Outer space is bafflingly beautiful, as this gallery of swirling galaxies, hazy nebulas and giant planets attests. There's been a significant development in space technology recently with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) becoming the most powerful of its kind, while the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022's winning images are nothing short of (inter)stellar. Read on to discover the celestial world in all its glory, including the new release of the Phantom Galaxy.
Captured here by the Spitzer Space Telescope is the Helix Nebula, looking more like a human eye than a dying star. A nebula is a cloud of gas and dust, and we can see the dusty outer layers unravelling into space while simultaneously glowing from intense UV radiation churned out by the hot stellar core.
Pictured here is Arp 298, which is made up of two interacting galaxies, NGC 7469 and IC 5283, and is 200 million light-years away from Earth in the Pegasus constellation. The larger galaxy in this image, NGC 7469, is host to an active supermassive black hole (gulp) and a sparkling ring of star clusters.
Prepare to be dazzled by this infrared image of a cauldron of stars. In fact, hundreds of thousands can be seen here, crowded in the swirling core of the Milky Way galaxy.
Affectionately dubbed the Angel Wing, here are two merging galaxies in the VV-689 system, as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. This galactic collision left the VV-689 almost symmetrical, giving it a wing-like appearance.
This pastel-coloured celestial cloudscape was captured with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope by astronomers using its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). It covers an area in the Orion Nebula and is around 1,000 light-years from Earth, the closest region of massive star formation to us.
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The Tarantula Nebula is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud and is one of the largest star-forming regions close to the Milky Way. Pictured here is a composite of the nebula, containing data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope.
For the past 10 years, the Curiosity rover (pictured) has explored the three-mile-high (4.82km) Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. Climbing over 2,000 feet (612m) to reach younger rocks, Curiosity has demonstrated how Mars evolved from a wet, habitable planet to a cold desert environment.
This spell-binding photograph shows Messier 31, better known as Andromeda. It’s the largest in our local group of galaxies – including the Milky Way. This image was captured by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) telescope in 2003.
Edward H. White II was the first US astronaut to walk in space, taking his first steps on 3 June 1965. Here we see him wearing a shaded visor as protection from unfiltered sun rays as he remained outside the spacecraft for a nerve-wracking 21 minutes. He was the pilot on the Gemini 4 spaceflight but sadly died in the Apollo/Saturn 204 fire at Cape Kennedy on 27 January 1967.
Here we see the Horsehead Nebula as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2013. The wispy parts are illuminated by Sigma Orionis, a young five-star system that’s just out of shot at the top of this image.
This colourful C-shaped spectacle shows two tangled galaxies called the Antennae galaxies. It was captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2010.
It may look as though there’s a lot going on in this image from the ESA Herschel Space Observatory, but this is actually just one portion of the Rosette Nebula. This stellar nursery is about 5,000 light-years from Earth and is located in the Monoceros (or Unicorn) constellation.
Awash with millions of newborn stars, pictured here is an early stage of a massive galaxy construction, affectionately named Sparky. The pink-hued shot was made possible by NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, Hawaii’s W.M. Keck Observatory and Europe’s Herschel Space Observatory.
Although the NGC 7635 (or Bubble Nebula) was only discovered in 1787, this star is about four million years old. It's located in the Cassiopeia constellation around 7,100 light-years from Earth, with winds moving at over four million miles per hour (6.4m km/h). Gases heated to different temperatures emit different colours, and the prominent blue bubble that the star is ‘inflating’ is the result of ultra-hot oxygen.
The W40 (or Red Space Butterfly) is a nursery for hundreds of baby stars. This shot was captured by the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) of the Spitzer Space Telescope and is 1,400 light-years from the Sun. It’s the luminescent carbon and hydrogen molecules that give it its reddish hues. Fun fact (albeit slightly alarming): its stars seem on track to be almost 10 times the size of the Sun.
Mars may be the Red Planet but these blue shades (a false-colour image) tell us more about its weather and geology. For example, this shot shows mega-wind ripples near the centre of the Gamboa Crater, and gives an idea of which way the wind was blowing when the ridges were formed.
These brightly glowing plumes of the Large Magellanic Cloud are found in the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula. With currents and nebulous (hazy) strands reaching out, this small nearby galaxy orbits the Milky Way but looks more like a blurred blob in our own skies.
Check out this marble-like view of Jupiter. NASA completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet in July 2022, and its JunoCam captured these vortices (hurricane-like spiral wind patterns) near its north pole. As pretty as they are to look at, they can reach heights of over 30 miles (50km) and analysing them will eventually provide a better understanding of Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Even outside the Earth's atmosphere, sometimes there’s no escaping the weather. In 2021, as the International Space Station orbited above Trinidad and Tobago, it captured this image of Hurricane Sam churning over the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricanes are the most powerful weather events on Earth – and retain their severity even when seen from outer space.
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Here we see a head-on collision between two galaxies: the glittery NGC 2445 galaxy is on the right and the less flashy NGC 2444 is on the left. This cosmic tug-of-war is collectively called Arp 143 and has sparked an unusual triangle-shaped star-birthing frenzy.
The brand-new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the most powerful telescope ever launched, as this image helps show. Pictured here is the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago – as it is 4.6 billion light-years away from Earth. The hi-res technology that produces these detailed infrared images is expected to revolutionise what we know about the cosmos.
No, it’s not a sci-fi movie poster, it’s the majestic ‘Cosmic Cliffs’ in Carina Nebula some 7,600 light-years away. Taken by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the JWST, this crystal-clear shot shows hundreds of previously hidden stars and background galaxies. Captivating shots like these demonstrate how the new telescope could reshape our understanding of the beginning of the universe.
Marking the final instalment of the JWST trilogy is the Southern Ring Nebula, formally identified as NGC 3132 and around 2,500 light-years away. Images like this one demonstrate how advanced the JWST is, as it managed to reveal for the first time that the star is cloaked in dust. The image on the left was taken using Webb's NIRCam and the image on the right uses the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
This fantastic image gives a deep view of the Crescent Nebula which is located in the Cygnus constellation. What you see here is the result of shockwaves originating from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 134. The image was shortlisted in the Stars and Nebulae category of the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14 (2022) awards.
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This is the IC 1848 nebula (or Soul Nebula) and its core, IC 1871, located in the Cassiopeia galaxy. There's another nebula in the east of its star cloud called IC 1805 (Heart Nebula) and together they're referred to as 'Heart and Soul'. This image was shortlisted in the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year category at the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14 (2022) awards.
Captured here is the latest image of Jupiter, taken from the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam. This latest technological development allows scientists to gain a firmer understanding of the planet's inner life. Among the blue, green and yellow hazes there's also the famous Great Red Spot (which actually appears white here), a storm so big that it could swallow Earth.
This dazzling image of the Phantom Galaxy has just been released by NASA. Known formally as M74, the 'grand design spiral' was captured and produced by both the Hubble and James Webb Telescopes. The galaxy, 32 million light-years away from Earth, is located in the constellation Pisces, and you can see its centre clearly unclouded by gas.
This image won the People & Space category in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14 (2022) awards. Here we see the International Space Station (ISS) positioned directly over the Apollo 11 Moon-landing site on the Sea of Tranquillity. Captured using Celestron C11 and Explore Scientific AR127 telescopes, the moment only lasted milliseconds.
The Sombrero Galaxy is well-documented and this image shows faint star streams following a smaller galaxy colliding with the Milky Way. This image won the Galaxies category in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14 (2022) awards and was taken using an ATEO 16" f/3.7 Dreamscope Astrograph Newtonian telescope.
Once a month the Sun rises over the crater Plato on the Moon and casts huge shadows from its east rim across its lava-filled floor. This close-up shot won the Our Moon category in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14 (2022) awards and was captured with a home-built 444mm Dobsonian Newtonian reflector telescope.
Here's a rare glimpse of a comet that will leave the Solar System and never be seen again. Comet Leonard was only discovered in January 2021 and made its closest pass to Earth in December of the same year. This image not only won the Planets, Comets & Asteroids category but was also the Overall Winner in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 14 (2022) awards. It was captured using an ASA 12” Astrograph telescope.