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Experts created two new visual and auditory experiences to explore the complexity and beauty of a compact galaxy group known as Stephan’s Quintet. The guided three-dimensional visualization surveys the galaxies — their structures, characteristics, and interactions — captured in multiple wavelengths of light by some of NASA’s great observatories. The sonifications scan two-dimensional images of the quintet, translating the data into sound to reveal the depth and richness this intricate environment holds.

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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has successfully measured the heat radiating from TRAPPIST-1 c, an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. With a dayside temperature of about 225 degrees Fahrenheit, it is the coolest rocky planet ever characterized using this method. Unfortunately for those hoping that the TRAPPIST-1 system is a true analog to our own, the results are a bit disappointing. While TRAPPIST-1 c is roughly the same size and mass as Venus and receives the same amount of radiation from its star, it appears unlikely to have the same thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. This indicates that the planet, and perhaps the system as a whole, may have formed with very little water. The result is the latest in the quest to determine whether planetary atmospheres can survive the violent environs of a red dwarf star.

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Only a few hundred million years after the big bang, the cosmos was brimming with opaque hydrogen gas that trapped light at some wavelengths from stars and galaxies. Over the first billion years, the gas became fully transparent – allowing the light to travel freely. Researchers have long sought definitive evidence to explain this flip.

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Artificial satellites photobomb about 10% of Hubble exposures on celestial targets. But a typical satellite trail is very thin and will affect less than 0.5% of a single Hubble exposure. Astronomers have developed tools for cleaning the images and improving the quality of Hubble science observations.

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With its large, light-gathering mirror and infrared sensitivity, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is uniquely suited to study galaxies that existed in the early universe, just a few hundred million years after the big bang. Just over one whole month of Webb’s observing time is devoted to the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES. JADES will peer deeply into the universe to study some of the faintest and most distant galaxies. Among the program’s first findings: Hundreds of galaxies that existed when the universe was less than 600 million years old, and galaxies that have undergone repeated bursts of star formation.

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Enceladus—a tiny, icy moon of Saturn—is one of the most intriguing objects in the search for signs of life beyond our own planet.

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Astronomers using Hubble have identified some of the best evidence yet for an intermediate-mass black hole weighing roughly 800 times our Sun's mass that may be lurking in the heart of the closest globular star cluster to Earth. The suspected black hole can’t be seen directly, but the motion of stars moving around the black hole betrays its presence.

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Solar system scientists took NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on a treasure hunt in the asteroid belt, and what they didn’t find turned out to be as significant as what they did.

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A new Webb Space Telescope image of the bright, nearby star Fomalhaut reveals its planetary system with details never seen before, including nested concentric rings of dust. These belts most likely are carved by the gravitational forces produced by embedded, unseen planets. Similarly, inside our solar system Jupiter corrals the asteroid belt of leftover debris that lies between us and the giant planet. Astronomers first discovered Fomalhaut’s disk in 1983. But there has never been a view as spectacular – or as revealing – as Webb’s.

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Astronomers using Hubble have uncovered two eerie shadows from gas-and-dust disks encircling the star TW Hydrae. They are evidence for two unseen planets that have pulled dust into their orbits, which blocks light from the central star and makes shadows.

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Webb Finds Water Vapor, But From a Rocky Planet or Its Star?

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The Webb Space Telescope's latest findings are the first to spectroscopically confirm distances for a young protocluster of galaxies just 650 million years after the big bang. Astronomers think the protocluster represents the earliest stages of what will develop into a massive conglomeration like the Coma Cluster, which includes thousands of gravitationally bound member galaxies.

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Astronomers are celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope’s 33rd launch anniversary with an ethereal photo of the star-forming region NGC 1333. Hubble’s colorful view unveils an effervescent cauldron of glowing gasses and dust stirred up and blown around by several hundred newly forming stars embedded within the dark cloud.

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A stunning smash-up of two spiral galaxies shines in infrared with the light of more than a trillion suns. Collectively called Arp 220, the colliding galaxies ignited a tremendous burst of star birth. Each of the combining galactic cores is encircled by a rotating, star-forming ring blasting out the glaring light that Webb captured in infrared. This brilliant light creates a prominent, spiked, starburst feature.

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A lot of galaxies look like cotton balls when seen through a telescope. They are classified as elliptical galaxies. Now, with the help of Hubble, astronomers have estimated that the nearby elliptical galaxy M87 is "triaxial," or potato-shaped, if it could be viewed in 3D.

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The explosion of a star is a dramatic event, but the remains that the star leaves behind can be even more dramatic. A new mid-infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provides one stunning example. It shows the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), created by a stellar explosion 340 years ago from Earth's perspective. The image displays vivid colors and intricate structures begging to be examined more closely. Cas A is the youngest known remnant from an exploding, massive star in our galaxy, offering astronomers an opportunity to perform stellar forensics to understand the star’s death.

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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently observed Uranus, and the resulting image highlights a complex system of rings as well as a bright polar cap and likely storm clouds.

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Hubble observed a curious linear feature that was first dismissed as an imaging artifact from the telescope’s cameras. But follow-up observations indicate it is a 200,000-light-year-long chain of young blue stars created in the wake of a runaway black hole.

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Hubble has found a rare pair of quasars inside two merging galaxies. These brilliant beacons are powered by supermassive black holes. The galaxies will eventually merge—and so will the quasars. This will result in an even more powerful black hole.

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NASA has selected 24 new Fellows for its prestigious NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP). The NHFP is one of the highlights of NASA's pursuit of excellence in astrophysics. Over 450 applicants vied for the 2023 fellowships. Each fellowship provides the awardee up to three years of support.

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Hubble Space Telescope has provided fresh evidence that Saturn's ring system is heating the planet's atmosphere. The phenomenon has never before been seen in the solar system. It potentially could provide a tool for predicting if planets around other stars have ring systems too.

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Acting as a giant touch-free thermometer, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has successfully measured heat radiating from the innermost of the seven rocky planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, a cool red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. With a dayside temperature of 450 degrees Fahrenheit, the planet is just about perfect for baking pizza. But with no atmosphere to speak of, it may not be the best spot to dine out. The result is the first from a comprehensive set of Webb studies of the TRAPPIST-1 system, and marks an important step in determining whether planets orbiting tiny but violent red dwarfs, the most common type of star in the Galaxy, can sustain atmospheres needed to support life.

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New pictures of Jupiter and Uranus from Hubble reveal complex weather activities on these remote gas giant planets. The forecast for Jupiter is blustery winds, while the outlook for Uranus is smoggy as northern summer approaches.

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Ever had sand hot whip across your face? That’s a soothing experience compared to the volatile conditions discovered high in the atmosphere of planet VHS 1256 b. Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope proved that its clouds are made up of silicate particles, ranging from fine specks to small grains. Webb’s observations also show clear signatures of water, methane and carbon monoxide, and provide evidence for carbon dioxide.

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Wolf-Rayet stars are a rare prelude to the famous final act of massive stars: the supernova. In one of its first observations, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the Wolf-Rayet star WR 124 in unprecedented detail.

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A time-lapse movie from the Hubble Space Telescope captures the impact of asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by NASA's DART spacecraft on Sept. 26, 2022. The movie shows three overlapping stages of the impact aftermath: the formation of an ejecta cone; the spiral swirl of debris caught up along the asteroid's orbit about its companion asteroid; and the tail swept behind the asteroid by the pressure of sunlight. Later on, Hubble records the tail splitting in two.

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The saying goes, ‘From a tiny acorn grows the mighty oak.’ This is accurate not just here on Earth, but in our solar system and beyond.

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This new image of Pandora's Cluster (Abell 2744) from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveals 50,000 infrared sources and extensive gravitational lensing.

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Hubble heralds the start of "spoke season" at Saturn with the appearance of subtle smudges amid the rings on the left of its latest image.

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An asteroid roughly the size of Rome’s Colosseum — between 300 to 650 feet (100 to 200 meters) in length — has been detected by an international team of European astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The object, shown in this artist’s conception, is likely the smallest observed to date by Webb. The detection was serendipitous — the asteroid was found in calibration images of a different asteroid. The lucky finding suggests Webb can detect many such objects.