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A NASA Chandra panorama provides an X-ray view above and below the center of the Milky Way.
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This vertical panoramic image depicts an area about the center of the Milky Way, with the field of view extending 1000 light years above and below the galaxy. The image resembles colorful gas clouds streaked with fine threads, dotted with a handful of brilliant white shapes. Throughout the image are tiny orange and purple dots set against a black backdrop. Across the center of the image is a horizontal, bright purple cloud with a glowing white core. This is the plane of the Milky Way, the disk where most of the Galaxy's stars reside. Below the plane of the Milky Way, near our lower left, is a bright, brick orange cloud. Above the plane, to our upper right, is a thin lilac cloud with some orange mist on the left. The orange cloud and mist are large plumes of hot gas. The colors represent different X-ray energies observed by Chandra. Even brighter than the glowing white core in the Milky Way are the brilliant white shapes that appear throughout the image. Two can be found to the right of the core, and two below the galaxy's plane. These are X-rays reflected from dust around bright X-ray sources.
Galactic Center Panorama in X-ray and Radio
NASA's (PIPER) studies patterns of light in the universe’s baby picture, as shown in this infographic.
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This infographic shows many factoids about the PIPER (Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer) balloon mission. At the top, there is part of an image of the cosmic microwave background with the text, “The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is heat left over from the big bang and is the oldest light we can see in the universe.” Just below that, near a circular, bright “explosion” is the text, “Scientists are studying the CMB for proof that the universe expanded rapidly immediately after the big bang.” Next is an image of two circles of yellow lines that look like 8-pointed pinwheels that would swirls in opposite directions with text, “This process, called inflation, should have created gravitational waves. If so, light from the CMB should contain a distinct twisting polarization pattern called B-mode.” There is a cut-out line drawing of the PIPER payload with the silhouette of a person standing next to it, showing that it is about two persons’ high. The text says, “PIPER is a microwave telescope flown on a high-altitude balloon. The instrument has twin telescopes in a hot-tub-sized container of liquid helium.” Next there is text with icicles below it that reads, “Liquid helium keeps the instrument at -452 degrees Fahrenheit (-269 Celsius).” Near a map of the United States with a telescope by Maryland and a lightbulb near California is the text, “The detectors on PIPER could spot a 60-watt incandescent light bulb in California from PIPER's base of operations at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.” A silhouette of a hippopotamus accompanies the text, “PIPER's total weight, including instrument, balloon and ballast, is about 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms), as much as a full-grown male hippopotamus.” An illustration of the fully inflated balloon appears with the text, “Width of fully inflated balloon: 430 feet (130 meters).” Underneath the balloon are three houses. The text nearby explains, “The balloon expands to approximately 40 million cubic feet (1.1 million cubic meters) when it reaches maximum altitude. It's made from polyethylene film comparable in thickness to ordinary plastic sandwich wrap.” A drawing of Australia, Texas and New Mexico is accompanied by the text, “Flights are planned from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico, Palestine, Texas and Alice Springs, Australia. Overnight flights from these three locations will allow PIPER to cover 85 percent of the sky.” And finally, a commercial airplane near the bottom has text, “PIPER's maximum altitude is about 120,000 feet (36,000 meters). That's more than three times the cruising altitude of a commercial airplane.”
PIPER Infographic
Cygnus X-1 Presents: It’s Dinner Time and You’re The Meal!
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A black hole with a disc of material surrounding it consumes and stretches the words of the title above it.
Devoured by Gravity – "Galaxy of Horrors" poster (English)
A brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resembles a glittering fireworks display in this Hubble image.
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This image shows a dense cluster of stars just offset to the right from center. The stars in the cluster are predominantly white tinted with red. Across the entire image are additional stars with both red-tinted and blue-tinted stars. There is a pillowy nebula taking up the left side and bottom of the image. Within the nebula, several pillars of dark, dense gas are being shaped by the energetic light and strong stellar winds from the brilliant cluster of thousands of stars.
Hubble Spots Fireworks in Westerlund 2
This image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) features comet 65/P Gunn.
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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
This simulated image of part of the Andromeda galaxy highlights the potential of NASA’s upcoming Roman mission.
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This image shows the detector “footprint” of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Six columns of three squares are arranged 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. Within these square are seen a simulated image that has a background of pale black dotted with stars. The squares on the lower left side have brighter light, which would represent regions of the sky closer to the center of the Andromeda galaxy.
Simulated Image Demonstrates Roman's Future Power
NASA’s Webb has peered into the chaos of the Cartwheel Galaxy.
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A large pink, speckled galaxy resembling a wheel with a small, inner oval, with dusty blue in between on the right. Two smaller spiral galaxies about the same size are to the left, all against a black background.
Webb Captures the Cartwheel Galaxy
This composite image of the nebula RCW 120 was captured by NASA's Spitzer and SOFIA missions.
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A faint ring of gray clouds breaks at the top, looking like horns extending upward. Inside the left side and lower part of the gray ring is a thick blue cloud. A ribbon of red overlaps part of the blue cloud on the left side, but also extends just outside the gray clouds. All of this is on a black background dotted with star light.
RCW 120
NASA's TESS captured this image of comet C/2018 N1.
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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
Estos tres mundos condenados estuvieron entre los primeros y más espeluznantes que se descubrieron mientras orbitaban su estrella no-muerta, conocida como un púlsar.
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Estos tres mundos condenados estuvieron entre los primeros y más espeluznantes que se descubrieron mientras orbitaban su estrella no-muerta, conocida como un púlsar. El cadáver de Lich, como se le llama, es el núcleo colapsado de una estrella que explotó y que ahora tiene dos haces gemelos pulsantes de radiación y luz espantosa, girando más rápido de lo que puedes parpadear, devorando todo a su paso. Poltergeist y sus mundos vecinos, Phobetor y Draugr, son consumidos en este ataque de radiación constante que posiblemente enciende auroras irradiadas enfermizas. ¡Cuidado, seres vivientes! Solo los muertos vivientes pueden sobrevivir en este rincón, el más inhospitable de la galaxia.
Mundos Zombis – "Galaxy of Horrors" póster (En Español)
This composite image of the Crab Nebula uses data from NASA's Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer missions.
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The image is dominated by the X-ray emission from the Crab nebula, shown in shades of blue and white. At the center is a bright ball surrounded by an oval of light whose long axis is tilted just to the left. Rising up and to the right from that oval is a cloud of material that looks like a witch’s hat with a broad brim and dented point. From the central ball there is also a bent stream of material to the left and downward. The optical light, in purple, appears as a background to the blue and white as a wispy cloud. The infrared emission, shown in pink, surrounds the blue and white light, looking like a diffuse web.
NASA Missions Study the Crab Nebula
This illustration explains the strong force, one of the four fundamental forces in the universe.
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This infographic is done mostly in shades of blue. At the top left is the title: "Strong Force." Below that is a block of text that reads: "The strong force holds together things that have the same charge. It's stronger than the electromagnetic force, so that's why atoms with multiple protons and neutrons don't fly apart. But most importantly, it holds together the quarks that make up protons and neutrons themselves. Each proton contains two up quarks and one down. Each neutron contains two down quarks and one up." Below and to the right of the text is an illustration of an atomic nucleus made of two blue protons and two red neutrons. To the left is a pop out that points back to one of the neutrons. This pop out shows a cluster of one yellow up quark and two pink down quarks. Dual directional arrows connect each quark to the other two. To the left of the nuclei is a pop out that points back to one of the protons. This pop out shows a cluster of two yellow quarks and one pink down quark. Dual directional arrows connect each quark to the other two.
Strong Force
Something strange and mysterious creeps throughout the cosmos. Scientists call it dark matter.
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A luminous web is visible in the night sky beyond a treeline. Scattered between the nodes of the web is darkness, signifying the presence of dark matter. In the center of the web, the darkness melds to form the shape of a spider.
Dark Matter – "Galaxy of Horrors" poster (English)
A real monster black hole is revealed in this image from NASA's NuSTAR and Hubble.
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Three panels show the same region of sky in different wavelengths of light. On the left is a high-energy X-ray image, which has a bright white spot at the center with a halo of reds and yellows. The halo is brightest on the left side of the white central spot. On the right is the optical light image, which shows two cloudy ovals in shards of white, pale blue and red coming together. Where they meet the image is very bright. Also in the image are a few background spots of light on the black background. In the central image, the X-ray and optical images are shown together, so we see the bright spot where the galaxies come together surrounded by the red X-ray haze.
Tale of Two Black Holes
¡Esta galaxia escalofriantemente encantada dejó de crear estrellas, de manera misteriosa, solo unos pocos miles de millones de años tras el big bang!
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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)
NASA's WISE captured this image of the Andromeda galaxy, also called Messier 31 or M31.
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M31 is a spiral galaxy seen in this image against a black sky speckled with blue points of light. It appears like a flying disk toy seen tilted up and to the left, with a bright orange circle of light and tendrils of orange and pale blue light swirling in toward a central bright, white spot.
WISE Studies Our Neighbor Andromeda
This animated GIF builds up the southern sky mosaic from 13 sections captured by NASA's TESS.
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A circular view of the sky captured by NASA’s TESS mission that has unfolded like a paper fan around a central point. Each segment looks like a film strip studded with stars.
TESS's Southern Sky Panorama
Explore this infographic to learn more about SuperTIGER, cosmic rays, and scientific ballooning.
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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
This image shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching with NASA's IXPE onboard.
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Against a dark background, a rocket launches. Visible is a nest of clouds on the ground with a bright plume of fire rising up to the top of the image. A structure is silhouetted to the left of the plume, and a water tower is visible just to the right.
IXPE Launches to Explore the Secrets of the Universe
NASA's Spitzer penetrates dust hiding the Milky Way's center in this image.
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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
Flaring, active regions of our Sun are highlighted in this image combining observations from several telescopes.
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The Sun appears as a red-hued marble with black branching strips and few bright dots in white with small haloes of pale blue and electric green. All around the edge of the Sun is a glow, appearing like short fur in orange, yellow, and two bright spots of white on the right and left sides.
Searing Sun Seen in X-rays
Astronomers combined several Hubble Space Telescope images to create this view of the Pillars of Creation.
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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 image shows the magnetic field of our Milky Way galaxy as seen by the Planck satellite.
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This oval image represents a view of the entire sky unfolded and laid out flat. Across the middle is a line of dark brown, with a swirl of brown around the center of the image. At the edges the line of brown becomes wider and more diffuse. These lines and swirls of brown are embedded in an off-white mottled background. Throughout the image are lines running generally parallel to the central bar of brown, but with some wave-like deviations above and below it. Some of the oval on the top and near the bottom is just a flat tan color, which represents places where there is no magnetic field information.
Planck Takes Magnetic Fingerprint of Our Galaxy
This image of supernova remnant RCW 86 combines data from NASA's Chandra, WISE, and Spitzer as well as ESA's XMM-Newton.
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This starry background has red clouds scattered across the image. There’s a wide arc of blue, white and green at the bottom right of the image, and a thin arc running over the left and top of the image. Together these arcs almost form a circle.
Supernova Remnant RCW 86
No spaceship will shield you from the blinding destruction of the gamma ray ghouls!
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Two astronauts are standing on an asteroid, watching a pair of neutron stars, or the cores of collapsed stars, collide in the distance. The result of the collision is bright, concentrated beams of light called gamma rays. The gamma ray bursts narrowly miss the astronauts as they shoot outward from the collision.
Gamma Ray Ghouls – "Galaxy of Horrors" poster (English)

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