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In Deep Galaxy Surveys, Astronomers Get a Boost – from Gravity
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Universe Uncovered Hubble’s Partners in Science AI and Hubble Science Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Astronaut Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities 3D Hubble Models Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Spies Galaxy with Lots to See
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the galaxy NGC 7456. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker While it may appear as just another spiral galaxy among billions in the universe, this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a galaxy with plenty to study. The galaxy, NGC 7456, is located over 51 million light-years away in the constellation Grus (the Crane).
This Hubble image reveals fine detail in the galaxy’s patchy spiral arms, followed by clumps of dark, obscuring dust. Blossoms of glowing pink are rich reservoirs of gas where new stars are forming, illuminating the clouds around them and causing the gas to emit this tell-tale red light. The Hubble observing program that collected this data focused on the galaxy’s stellar activity, tracking new stars, clouds of hydrogen, and star clusters to learn how the galaxy evolved through time.
Hubble, with its ability to capture visible, ultraviolet, and some infrared light, is not the only observatory focused on NGC 7456. ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite imaged X-rays from the galaxy on multiple occasions, discovering many so-called ultraluminous X-ray sources. These small, compact objects emit terrifically powerful X-rays, much more than researchers would expect, given their size. Astronomers are still trying to pin down what powers these extreme objects, and NGC 7456 contributes a few more examples.
The region around the galaxy’s supermassive black hole is also spectacularly bright and energetic, making NGC 7456 an active galaxy. Whether looking at its core or its outskirts, at visible light or X-rays, this galaxy has something interesting for astronomers to study!
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Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
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Last Updated Sep 04, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Spiral Galaxies The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
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Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
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By NASA
6 Min Read Upcoming Launch to Boost NASA’s Study of Sun’s Influence Across Space
Soon, there will be three new ways to study the Sun’s influence across the solar system with the launch of a trio of NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) spacecraft. Expected to launch no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 23, the missions include NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe), NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA’s SWFO-L1 (Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1) spacecraft.
The three missions will launch together aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. From there, the spacecraft will travel together to their destination at the first Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L1), around one million miles from Earth toward the Sun.
The missions will each focus on different effects of the solar wind — the continuous stream of particles emitted by the Sun — and space weather — the changing conditions in space driven by the Sun — from their origins at the Sun to their farthest reaches billions of miles away at the edge of our solar system. Research and observations from the missions will help us better understand the Sun’s influence on Earth’s habitability, map our home in space, and protect satellites and voyaging astronauts and airline crews from space weather impacts.
The IMAP and Carruthers missions add to NASA’s heliophysics fleet of spacecraft. Together, NASA’s heliophysics missions study a vast, interconnected system from the Sun to the space surrounding Earth and other planets to the farthest limits of the Sun’s constantly flowing streams of solar wind. The SWFO-L1 mission, funded and operated by NOAA, will be the agency’s first satellite designed specifically for and fully dedicated to continuous, operational space weather observations.
Mapping our home in space: IMAP
The IMAP mission will study the heliosphere, our home in space.
NASA/Princeton University/Patrick McPike As a modern-day celestial cartographer, IMAP will investigate two of the most important overarching issues in heliophysics: the interaction of the solar wind at its boundary with interstellar space and the energization of charged particles from the Sun.
The IMAP mission will principally study the boundary of our heliosphere — a huge bubble created by the solar wind that encapsulates our solar system — and study how the heliosphere interacts with the local galactic neighborhood beyond. The heliosphere protects the solar system from dangerous high-energy particles called galactic cosmic rays. Mapping the heliosphere’s boundaries helps scientists understand our home in space and how it came to be habitable.
“IMAP will revolutionize our understanding of the outer heliosphere,” said David McComas, IMAP mission principal investigator at Princeton University in New Jersey. “It will give us a very fine picture of what’s going on out there by making measurements that are 30 times more sensitive and at higher resolution than ever before.”
The IMAP mission will also explore and chart the vast range of particles in interplanetary space. The spacecraft will provide near real-time observations of the solar wind and energetic particles, which can produce hazardous conditions not only in the space environment near Earth, but also on the ground. The mission’s data will help model and improve prediction capabilities of the impacts of space weather ranging from power-line disruptions to loss of satellites.
Imaging Earth’s exosphere: Carruthers Geocorona Observatory
An illustration shows the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory spacecraft. NASA/BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, a small satellite, will launch with IMAP as a rideshare. The mission was named after Dr. George Carruthers, creator of the Moon-based telescope that captured the first images of Earth’s exosphere, the outermost layer of our planet’s atmosphere.
The Carruthers mission will build upon Dr. Carruthers’ legacy by charting changes in Earth’s exosphere. The mission’s vantage point at L1 offers a complete view of the exosphere not visible from the Moon’s relatively close distance to Earth. From there, it will address fundamental questions about the nature of the region, such as its shape, size, density, and how it changes over time.
The exosphere plays an important role in Earth’s response to space weather, which can impact our technology, from satellites in orbit to communications signals in the upper atmosphere or power lines on the ground. During space weather storms, the exosphere mediates the energy absorption and release throughout the near-Earth space environment, influencing strength of space weather disturbances. Carruthers will help us better understand the fundamental physics of our exosphere and improve our ability to predict the impacts of the Sun’s activity.
“We’ll be able to create movies of how this atmospheric layer responds when a solar storm hits, and watch it change with the seasons over time,” said Lara Waldrop, the principal investigator for the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
New space weather station: SWFO-L1
SWFO-L1 will provide real-time observations of the Sun’s corona and solar wind to help forecast the resulting space weather.
NOAA/BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems Distinct from NASA’s research satellites, SWFO-L1 will be an operational satellite, designed to observe solar activity and the solar wind in real time to provide critical data in NOAA’s mission to protect the nation from environmental hazards. SWFO-L1 will serve as an early-warning beacon for potentially damaging space weather events that could impact our technology on Earth. SWFO-L1 will observe the Sun’s outer atmosphere for large eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, and measure the solar wind upstream from Earth with a state-of-the-art suite of instruments and processing system.
This mission is the first of a new generation of NOAA space weather observatories dedicated to 24/7 operations, working to avoid gaps in continuity.
“SWFO-L1 will be an amazing deep-space mission for NOAA,” said Dimitrios Vassiliadis, SWFO program scientist at NOAA. “Thanks to its advantageous location at L1, it will continuously monitor the solar atmosphere while measuring the solar wind and its interplanetary magnetic fields well before it impacts Earth — and transmit these data in record time.”
With SWFO-L1’s enhanced performance, unobstructed views, and minimal delay between observations and data return, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center forecasters will give operators improved lead time required to take precautionary actions that protect vital infrastructure, economic interests, and national security on Earth and in space.
By Mara Johnson-Groh
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Sep 04, 2025 Related Terms
Carruthers Geocorona Observatory (GLIDE) Heliophysics Heliosphere IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Solar Wind Space Weather The Sun The Sun & Solar Physics Explore More
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Missions
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Universe Uncovered Hubble’s Partners in Science AI and Hubble Science Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Astronaut Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities 3D Hubble Models Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Homes in on Galaxy’s Star Formation
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the asymmetric spiral galaxy Messier 96. ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, D. Calzetti This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a galaxy whose asymmetric appearance may be the result of a galactic tug of war. Located 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo, the spiral galaxy Messier 96 is the brightest of the galaxies in its group. The gravitational pull of its galactic neighbors may be responsible for Messier 96’s uneven distribution of gas and dust, asymmetric spiral arms, and off-center galactic core.
This asymmetric appearance is on full display in the new Hubble image that incorporates data from observations made in ultraviolet, near infrared, and visible/optical light. Earlier Hubble images of Messier 96 were released in 2015 and 2018. Each successive image added new data, building up a beautiful and scientifically valuable view of the galaxy.
The 2015 image combined two wavelengths of optical light with one near infrared wavelength. The optical light revealed the galaxy’s uneven form of dust and gas spread asymmetrically throughout its weak spiral arms and its off-center core, while the infrared light revealed the heat of stars forming in clouds shaded pink in the image.
The 2018 image added two more optical wavelengths of light along with one wavelength of ultraviolet light that pinpointed areas where high-energy, young stars are forming.
This latest version offers us a new perspective on Messier 96’s star formation. It includes the addition of light that reveals regions of ionized hydrogen (H-alpha) and nitrogen (NII). This data helps astronomers determine the environment within the galaxy and the conditions in which stars are forming. The ionized hydrogen traces ongoing star formation, revealing regions where hot, young stars are ionizing the gas. The ionized nitrogen helps astronomers determine the rate of star formation and the properties of gas between stars, while the combination of the two ionized gasses helps researchers determine if the galaxy is a starburst galaxy or one with an active galactic nucleus.
The bubbles of pink gas in this image surround hot, young, massive stars, illuminating a ring of star formation in the galaxy’s outskirts. These young stars are still embedded within the clouds of gas from which they were born. Astronomers will use the new data in this image to study how stars are form within giant dusty gas clouds, how dust filters starlight, and how stars affect their environments.
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Explore the Night Sky: Messier 96
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Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
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Last Updated Aug 29, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Spiral Galaxies Stars The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
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By NASA
5 min read
Astronomers Map Stellar ‘Polka Dots’ Using NASA’s TESS, Kepler
Scientists have devised a new method for mapping the spottiness of distant stars by using observations from NASA missions of orbiting planets crossing their stars’ faces. The model builds on a technique researchers have used for decades to study star spots.
By improving astronomers’ understanding of spotty stars, the new model — called StarryStarryProcess — can help discover more about planetary atmospheres and potential habitability using data from telescopes like NASA’s upcoming Pandora mission.
“Many of the models researchers use to analyze data from exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, assume that stars are uniformly bright disks,” said Sabina Sagynbayeva, a graduate student at Stony Brook University in New York. “But we know just by looking at our own Sun that stars are more complicated than that. Modeling complexity can be difficult, but our approach gives astronomers an idea of how many spots a star might have, where they are located, and how bright or dark they are.”
A paper describing StarryStarryProcess, led by Sagynbayeva, published Monday, August 25, in The Astrophysical Journal.
Watch to learn how a new tool uses data from exoplanets, worlds beyond our solar system, to tell us about their polka-dotted stars.
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Download images and videos through NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and now-retired Kepler Space Telescope were designed to identify planets using transits, dips in stellar brightness caused when a planet passes in front of its star.
These measurements reveal how the star’s light varies with time during each transit, and astronomers can arrange them in a plot astronomers call a light curve. Typically, a transit light curve traces a smooth sweep down as the planet starts passing in front of the star’s face. It reaches a minimum brightness when the world is fully in front of the star and then rises smoothly as the planet exits and the transit ends.
By measuring the time between transits, scientists can determine how far the planet lies from its star and estimate its surface temperature. The amount of missing light from the star during a transit can reveal the planet’s size, which can hint at its composition.
Every now and then, though, a planet’s light curve appears more complicated, with smaller dips and peaks added to the main arc. Scientists think these represent dark surface features akin to sunspots seen on our own Sun — star spots.
The Sun’s total number of sunspots varies as it goes through its 11-year solar cycle. Scientists use them to determine and predict the progress of that cycle as well as outbreaks of solar activity that could affect us here on Earth.
Similarly, star spots are cool, dark, temporary patches on a stellar surface whose sizes and numbers change over time. Their variability impacts what astronomers can learn about transiting planets.
Scientists have previously analyzed transit light curves from exoplanets and their host stars to look at the smaller dips and peaks. This helps determine the host star’s properties, such as its overall level of spottiness, inclination angle of the planet’s orbit, the tilt of the star’s spin compared to our line of sight, and other factors. Sagynbayeva’s model uses light curves that include not only transit information, but also the rotation of the star itself to provide even more detailed information about these stellar properties.
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This artist’s concept illustrates the varying brightness of star with a transiting planet and several star spots. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center “Knowing more about the star in turn helps us learn even more about the planet, like a feedback loop,” said co-author Brett Morris, a senior software engineer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “For example, at cool enough temperatures, stars can have water vapor in their atmospheres. If we want to look for water in the atmospheres of planets around those stars — a key indicator of habitability — we better be very sure that we’re not confusing the two.”
To test their model, Sagynbayeva and her team looked at transits from a planet called TOI 3884 b, located around 141 light-years away in the northern constellation Virgo.
Discovered by TESS in 2022, astronomers think the planet is a gas giant about five times bigger than Earth and 32 times its mass.
The StarryStarryProcess analysis suggests that the planet’s cool, dim star — called TOI 3384 — has concentrations of spots at its north pole, which also tips toward Earth so that the planet passes over the pole from our perspective.
Currently, the only available data sets that can be fit by Sagynbayeva’s model are in visible light, which excludes infrared observations taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. But NASA’s upcoming Pandora mission will benefit from tools like this one. Pandora, a small satellite developed through NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Program, will study the atmospheres of exoplanets and the activity of their host stars with long-duration multiwavelength observations. The Pandora mission’s goal is to determine how the properties of a star’s light differs when it passes through a planet’s atmosphere so scientists can better measure those atmospheres using Webb and other missions.
“The TESS satellite has discovered thousands of planets since it launched in 2018,” said Allison Youngblood, TESS project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “While Pandora will study about 20 worlds, it will advance our ability to pick out which signals come from stars and which come from planets. The more we understand the individual parts of a planetary system, the better we understand the whole — and our own.”
Facebook logo @NASAUniverse @NASAUniverse Instagram logo @NASAUniverse By Jeanette Kazmierczak
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media Contact:
Alise Fisher
202-358-2546
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
NASA Headquarters, Washington
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Last Updated Aug 25, 2025 Related Terms
Astrophysics Exoplanet Atmosphere Exoplanets Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research Goddard Space Flight Center Kepler / K2 Stars TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) The Universe View the full article
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered AI and Hubble Science Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities 3D Hubble Models Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Observes Noteworthy Nearby Spiral Galaxy
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2835. ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST team This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image offers a new view of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2835, which lies 35 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra (the Water Snake). The galaxy’s spiral arms are dotted with young blue stars sweeping around an oval-shaped center where older stars reside.
This image differs from previously released images from Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope because it incorporates new data from Hubble that captures a specific wavelength of red light called H-alpha. The regions that are bright in H-alpha emission are visible along NGC 2835’s spiral arms, where dozens of bright pink nebulae appear like flowers in bloom. Astronomers are interested in H-alpha light because it signals the presence of several different types of nebulae that arise during different stages of a star’s life. Newborn, massive stars create nebulae called H II regions that are particularly brilliant sources of H-alpha light, while dying stars can leave behind supernova remnants or planetary nebulae that can also be identified by their H-alpha emission.
By using Hubble’s sensitive instruments to survey 19 nearby galaxies, researchers aim to identify more than 50,000 nebulae. These observations will help to explain how stars affect their birth neighborhoods through intense starlight and winds.
Text Credit: ESA/Hubble
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Last Updated Aug 21, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Spiral Galaxies The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
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Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
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