Galaxies

Galaxy IC 4653. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Rosario (CEA, Durham University)

Astrophotography

Eye On The Sky Newborn stars glow in a galaxy 80 million lightyears from Earth

Galaxy merger Arp-Madore 2026-424 (AM 2026-424). Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and M. Durbin (University of Washington)

Astrophotography

Eye On The Sky Hubble spies a ghostly galactic collision

Cosmic drag creates a jellyfish galaxy. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), P. Jachym (Czech Academy of Sciences) et al.

Astrophotography

Eye On The Sky Cosmic drag creates a jellyfish galaxy

NGC 3351. Credit: ESO/R Leaman/D Gadotti/K Sandstrom/D Calzetti

Astrophotography

Eye On The Sky A galaxy where stars are born...and die

Spitzer spots nearby spiral galaxy M81. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astrophotography

Eye On The Sky Spitzer spots nearby spiral galaxy M81

An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud captured by the VISTA telescope. Credit: ESO/VMC Survey

Astrophotography

Eye On The Sky New VISTA of our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud

The Medusa merger. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Adamo

Astrophotography

Eye On The Sky Hubble captures two galaxies colliding

Spitzer Spots a Perfectly Sideways Galaxy. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astrophotography

Eye On The Sky Spitzer views an edge-on galaxy in infrared

Andromeda Galaxy, M31

Andromeda Galaxy’s last meal

Can you spot each of Patrick Moore's top galaxies to see in the night sky during autumn?

Patrick Moore’s top 5 autumn galaxies

What is the Milky Way?

Andromeda Galaxy, Charles Thody, Pembrokeshire, 8 September 2015. Equipment: Modified Canon EOS 40D DSLR camera, Sky-Watcher Equinox-80 ED apo refractor, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 PRO SynScan mount.

Readers’ images: top galaxy astrophotos

Not all galaxies are neatly shaped, as this new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 6240 clearly demonstrates. Hubble previously released an image of this galaxy back in 2008, but the knotted region, shown here in a pinky-red hue at the centre of the galaxies, was only revealed in these observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. NGC 6240 lies 400 million light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Holder). This galaxy has an elongated shape with branching wisps, loops and tails. This mess of gas, dust and stars bears more than a passing resemblance to a butterfly and, though perhaps less conventionally beautiful, a lobster. This bizarrely-shaped galaxy did not begin its life looking like this; its distorted appearance is a result of a galactic merger that occurred when two galaxies drifted too close to one another. This merger sparked bursts of new star formation and triggered many hot young stars to explode as supernovae. A new supernova was discovered in this galaxy in 2013, named SN 2013dc. It is not visible in this image, but its location is indicated here. At the centre of NGC 6240 an even more interesting phenomenon is taking place. When the two galaxies came together, their central black holes did so too. There are two supermassive black holes within this jumble, spiralling closer and closer to one another. They are currently only some 3000 light-years apart, incredibly close given that the galaxy itself spans 300 000 light-years. This proximity secures their fate as they are now too close to escape each other and will soon form a single immense black hole. Links Images of Hubble

Secrets of galactic butterfly revealed

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A guide to galaxies

The picture shows Abell 2218, a rich galaxy cluster composed of thousands of individual galaxies. It sits about 2.1 billion light-years from the Earth (redshift 0.17) in the northern constellation of Draco. When used by astronomers as a powerful gravitational lens to magnify distant galaxies, the cluster allows them to peer far into the Universe. However, it not only magnifies the images of hidden galaxies, but also distorts them into long, thin arcs. Several arcs in the image can be studied in detail thanks to Hubble's sharp vision. Multiple distorted images of the same galaxies can be identified by comparing the shape of the galaxies and their colour. In addition to the giant arcs, many smaller arclets have been identified.

A guide to gravitational lensing