Welcome to the Universe

Discover the universe: Learn about the history of the cosmos, what it's made of, and so much more.

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Exoplanets

Worlds beyond our solar system.

Stars

Giant balls of hot gas that burn for millions to billions of years. 

Black Holes

Concentrations of matter with gravity so powerful not even light can escape.

Looking like a pinwheel, this face-on spiral galaxy holds a bright-white core at image center. Arms curve outward from the core. They hold dark dust lanes and bright star-forming regions. All on a black background dotted with stars.

Galaxies

Collections of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust bound together by gravity.

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NASA's NEOWISE Infrared Heritage will live on

After 14 successful years in space, increased solar activity is causing the NEOWISE mission to end on July 31. NEO Surveyor, NASA’s next-generation infrared space telescope dedicated to hunting hazardous near-Earth objects, is set for launch in late 2027. NEO Surveyor seeks the most difficult-to-find asteroids and comets that could damage Earth if we don’t find them first.

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A comet in the sky over a city.
Comet NEOWISE was discovered by its namesake mission on March 27, 2020, and became a dazzling celestial object visible in the Northern Hemisphere for several weeks that year. It was one of 25 comets discovered by the mission.
SDL/Allison Bills
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NASA's Fermi Finds Novel Feature in BOAT Gamma-Ray Burst

In October 2022, astronomers witnessed what was quickly dubbed the BOAT – the brightest-of-all-time gamma-ray burst (GRB). But now, scientists studying data captured by NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope reveal an unusual feature never before seen in over 50 years of studying GRBs.

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6 min read

How NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Will Illuminate Cosmic Dawn

Article
4 min read

Discovery Alert: With Six New Worlds, 5,500 Discovery Milestone Passed!

A dwarf irregular galaxy. It appears as a cloud of bluish gas, filled with point-like stars that spread beyond the edge of the gas. A few glowing red clouds sit near its center. Many other objects are visible around it: distant galaxies in the background, four-pointed stars in the foreground, and star clusters that are part of the galaxy appear as bright spots surrounded by more tiny stars.
3 min read

Hubble Studies a Potential Galactic Merger

Article2 weeks ago
This image shows the exoplanet Epsilon Indi Ab. The image is mostly black, with blue scale-like features apparent in the central region of the image. At the center of the image, there is a black circle, and in the center, a symbol representing a star. This black circle blocks the light from the host star. To the lower left of the circle is a fuzzy bright orange circle, which is the exoplanet.
6 min read

NASA’s Webb Images Cold Exoplanet 12 Light-Years Away

Article2 weeks ago
The central region of the globular star cluster Omega Centauri. It appears as a collection of myriad stars colored red, white, and blue on the black background of space.
4 min read

NASA’s Hubble Finds Strong Evidence for Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in Omega Centauri

Article4 weeks ago

Students! Create Art that Could go to Antarctica

A NASA mission called ASTHROS will be launching on a balloon from Antarctica this December, and your art could travel with the team for a photo on the ice! Learn more about the mission and how to submit your artwork from the resources linked below.

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An artist concept of the upcoming ASTHROS telescope balloon mission.

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4 min read

AstroViz: Iconic Pillars of Creation Star in NASA’s New 3D Visualization

Side-by-side images of the Pillars of Creation from Hubble (left) and Webb (right). In the visible view from Hubble, the pillars appear thick, dusty, and brown with yellow streamers along their edges. The background of this Hubble image is like a sunrise, beginning in yellows at the bottom, before transitioning to light green and deeper blues at the top. In Webb's near-infrared view, the pillars appear brighter in orange and yellowish tones, with fainter blue streamers along the edges. The background in Webb’s image appears in blue hues with a many more stars than can be seen in visible light.
Article
2 min read

Hubble Spies a Diminutive Galaxy

A relatively small, oval-shaped galaxy, tilted diagonally. Its center glows brightly and dims gradually to its edge. Its center also holds a few small, blue, glowing spots where stars are forming and dark wisps of dust that cross the galaxy. The image has a black background on which many background galaxies and foreground stars are visible.
Photo of one of the NICER patches.
4 min read

Repair Kit for NASA’s NICER Mission Heading to Space Station

Article6 days ago
A spiral galaxy with three prominent arms wrapping around it. The galaxy holds plenty of extra gas and dark dust between the arms. There are shining blue points throughout the arms and some patches of gas out beyond the galaxy’s edge, where stars are forming. The center of the galaxy also shines brightly. It is on a dark background where some small orange dots mark distant galaxies.
2 min read

Hubble Images a Classic Spiral 

Article1 week ago
Illustration of a particle jet emerging from a dying star
4 min read

NASA’s Fermi Finds New Feature in Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Yet Seen

Article2 weeks ago
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Galaxies

Looking like a pinwheel, this face-on spiral galaxy holds a bright-white core at image center. Arms curve outward from the core. They hold dark dust lanes and bright star-forming regions. All on a black background dotted with stars.

Black Holes

Stars

Exoplanets