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Cosmic swan > partridge in a pear tree Our gift to you this holiday season is this image of Messier 17 (also known as the Omega Nebula or Swan Nebula) snapped by @NASAHubble. Our Hubble Space Telescope turned 35 this year, marking over three decades of stellar gifts like this. That's more than a thousand times longer than the 12 days of Christmas… but who’s counting? Image description: A colorful, painterly image of the gas and stars of Messier 17. The scene is split in two diagonally across the middle by different types of dust—a bright turquoise on the top-left half, and billows of ochre cascading down the bottom right half. Red stars are speckled about the scene. Credit: ESA, NASA, and J. Hester (Arizona State University) #NASA #Hubble #Nebula #Swan #TwelveDaysOfChristmas

12.25 22:44

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Oh, the lights are shining so brightly everywhere ✨ As we wrap up 2025, @NASAWebb captured a star-studded glimpse into Westerlund 2, a cosmic nursery that reminds us to look forward to the beauty of new beginnings. In this image, we can see for the first time the full population of brown dwarfs in this massive star cluster. This data allows astronomers to learn more about how planets form in such massive young clusters. Brown dwarfs are objects that are bigger than planets, but smaller than stars. They're star-like, but aren't big enough to fully sustain fusion. There are plenty of stars in this image as well. The swirls of orange and red gas are material being moved and shaped by the cluster's radiation, while the tiny stars threaded throughout are just beginning to shine. You can also see bigger and brighter stars. These are much closer to us. Intense energy from the newborn stars here carves shapes into the surrounding nebula and drives the cycle of cosmic creation. Read more at the link in @ESAWebb's bio. Image description: A cluster of stars inside a large nebula. The clouds of gas and dust are predominantly bright red in colour and wispy, akin to flames. They are clumped in the bottom-left corner. Other clouds, deeper in the cluster behind many of the stars, appear pale pink. The stars are concentrated in the top half of the image and are mostly small, bright white and six-pointed. They cast blue light over the nebula. Other stars with very long spikes surrounding them lie in the foreground. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, V. Almendros-Abad, M. Guarcello, K. Monsch, and the EWOCS team. #NASA #Space #Webb #JWST #Stars
A wheely cool feature of Saturn's rings 🛞 In this sharp photo snapped by @NASAHubble, you can see spokes on Saturn’s rings. These spokes come and go—only lasting two or three rotations around the planet as new spokes are added to the rings. They appear as ghostly grey lines running perpendicular through the rings, much like spokes on a wheel. Scientists believe that these spokes could be a product of Saturn’s magnetic field interacting with solar wind, creating electrostatic force that floats dust or ice above the rings. The length and width of these spokes can reach longer than Earth’s diameter. From Hubble’s observations, we learned that the number of spokes and their contrast with the rings vary by season. Unlike Earth’s seasons, which only last a short three months, Saturn’s seasons last around seven years. Just as spooky season on Earth occurs around the planet’s equinox, Saturn’s spokey season also occurs around the planet’s equinox, resulting in darker, more numerous spokes than in other seasons. Image descriptions: The first slide shows the left half of Saturn with a yellow box around the rings and its spokes circled in white. The word "spokes" is also written in white above the box. The next two slides show the full image of Saturn and its rings, crisp against black space. The planet itself is various, distinct layers of peach, yellow, and orange shades, and the rings are monochrome. The ring’s spokes appear as dark, perpendicular smudges appear on the rightmost and leftmost points of the inner set of rings. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Joseph DePasquale (STScI) #NASA #Hubble #Planets #Saturn #Rings
You vs. the penguin she told you not to worry about 🐧 But beauty is in the eye of the beholder! What you’re looking at is two perspectives of a group of galaxies named Arp 142. The first image was taken by @NASAHubble, and the second by @NASAWebb. Arp 142 is nicknamed the Penguin and the Egg due to the shape of the galaxies, which resembles a penguin guarding an egg. The “penguin” part of the pair is a spiral galaxy twisted and pulled by the gravity of its neighbor. Due to its mix of features—new stars, gas strands, and others—its distortion is readily visible. The “egg,” in contrast, appears featureless due to its smooth distribution of old stars. This hides any shaping caused by the gravity of its neighbor. Over time, gravity will bring these two galaxies closer together until they become one. This type of galactic merger likely occurred for most large galaxies we see today, including our own Milky Way. Image descriptions: 1. Hubble's image of Arp 142. Two galaxies stand out against a black background dotted with small, faint stars and two brighter stars at the top of the image. The “egg” galaxy is just below the “penguin,” appearing as a glowing, turquoise oblong. The “penguin” galaxy appears to be standing over its galactic neighbor. Twisted filaments of blue and red outline the penguin shape in the speckled, white glow of the galaxy’s body. Wisps of rusty lines cascade from the penguin’s “beak” to its “torso.” 2. Webb's image of Arp 142. The same two galaxies are pictured, this time with the “penguin” appearing as twisted, fiery streaks of glowing dust and the “egg” appearing as a warm, glowing point. Both galaxies are surrounded by an aura of diffuse light. The stars and small galaxies in the background show up as deep orange. 3. Webb's image of Arp 142, this time with the shape of the penguin and egg outlined in pink. Credit: NASA-ESA/STScI/AURA/JPL-Caltech/CSA #NASA #Galaxy #Penguin #Space #Universe
Swipe right to see a lot more of Mars When our astronauts set foot on the surface of Mars, they could be treated to a panorama like this one, taken by our Curiosity rover earlier this year. Curiosity has been rolling through the Gale Crater region for more than 4,000 Martian days, exploring the Red Planet's geology from a time when it could have once been home to microbial life. Curiosity captured this view on Feb. 7, 2025, as it climbed Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall mountain made up of layers which formed in different eras of Martian history. By studying each layer, Curiosity's scientists can learn more about how the planet's environment changed over time from a warmer, wetter, and more Earthlike world to the freezing desert it is today. This view looks back down from the slopes of Mount Sharp into Gale Crater. Image description: A very wide panorama, split into several images, shows off a rocky Martian landscape. A rippled, reddish-brown surface dominates the foreground, with hilly slopes descending into a flat plain—the surface of Gale Crater. The far wall of the crater can be faintly seen in the distance. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS #NASA #Space #Mars #CuriosityRover #Explore
Group photo with the besties! @NASAHubble captured this rare shot of Jupiter with three of its moons perfectly in view: Europa, Callisto, and Io. While it is common to see any of Jupiter’s larger moons transiting the planet, it is rare to see three do so at once, happening only once or twice per decade. To date, we have discovered over 90 moons around Jupiter. Jupiter has more moons than almost any other planet in our solar system, only beat by Saturn with more than 270. Europa, Callisto, and Io are three of Jupiter's four largest moons, which were first spotted in 1610 by astronomer Galileo Galilei. They were also three of the first moons ever discovered in our solar system (besides our own). Image description: Jupiter dominates the image, shown at an almost perfectly diagonal angle. Three of the planet’s moons — Europa, Callisto, and Io — are visible around its equatorial line, appearing as small circles of varying brightness. Two of the moons cast very noticeable shadows on Jupiter’s body. Io is at the top right of the planet in the image. Europa and Callisto are at the bottom left, with Europa below Callisto. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) #NASA #Hubble #SolarSystem #Jupiter #Squad
Long-distance friendships can be a beautiful thing 💞 In this case captured by @NASAHubble, two galaxies in the trio known as Arp 295 have created a 250,000-light-year-long bridge of stars, connecting each other across the distance between them. When galaxies get close to each other, their gravity can distort their shapes. When this happens, they’re known as interacting galaxies; if they get close enough together, they can eventually merge into one. Researchers believe that galactic mergers are common, and it is even expected that our own Milky Way will merge with our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, in four billion years. This stellar stripe connects the galaxy in the center of the image, known as Arp 295a, to a second galaxy out of frame above it, Arp 295b. The bridge then trails off down below Arp 295a. Image description: An image focused on Arp 295a against the backdrop of black space littered with stars and distant galaxies. Arp 295a is viewed edge-on, appearing as a thin stripe of pale light shrouded by a smoky dust pattern. A faint streak of light extends both upward and downward from it. Another member of the trio, Arp 295c, is pictured to the right of Arp 295a, and appears smaller, bluer, and face-on. Credit: NASA/ESA/J. Dalcanton (University of Washington)/R. Windhorst (Arizona State University)/Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) #Space #NASA #Galaxy #Universe #LDR
Look up at the Moon! The last full moon of 2025 reaches its peak on Thursday, Dec. 4. This month's full moon is also a supermoon—meaning that it's near its closest point to Earth in its orbit, so it will appear slightly bigger and brighter than usual. The Moon will be just under 222,000 miles away from Earth on Dec. 4. If you were able to drive to the Moon at 60 miles an hour, it would take you five months to get there—but when our Artemis II mission lifts off next year, it will fly around the Moon and back in just ten days! Our four Artemis II astronauts will observe the Moon from close-up and test out the equipment we'll use on future missions to the Moon's surface. Image description: A large, full moon takes up much of this photo's top-right corner; it shines a pale yellow, and many craters and other landmarks are visible. A small plane can be seen passing in front of the Moon near its bottom-left. The background is a dark blue, with the blurry outline of shrubbery visible at the left and bottom of the photo. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky #NASA #Space #Moon #FullMoon #Artemis
lizard 🦎 lizard 🦎 The Lacerta constellation (Latin for 'lizard') isn't the brightest in the night sky, but it's still full of spectacular sights when viewed through a telescope like @NASAHubble. The trail of lights on the right of this image is a galaxy known as NGC 7250, which contains billions of stars—but they all blend into the background (like a chameleon, perhaps?) compared to the single bright star just left of center. This is only possible because that star is 7,500 times closer to us than NGC 7250. Images like this are a good reminder that just because stars appear close in a constellation, this is only true from Earth's perspective. In actuality, the lights of the Lizard (or any other constellation) may actually be countless light-years away from each other. Image description: A large, bright star with eight diffraction spikes dominates this image, with many smaller stars and galaxies spread throughout the image. A number of blue and red stars from a more distant galaxy trail off to the star's right. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA #NASA #Space #Universe #Telescope #Lizard
In this close flyby of Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, our Juno spacecraft was able to capture this crisp photo of the moon’s surface.⁣ Ganymede is marked by multiple impact craters – most of which have white rays streaking out from them. However, a small percentage of impact scars are marked by dark rays instead, like streaks of charcoal. The dark crater named Kittu, shown here, is one example of these dark marks.⁣ Scientists believe that when dark craters occur, contaminants from the object that crashed into Ganymede are responsible for the darker debris. The dark material stays dark because it remains warmer than its surroundings, preventing ice from forming and turning it a lighter shade.⁣ Our Europa Clipper spacecraft, which launched in 2024, is on a mission to survey Europa, another one of Jupiter's moons—but not before passing by Ganymede in 2030. Ganymede might even serve as the spacecraft’s site of retirement, crashing into its surface at the end of its mission.⁣ Image description: The gray, streaky surface of Ganymede dominates the image, with a small amount of black space peeking out at the top of the image. The charcoal-black crater is in the center of the image, with sharp rays radiating out from the impact site. The rest of the surface is various shades of gray, dotted with white impact craters.⁣ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Thomas Thomopoulos © CC BY⁣ #Space #SolarSystem #Jupiter #Ganymede #JunoCam
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