Browse Archive
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Plowing Through the Depths of Space
A runaway star, plowing through the depths of space and piling up interstellar material before it, can be seen in this ultraviolet image from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The star, called CW Leo,...
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Helix Nebula
This is the Helix nebula, as seen in ultraviolet light. It is a star like our sun but at the very end of its life. The star is a small dot in the center, surrounded by billowy layers of expelled mater...
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The Galaxy Next Door
Hot stars burn brightly in this new image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, showing the ultraviolet side of a familiar face.
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At approximately 2.5 million light-years away, the Androm... -
Cosmic Cartwheel of Color
This image of the Cartwheel galaxy shows a rainbow of multi-wavelength observations from NASA missions, including the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (blue), the Hubble Space Telescope (green), the Spitzer ...
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Star Formation in the Suburbs
A galaxy sprouts stars far from its central hub, as seen here where the blue dots line the red, spindly, spiral arms. Ultraviolet data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer are color-coded blue and green...
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It Takes Two to Tango
Astronomers suspect that this pair of galaxies is locked in a gravitational dance. In this ultraviolet image, a spiral arm from the central galaxy appears to be wrapped around the smaller galaxy, loca...
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Dissecting a Galaxy
By combining ultraviolet data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer with infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers get a clear picture of the various components of a galaxy. ...
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Ghostly Galaxy
These images show the galaxy nicknamed "Ghost of Mirach" in visible-light (left) and in ultraviolet (right) as seen by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer. A ring around the galaxy -- which is the white spo...
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Watching Galaxies Grow Old
Observations from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer allowed astronomers to trace the development of galaxies, from their wild, youthful days to their more settled, older years.
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Black Hole Swallows a Star
These images, taken with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii, show a brightening inside a galaxy caused by a flare from its nucleus. The arrow in each image points...
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Timeline of the Rise and Fall of NGC 3801
Astronomers believe they have caught the galaxy NGC 3810 at a critical point in its history, just as it is making the transition from a vigorous spiral galaxy to a quiescent elliptical galaxy whose st...
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The Beginning of the End of Star Formation
Time is running out for the galaxy NGC 3801, seen in this composite image combining light from across the spectrum, ranging from ultraviolet to radio. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and other instru...
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Cygnus Loop Nebula
Wispy tendrils of hot dust and gas glow brightly in this ultraviolet image of the Cygnus Loop nebula, taken by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The nebula lies about 1,500 light-years away, and is a ...
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How to Measure the Universe
This diagram illustrates two ways to measure how fast the universe is expanding. In the past, distant supernovae, or exploded stars, have been used as "standard candles" to measure distances in the un...
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Dark Energy and Gravity - Yin and Yang of the Universe
Astronomers think that the expansion of the universe is regulated by both the force of gravity, which acts to slow it down, and a mysterious dark energy, which pushes matter and space apart. In fact, ...
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Little Galaxies Pack a Big Punch
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer is helping to solve a mystery -- why do the littlest of galaxies produce the biggest of star explosions, or supernovae?
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These postage-stamp images were ta... -
Planets Under a Red Sun
This artist's concept illustrates a young, red dwarf star surrounded by three planets. Such stars are dimmer and smaller than yellow stars like our sun, which makes them ideal targets for astronomers ...
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Ultraviolet Ring Around the Galaxies
Astronomers have found unexpected rings and arcs of ultraviolet light around a selection of galaxies, four of which are shown here as viewed by NASA's and the European Space Agency's Hubble Space Tele...
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Now You See a Tail, Now You Don't
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer found a tail behind a galaxy called IC 3418. The star-studded tail can be seen on the left, as detected by the space telescope in ultraviolet light. The tail has escap...
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Adding up Stars in a Galaxy
This diagram illustrates the extent to which astronomers have been underestimating the proportion of small to big stars in certain galaxies.