The US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) often releases images from outer space, giving a glimpse of the Universe to the public. Here are five such stunning pictures.
This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows a collection of stars of the Pegasus Dwarf spheroidal galaxy, also known as Andromeda VI. The stars are seen against a background of distant galaxies.
The Andromeda galaxy, or Messier 31, is the Milky Way’s closest grand spiral galaxy and hosts around 13 dwarf galaxies around it. The Pegasus Dwarf spheroidal galaxy is one of these mini-galaxies. Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are the dimmest and least massive galaxies, which have elliptical shapes and smooth distribution of stars.
This image of Saturn and its colossal rings was captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on July 4, 2020. Two of Saturn’s icy moons, Mimas at the right and Enceladus at the bottom are visible too.
The light reddish haze over the northern hemisphere could be due to heating from increased sunlight. Another theory for the red colour is that increased sunlight in the summer months is resulting in different amounts of photochemical haze. The blue hue in the south pole reflects changes in Saturn’s winter hemisphere.
The globular cluster NGC 2005 image was captured by NASA Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 2005 is located about 750 light-years from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxy. Globular clusters are densely packed groups of stars that can hold tens of thousands or millions of stars.
The dazzling stars trio is an image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. This trio star system is made up of the variable stars HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3.
This image of Horsehead Nebula was captured by NASA’s James Webb Telescope and released on April 29, 2024. It is located around 1,300 light-years away. This nebula is formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud and glows because it is illuminated by a hot star. The gas clouds around the Horsehead have dissipated already. Experts estimate that the Horsehead has about 5 million years left before it disintegrates.