telescopes

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has released one of its largest images to date, revealing record-breaking stars concealed within clouds of dust. The observation, highlighted by Live Science as its space photo of the week, showcases the telescope's ability to peer through obscuring material and capture distant stellar objects in unprecedented detail.

A Canadian telescope has for the first time directly mapped the earliest glow of hydrogen in the universe, according to an announcement from researchers at the University of British Columbia. The result, reported through EurekAlert! and UBC science communications, opens what researchers describe as a new observational window on the early cosmos, allowing astronomers to study the epoch when the first hydrogen gas filled the universe.

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has captured starlight for the first time, a key early test of its optics and instruments. The milestone marks progress for the wide-field observatory designed to survey vast stretches of the sky, study dark energy and hunt for exoplanets as it moves toward full science operations.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed an exotic spiral galaxy that appears to be rotating in two opposite directions at the same time. The rare finding, reported by NASA and covered by outlets including Mashable, offers astronomers an unusual case study in galactic dynamics and may prompt further research into how such counter-rotating structures form.

NASA is celebrating a milestone for the Hubble Space Telescope, which this month completed its 200,000th orbit around Earth. The space agency marked the occasion by releasing a striking new image. Hubble has now been operating in space for more than 36 years and continues to make new discoveries despite its age.

The James Webb Space Telescope, operated by NASA, ESA and CSA, has released one of its largest panoramic images to date: the IC 348 star-forming region, filled with hundreds of young stars and brown dwarfs. Astronomy enthusiasts say the observation offers a valuable window into the earliest stages of star and planet formation.

The Cartwheel Galaxy is drawing attention after new imagery showcased its striking ring shape, the result of a cosmic collision. The galaxy, located hundreds of millions of light-years away, was observed by space telescopes including NASA and ESA's James Webb, revealing details of its structure and the violent encounter that shaped it. Space enthusiasts are sharing the spectacular images widely.

NASA and ESA's Hubble Space Telescope has released an image of a section of the Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101 or Arp 26. The picture captures more than 3,000 bright clusters of hot, young, blue stars in one of the galaxy's spiral arms. Space enthusiasts are sharing the image and praising the level of detail Hubble continues to deliver.

China's Einstein Probe satellite is drawing attention for its unusual wide-field view of the X-ray universe. The spacecraft uses 'lobster eye' optics, a design inspired by how lobsters' eyes reflect light, allowing it to monitor a large swath of the sky at once. That means any sudden, violent X-ray event, such as a supernova or a feeding black hole, is likely to be caught quickly, giving astronomers worldwide rapid alerts to follow up with telescopes.

Amateur astronomers are posting their night-sky observations of M45, the Pleiades star cluster, using compact smart telescopes such as the Dwarf Mini from Dwarf Labs. Enthusiasts in the astronomy community are sharing images and notes from their observing sessions, reflecting growing interest in accessible backyard astrophotography of popular deep-sky targets like the Seven Sisters.

A newly shared sequence of telescope images condenses 12 years of observations into a short time-lapse showing a distant star with four planets orbiting it. The animation makes the exoplanets' slow orbital motion visible, something rarely captured directly, and is drawing wide attention as a striking example of direct imaging of alien worlds.

Astronomers report the first detection of radio signals coming from Beta Pictoris b, a giant exoplanet about 63 light-years away orbiting the star Beta Pictoris. The detection, made with radio telescopes, is being described as a breakthrough because radio emissions from planets outside our Solar System are extremely faint and rarely captured, opening a new way to study distant worlds.

American astronomer Henry Draper captured the first photograph of the Orion Nebula on September 30, 1880, a landmark moment in the history of astrophotography. Working with an 11-inch Alvan Clark refractor telescope and the then-new dry-plate photographic process, Draper succeeded in imaging the nebula from Earth for the first time. The anniversary is being noted in science and astronomy circles.

The European Southern Observatory has released a new image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3981, also catalogued as Arp 289, taken with the Very Large Telescope in Chile. The picture was made under the Cosmic Gems Program, which photographs visually beautiful southern-sky objects during nights when conditions are unsuitable for scientific observations. The image is being shared and admired by astronomy enthusiasts online.

Astronomy enthusiasts are sharing a Hubble Space Telescope image of M1-63, a bipolar planetary nebula in the constellation Scutum. The nebula, formed when a dying star sheds its outer layers into two mirrored lobes of glowing gas, is featured alongside material about the shield-shaped constellation. The image comes from ESA/Hubble's picture of the week archive.

The James Webb Space Telescope has turned its gaze back to the extreme deep field, revealing new detail in some of the most distant galaxies ever observed. Coverage highlights striking new imagery and what it suggests about the early universe. Space enthusiasts and science commentators are sharing the findings widely, praising the telescope's continued ability to surprise astronomers with each new observation.

Astronomers have released a 12-year sequence of telescope images tracking a star and the four planets orbiting it, condensed into a short animation. The footage shows the planets moving around their host star over more than a decade of direct observations, a rare long-baseline view of another solar system in motion. The sequence is being shared widely and praised as a striking visual demonstration of exoplanet research.

No starship is waiting on a launchpad, but researchers are actively developing the building blocks for interstellar travel. Work under way includes laser-driven light sails, fast precursor probes, fusion propulsion concepts, and missions that would use the sun's gravitational lens as a telescope. Engineers are also designing long-duration spacecraft able to survive decades in flight, laying groundwork for a first voyage to another star.

New images reportedly show a protoplanet forming around a young star 440 light-years from Earth. The pictures are credited to photographer Pesala Bandara and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. The object is described as Jupiter-like, and the images are being shared as a rare glimpse of planet formation in progress.

The Hubble Space Telescope has released a new image of Arp 321, also known as Hickson 40, a compact group of five galaxies: three spirals, an elliptical galaxy and a lenticular, lens-shaped one. The group is so tightly packed that all five galaxies could fit within a region of space less than twice the diameter of the Milky Way. Astronomy enthusiasts are sharing the image and marvelling at the unusually close gathering.

Astronomers using China's FAST radio telescope have identified the lightest neutron star pair ever recorded, a binary system that sits below the typical masses of known neutron stars. The finding gives researchers a rare, low-mass data point for studying the densest matter in the universe and testing models of how neutron stars form and evolve in orbiting pairs.

The James Webb Space Telescope has released a new image of one of the most visually striking gravitational lenses observed to date. The photograph shows distant light warped into dramatic arcs by the gravity of a foreground galaxy, and the image is drawing attention from astronomy and photography enthusiasts alike.

Scientists are examining the chemistry of Earth's ancient oceans to better understand the conditions under which life first emerged. The findings could sharpen the search for biosignatures on distant planets and moons, helping researchers identify which alien water worlds are most likely to host life and what chemical signals future telescopes should look for.

A proposed NASA telescope could detect rainbow-like optical phenomena, known as glory effects, in the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars, according to Scientific American. Spotting these colorful patterns would reveal details about exoplanet atmospheres, such as the presence of water droplets or other particles, offering a new way to study potentially habitable worlds far beyond our solar system.

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a striking image of the Pillars of Creation, towering columns of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula that stretch light-years across. The observation shows dense structures where new stars are actively forming, and astronomy enthusiasts are sharing the image widely, marveling at the detail of star birth revealed by the telescope.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected signs of giant impacts around other stars — the kind of collision thought to have formed Earth's Moon roughly 4.5 billion years ago. The observations suggest that planet-shaping crashes similar to the one that created our lunar companion may be a common part of how planetary systems develop, giving astronomers a rare look at those violent early stages in progress.

The ALMA Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert is opening its doors to the public as part of Science Month celebrations, marking 15 years of operation. The world's largest radio telescope array has spent the decade and a half observing distant galaxies, star formation and cosmic phenomena. Anniversary events aim to connect local communities with the astronomical research conducted at the high-altitude site.