kateoplis:

Orion’s Great Nebula 

n-a-s-a:

In the Center of the Trifid Nebula

Image Credit: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope, Martin Pugh; Processing: Robert Gendler 

fuckyeahnebulas:

NGC 6188 & NGC 6164 

n-a-s-a:

The Orion Nebula and Trapezium Cluster

Credit: ESO/M.McCaughrean et al. (AIP)

rebloggedcucumbers:

n-a-s-a:

The Fairy of Eagle Nebula - ten light years tall and spewing radiation much hotter than common fire. The greater Eagle Nebula, M16, is actually a giant evaporating shell of gas and dust inside of which is a growing cavity filled with a spectacular stellar nursery currently forming an open cluster of stars.

I love looking at space. It gives me so much peace. We are so tiny, little specs on a floating rock in an unimaginably big universe. There’s no scale we can use to compare ourselves to the vastness of everything else. I’d say a single cell in an ocean, but even that doesn’t cut it, not by a long shot.

Some folks don’t like how small this makes them feel, but I enjoy it. Because in this light, I’m okay, and my problems don’t really matter. The universe is going to keep on trucking just fine without me, without us. And I like that thought.

Yes, yes, my thoughts exactly. Also it’s exciting to think about all the places out there in this unfathomably massive universe (or even just our galaxy!) that are left to see and learn about.

If you don’t think space is cool then what is wrong with you.

expose-the-light:

Royal Observatory Picks Best Astronomy Photos of the Year

Colliding galaxies, the pencil nebula a rad picture of some aurora, star trails and a breathtaking shot of the Milky Way. Good choices. :3

n-a-s-a:

Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula

Credit: Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri (Observatoire de Paris) et al., ESA, NASA

Happy Halloween, have a nebula!

spaceplasma:

The Life of Stars

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured this stunning true-color picture of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603 on March 5, 1999 with its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.

This single view nicely illustrates the entire stellar life cycle of stars, starting with the Bok globules and giant gaseous pillars, followed by circumstellar disks, and progressing to evolved massive stars in the young starburst cluster. The blue supergiant with its ring and bipolar outflow marks the end of the life cycle.

Image Credit: NASA, Wolfgang Brandner (JPL/IPAC), Eva K. Grebel (Univ. Washington), You-Hua Chu (Univ. Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

n-a-s-a:

The Horsehead Nebula

Credit & Copyright: Nigel Sharp (NOAO), KPNO, AURA, NSF

This one is the astronomy picture of the day for a reason, w o w.