it was dangling from a balloon. Near this is the text, “SuperTIGER is a souped-up version of the Trans-Iron Galactice Element Recorder (TIGER) detector that flew in 1997, 2001, and 2003.” next to that are a series of representations of cosmic rays from an electron (1% of cosmic rays), hydrogen (90%), helium (8%), and heavier nuclei (1%). Next to that is a periodic table of the elements with the elements from neon (atomic #10) to barium (atomic #56) highlighted. This is accompanied by the text, “Cosmic rays are particles from far outside the solar system traveling at up to nearly the speed of light. SuperTIGER seeks heavy atomic nuclei ranging from neon to barium.” Just below the cosmic ray particles and periodic table is a silhouette of a van accompanying the text, “SuperTIGER and its supporting hardware weighs 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms), comparable to a full-size van.” A drawing of Antarctica with arrows encircling the continent in a counterclockwise direction is accompanied by the text, “SuperTIGER launches from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and can float for weeks. Circular winds aloft confine it to the continent.” Just below these items there is a depiction of the balloon at launch, taking up about two-thirds the height of the poster. The line drawing of the balloon at launch includes the inflated portion of the balloon, which is just a small upside down tear-drop at the top, the recovery parachute, and the SuperTIGER payload. With this is the text, “Balloon at launch, 856 feet (261 meters) tall.” The balloon stands next to a line drawing of the Washington Monument, which stands 555 feet (169 meters) tall. Next to this is a depiction of the balloon in flight, with the balloon fully inflated from the top down to the recovery parachute. The text says: “Balloon at altitude, 460 feet (140 meters) across.” Next to the payload drawing is the text, “SuperTIGER reaches a maximum height of about 127,000 feet (39,000 meters).” Near this is a drawing of a commercial jet and the text, “That’s nearly four times the typical cruising altitude of commercial airliners and above 99.5 percent of the atmosphere.”
SuperTIGER Infographic
The "Hand of God," a pulsar wind nebula, is imaged here by NASA's Chandra and NuSTAR missions.
More
A supernova remnant rises like an ethereal hand up the center of the image. The “wrist” appears in bright white while the finger-like structures are formed from a tangle of yellow strands of emission. This hand-shaped nebula intersects a spotty red oval with dots of light.
X-ray View of 'Hand of God'
This festive portrait of our Milky Way galaxy comes from ESA's Planck mission.
More
This oval image represents a view of the entire sky unfolded and laid out flat. Running horizontally across the middle of the oval is a bright line of white, which is light emitted by gas and dust in the plane of the Milky Way. Mottled red fills the oval with a few areas of yellow, especially along the plane of the Milky Way and extending above and below it. Over all of this, in the center, is a thick ring of blue.
A Milky Way 'Mixer' Amongst the Stars
¡Esta galaxia escalofriantemente encantada dejó de crear estrellas, de manera misteriosa, solo unos pocos miles de millones de años tras el big bang!
More
Una estrella escarlata se cierne tras las ruinas de un exoplaneta que se asemeja en su forma a una calavera. Un brazo de galaxia rojo es visible en el fondo. Es evidente que esta galaxia, llamada MACS 2129-1, ha estado deteriorándose desde que dejó de producir estrellas solo unos pocos miles de millones de años después del Big Bang.
Cementerio Galáctico – "Galaxy of Horrors" póster (En Español)
In this photo, NICER’s X-ray concentrator optics are inspected under a black light for dust and foreign object debris.
More
Taking up the center of the photo is one of NICER’s X-ray concentrators which is formed from concentric cylindrical mirrors that look like a vinyl record with very deep grooves. On top of the concentrator is a metal structure with a hexagonal plate in the center that has thin bars extending from each of the six corners, looking like a spiderweb. This one concentrator is surrounded by five others, which are only partially seen. Along the top quarter of the image is a clear window that reflects rectangular light and has a series of small holds in a grid across the bottom edge. Some parts of the central concentrator and the one to the upper right of it are bathed in purple light.
Close-up View of NICER's X-Ray Optics
This map shows the oldest light in our universe, as detected by ESA's Planck mission.
More
This image shows an oval that represents the whole sky if you folded it out onto a flat piece of paper. The oval is dotted with many regions ranging from blue, green, yellow and red in color. While the image looks chaotic, the blue regions are nearly always surrounded by green. The yellow are embedded in the green, and red embedded in the yellow. These show temperature differences in the early universe, which ultimately lead us to see where matter clumped together to form the structures we see today.
Best Map Ever of the Universe
NASA's SOFIA detected the magnetic field streamlines shown in this ESO image of the Keyhole Nebula.
More
The nebula appears as a swirl of magenta and purple clouds in a shape roughly like a human heart. The central part of the nebula has a bright magenta oval surrounded by white and pale purple. Through this central region there are lines overlaid on the image showing where SOFIA has obtained information about the magnetic fields. The lines run from the left down through the lower part of the magenta oval. Some of the bundle of lines loop up and over the magenta center, all meeting toward the middle of the image. All of this is on a black background dotted with white lights.
Keyhole Nebula
NASA's Swift viewed our neighboring galaxy Andromeda in ultraviolet light.
More
A patchy cool-blue ring of light surrounds the bright center of the M31 galaxy. The image is dotted with purple, blue and white stars.
Swift's UV Portrait of the Andromeda Galaxy
This chillingly haunted galaxy became a cosmic cemetery only a few billion years after the big bang!
More
A scarlet star looms behind the ruins of an exoplanet that resembles the shape of a skull. A red galaxy arm is visible in the background. It is apparent that this galaxy, named MACS 2129-1, has been decaying since it stopped producing stars only a few billion years after the big bang.
Galactic Graveyard – "Galaxy of Horrors" poster (English)
NASA's Spitzer penetrates dust hiding the Milky Way's center in this image.
More
At the center of this starry vista is a bright white spot surrounded by warm knots of red clouds. The clouds extend across the image from left to right and nearly all the way from the bottom to the top, with some black sky visible toward the top of the image. Within the red wispy clouds, there are clouds that appear black, regions that are so dense, they are blocking our view.
Revealing the Milky Way's Center
This mosaic of NASA's Swift is created from images of astronomical objects captured by the satellite.
More
When taking this image as a whole, it looks like the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a telescope with a central cylindrical body and solar panels on either side. Upon closer inspection, though, the image is made from small individual images of different astronomical objects that were taken by the telescope.
Swift Millionth Image Mosaic
These images show the steadily improving view of the Moon’s gamma-ray glow from NASA’s Fermi.
More
The image is broken up into a grid of eight panels. The first panel has text that reads: “Fermi Images the Moon. These images show the Fermi mission’s improving view of the Moon’s gamma-ray glow. Brighter colors correspond to greater numbers of gamma rays above 31 million electron volts, tens of millions of times the energy of visible light. At these energies, the Moon is actually brighter than the Sun. The glow comes from cosmic rays, particles that constantly bombard the lunar surface. The Moon has no magnetic field, which would screen out lower-energy particles. So instead they strike and interact with the surface, which produces gamma rays. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration.” The first panel also includes a visible-light image of the Moon, which is small in the center of the panel. The subsequent panels are labeled 2 months, 4 months, 8 months, 16 months, 32 months, 64 months, and 128 months. Each shows a bright yellow region in the middle surrounded by a haze of orange that fades into light red at the edges of the image. The first image is extremely pixelated, with the the central circle coming into more focus with each subsequent image.
Fermi Sees the Moon in Gamma Rays
NASA's TESS captured this image of comet C/2018 N1.
More
On a gray background a bright ball of light travels across the image from the right side to the left, at a slight angle upward. There are also other small dots sprinkled throughout the image, which mostly remain stationary throughout.
TESS Catches a Comet
This photo shows 18 of Roman's detectors mounted in an engineering test unit of the mission's focal plane array. 
More
At the center of the photo is a set of 18 square detectors on a gold platform. They're arranged in six columns of three detectors such that the top of the middle two columns are close to the top of the image, the next two columns are a little lower down, and the two outer columns are even lower. The detectors are different shades of blue from royal blue to teal.
NASA Roman's Heat-Vision ‘Eyes'
¡Esta fuerza escalofriante te dejará temblando de terror!
More
Un agujero negro con un disco de material a su alrededor consume y estira las palabras del título encima de él.
Devorado por la Gravedad – "Galaxy of Horrors" póster (En Español)
This NASA NuSTAR image reveals high-energy X-rays from radioactive material in Cassiopeia A.
More
This image of X-ray light from a supernova remnant shows a nearly-circular mess of colors representing different wavelengths of X-ray light. Near the center is a blotchy patch of electric blue light. Surrounding and interweaving with that are wisps of yellow, orange and red. A plume of green juts out on the left side of the blast, with green edging around the orange light on the top and bottom of the blast. And a faint ring of pale yellow light surrounds the main ball of color.
Untangling the Remains of Cassiopeia A
This image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) features comet 65/P Gunn.
More
Comet 65/P Gunn looks like a match with a flame against a starry background. A thin stripe of red runs from the left side of the image almost to the middle where a bright red and yellow ball flares up with a tail tapering off to the right.
WISE Catches Comet 65-P Gunn
Astronomers combined several Hubble Space Telescope images to create this view of the Pillars of Creation.
More
On a background awash in blue and orange cloudy light stands a darker cloud with three pillars rising from it. The edges of the dark regions glow with white and light-blue light.
Hubble Studies the Pillars of Creation
This bone-chilling force will leave you shivering alone in terror!
More
This poster pictures an ominous, green bat that emerges from the cosmos, pushing objects like galaxies and stars further apart into the void of outer space.
Dark Energy – "Galaxy of Horrors" poster (English)
This image of the whole sky shows 22 months of data recorded by NASA's NICER mission aboard the International Space Station.
More
On a black background are a network of orange filaments connecting a number of bright spots. The bright spots indicate places where the filaments cross, and are sources in the sky where NICER often points its telescope. The swirling loops between those points reveal the path NICER’s telescope takes between these sources.
NICER's Night Moves Trace the X-ray Sky
NASA's Chandra detected the X-rays from Uranus.
More
Uranus is depicted in blues and pinks, encircled by a near vertical white ring. The blue and white colors represent optical data obtained by the Keck-1 Telescope, and the pink represents X-ray data gathered by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The blues, which appear as blended, near vertical stripes, range from midnight blue at our right, to teal and even neon sky blue at our left. Across the right half of the planet is a teardrop-shaped patch of neon pink. Several pale blue dots mark the surface of the planet, though none appear in the hot pink patch. The near vertical ring, which is slightly tipped toward our upper-right, is quite thin. It appears white when set against the black background, and pink when it passes in front of the planet's pink patch.
Chandra Studies Uranus in X-rays
NASA's Chandra captured this image of a beautiful X-ray nebula.
More
A supernova remnant rises like an ethereal blue hand across the center of the image. This blue hand-shaped nebula intersects a spotty red oval with dots of light. These both represent X-ray views of the nebula, with the highest energy X-rays shown in blue, and the lower energy in red.
Pulsar PSR B1509-58 Shows its Hand

Explore the Universe

Related News

When a star strays too close to a black hole, gravitational forces create tides that break the star apart into a stream of gas.
More
NASA's Swift Learns a New Trick, Spots a Snacking Black Hole
NASA's Swift Learns a New Trick, Spots a Snacking Black Hole
This colorful image is an example of how dust in space affects starlight coming from background objects.
More
Hubble Sees Glittering Globular Cluster Embedded Inside Our Milky Way
Hubble Sees Glittering Globular Cluster Embedded Inside Our Milky Way
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope continued observations of the farthest star ever detected in the very distant universe.
More
Webb Reveals Colors of Earendel, Most Distant Star Ever Detected
Webb Reveals Colors of Earendel, Most Distant Star Ever Detected
The glittering, glitzy contents of the globular cluster NGC 6652 sparkle in this star-studded image.
More
Hubble Glimpses a Glitzy Galactic Cluster
Hubble Glimpses a Glitzy Galactic Cluster
A young planet whirling around a petulant red dwarf star is changing in unpredictable ways orbit-by-orbit.
More
Hubble Sees Evaporating Planet Getting the Hiccups
Hubble Sees Evaporating Planet Getting the Hiccups
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a pair of actively forming young stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47.
More
Webb Snaps Highly Detailed Infrared Image of Actively Forming Stars
Webb Snaps Highly Detailed Infrared Image of Actively Forming Stars
New measurements by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI have detected water vapor in PDS 70's inner disk.
More
Webb Detects Water Vapor in Rocky Planet-Forming Zone
Webb Detects Water Vapor in Rocky Planet-Forming Zone
Research by scientists from NASA and Osaka University suggests that rogue planets far outnumber planets that orbit stars.
More
New Study Reveals NASA's Roman Could Find 400 Earth-Mass Rogue Planets
New Study Reveals NASA's Roman Could Find 400 Earth-Mass Rogue Planets
While our telescopes can’t directly see dark matter, they can help us figure out more about it thanks to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing.
More
How Gravity Warps Light
How Gravity Warps Light
To celebrate a successful first year, NASA has released Webb’s image of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.
More
Webb Celebrates First Year of Science With Close-up on Birth of Sun-like Stars
Webb Celebrates First Year of Science With Close-up on Birth of Sun-like Stars
Euclid, an ESA mission with contributions from NASA, is set to launch in July to explore why the universe’s expansion is speeding up.
More
NASA's Roman and ESA's Euclid Will Team Up To Investigate Dark Energy
NASA's Roman and ESA's Euclid Will Team Up To Investigate Dark Energy
The teeming stars of the globular cluster NGC 6544 glisten in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
More
Hubble Glimpses a Glistening Cluster
Hubble Glimpses a Glistening Cluster
New data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has pinpointed the reason gas between stars and galaxies turned transparent.
More
NASA's Webb Proves Galaxies Transformed the Early Universe
NASA's Webb Proves Galaxies Transformed the Early Universe
Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe, but they’re tricky to detect. So how did we discover them? Accidentally!
More
Gamma-Ray Bursts: Black Hole Birth Announcements
Gamma-Ray Bursts: Black Hole Birth Announcements
In a study published June 7, in the journal Science Advances, scientists used NuSTAR to observe unique characteristics of the BOAT gamma-ray burst.
More
Brightest Cosmic Explosion Ever Detected Had Other Unique Features
Brightest Cosmic Explosion Ever Detected Had Other Unique Features
JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, which will devote about 32 days of telescope time to uncover and characterize faint, distant galaxies.
More
Early Universe Crackled With Bursts of Star Formation, Webb Shows
Early Universe Crackled With Bursts of Star Formation, Webb Shows
Astronomers have come up with some of their best evidence yet for the presence of an "intermediate-sized" black hole.
More
NASA's Hubble Hunts for Intermediate-Sized Black Hole Close to Home
NASA's Hubble Hunts for Intermediate-Sized Black Hole Close to Home
Four images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope of two galaxies, a nebula, and a star cluster.
More
NASA's Chandra, Webb Combine for Arresting Views
NASA's Chandra, Webb Combine for Arresting Views
Scores of baby stars shrouded by dust are revealed in this infrared image of the star-forming region NGC 2174, as seen by Spitzer Space Telescope.
More
Baby Stars in the Orion Constellation
Baby Stars in the Orion Constellation
The densely packed globular cluster NGC 6325 glistens in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
More
Hubble Peers into a Glistening Star Cluster
Hubble Peers into a Glistening Star Cluster
Astronomers have discovered an Earth-size exoplanet, or world beyond our solar system, that may be carpeted with volcanoes.
More
NASA's Spitzer, TESS Find Potentially Volcano-Covered Earth-Size World
NASA's Spitzer, TESS Find Potentially Volcano-Covered Earth-Size World
The jellyfish galaxy, JO175, appears to hang suspended in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
More
Hubble Views Striking Starry Tendrils
Hubble Views Striking Starry Tendrils
The lenticular galaxy NGC 5283 is the subject of a NASA Hubble Space Telescope image.
More
Hubble Views a Beautiful Luminous Galaxy
Hubble Views a Beautiful Luminous Galaxy
In 2017, astronomers reported discovering a shadow sweeping across the face of a vast pancake-shaped gas-and-dust disk surrounding the red dwarf star.
More
Hubble Follows Shadow Play Around Planet-Forming Disk
Hubble Follows Shadow Play Around Planet-Forming Disk
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals NGC 547, an elliptical galaxy that sits about 250 million light-years away.
More
Hubble Spots an Energetic Galaxy
Hubble Spots an Energetic Galaxy