Top 100 Images

Ranking
Date

1. Galactic Dance

Image of the interacting galaxy pair NGC 5394/5 obtained with NSF's NOIRLab's Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Hawai'i's Maunakea using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph in imaging mode. This four-color composite image has a total exposure time of 42 minutes

2. A Bright Night over Gemini North

There’s more going on in this picture than you might think. This image shows Gemini North, located on Maunakea in Hawai‘i. Gemini North is one half of the International Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.
To the lower left of Gemini is a red glowing light source. This is from the eruption of the Halemaʻumaʻu crater of the Kīlauea volcano, ongoing since late September 2021.
Further lower left of Gemini is the faint green light of Hilo, Hawai‘i, mostly hidden by the layer of clouds that often covers the ground as seen from Maunakea. This is a form ...

3. Dark Energy Survey deep field image

Ten areas in the sky were selected as “deep fields” that the Dark Energy Camera imaged several times during the survey, providing a glimpse of distant galaxies and helping determine their 3D distribution in the cosmos. The image is teeming with galaxies — in fact, nearly every single object in this image is a galaxy. Some exceptions include a couple of dozen asteroids as well as a few handfuls of foreground stars in our own Milky Way.

4. M45 Pleiades

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona. The Pleiades are an open cluster easily visible to the naked eye. The cluster is dominated by several hot, luminous and massive stars. The blue nebulosity surrounding the brightest stars are due to blue light from the stars scattering off of dust grains in the interstellar gas between us and the stars. The cluster is also known as the 'Seven Sisters'. And in Japan it is called Subaru. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), V ...

5. Nebula Sh2-239

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Sh2-239 is a distinct nebula in which stars have been forming for quite some time. It contains two clusters of highly embedded very young stars as well as many stars that are more evolved. The many outflows are visible as bright red knots and jets, particularly in the cavity at the center-top of the image. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), V (green), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. In this image, North is ...

6. Carina Nebula (NGC 3372)

This image shows a giant star-forming region in the southern sky known as the Carina Nebula (NGC3372), combining the light from 3 different filters tracing emission from oxygen (blue), hydrogen (green), and sulfur (red). The color is also representative of the temperature in the ionized gas: blue is relatively hot and red is cooler. The Carina Nebula is a good example of how very massive stars rip apart the molecular clouds that give birth to them. The bright star near the center of the image is Eta Carinae, which is one of the most massive and luminous stars known. This ...

7. Gemini South Captures Planetary Nebula CVMP 1

The international Gemini Observatory composite color image of the planetary nebula CVMP 1 imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile.

8. Spiral Galaxy IC 342

Spiral Galaxy IC 342 is located roughly 11 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis, “the giraffe.” Its face-on appearance in the sky — as opposed to our tilted and edge-on views of many other nearby galaxies, such as the large spiral galaxy Andromeda (M31) — makes IC 342 a prime target for studies of star formation and astrochemistry. The image, obtained in late 2006, was taken using the 64-megapixel Mosaic-1 digital imager on the Mayall 4-meter telescope. This image is the subject of NOAO press release 07-03.

9. Spiral galaxy NGC 1566

This image, taken by astronomers using the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, captures the galaxy NGC 1566 as it twirls, flinging its arms through the vastness of space. Colloquially nicknamed the Spanish Dancer, this spiral galaxy is often studied by astronomers learning about galaxy groups, stars of different ages, and galactic black holes.

10. Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula

This ethereal image, captured from Chile by the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, looks as delicate as a butterfly’s wing. It is, however, a structure known as the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula, which is located near the center of the even larger Chamaeleon I dark cloud, one of the nearest star-forming regions in our Milky Way.

11. Planetary Nebula PuWe 1

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. PuWe 1 is one of the largest and faintest planetary nebula known to exist. The nebula was created when a red giant star blew off its outer layers near the end of its life. The gas is energized by the remaining core of the star, which is called a white dwarf. However it is very faint due to its large size. As planetary nebulae expand they become fainter because the gas moves further from the white dwarf that ...

12. Dark Nebula LDN 810

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. LDN 810 is a dark nebula that was first cataloged by B.T. Lynds in 1962. The dark region at the center contains gas and dust out of which new stars are forming. A bipolar outflow of gas from one of these stars has also been detected. A faint trail of dust and gas extends from the center of the image to the upper-left corner. The image was generated with observations in the Us (violet), B (blue), V (green) ...

13. Jupiter's Red Spots

Gemini North adaptive optics image of Jupiter and its two red spots (which appear white because this is a near-infrared image; in visible light they appear reddish). In this color composite image, white indicates cloud features at relatively high altitudes; blue indicates lower cloud structures; and red represents still deeper cloud features. The two red spots appear more white than red, because their tops hover high above the surrounding clouds. Also prominent is the polar stratospheric haze, which makes Jupiter bright near the pole (unlike the other orange/red features in this image, the polar haze is high in Jupiter's atmosphere). ...

14. Ribbons of Light

For a photo taken at night, this image appears to be ablaze with light. The winding road, which leads to Gemini North, one half of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, looks like a bright white ribbon. However, this abundance of artificial light is an illusion. In reality, enormous effort is made to keep artificial light in the area around the telescopes to a bare minimum. This mitigates interference by light sources from Earth with astronomical observations.
The road appears so bright because the photo was taken with a long exposure time. This is evident by the ...

15. A Sky Aglow

The sky above Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, is aglow with color in this image. The bright region at the center of this image is the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, which lies approximately 26,000 light-years from Earth. As well as stars and dark dust lanes, our home galaxy’s heart contains a colossal black hole, roughly 4 million times as massive as the Sun.
Though the heart of the Milky Way is a spectacular sight, the majority of the colors in this image arise much closer to home. As well as the tint of ...

16. Clear Skies at Cerro Pachón

Vera C. Rubin Observatory basks under a cloudless sky in this image. The observatory is currently under construction atop Cerro Pachón in Chile. If you look closely, you can see a sliver of the teal-blue steel of the telescope structure within the nearly finished dome. Further sheets of the same blue steel are neatly stacked in the building site nearby. Beyond Cerro Pachón, the domes of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory are visible on a nearby summit, and other ridges of the Andean foothills fade into blue in the distance.
When complete, Rubin Observatory will use its 8.4-meter telescope and 3200-megapixel ...

17. Elliptical galaxy NGC 474 — excerpt from the Dark Energy Survey

Elliptical galaxies are generally characterized by their relatively smooth appearance when compared with spiral galaxies (one of which is to the left), which have more flocculent structures interwoven with dust lanes and spiral arms. NGC 474 is at a distance of about 100 million light-years in the constellation of Pisces. This image shows unusual structures around NGC 474 characterized as tidal tails and shell-like structures made up of hundreds of millions of stars. These features are due to recent mergers (within the last billion years) or close interactions with smaller infalling dwarf galaxies.
This image is an excerpt from ...

18. A Snowball SOARs

The white dome of the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope looks a little like a giant snowball, juxtaposed against the icy backdrop. SOAR is an optical telescope, meaning that it observes the skies in the wavelength range that the human eye is sensitive to (and a little beyond). The telescope, however, is equipped with a 4.1-meter mirror, so it can collect a lot more light than human eyes. SOAR is based in Chile at Cerro Pachón. It stands at an altitude of 2,700 meters (8,900 feet) above sea level, which in this winter scene, explains the frosted mountain tops! SOAR ...

19. DECam image of the bulge of the Milky Way

This color-composite shows a main part of the new Blanco DECam Bulge Survey of 250 million stars in our galaxy’s bulge. The 4 x 2 degrees excerpt can be explored in all its whopping 50,000 x 25,000 pixels in this zoomable version.
In the image interstellar dust and gas seemingly acts like a red “filter” in front of the background stars, scattering the blue light away. Since we are surrounded by dust and gas in the Milky Way, this scattering effect is important to many parts of astronomy and is known as interstellar reddening.
DECam was primarily funded by the ...

20. Carina Nebula western wall (with adaptive optics)

A 50-trillion-km (33-trillion-mile, or 5 light-year) long section of the western wall in the Carina Nebula, as observed with adaptive optics on the Gemini South telescope. This mountainous section of the nebula reveals a number of unusual structures including a long series of parallel ridges that could be produced by a magnetic field, a remarkable almost perfectly smooth wave, and fragments that appear to be in the process of being sheared off the cloud by a strong wind. There is also evidence for a jet of material ejected from a newly-formed star. The exquisite detail seen in the image is ...

21. An Astronomer’s Crystal Ball

The Milky Way appears to be trapped in a crystal ball in this fisheye image taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Thanks to its remote location atop Cerro Tololo in northern Chile, CTIO enjoys a breathtaking panoramic view of the southern hemisphere’s night sky, and a spectacular perspective on the heart of the Milky Way. Though the dusty band of our Milky Way dominates this image, several of CTIO’s telescopes can also be seen along the edges. With more than 20 telescopes operating at the site, CTIO is fully equipped to take advantage ...

22. Gazing at the Milky Way

The Milky Way spills across the night sky above the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Commissioned in 1974, the telescope was once the largest optical telescope south of the equator and remains an astronomical powerhouse to this day. This photograph captures the open dome of the telescope as it gazes upwards at the luminous band of stars and dust lanes making up our galaxy. Like all telescopes at CTIO, the Blanco benefits from the crystal-clear observing conditions in northern Chile — as you can see from this star-filled ...

23. High resolution solar spectrum

A high-resolution version of the spectrum of our Sun, this image was created from a digital atlas observed with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the McMath-Pierce Solar Facility at the National Solar Observatory on Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona (‘Solar Flux Atlas from 296 to 1300 nm’ by Robert L. Kurucz, Ingemar Furenlid, James Brault, and Larry Testerman: National Solar Observatory Atlas No. 1, June 1984). The images shown here were created to mimic an echelle spectrum, with wavelength increasing from left to right along each strip, and from bottom to top. Each of the 50 slices covers 60 angstroms, ...

24. vdB 152, Barnard 175

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Also known as Barnard 175, vdB 152 is a reflection nebula atop of a dark Bok globule. Embedded in the top right side of the nebula is the Herbig Haro object HH 450, a jet emitted from a newly forming star. The thin, red filaments in the upper-right corner of the image are the remnants of a supernova explosion. It is not yet clear whether or not the supernova remnant will collide with vdB 152. The image was ...

25. Planetary Nebula HFG1

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. HFG1 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It was produced by a binary star system (V664 Cas) that is moving rapidly through our Galaxy. The star is moving towards the upper-right of the image. As HFG1 plows through the interstellar medium, a bluish bowshock is produced; and a red trail of gas is left behind in its wake. The image was generated with observations in the Hydrogen alpha (red) and Oxygen [OIII] (blue) filters. In ...

26. A Sign of the Zodiac

This image of the Gemini South telescope is so full of light that it is difficult to believe that it was captured at night. Gemini South is the southern half of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The wedge-shaped light on the right side of the photo is not from an artificial source (although there are city lights below it), but is a natural phenomenon known as zodiacal light. This occurs when sunlight is scattered off dust particles in the plane of our Solar System, causing part of the sky to become illuminated either after Sun-down or ...

27. A Colorful Night

These whirling lines in the sky are the trails of stars after an hour-long exposure above Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The trails are shortest around the North Star, Polaris, a star that happens to coincide almost directly with the celestial north pole. The different colors in the trails reflect the different temperatures of the stars, with blue being the hottest stars and yellow/red the coolest. The telescope visible above the horizon is the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope, and the red glow on the mountain is caused by red lights used to ensure the ...

28. Silver Galactic Sliver

The Silver Sliver Galaxy — more formally known as NGC 891 — is shown in this striking image from the Mosaic instrument on the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. NGC 891 is a spiral galaxy that lies almost perfectly edge-on to us, leading to its elongated appearance and its striking resemblance to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, as seen from the Earth. Since NGC 891 is oriented edge-on, it’s great for investigating the galactic fountain model. When stellar winds and supernovae from the disk of a galaxy eject gas ...

29. Dazzling in the dark

If you took only a quick glance at this image, you might think that the dark patches occulting the stars were smoke, rising from the ground. In fact this dazzling image — taken on Maunakea, Hawai’i at the northern site of the international Gemini Observatory (right), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab — shows the Milky Way in vivid detail, allowing us to see not only the stars, but the dusty regions which block their light. Tiny flecks mostly inorganic matter make up cosmic dust which in turn forms enormous obscuring clouds. The dark, smoke-like trail through the heart of the ...

30. Heart of the Milky Way

In this time-exposure photo, the center of the Milky Way glows in various colors — an effect invisible to oneʻs eyes — above the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The heart of our galaxy is best viewed from the southern hemisphere and areas near the equator (such as Hawaiʻi) because of its orientation relative to the Earth. Thanks to its location in the mountains of northern Chile, CTIO makes the southern skies accessible to US astronomers. As well as hosting large research telescopes, CTIO accommodates a variety of smaller tenant observatories. The small domes populating ...

31. Sunlight Paints a Crimson Sky Over Gemini South

During rare cloudy weather, a vivid red sunset reflects off the dome of the international Gemini Observatory’s Gemini South telescope in Chile, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. In this image, sunlight is scattered and reflected by gas, dust and particulates in the Earth’s atmosphere and spreads an artist’s palette of red and orange colors across the sky as the Sun sets over Chile’s Pacific coast. Fortunately, the nearby clouds reflecting these colors cleared out in time for the 8.1-meter Gemini primary mirror to collect starlight and complete a productive night of science observations — but not before treating the observatory ...

32. An Insider’s View

Take a peek at the inner workings of a world-class observatory in this image of the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Illuminated by the Moon outside this picture, the open structure of silver beams holding the secondary mirror (center) allows cool night air to pass freely between the mirrors. Combined with the open sides of the dome, the entire design ensures a uniform temperature matching the outside environment. Any variations of temperature create local turbulence that blurs astronomical images. Although this is a picture of the Gemini South telescope in Chile, its twin, the Gemini North telescope ...

33. Radiant Horizons

The stars and dust lanes of the Milky Way hang above telescope domes in this richly hued image of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The two bright, wispy ovals to the right are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, dwarf galaxies visible only in the southern hemisphere. The band of color along the horizon is a phenomenon known as airglow, a visible reaction between molecules in Earth’s atmosphere and solar radiation. In this picture are the Curtis Schmidt Telescope (left), the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope (middle), and the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope (right). These telescopes, ...

34. WIYN Enveloped by Celestial Aura

The glow behind the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope looks like a celestial aura, but it is really a phenomenon known as the Zodiacal Light. This faint glow, created by the scattering of light by small dust particles left over from the formation of our Solar System, is only visible during evening and morning twilight (in the west and east, respectively) and along the plane of the Solar System or the zodiac (hence the name zodiacal light). The WIYN telescope is part of the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Also visible is the brilliant light of the ...

35. A Backdrop of Blue and Red

A colorful sunset and layers of blue mountaintops backdrops the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Most prominent in the image is the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, which sits atop Cerro Tololo itself. The SMARTS 1.5-meter and 0.9-meter telescopes, as well as a selection of CTIO’s tenant observatories, are scattered along the ridge. This location allows astronomers a stellar view of the southern night sky, providing access to objects not visible from the northern hemisphere, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

36. Purple Sky at Night: Astronomer’s Delight!

This scene shows an arresting purple sky streaked with star trails over Cerro Pachón, the site of the Gemini South telescope (right) and the 4.1 meter Southern Astrophysical Research telescope (SOAR, left), both programs of the NSF’s Optical Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. From this mountaintop perch, which lies at an altitude of 2,737 meters (8980 ft) in the Chilean Andes, the 8.1-meter Gemini South telescope can survey the Southern sky — complementing the view from Gemini North atop Maunakea in Hawaiʻi. Together, these astronomical twins can access the entire night sky.

37. Trails Near and Far

This long-exposure photograph shows the motion of stars during the night above the Blanco 4-meter telescope (left) and the SMARTS 1.5-meter telescope (right) at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a program of the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. Also visible in the photo are the trails left by astronomers walking to the Blanco telescope, created by their flashlights. Stars streak through the sky over the course of this one-hour exposure, appearing to spin around the south celestial pole in the upper left of the image. The star closest to the south celestial pole is Sigma Octantis, a relatively ...

38. Circumpolar Laser Tests at Gemini North

As stars appear to circle around the north celestial pole, a new laser at the Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea undergoes rigorous testing, as seen in this image from early October 2019.
The international Gemini Observatory, a program of the NSF's NOIRLab, recently completed testing of a new laser from the company TOPTICA which is a critical component in the telescope’s adaptive optics system. Adaptive optics utilize artificial guide stars, produced by a laser, as a reference when compensating for distortions caused by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere. The result is ultra-sharp images that rival the view from ...

39. Glowworm Glowing in the Dead of Night

When the weather conditions are just right, glowworms come out at night at Kitt Peak National Observatory. This glowworm crossed the road in front of the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope as the last of the summer Milky Way sets behind the WIYN dome. Although only the tail end of the glowworm is bioluminescent, the glowworm appears as a streak over the 10 second exposure, and the image shows how much distance it covered over the period of the exposure.

40. Sunset over Kitt Peak National Observatory

Every year around the winter solstice, the Sun appears to set behind Kitt Peak National Observatory as seen from Mount Lemmon almost 100 km (60 miles) away. Local photographers meet every year around the holidays to capture photos and videos of this interesting alignment. For a brief time, you can see many of the Kitt Peak telescopes, from the distinctive McMath-Pierce Solar telescope (left) to the large dome of the Mayall 4-meter telescope (right). The still image depicts the silhouettes of the telescopes with a green segment above the Sun and was taken on 17 December 2016. The video was ...

41. Galactic Rainbow

The Milky Way hangs poised over the Gemini South telescope
The colorful band of the Milky Way is poised above the 8.1-meter Gemini South telescope of NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory in this arresting image, which depicts bright patches of stars threaded through with winding lanes of dust. The Galactic Center hangs directly above the telescope, framing one of the most powerful astronomical observatories in the southern hemisphere.
The picture also captures the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which appear on the left side of the image. These dwarf irregular galaxies are satellites of the Milky Way, and lack ...

42. Convergence Over Cerro Pachón

Jupiter, Venus and the Moon Converge over Observatories: Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope operator Carlos Corco obtained this image of the recent conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon (right) over the 8-meter Gemini South telescope (left) on Cerro Pachón in Chile. A conjunction is the apparent meeting of two or more celestial bodies in the night sky. Also visible (in the distance, just right of center) is the silhouette of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) which is currently under construction. In late 2022, LSST is slated to begin an unprecedented, decade-long, survey of the night sky in optical ...

43. Starry Skies at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Breathtaking observatory panorama showcases the Milky Way
This breathtaking panorama, captured by Hernan Stockebrand, showcases the pristine skies at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). CTIO, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, is a complex of astronomical telescopes and instruments in the Chilean Andes. CTIO’s mountainous surroundings and altitude — the site is 2200 meters (7200 feet) above sea level — ensure the mountaintop observatory enjoys spectacular night skies. This colorful panorama shows the arch of the Milky Way hanging above the observatory facilities, as well as strands of low clouds illuminated by the Moon, which is visible on the right ...

44. The Starry Dandelion and the Cosmic Gecko NGC 6520

Millions of years ago, a dust cloud about 5,200 light-years from the Sun coalesced to begin the process of star birth. Today, some 190 million years later, NGC 6520 is ablaze with hot, massive young stars arrayed in a dandelion seed-shaped cluster. Not far away lies the gecko-shaped remains of what may be their birth cloud, Barnard 86. This image, taken using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on Gemini South, shows details in a 9.7- x 5.4-arcmin section of a larger, highly populated region in the Sagittarius star cloud. It provides the clearest optical view of the cluster and its nearby ...

45. Sunset and Shadow

At first glance, this looks like an image of a telescope perched by a sea shore. The telescope — Gemini North, one of the two telescopes that make up the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab — is actually situated at an altitude of over 4000 meters (13,000 feet). The churning waves are a rippling cloud deck, not a choppy sea, over which Maunakea’s shadow stretches for miles.
Maunakea’s highest point (far right) is tinged with light from the setting Sun, as shadows fall over Gemini North. As the day ends, the telescope’s work begins. A key ...

46. Gemini North Infrared View of Jupiter

This infrared view of Jupiter was created from data captured on 11 January 2017 with the Near-InfraRed Imager (NIRI) instrument at Gemini North in Hawaiʻi, the northern member of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. It is actually a mosaic of individual frames that were combined to produce a global portrait of the planet.
In the image warmer areas appear bright, including four large hot spots that appear in a row just north of the equator. South of the equator, the oval-shaped and cloud-covered Great Red Spot appears dark.

47. Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope

Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

48. Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory from above

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory seen from Cerro Pachón.

49. Through the Camera Lens

Cameras allow us to see things which our eyes cannot! This atmospheric light painting was captured at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The composition is framed by an inky sky and the spectacular arch of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope serves as a backdrop. Light painting — where a moving light source is captured with a long camera exposure — has been practiced for well over a century. It has both scientific and artistic applications. NOIRLab’s Colors of Nature Summer Academy explores the science of color and the role color plays in art and nature. Colors ...

50. Shooting for the Stars!

Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, is located on land leased from the Tohono O’odham Nation. NSF’s NOIRLab staff frequently partner with the American Indian Science and Engineering Students (AISES) chapter at Tohono O’odham Community College to host star-gazing events and other local engagement activities. One popular activity is for students to build and launch water rockets out of two-liter bottles with glow sticks attached to make the flights visible against the dark Arizona skies. This image shows the trajectory of a launch that reaches its apex near the constellation of Orion. The winter Milky Way also ...

51. IC 1396A Elephant Trunk Nebula

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. IC 1396 is a giant emission nebula that is over 3 degrees in diameter. It is illuminated by a hot, massive O-type star (HD 206267) near its center. The star is not visible in this image- it is off of the top edge. This image is of IC 1396A, a dark, dense cloud of gas embedded in the nebula. It is informally known as the “Elephant Trunk Nebula” because of its distinctive shape. Images of other parts of ...

52. NOIRLab’s current and potential future system

NOIRLab’s current and potential future system of observatories and data-driven exploration tools.

53. Clear Skies at Cerro Pachón

COVID-19 restrictions in the La Serena region of Chile have impacted construction activity, but progress on the summit is still being made, with a focus on high-priority work.

54. Large and Small Magellanic Clouds over Cerro Tololo

The Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope (center) with the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope (right) and the Curtis Schmidt Telescope (left) at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

55. Galactic Waterfall

The Milky Way resembles a waterfall rushing down the colorful night sky above Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The green-tinged light on the horizon is airglow, originating from the naturally occurring gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Airglow is present at all latitudes but is incredibly dim at visible wavelengths, making it difficult to spot with the naked eye but vivid and bright with long exposure photography. While the horizon softly glows with light, the skies above the telescopes remain awash with stars.

56. Trails Through the Night Sky

Although this appears to be a daytime scene, star trails circle and illuminate the night sky in this long-exposure photo of Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The telescope visible at the highest peak is the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope and almost directly above it, at the center of the concentric star trails, sits the North Star, Polaris. As the Earth turns and the stars appear to move through the sky, Polaris remains stationary at the north celestial pole, our planet’s axis of rotation. The lights of Tucson, Arizona, glow yellow on the horizon about ...

57. Under the Dome

This image shows an immersive view from inside the dome of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The rotating dome is an impressive feat of engineering — designed to protect the delicate telescope from the elements. It weighs in at 430 tonnes (475 tons) and was built to withstand Chilean earthquakes. In addition to the Blanco’s dome, this photograph shows some of the equipment needed to run an astronomical observatory, ranging from calibration targets to good old-fashioned ladders! Glimpses of the mountains surrounding CTIO can be seen through ...

58. Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

59. Planetary Nebula Sh2-290

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Sh2-290 is an ancient planetary nebula. A planetary nebula is created when a low-mass star blows off its outer layers at the end of its life. Sh2-290 is one of the largest known planetary nebulae, with a diameter of about 7 parsecs. The bluish interior is from energized oxygen atoms. The bright side of the nebula is due to its interaction with ambient interstellar gas. The image was generated with observations in Hydrogen-alpha (red) , Sulphur [SII] (cyan) ...

60. Reflection Nebula NGC 1788

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NGC 1788 is an unusual reflection nebula (bluish white at the center of the image) surrounded by a glowing red ring of hydrogen gas. The stars inside the nebula are only about a million years old, which is very young compared to most stars. The ring of glowing hydrogen gas is energized by nearby hot, massive stars not visible in the image. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. ...

61. A (Galactic) Arm’s Length Away

The two galaxies in this image — NGC 672 (top right) and IC 1727 (bottom left) — appear to be so close that they are almost elbowing each other, like playful children. In fact, the galaxies shown in this beautifully detailed image taken at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, are classified as a galactic pair, and the gravity of each galaxy influences the other. The pair are located around 20 million light-years away from Earth and the space between them spans over 80,000 light-years, a seemingly enormous gap. However, from the perspective of the galaxies ...

62. Rich Young Cluster Cep OB 3b

Cep OB 3b is rich young cluster located in the northern constellation of Cepheus. This image was created by combining individual images observed through four different filters on the 0.9 meter telescope at Kitt Peak: blue, visual (cyan), near infrared (orange) and an emission line of hydrogen (red). The brightest yellow star near the center of the image is a foreground star, lying between us and the young cluster. The other bright stars are the massive young stars of the cluster that are heating the gas and dust in the cloud and blowing out cavities. Surrounding these massive cluster stars ...

63. Galaxy NGC 772

The overdeveloped spiral arm of the galaxy NGC 772, which was created by tidal interactions with an unruly neighbor, dominates this observation made by astronomers using the Gemini North telescope located near the summit of Maunakea in Hawai‘i.

64. Young stellar jet MHO 2147

The sinuous young stellar jet, MHO 2147, meanders lazily across a field of stars in this image captured from Chile by the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. The stellar jet is the outflow from a young star that is embedded in an infrared dark cloud. Astronomers suspect its sidewinding appearance is caused by the gravitational attraction of companion stars. These crystal-clear observations were made using the Gemini South telescope’s adaptive optics system, which helps astronomers counteract the blurring effects of atmospheric turbulence.

65. Centaurus A captured by the Dark Energy Camera

The galaxy Centaurus A, which lies over 12 million light-years away in the direction of the southern-hemisphere constellation Centaurus (The Centaur), is the leading light of this striking image. This image provides a spectacular view of the luminous glow of stars and dark tendrils of dust that hide the bright center of the galaxy. This dust is the result of a past galactic collision, in which a giant elliptical galaxy merged with a smaller spiral galaxy. As well as large amounts of gas and dust, Centaurus A’s dust lane contains widespread star formation, as indicated by the red clouds of ...

66. Clear Skies at Cerro Pachón

Vera C. Rubin Observatory basks under a cloudless sky in this image.

67. Deepest, widest view of the Large Magellanic Cloud from SMASH

Part of the SMASH dataset showing an unprecedented wide-angle view of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and, unlike the rest of the satellite galaxies, are still actively forming stars — and at a rapid pace. The depth of these survey data can be appreciated by the number of stars visible in the outer regions of the galaxy, as seen in the lower part of the image.

68. Shooting for the Moon at Cerro Pachón

In a fantastically planned shot of the Moon, this image of Gemini South was timed to capture an almost perfectly full Moon framing the telescope. The other two telescopes caught between the red rocks of Cerro Pachón and the blue skies are the SOAR Telescope on the left and the almost finished Vera C. Rubin Observatory on the right. If you inspect the photograph closely, the red cranes being used to construct Rubin Observatory can just be spotted against the white dome. When complete, the telescope will be used to conduct an unprecedented, decade-long survey of the sky at optical ...

69. Rubin Observatory at sunset

This photo of the Rubin Observatory at sunset was taken from behind the nearby Gemini South telescope.

70. Glistening Spiral Galaxy

The spiral galaxy NGC 2541 is shown in extravagant detail in this astronomical snapshot from the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Astronomers recognize a variety of galaxy types, and NGC 2541 is classified as an unbarred spiral galaxy. These galaxies possess spectacular spiral arms like the ones shown here, but lack the central bar-shaped structure displayed by galaxies such as the Milky Way. NGC 2541 lies 37 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Lynx (The Lynx). Sandwiched between the constellations of Ursa Major, Gemini, and Leo, Lynx is ...

71. Comet NEOWISE Over Gemini North

Comet NEOWISE — technically known as C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) — is visible in this spectacular image of the pre-dawn sky to the right (East) of the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, one of the pair of telescopes of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. First discovered by the NEOWISE project using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope in March 2020, the comet is a dirty snowball of gas, dust and ice roughly 5 km (3 miles) across. The curving golden tail of C/2020 F3 visible in this image is composed of gas and dust ...

72. Cosmic Fireworks

The spiral galaxy NGC 925 reveals cosmic pyrotechnics in its spiral arms where bursts of star formation are taking place in the red, glowing clouds scattered throughout it.

73. McMath Pierce Solar telescope at night with star trails

A nine-hour exposure of the McMath-Pierce Solar Facility on Kitt Peak. The normally white building appears red due to high altitude haze following the 1991 eruptions of Mount Pinatubo. No filters or multiple exposures were used.

74. Orion "Bullets" with GeMS

This image is just one of millions of astronomical images processed using IRAF. Obtained during the late commissioning phase of the GeMS adaptive optics system, with the Gemini South AO Imager (GSAOI) on the night of 28 December 2012, it reveals exquisite details in the outskirts of the Orion Nebula. In this image, the blue spots are clouds of gaseous iron "bullets" being propelled at supersonic speeds from a region of massive star formation outside, and below, this image's field of view. As these "bullets" pass through neutral hydrogen gas they heat up the hydrogen and produce the pillars that ...

75. Nebula NGC 6164-5

NGC 6164-5 imaged at Gemini South. The emission nebula NGC 6164-5 is a rectangular, bipolar cloud with rounded corners and a diagonal bar producing an inverted S-shaped appearance. It lies about 1,300 parsecs (4,200 light-years) away in the constellation Norma. The nebula measures about 1.3 parsecs (4.2 light-years) across, and contains gases ejected by the star HD 148937 at its heart. This star is 40 times more massive than the Sun, and at about three to four million years of age, is past the middle of its life span. Stars this massive usually live to be only about six million ...

76. Nebula NGC 5189

NGC 5189 imaged at Gemini South. NGC 5189, a chaotic-looking planetary nebula that lies about 550 parsecs (1,800 light-years) away in the southern hemisphere constellation Musca, is a parallelogram-shaped cloud of glowing gas. The GMOS image of this nebula shows long streamers of gas, glowing dust clouds, and cometary knots pointing away from the central star. Its unruly appearance suggests some extraordinary action at the heart of this planetary nebula.

77. Skull Nebula NGC 246

Gemini South Image of the planetary nebula NGC 246 NGC 246 is a planetary nebula that lies about 1,600 light-years away in the constellation Cetus. Its central star shines at 12th magnitude and is whisking through space at about 80 kilometers (50 miles) per second.

78. M39, NGC 7092

M39 is a loose, widely spaced open cluster in the constellation Cygnus. Quite close to Earth at about 800 light-years away, M39 has around 30 members and is two to three hundred million years old. This picture is a combination of 33 dithered frames in BVR colors taken with the Mosaic camera at the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona, on the night of September 15th, 2003. This camera uses eight separate CCD detectors to cover a large area of the sky, but requires small dither motions between multiple exposures to fill in the gaps between the ...

79. Rosette emission-line image

This stunning emission-line image of the Rosette nebula (NGC2237) has been re-processed in support of NOAO Press Release 04-03. The Rosette nebula is found in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn). This images was taken at the National Science Foundation's 0.9-m telescope on Kitt Peak with the Mosaic camera, and is presented here in false color (hydrogen alpha, OIII oxygen, and SII sulfur respectively red, green and blue, using five ten-minute exposures each). The Rosette is a prominent star formation region, glowing due to ultraviolet light from the young, hot, blue stars whose winds also cleared the central hole. It is ...

80. Pelican Nebula Ionization Front

This image of the clouds of gas and dust next to the “neck” and “body” of the Pelican Nebula was taken by the National Science Foundation’s Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ. Narrow-band filters were used to isolate the red emission lines of hydrogen and singly-ionized sulfur. The image reveals many previously unseen shockwaves, evidence for powerful outflows from newly formed stars embedded within the molecular clouds that rim the nebula. North is up and west is to the right in this image. This image was produced by an NOAO Survey Program known as the ...

81. The Helix Nebula, NGC 7293

This composite picture is a seamless blend of nine ultra-sharp images from the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys with the wide-field view of the Mosaic Camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The image shows a fine web of filamentary “bicycle-spoke” features embedded in the colorful red and blue gas ring, which is one of the nearest planetary nebulae to Earth. One of the largest and most detailed celestial images ever made, the picture was released on May 9, 2003, by the Space Telescope Science Institute and NOAO in honor of Astronomy Day 2003, ...

82. A Guiding Star for Gemini South

This Image of the Week captures the use of the laser guide star (LGS) on Gemini South, the southern twin of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, during a night of observations on Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes. The LGS creates a constellation of five artificial stars, by causing sodium atoms 90 kilometers up in the atmosphere to glow. By tracking the atmosphere’s effect on these “stars”, the adaptive optics system within Gemini South can correct for distortions caused by turbulence in the atmosphere. These adjustments improve observations so much that a squiggle of light can ...

83. Colors of Kitt Peak

The Milky Way appears to cascade down the skies above Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, in the Schuk Toak District on the Tohono O'odham Nation in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert. As well as the bright stars and dark dust lanes of the Milky Way, colorful airglow makes this an unusually vivid skyscape. In addition to capturing the natural hues of the night sky, the long exposure time of this photo has revealed an artificial night-sky object — the bright streak across the upper left of the image is, in fact, the trail left by an orbiting ...

84. Portrait of the Great Barred Spiral

This image captures the elegant galaxy NGC 1365 in the Fornax Cluster of galaxies. Also known as The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy, NGC 1365 is a strikingly perfect example of a barred spiral galaxy. This image shows the galaxy’s prominent bar and its graceful spiral arms, with lanes of dust obscuring the extended diffuse glow of stars. The central bar of NGC 1365 influences star formation throughout the entire galaxy and conceals a supermassive black hole hidden behind multitudes of newly formed stars. Astronomers are interested in barred spiral galaxies like NGC 1365 for more than just their elegance — ...

85. Dark Energy Camera's 1 millionth exposure

The Dark Energy Camera's 1 millionth exposure. At the time of this exposure DECam was making an of a galaxy cluster. The 1 millionth exposure has been combined with 127 earlier exposures to make this view of the field. This demonstrates the power of DECam and an archive of a million exposures.
The biggest galaxy in the field is the face-on spiral galaxy ESO 440-11. Several galaxy clusters, thousands of background galaxies and a few handfuls of foreground Milky Way stars can be seen in this “random” image of the sky.
One of the most powerful digital cameras in ...

86. Moonrise Over Gemini North

A gathering of telescopes perch near the summit of Maunakea, a dormant volcano on Hawai‘i Island with an elevation of 4207 meters (13,803 feet), making it an ideal location for astronomical observations. Nearly centered under the rising full Moon is Gemini North, the northern member of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Its twin telescope, Gemini South, has its home in Chile. The two telescopes are practically identical, each with an impressive 8-meter primary mirror to collect light. Whilst the twin telescopes will never meet, their separation serves a purpose — between them, they can observe almost ...

87. Snowy Sunrise on Maunakea

In this Image of the Week the sunrise lights up a snow-capped Maunakea, home to the Maunakea Observatories that include the northern member of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSFʻs NOIRLab. When most people think of Hawai‘i, what comes to mind is a warm and sunny climate. However, during the northern winter months, snow sometimes blankets the two largest mountains on Hawaiʻi Island, Maunakea and Maunaloa, creating captivating winter scenes. Gemini North on Maunakea saw snow on 25 January 2021 and the snow remains even now on 10 February, 2021.

88. Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, Messier 83

Nicknamed the Southern Pinwheel, Messier 83 (or NGC 5236) is a stunning face-on spiral galaxy located about 15 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Hydra. Its spiral arms are lined with dark lanes of dust and peppered with reddish, star-forming clouds of hydrogen gas. One of the deepest images ever taken of the Southern Pinwheel (combining more than 11 hours of exposure time), this view was captured with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which was built by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and is mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory ...

89. A Vintage Lightning Storm at Kitt Peak

The skies over Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, are typically clear and calm, perfect for high quality astronomical observations. On 4 June 1972, however, the night sky was torn apart by a violent summer storm. Luck was not with any astronomers who had hoped to observe that night — but it was with Gary Ladd, an amateur photographer who decided to challenge his photography skills.
Ladd was a technical assistant at Kitt Peak, but he happened to have that night off. When the storm rolled in, he walked up to the building that houses ...

90. Artist’s impression of quasar J0313-1806

An artist’s impression of quasar J0313-1806 showing the supermassive black hole and the extremely high velocity wind. The quasar, seen just 670 million years after the Big Bang, is 1000 times more luminous than the Milky Way, and is powered by the earliest known supermassive black hole, which weighs in at more than 1.6 billion times the mass of the Sun.

91. Sunset Skies at CTIO

The mountains of northern Chile fade into the distance under a vibrant orange sky in this sunset photograph of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. More than 20 telescopes operate at CTIO — and many of them can be seen jutting from the mountain in the foreground of this image. The Víctor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope and the SMARTS Telescopes dominate the mountain peak, with smaller telescopes spread along the ridge. Despite the tranquility of the sunset, the engineers and astronomers at the observatory are working hard, spending the hours before dusk preparing a packed ...

92. Rubin Observatory under Construction on Cerro Pachón

Rubin Observatory under Construction on Cerro Pachón, on a night with a full Moon in May 2020.

93. Deepest, widest view of the Small Magellanic Cloud from SMASH

Part of the SMASH dataset showing what is arguably the best wide-angle view of the Small Magellanic Cloud to date. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and, unlike the rest of the satellite galaxies, are still actively forming stars — and at a rapid pace.

94. The Nicolas U. Mayall 4-Meter Telescope

The Nicolas U. Mayall 4-Meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory on Tuesday, May 22, 2018 in Tucson, Arizona.

95. Star Trails from the Summit of Cerro Tololo

View of northern star trails from the summit of Cerro Tololo. From right to left are the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope, SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope, Seeing Monitor Tower, Curtis Schmidt Telescope, and SMARTS 1.0-meter Telescope.

96. "Mushroom Farm" - North East side of Cerro Tololo

North-East side of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, where a series of the smaller telescopes are located. At the far right side of the image is a silver dome: the KMTNet 1.6-meter Telescope. 5 telescopes from the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCOGT). The Silver dome left of LCOGT is the SMARTS 1.3-meter Telescope. The following 8 domes at the left are part of the PROMPT project (Panchromatic Robotic Optical Monitoring and Polarimetry Telescopes). In the white Container is the CTIO-GONG solar telescope, part of the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) and the last dome at the left is the ...

97. Star trails and Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope

Star trails and Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope.

98. One Half of a Whole

Pictured here is Gemini South, sitting on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile. It is the southern member of the pair of 8.1-meter telescopes, which together comprise the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. Gemini North saw its first light in 1999, and — appropriately for twin telescopes — Gemini South followed quickly behind with its first light in 2000. Since then, the united Gemini twins have provided a wealth of scientific observations. In this image, Gemini South is framed by the spectacular Milky Way, which — thanks to the photographic technique used — appears as a ...

99. Star-forming region NGC 7129

NGC 7129 is a star-forming region and reflection nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. It is about 3000 light-years away from Earth. The stars in this nebula are very young, only about a million years old. The red blobs above and below the nebula are Herbig-Haro objects, which are the result of jets of gas streaming away from young stars in the nebula.

100. Planetary Nebula Sh2-68

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Sh2-68 is an ancient planetary nebula that is estimated to be at least 45,000 years old. The diffuse orange emission to the upper right is the result of the planetary nebula's motion through the disk of our galaxy. The bluish interior is from energized oxygen atoms. The progenitor star is the very blue star at the center of the bluish gas. The image was generated with observations in the Hydrogen alpha (red) and Oxygen [OIII] (blue) filters. In ...

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