Andromeda Galaxy Photo: Chuck's Astrophotography /Twitter: @chucksastropho1

The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33, left) and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024, bottom) // Dale Bush

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA has released 25 new stunning images of various cosmic objects.

Dreamy space scapes by Nick Fritz on Instagram

We have tons more of these beautiful images coming!!!

M24, Sagittarius Star Cloud

Prepare for visual overload! Today, 19 images of nearby face-on spiral galaxies by the James Webb Space Telescope were released. This marks the first time we’ve observed these galaxies in high-resolution near- and mid-infrared light. What do they uniquely show?

The galaxies’ clearly defined spiral arms are brimming with millions of stars. Their centers may be filled with old star clusters or active supermassive black holes. And Webb has shown us where stars that haven’t yet fully formed are still encased in the gas and dust that feed their growth, like bright red seeds.

Webb’s new images are part of a large, long-standing project, the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program, and will be added to images and data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope’s Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Now, astronomers around the world can examine these galaxies carefully in ultraviolet, visible, radio—and now near- and mid-infrared light.

Skip to the bottom of the page to look at each galaxy: https://webbtelescope.pub/3SxNSaU

ALT TEXT: Nineteen Webb images of face-on spiral galaxies are combined in a mosaic. Some appear within squares, and others horizontal or vertical rectangles. Many galaxies have blue hazes toward the centers, and all have orange spiral arms. Many have clear bar shaped-structures at their centers, but a few have spirals that begin at their cores. Some of the galaxies’ arms form clear spiral shapes, while others are more irregular. Some of the galaxies’ arms appear to rotate clockwise and others counterclockwise. Most galaxy cores are centered, but a few appear toward an image’s edge. Most galaxies appear to extend beyond the captured observations. The galaxies shown, listed in alphabetical order, are IC 5332, NGC 628, NGC 1087, NGC1300, NGC 1365, NGC 1385, NGC 1433, NGC 1512, NGC 1566, NGC 1672, NGC 2835, NGC 3351, NGC 3627, NGC 4254, NGC 4303, NGC 4321, NGC 4535, NGC 5068, and NGC 7496.

NGC 2359, Thor's Helmet

The Western Veil Nebula, NGC 6960 // Karl-Heinz Macek

The bright star is 52 Cygni which is in the foreground and unrelated to the nebula.

James Webb found a space penguin!!!

Look at the space penguin!

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-124

JFYI