Fall Collection: Before Fall Leaves, See Seasonal Offerings from NASA's Chandra

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A Quick Look: Before Fall Leaves, See Seasonal Offerings from NASA's Chandra - More Videos

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• Four images that one can imagine connections to fall have been released by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.


• The images are the star-forming region NGC 6334, supernova remnant G272.2-0.3, interacting spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163, as well as R Aquarii.


• Each image contains X-rays from Chandra that have been combined with data from other telescopes that detect different types of light.


• Pareidolia is the phenomenon that allows people to see familiar patterns or shapes in data.

Before fall gives way to winter in the northern hemisphere, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has several images that celebrate autumn and its many delights to share. In spirit of the season, this collection gathers Chandra data with those from its telescopic family including NASA’s James Webb, Hubble, and Spitzer Space Telescopes, plus others in space and on the ground.

Here is a sample of the seasonal offerings that space has in store:

NGC 6334: COSMIC LEAVES BLOWING

For many, nothing evokes fall more than fallen leaves. In this view of NGC 6334, glowing pockets of dust and gas in the nebula resemble leaves that have been picked up by a wind gust. This region is actually home to strong winds blowing from the young stars that have formed there. This image contains X-ray data from Chandra (blue, green, and yellow) that shows the effects of these winds, which have been combined with infrared data from the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope (red, brown), which shows the dust and gas that fuels the growing stars.

G272: THE SPACE PUMPKIN

Born after a violent explosion of a star, this cosmic gourd is the supernova remnant G272.2-03.2. X-ray observations (orange and magenta) from Chandra provide evidence that G272 is the result of a Type Ia supernova explosion, where a white dwarf star pulls material from a companion star until it triggers a thermonuclear explosion and obliterates the star. The inside of the “pumpkin” is superheated gas that is filling the space cleared out by the explosion as it moves outward.

R AQUARII: A COSMIC SWEATER

Multiple telescopes teamed up to capture an image that looks like a cozy sweater with fuzzy arms. X-rays from Chandra and ESA’s XMM-Newton (purple), optical light data from Hubble and the Very Large Telescope in Chile (orange, red, and violet), and an optical image from astrophotographer Bob Fera (deep blue) combine to reveal R Aquarii. Nestled within the cozy ‘body’ of R Aquarii is a pair of stars where a white dwarf is pulling material from a much larger red giant companion. When enough material accumulates on the surface of the white dwarf, it triggers an outburst that sends a jet out into space. Over time, these jets twist and loop around each other weaving the structure seen today.

NGC 2207 and IC 2163: A PAIR OF GALACTIC CORNUCOPIA

A cornucopia is a horn-shaped basket that traditionally carries fruits and vegetables. There is nothing edible in this pair of galactic cornucopias but there are a bounty of stars, dust, and other ingredients than make up these two spiral galaxies, known as NGC 2207 (right) and IC 2163 (left), that we see face-on. This view of NGC 2207 and IC 2163 takes a James Webb infrared image (white, gray, and red) and adds the X-ray view from Chandra (blue). Together, it is quite an eye-catching result.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Quick Look: Before Fall Leaves, See Seasonal Offer ings from NASA's Chandra

Source: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

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Visual Description:

This release highlights a collection of four composite images, presented in a two-by-two grid. Each image features data gathered by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and additional NASA and other telescopes.

At our upper left is NGC 6334, a massive nebula and star-forming region. In this image, scores of glowing young stars, depicted as tiny specs of distant light, illuminate an otherwise dark scene. The specs of red, green, yellow, purple, and white, are clustered near the center of the image, but extend to the edges of the frame in faint streaks. Partially masking the specs of color are tendrils of grey clouds; strong winds of dust and gas blowing from the still-forming stars.

The image at our upper right features a supernova remnant called G272.2-3.2. Here, a white dwarf star has pulled material from a companion star, triggering a thermonuclear explosion. What remains is a giant ball of superheated gas, set against a densely-packed field of distant stars and galaxies. In this image, the ball of gas is a mottled, translucent orange sphere with patches of hot pink at the outer edges.

The image at the grid's lower right depicts a pair of colliding spiral galaxies. Here, both spirals are shown face on, with the smaller of the two galaxies, IC 2163, at the upper left of the larger galaxy, NGC 2207, which dominates the center and lower right of the image. Both galaxies have long, spiraling, silver blue arms, dotted with specs of blue and red. Toward our upper left, the curving arms overlap, and bend toward their neighbors' core.

Finally, at our lower left, is R Aquarii, a symbiotic binary star. Here, a white dwarf star pulls material from a much larger red giant companion, sending looping jets of matter into space. In this composite image, which includes an optical image from astrophotographer Bob Fera, the resulting structure resembles a cozy sweater with a red body, and blue wooly arms opened wide.

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Fast Facts for NGC 6334:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/SAO/CXC; Infrared: NASA/JPL/CalTech/Spitzer; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt
Release Date: November 24, 2025
Scale: Image is about 72 arcmin (115.2 light-years) across.
Category: Normal Stars and Star Clusters
Coordinates (J2000): RA: 17h 20m 50.9s | Dec: -36° 06' 54"
Constellation: Scorpius
Observation Date(s): 10 observations from August 2002 to July 2016
Observation Time: 85 hours 28 minutes (3 days 13 hours 28 minutes)
Obs. IDs: 2573, 2574 ,3844, 4591, 8975, 12382, 13436, 18082, 18081, 18876
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: red, orange, green, and purple; Infrared: white and red
Distance Estimate: About 5,500 light-years from Earth

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Fast Facts for SNR G272.2-03.2:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SA0; Optical: NOIRLab/DECaPS2; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Release Date: November 24, 2025
Scale: Image is about 2.8 arcmin (5.7 light-years) across.
Category: Supernovas & Supernova Remnants
Coordinates (J2000): RA: 9h 06m 47s | Dec: -52° 05' 50"
Constellation: Vela
Observation Date(s): 2 observations Aug 26-27, 2008
Observation Time: 17 hours 55 minutes
Obs. IDs: 9147, 10572
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: cyan, yellow, and magenta; Optical: red, green, and blue
Distance Estimate: About 7,000 light-years from Earth

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Fast Facts for R Aquarii:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; ESA/XMM-Newton; Optical HST: NASA/ESA/STScI; Optical Ground: Deep Space Remote observatories/B. Fera; ESO/VLT; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare

Release Date: November 24, 2025
Scale: Image is about 9.5 arcmin (1.8 light-years) across.
Category: White Dwarfs and Planetary Nebulas
Coordinates (J2000): RA: 23h 43m 49.5s | Dec: -15° 17' 04"
Constellation: Aquarius
Observation Date(s): 3 pointings between Sep 2001 and Oct 2005
Observation Time: 34 hours 54 minutes (1 day 10 hours 54 minutes)
Obs. IDs: 651, 4546, 5438
Instrument: ACIS

Color Code: X-ray: purple and blue; Optical (HST): cyan and orange; Optical (Ground): red, green, and blue; Radio: red with green

Distance Estimate: About 650 light-years from Earth

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Fast Facts for NGC 2207 & IC 2163:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Release Date: November 24, 2025
Scale Image is about 5 arcmin (189,000 light-years) across.
Category: Normal Galaxies, Starburst Galaxies, & Black Holes
Coordinates (J2000): RA: 6h 16m 22.1s | Dec: -21° 22′ 22"
Constellation: Canis Major
Observation Date(s): 4 observations from July 2010 to August 2013
Observation Time: 17 hours 20 minutes
Obs. IDs: 11228, 14914, 14799, 14915
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: blue; Infrared: white, red, green, and blue
Distance Estimate: About 130 million light-years from Earth

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New ESO image captures a dark wolf in the sky

PR Image eso2416a
The Dark Wolf Nebula

PR Image eso2416b
Highlights of the Dark Wolf Nebula

PR Image eso2416c
The Dark Wolf Nebula in the constellation Scorpius

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Videos

PR Video eso2416a
Panning across the Dark Wolf Nebula

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For Halloween, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) reveals this spooktacular image of a dark nebula that creates the illusion of a wolf-like silhouette against a colourful cosmic backdrop. Fittingly nicknamed the Dark Wolf Nebula, it was captured in a 283-million-pixel image by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Found in the constellation Scorpius, near the centre of the Milky Way on the sky, the Dark Wolf Nebula is located around 5300 light-years from Earth. This image takes up an area in the sky equivalent to four full Moons, but is actually part of an even larger nebula called Gum 55. If you look closely, the wolf could even be a werewolf, its hands ready to grab unsuspecting bystanders…

If you thought that darkness equals emptiness, think again. Dark nebulae are cold clouds of cosmic dust, so dense that they obscure the light of stars and other objects behind them. As their name suggests, they do not emit visible light, unlike other nebulae. Dust grains within them absorb visible light and only let through radiation at longer wavelengths, like infrared light. Astronomers study these clouds of frozen dust because they often contain new stars in the making.

Of course, tracing the wolf’s ghost-like presence in the sky is only possible because it contrasts with a bright background. This image shows in spectacular detail how the dark wolf stands out against the glowing star-forming clouds behind it. The colourful clouds are built up mostly of hydrogen gas and glow in reddish tones excited by the intense UV radiation from the newborn stars within them.

Some dark nebulae, like the Coalsack Nebula, can be seen with the naked eye –– and play a key role in how First Nations interpret the sky [1] –– but not the Dark Wolf. This image was created using data from the VLT Survey Telescope, which is owned by the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy (INAF) and is hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The telescope is equipped with a specially designed camera to map the southern sky in visible light.

The picture was compiled from images taken at different times, each one with a filter letting in a different colour of light. They were all captured during the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+), which has studied some 500 million objects in our Milky Way. Surveys like this help scientists to better understand the life cycle of stars within our home galaxy, and the obtained data are made publicly available through the ESO science portal. Explore this treasure trove of data yourself: who knows what other eerie shapes you will uncover in the dark?

Source: ESO/News

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Notes

[1] The Mapuche people of south-central Chile refer to the Coalsack Nebula as ‘pozoko’ (water well), and the Incas called it ‘yutu’ (a partridge-like bird).

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More information

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.

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Links

• Photos of the survey telescopes at Paranal, including VST 
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• For scientists: got a story? Pitch your research

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Contacts:

Juan Carlos Muñoz Mateos
ESO Media Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6176
Email: jmunoz@eso.org

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Media Manager
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6670
Cell: +49 151 241 664 00
Email: press@eso.org

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Rho Ophiuchi and Antares 520 light years

Rho Ophiuchi and  Antares

Image Credit: Australian Astronomical Observatory/David Malin

Download high-res image file | Download caption as .zip file

This dusty region between the constellations Ophiuchus (the "snake holder") and Scorpius (the "scorpion") contains a colorful cosmic vista. These colors tell some of the story behind the interplay between light and matter in this object. For example, the blue glow in the upper part of this image is reflected light from stars embedded in dust. The yellow glow in the lower left is light from the giant star Antares that is reflected by dust that the star itself has created. The darker black areas—especially the middle left of the picture—are caused by clouds that hide light from more distant stars in background stars. Light is commonly reflected and blocked both here on Earth and across the Universe.

Source: Light Beyond the Bulb