36 of the most stunning pictures of our universe, from NASA's James Webb and Hubble space telescopes
- Earth and space telescopes have captured iconic pictures of the universe over the years.
- Insider mined the archives of the JWST, Hubble, and Chandra X-ray observatory for iconic images.
- From supermassive black holes to interacting galaxies, here are 32 jaw-dropping photos of space.
Insider combed through the archives of three observatories — the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the James Webb Space Telescope — to take you on a journey through the most stunning sites of the universe.
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in.From supermassive black holes to interacting galaxies, here are 36 jaw-dropping photos of space.
The Bubble Nebula is an emission nebula located 8,000 light-years away from Earth.
The Bubble Nebula, found in the Cassiopeia constellation, was snapped by Hubble in 2016.
Nebulas are giant clouds of cosmic gas and dust. In this case, the bright magenta spot at the top of the nebula, a star that burns a million times brighter than our sun, is pushing the galactic gas and dust into the bubble shape.
Scientists think in 10 to 20 million years, the star with explode as a supernova. Then, the bubble will pop.
This picture showed a detailed view of the center of our galaxy.
Hubble, the Chandra X ray observatory, and another space telescope called the Spitzer turned their lenses to the center of our galaxy, the Milky way, to put together this picture released in 2009.
Using infrared (red and yellow) and X-rays (blue), the picture peered through the cosmic dust to provide one of the best views of our galaxy's core at the time.
The center of our galaxy is shown pictured here as the bright spot on the right of the image.
By looking at what was going on in that area, it provided information about Sagittarius A*, the mysterious black hole around which our galaxy revolves.
The picturesque Whirlpool Galaxy has been gliding past the smaller galaxy on the right for hundreds of millions of years.
This picture taken by Hubble in 2005, shows the Whirlpool galaxy, a classic example of a spiral galaxy, like our Milky Way. This galaxy is 53.5 million light-years away.
According to NASA, stars can form in the arms of the galaxy.
The first picture of a black hole was snapped in 2019.
For years, black holes had remained elusive to astronomers scouring the skies.
But in 2019, scientists revealed the first ever "picture" of a black hole, at the center of Messier 87.
Black holes swallow and compress anything that comes their way — including light. By definition that makes them very difficult to depict.
Snapped by the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of telescopes around the world, this monumental effort showed the outline of the black hole, surrounded by an orange donut of superheated material.
The rose-like shape of the larger of the two galaxies is caused by the gravitational pull of the one below it.
The larger galaxy's mass is about five times that of the smaller galaxy, according to NASA.
This pillar residing in the Carina Nebula is located 7,500 light-years away from Earth.
This visible light picture shows a pillar at the edge of the enormous Carina Nebula, snapped by Hubble in 2009.
The Carina Nebula is veritable star nursery. Its dense dust and gas were here shaped into a pillar by cosmic winds left off by the newly born bright stars nearby, is the perfect breeding ground to create new baby stars, prompting fascination among astronomers.
The Carina Nebula was snapped again in 2022 by JWST, revealing secrets.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) blew observers away with the first batch of full color images released since its launch, revealed in July 2022.
The telescope's huge 21-foot golden reflective mirrors snapped crisp images in unprecedented detail. Here are side-by-side pictures from Hubble and JWST of the Carina Nebula.
This cluster of new stars inside the Carina Nebula
JWST was so accurate, it was able to spot never before seen details, like this cluster of new stars inside the Carina Nebula.
JWST snapped a picture of a galaxy acting as a "gravitational lens"
This picture from JWST became instantly iconic among scientists.
Astronomers focused on this region of the universe because of an optical quirk: A galaxy that has such a gravitational pull that it can bend light.
That means that the galaxy acts as a magnifying glass, bringing forward light from older galaxies much further away.
On the same image, JWST snapped one of the oldest galaxies ever seen.
The farther away a galaxy is, the redder and more compact its light will be. NASA determined that this red dot is 13.1 billion years old, one of the oldest galaxies ever spotted.
And in 2022, the black hole nearest Earth was photographed for the first time.
In 2022, scientists revealed the first image of the black hole in our own backyard: Sagittarius A*.
This black hole is at the center of the Milky Way.
The pillars of creation in the Eagle Nebula, snapped almost 10 years apart.
Side-by-side images show the the pillars of creation snapped by Hubble in 1995 and JWST in 2022 are made of up gas and cosmic dust.
The thick, dusty brown pillars are no longer as opaque and many more red stars that are still forming come into view, Insider's Paola Rosa-Aquino previously reported.
The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, has a trademark Great Red Spot that is roughly as wide as Earth.
The spot is an anti-cyclonic storm that has lasted centuries.
The Cat's Eye Nebula is a planetary nebula located 3,000 light-years away from Earth.
This picture provides a snapshot of the sun's future — though it is likely billions of years away.
The Cat's Eye Nebula is a so-called planetary nebula, an expanding, ring-shaped cloud of gas that forms around an aging as it collapses.
When a star like the sun runs out of fuel, it can become what's called a red giant. As it collapses, its outer shell lets off hot gas, leaving behind its white core, eventually turning into a white dwarf.
Stephen's quintet, a group of five galaxies as seen by Hubble...
Source: NASA
...and as seen by JWST.
JWST saw the galaxy cluster in much better resolution, so much so that you can spot individual stars-forming clumps within one of the galaxies.
This may help scientists figure out how many stars exists and are formed within a standard spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, an astrophysicist previously told Insider.
The Sombrero Galaxy is located 28 million light-years away.
Dubbed "one of the universe's most stately and photogenic galaxies" by the Hubble telescope website, the Sombrero Galaxy is a classic example of a spiral galaxy seen from the side.
NGC 602 is an open cluster located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way.
The picture shows one of our closest neighbors, the Small Magelanic cloud. Stars in this cluster formed at different times and some date as far back as 60 million years ago, according to NASA.
This picture is a composite of data from Chandra (purple), Hubble (red, green and blue) and Spitzer (red).
The Veil Nebula is the remnant of a supernova explosion around 8,000 years ago.
In simplest terms, a supernova is a bright, powerful explosion of a dying massive star.
The picture shows gas left over after the supernova. As it moves across the cold gas in the universe, it lets off light, per NASA. The star that caused the supernova was once 20 times bigger than the sun.
Located 6,500 light-years from Earth, the Crab Nebula is widely accepted to be a supernova remnant from 1054 A.D.
The crab nebula is also thought to have been left behind after a star burst into a supernova.
Both of these spiral galaxies are located 55 million light-years away from Earth in the Virgo Cluster.
These two galaxies, shot by the Hubble telescope in 2017, are more similar than meets the eye.
One is seen from the front and the other from the side, showing the disk-like nature of spiral galaxies.
This is a star-forming region in the Cygnus, or The Swan, constellation.
A star in the middle of this image is expelling gas to form the hourglass-like shape.
These two supermassive black holes began merging around 30 million years ago.
This image shows two black holes spiraling toward each other, which likely began about 30 million years ago.
If the black holes collide, it's likely they will form one large black hole, but this is tens (if not hundreds) of millions of years away from today.
Located in the Scorpius constellation, the open cluster Pismis 24 is home to several massive stars.
An open cluster is a group of stars — often a few hundred or thousand — that are held together by mutual gravitation.
The Antennae Galaxies are currently going through a starburst phase in which clouds of gas and dust collide and cause rapid star formation.
During the galaxies' collision, billions of stars will be formed, according to NASA.
These merging spiral galaxies have been the site of three supernova explosions within the last couple of decades.
These galaxies, snapped by Chandra, are located about 130 million light years from Earth.
Source: NASA
The Tarantula Nebula is a star-forming region located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy bound to the Milky Way.
R136, which is in The Tarantula Nebula, is a starburst region where stars are formed at a rate higher than the rest of the galaxy, according to NASA.
The Westerlund 2 star cluster is estimated to be about one or two million years old.
This star cluster, snapped by Hubble in 2015, is considered young and is located about 20,000 light-years from Earth, according to NASA.
Also known as Barnard 33, the Horsehead Nebula is a dark nebula located in the Orion constellation.
Source: National Optical Astronomy Observatory
The Butterfly Nebula is a planetary nebula in the Scorpius constellation that contains one of the hottest known stars in the Milky Way.
With an estimated temperature of about 250,000 degrees Celsius, the dying star at the center of this nebula used to be five times the mass of the sun, according to NASA.
The colorful Cassiopeia A is a supernova remnant in the Cassiopeia constellation.
Source: Britannica
This star-forming cluster can be found in the Large Magellanic Cloud in N44, an emission nebula with a superbubble structure.
The cluster is about located 160,000 light-years from Earth, according to Science Source.
The Lagoon Nebula is about 4,000 light-years away.
The nebula is a massive 55 light-years wide and 20 light-years tall.
The Red Spider Nebula sits in the constellation of Sagittarius.
According to NASA, this nebula is home to some of the universe's hottest stars.
Galaxy NGC 1015 is classified as a barred spiral galaxy, just like the Milky Way.
Galaxy NGC 1015 is 118 million light-years from Earth.
This monstrous Cone Nebula is made up of gas and dust.
Ultraviolet radiation causes the red glow around the Cone Nebula.
This article was first published on August 15, 2017 and updated to reflect recent advances in astronomical imaging. Lucy Yang and Monica Humphreys contributed reporting to the original version of this article.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonyjvsSaq6GskaC2r7OMrKuupp6eu6h5wZ6YrqyZm8Ktec%2Bhpq2no2LCr7XVnqmsnV2ovaKvxGZpaWlnYoU%3D