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Celestial Star Clusters

Astrophotography capturing stunning star clusters, galaxies, and deep space phenomena, showcasing the beauty and vastness of the universe.

Messier 104, the Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo.
Messier 104, the Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo.
137 assets in this story
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This image of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 300 was taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer in a single orbit exposure of 27 minutes on October 10, 2003.
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Messier 13, The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. The cluster contains about 300,000 stars.
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NGC 3718 galaxy i the constellation Ursa Major.
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This delicate blue group of stars actually an irregular galaxy named IC 3583 sits some 30 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). It may seem to have no discernable structure, but IC 3583 has been found to have a bar of stars running through its center. These structures are common throughout the Universe, and are found within the majority of spiral, many irregular, and some lenticular galaxies. Two of our closest cosmic neighbors, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, are barred, indicating that they may have once been barred spiral galaxies that were disrupted or torn apart by the gravitational pull of the Milky Way. Researchers at the University of Leicester, England note there are two types of irregular galaxy. Type I's are usually single galaxies of peculiar appearance. They contain a large fraction of young stars, and show the luminous nebulae that are also visible in spiral galaxies. Type II irregulars include the group known as interacting or di
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NGC 891 unbarred spiral galaxy.
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The Boomerang Nebula. This reflecting cloud of dust and gas has two nearly symmetric lobes (or cones) of matter that are being ejected from a central star. Over the last 1,500 years, nearly one and a half times the mass of our Sun has been lost by the central star of the Boomerang Nebula in an ejection process known as a bipolar outflow. The nebula's name is derived from its symmetric structure as seen from ground-based telescopes. Hubble's sharp view is able to resolve patterns and ripples in t
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ISS006-E-28030 (February 2003) --- The Large Magellanic Cloud appears in the center of this frame photographed by astronaut Donald R. Pettit, Expedition Six NASA ISS science officer, on board the International Space Station (ISS).
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Star field in space a nebulae and a gas congestion. Elements of this image furnished by NASA . 3D rendering. Star field in space and a nebulae. 3D rendering
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Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici.
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The Pinwheel Galaxy, Messier 101.
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The Seine and Marne. The comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy on January 23rd, 2015, then it is located in the constellation of the Ram (Aries). The features in background are the stars which slipped by during the 71 minutes of timelaps.
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NGC 4565, the Needle Galaxy.
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Pollux is the brightest star in the constellation of Gemini
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Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2).
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Infrared image of Comet Siding Spring (C/2007 Q3) discovered in 2007 by observers in Australia. Credit NASA. Science Astronomy
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Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star in Orion.
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Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in the night sky Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in the night sky over Germany Copyright: xZoonar.com/AndreasxVölkelx 21944009
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This visitor from deep space, seen here by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, is comet Hartley 2, the destination for NASA's EPOXI mission. The comet's tail is seen here as a fuzzy streak to the right of the comet.
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NGC 2174, the monkey head nebula, deepsky shot with telescope
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This image from NASA's WISE spacecraft shows a blazar, a voracious supermassive black hole inside a galaxy with a jet that happens to be pointed right toward Earth. Active black holes are often found at the hearts of elliptical galaxies.
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This star-forming region, captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, is dominated by the bright, young star IRAS 13481-6124 (upper left), which is about twenty times the mass of our sun and five times its radius, and is surrounded by its pre-natal cocoon.
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A white arrow marks Pluto in this NASA New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager picture taken Sept. 24, 2006. Pluto is little more than a faint point of light among a dense field of stars.
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This ultraviolet image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows NGC 3242, a planetary nebula frequently referred to as 'Jupiter's Ghost.' The small circular white and blue area at the center of the image is the well-known portion of the nebula.
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Omega Centauri with 10 million stars.
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A new feature in the evolution of galaxies has been captured in this image of galactic interactions. The two galaxies seen here -- NGC 3226 at the top, NGC 3227 at the bottom.
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Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF).
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A closeup of Sirius in Canis Major, taken in moonlight, with the 130mm f/6 apo refractor. This is a stack of six 2-minute exposures and three 30-second exposures to reduce the core brilliance, with the short exposures blended in with a luminosity mask. All with the Canon 6D MkII at ISO 800. The diffraction spikes were added with Astronomy Tools Photoshop actions.
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Galaxy Messier 74, with its spiral arms seen face-on, is in the center of this image captured by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, while an asteroid tracks its way across the sky.
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Immature Ejecta
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This image of Tempel 1 is a compilation of nine images that were taken on June 19, 2005 by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft.
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This image is of the Crab Nebula in visible light photographed by the Hale Observatory optical telescope in 1959. The faint object at the center had been identified as a pulsar and is thought to be the remains of the original star. It had been observed as a pulsar in visible light, radio wave, x-rays, and gamma-rays.
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S66-63415 (12 Nov. 1966) --- Total solar eclipse as seen from the Gemini-12 spacecraft during its 12th revolution of Earth. Crew members for the spaceflight were astronauts James A. Lovell Jr., command pilot, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., pilot.
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The image taken by the Oschin Schmidt Telescope, shows the star AC +79 3888, also known as Gliese 445. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, which is on a trajectory out of our solar system, is headed toward an encounter with AC +79 3888 (circled in red).
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Photograph of spiral galaxy (NGC 4565) in constellation Coma Berenices, showing obscuring matter in central regions. Dated 20th century
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A group of six streaking objects, the identities of which remain unknown, can be seen here flying across the telescope's sight in this image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer.
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USA, Arizona, Buckeye. Comet Neowise spews trail in night sky.