NASA Universe

NASA

@NASAUniverse

Your backstage pass to the universe and how NASA studies it. Exoplanets, black holes, dark energy, and more!

Greenbelt, MD universe.nasa.gov Joined March 2009

80 Following 1.1M Followers 13K Posts

Latest posts 5

Pinned post

NASA Universe @NASAUniverse Oct 28

Do you ever get the feeling you’re being watched? 👁️👄👁️
Even though all of these cosmic objects are millions of light-years away, they can still send shivers down our spines when we find them staring back at us.

Starburst galaxy NGC 1482 glows in the darkness as observed by the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope on NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Two bright white stars appear as dots spaced apart from each other at an angle. They are both surrounded by small bright halos of light and faint dark purple outer rings. Coming from each star are long, white spikes of light. Surrounding the stars is a very faint galaxy almost hidden by the stars’ brightness with smaller stars and galaxies speckled throughout. This image is watermarked with “Credit: NASA/Swift/E. Hoversten, PSU.”

Galaxy cluster SDSS J0952+3434 looks like it has a smiley face in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Near the bottom center of the image are two bright orange galaxies form "eyes," and a reddish one forms a "smile" as it is warped by gravitational lensing. Sprinkled throughout the rest of the image are other galaxies in a variety of shapes and colors. This image is watermarked with “Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (geckzilla).”

The Chandra X-ray Observatory's view of the Perseus galaxy cluster looks like a flaming skull in space. In the center of the image are two large orange bubbles of gas with smaller bubbles between them. They are surrounded by bright yellow gas that gives it a skull-like appearance. A slightly muddled, orange gradient disk of gas extends outward. This image is watermarked with “Credit: NASA/IoA/A. Fabian et al.”

Astronomers using the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope captured this striking image of Markarian 739, also known as NGC 3758. This object is the result of the merger of two galaxies, each with a supermassive black hole at its center. Fuzzy light pink arms mottled with brown dust lanes wrap around a glowing core with two bright spots sitting side-by-side, like eyes. An arm below curves around like a smiling mouth. A few smaller, blurrier objects appear in the outskirts of the image, in various sizes, shapes, and colors. This image is watermarked with “Credit: ESO/Turbin et al.”

NASA Universe @NASAUniverse 5d

Join NASA’s Night Sky Network on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 6:00 p.m. PT (9:00 p.m. ET) for a livestream discussing half a century of science with our Voyager mission as Voyager 1 approaches 1 light-day from Earth. The event will also be recorded. Details: youtu.be/lG0djnmkRYM

An illustration of one of NASA’s twin Voyager probes against an abstract purple and blue background that gives the impression of deep space. Voyager has a white, upturned dish atop a black cylindrical body. A long antenna extends from the body toward the upper left and other shorter hardware protrudes from the sides and bottom. The image is watermarked “Artist’s concept” and “Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.”

NASA Universe @NASAUniverse 6d

On LP 791-18 d, the floor IS lava! This exoplanet might be carpeted with volcanoes. The gravitational tug from one of the other known planets orbiting the same star may result in internal heating and volcanic eruptions. #MondayMotivation

NASA Universe @NASAUniverse Oct 30

Trick or treat, give these spacecraft something good to … peep?

The universe is constantly leaving out treats for our space telescopes to find. But some of those “treats” might actually be “tricks”!

Planetary nebula Caldwell 55 resembles a piece of wrapped hard candy with vibrant colored layers in this image captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. At the center, the bright pink dot of a star is surrounded by a football-shaped cloud of blue and red gas. A larger cloud of green gas envelops the inner shape. At both ends are red triangular features that resemble the twisted ends of a candy wrapper. This image is watermarked with the credit “Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Jason Alexander (University of Washington), Arsen Hajian (U.S. Naval Observatory), Yervant Terzian (Cornell University), Mario Perinotto (University of Florence, Italy), Patrizio Patriarchi (Arcetri Observatory, Italy), NASA/ESA.”

NASA Universe @NASAUniverse Oct 29

We've got chills! Is it a ghost ... or an instrument on XRISM, a @JAXA_en-@NASA observatory with @ESA contributions? We’ll go with XRISM! 👻

To measure X-rays, XRISM's Resolve runs at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. Learn more: tmblr.co/Zz_UqjgFCgjZCm…