Officially known as W40, this red butterfly in space is a nebula, or a giant cloud of gas and dust. The “wings” of the butterfly are giant bubbles of gas being blown from the inside out by massive ...

The James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) captured the star as it reaches the end of its life.

A dazzling new image from the European Southern Observatory's VLT Survey Telescope in Chile has revealed an unusual cosmic tale unfolding 6,000 light-years away in the Serpens constellation. The ...

In the Auriga constellation, some 1,500 light-years from Earth, we come across a star so powerful and energetic, it has earned the nickname the “flaming star.” AE Aurigae, its real name, is an O-type ...

Unusual laser emissions beaming from the Ant Nebula suggest that it is home to a hidden double-star system and that one of the companion stars is nearing the end of its life. When stars similar to our ...

John Martin Schaeberle discovered IC 405 near the end of the 19th century. The object was independently spotted shortly after by astrophotographers Max Wolf and Eugen von Gothard. It’s located in ...

In sharp contrast to the "Pillars of Creation" present in the star-forming regions of the Eagle nebula captured by the Hubble Space Telescope two decades ago, new observations are showing pillar-like ...

Ever wonder what a nursery for stars looks like? If this image is any indication, it's a beautiful but chaotic place. Taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, ...

Planetary nebulae represent a brief, yet illuminating, phase in the evolution of low- to intermediate-mass stars. These glowing shells of ionised gas are shed in the late stages of stellar development ...

The picture uses images from the VLT Survey Telescope in the Atacama Desert, Chile, and the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla, also in Chile. This is the most detailed picture ever taken of ...

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a beautiful image of the planetary nebula ESO 577-24. The ionized mass of gas and dust is only expected to be visible for ...