Artist’s impression of supermassive black hole seed: This artist’s impression shows a possible seed for the formation of a supermassive black hole. Two of these possible seeds were discovered by an Italian team, using three space telescopes: the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope.

Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: Quasars and Black Holes
Release date: 24 May 2016, 19:00
Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss

Supermassive black hole seed seen by Hubble: This image shows one of two detected supermassive black hole seeds, OBJ29323, as it is seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Name: OBJ29323
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: Quasars and Black Holes
Distance: z=6.0 (redshift)
Release date: 24 May 2016, 19:00
Credit: NASA/STScI/ESA

Supermassive black hole seed seen by Chandra: This image shows one of two detected supermassive black hole seeds, OBJ29323, as it is seen by the NASA Chandra Space Telescope. The properties of the X-ray data match those predicted by models produced by the Italian research team.

Name: OBJ29323
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category: Quasars and Black Holes
Distance: z=6.0 (redshift)
Release date: 24 May 2016, 19:00
Credit: NASA/CXC/Scuola Normale Superiore/Pacucci

Cosmic distance ladder: For the calibration of relatively short distances the team observed Cepheid variables. These are pulsating stars which fade and brighten at rates that are proportional to their true brightness and this property allows astronomers to determine their distances. The researchers calibrated the distances to the Cepheids using a basic geometrical technique called parallax. With Hubble’s sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), they extended the parallax measurements further than previously possible, across the Milky Way galaxy. To get accurate distances to nearby galaxies, the team then looked for galaxies containing both Cepheids and Type Ia supernovae. Type Ia supernovae always have the same intrinsic brightness and are also bright enough to be seen at relatively large distances. By comparing the observed brightness of both types of stars in those nearby galaxies, the team could then accurately measure the true brightness of the supernova. Using this calibrated rung on the distance ladder the accurate distance to additional 300 type Ia supernovae in far-flung galaxies was calculated. They compare those distance measurements with how the light from the supernovae is stretched to longer wavelengths by the expansion of space. Finally, they use these two values to calculate how fast the universe expands with time, called the Hubble constant.

Type: Local Universe : CosmologyEarly Universe : Cosmology
Category: Illustrations
Release date: 2 June 2016, 17:30
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Feild (STScI), and A. Riess (STScI/JHU)

Cepheids in UGC 9391: This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows one of the galaxies in the survey to refine the measurement for how fast the Universe expands with time, called the Hubble constant. The galaxy, UGC 9391, contains two types of stars that astronomers use to calculate accurate distances to galaxies, a key measurement in determining the Hubble constant: Cepheid variables (marked with red circles) which pulsate at rates that correspond to their true brightness; and a Type Ia supernova (the blue cross indicates the position of the supernova 2003du). These supernovae are another commonly used cosmic yardstick. They flare with the same brightness and are brilliant enough to be seen from relatively longer distances. Astronomers calibrate the supernovae with the Cepheids in galaxies such as UGC 9391 so that they can accurately calculate the distances to faraway exploding stars. UGC 9391 itself resides about 130 million light-years from Earth.

Name: UGC 9391
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Distance: 130 million light years
Release date: 2 June 2016, 17:30
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Riess (STScI/JHU)

UGC 9391: Cepheid variable stars in this spiral galaxy, known as UGC 9391, and a Type Ia supernova (not visible in this image) were used by a team of astronomers to calculate the expansion rate of the modern Universe.

Name: UGC 9391
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Draco
Distance: 130 million light years
Release date: 2 June 2016, 17:30
Credit: NASA, ESA, and L. Frattare (STScI)

LEDA 36252, a cosmic tadpole: In this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a firestorm of star birth is lighting up one end of the diminutive galaxy LEDA 36252 — also known as Kiso 5649.The galaxy is a member of a class of galaxies called “tadpoles” because of their bright heads and elongated tails. This galaxy resides relatively nearby, at a distance of 80 million light-years. Tadpoles are rare in the local Universe but common in the distant Universe, suggesting that many galaxies pass through a phase like this as they evolve.

Name: LEDA 36252
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Irregular
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: 80 million light years
Release date: 28 June 2016, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Elmegreen (Vassar College), B. Elmegreen (IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center), J. Almeida, C. Munoz-Tunon, and M. Filho (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias), J. Mendez-Abreu (University of St. Andrews), J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin-Madison), M. Rafelski (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), and D. Ceverino (Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University)

Ground-based view of LEDA 36252: This ground-based image shows the tadpole galaxy LEDA 36252 and its surroundings.

Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Irregular
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Release date: 28 June 2016, 19:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin

Moving heart of the Crab Nebula: While many other images of the famous Crab Nebula have focused on the filaments in the outer part of the nebula, this image shows the very heart of the Crab Nebula including the central neutron star — it is the rightmost of the two bright stars near the centre of this image. The rapid motion of the material nearest to the central star is revealed by the subtle rainbow of colours in this time-lapse image, the rainbow effect being due to the movement of material over the time between one image and another.

Name: Crab Nebula
Type: Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Supernova Remnant
Category: Nebulae
Constellation: Taurus
Distance: 6500 light years
Release date: 7 July 2016, 16:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Mahdi Zamani

Hubble image of Abell S1063: Abell S1063, a galaxy cluster, was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Frontier Fields programme. The huge mass of the cluster acts as a cosmic magnifying glass and enlarges even more distant galaxies, so they become bright enough for Hubble to see.

Name: Abell S1063
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Grus
Distance: z=0.348 (redshift)
Release date: 21 July 2016, 16:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz (STScI)