Nebula

In 2022, decades of work finally came to fruition as the James Webb Space Telescope focused its powerful eyes on the universe. From distant galaxies to our nearby neighbors, let’s look back at some of the most impressive images captured so far.

The James Webb Space Telescope has snapped some incredible images in its short career, but this new one is a doozy. The spacecraft has now taken images of the iconic Pillars of Creation, revealing new details and giving a peek behind the cloudy curtain.

The James Webb Space Telescope has turned its infrared eyes to a neighboring nursery of young stars known as the Tarantula Nebula, and pierced through the dust to capture an infant star during its formative stages.

By now you’ve no doubt seen the first batch of images from NASA’s powerful new James Webb Space Telescope. But the scope of the achievement is hard to appreciate without context, so here they are side-by-side with Hubble’s views of the same regions.

The endless expanse of space is a beautiful and fascinating subject for photography. From the dramatic births and deaths of stars, to galactic glamor shots and planetary close-ups, here are some of the most breathtaking space photos of 2021.

Astronomers have detected the highest-energy light ever seen. Hundreds of gamma rays were detected with ultra-high energies, with the most powerful signals crossing the Peta-electronvolt threshold – much higher than thought possible in our galaxy.

Planetary nebulae are basically slow-motion explosions in space, expected to expand and then fade over tens of thousands of years. But in an unprecedented show, Hubble has witnessed a nebula fading and shrinking dramatically within just 20 years.

A new “Sonification” project from NASA's Chandra X-ray Center has translated visual data into sound, letting us hear the center of the Milky Way, the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, and the Pillars of Creation nebula.

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking sight in the Serpens Nebula – a huge shadow in the shape of a bat. Now, follow-up observations have shown that it appears to be flapping its wings, which may be the influence of a nearby planet.

Supernovae are some of the most energetic events in the universe, and the resulting nebulas are a favorite for stargazers. To better understand the physics behind them, researchers at Georgia Tech have created a “supernova machine” in the lab.

The Spitzer Space Telescope was retired this January. The observatory is responsible for some of the most stunning space photos ever taken, so to celebrate New Atlas is rounding up some of the absolute best infrared images snapped by Spitzer.

The Spitzer Space Telescope was decommissioned on Jan. 30 this year, after more than 16 years in operation. Now NASA has released the observatory’s last-ever mosaic image, giving us a glimpse into how it works and revealing new features of a nebula.