James Webb Space Telescope

December 25, 2025

Huge dark pillars of dust and gas, seen against a backdrop of stars.

Photography

A Gravitational Lens

Alan Taylor

December 24, 2025

Many galaxies in a cluster, with most appearing stretched or warped in varying ways

Photography

The Heart of a Tarantula

Alan Taylor

December 22, 2025

A cluster of blue stars appear in a cavity within a larger billowing cloud of gas and dust.

Photography

The Cosmic Cliffs

Alan Taylor

December 20, 2025

A vast cloud of gas and dust in space, with a sharply-defined edge, and stars in the distance

Photography

A Spider Among the Stars

Alan Taylor

December 18, 2025

A bright-red cloud appears at the center of a roughly spider-shaped trail of gas and dust, backdropped by many other stars.

Photography

Distant Starbursts

Alan Taylor

December 17, 2025

Two small clumps of bright stars appear in the center of a small irregular galaxy, surrounded by a faint cloud of dust and backdropped by many other distant galaxies.

Photography

A Sea of Galaxies

Alan Taylor

December 13, 2025

An image of many glowing galaxies in deep space, in various shapes and colours, on a black background

Photography

Looking for Signs of a Black Hole

Alan Taylor

December 11, 2025

A tight view of the swirling center of a distant spiral galaxy, dominated by billowing yellowish-orange streams of gas and dust

Photography

A Cosmic Tornado

Alan Taylor

December 10, 2025

A long, billowing, and glowing cloud of material, seen in deep space, backdropped by stars and more-distant galaxies.

Photography

A Cosmic Cat’s Paw

Alan Taylor

December 9, 2025

A chaotic cloud of swirling dust in space, punctuated by many colorful stars, centered on a cavernous-looking structure within the cloud

Photography

Hot Stars in the Lobster Nebula

Alan Taylor

December 4, 2025

A dark and dense cloud of dust takes up the left half of the image, with a cluster of glittering white stars at right, all backdropped by many more-distant stars.

Photography

2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar

Alan Taylor

December 1, 2025

Distant galaxies appear in the background of this image from deep space, with a dark disk of dust seen edge-on at center, surrounded by clouds of dust and gas.

Science

The Black Hole That Could Rewrite Cosmology

Ross Andersen

September 24, 2025

Illustration made from an image of a black hole detected via telescope

Ideas

Awe Is Essential

Peter Wehner

September 16, 2025

Photograph of a mountain range on a sunny day, image quality looks like it's being seen under a kaleidoscope

Science

The Most Distant Known Galaxy

Alan Taylor

December 25, 2024

A field of thousands of small galaxies of various shapes and colors on the black background of space

Science

An Energetic Stellar Nursery

Alan Taylor

December 24, 2024

A star cluster is shown inside a large nebula of multicolored gas and dust. The material forms dark ridges and peaks of gas and dust surrounding the cluster, lit on the inner side, while layers of diffuse, translucent clouds blanket them.

Science

A Spray of Glowing Filaments

Alan Taylor

December 23, 2024

A bright binary star surrounded by a nebula. The star, in the center, is a large white spot surrounded by a circular glow. The nebula extends far above, below, left, and right of the star in long, arcing shapes made of thin, multicolored filaments.

Science

The Edge of a Spiral

Alan Taylor

December 22, 2024

A spiral galaxy seen directly from the side, such that its disc looks like a narrow diagonal band across the image. A band of dark dust covers the disc in the center most of the way out to the ends, and the disc glows around that.

Science

Inside a Chaotic Nebula

Alan Taylor

December 21, 2024

Gas, dust, and starlight form a glowing explosion, vaguely shaped like an hourglass lying on its side.

Science

A Galactic Chain

Alan Taylor

December 20, 2024

A pair of interacting galaxies, one smaller than the other. They appear as a broad, soft glow in which individual stars aren't visible. A number of bright stars and smaller, background galaxies are also featured—three such galaxies lie in a vertical line below the right-hand galaxy of the pair.

Science

A Beacon in the Clouds

Alan Taylor

December 19, 2024

A bright young star within a colorful cloud-like nebula. The star is the brightest spot, dominating the right side of the image, surrounded by six large spokes of light that cross the image.

Science

An Energetic Protostar

Alan Taylor

December 18, 2024

A bright point of light shines near center-right, surrounded by glowing clouds against black space. A blue jet of material extends roughly through the center of the image, partially obscured by the clouds.

Science

A Gathering of Ancient Stars

Alan Taylor

December 17, 2024

A dense cluster of many thousands of stars, brightening and becoming more dense toward the center of the image

Science

A New View of a Distant Spiral

Alan Taylor

December 16, 2024

A tight view of a face-on spiral galaxy anchored by a central region that has a light-blue haze, surrounded by complex orange-colored spiral arms

Science

Glowing From Within

Alan Taylor

December 15, 2024

A nebula made up of cloudy gas and dust in the form of soft and wispy clouds, dotted with stars

Science

A Sky Full of Stars

Alan Taylor

December 14, 2024

Hundreds of bright and differently colored stars, seen in a cluster, with most stars displaying six long diffraction spikes, artifacts of the telescope's structure

Science

A Cloud in the Deep Sky

Alan Taylor

December 13, 2024

A large dark cloud is contained within the frame. Its top half is textured like smoke and has wispy gaps; at the bottom and at the sides, it fades gradually out of view. On the left are several orange stars.

Science

A Clash of Titans

Alan Taylor

December 12, 2024

Two spiral galaxies take up almost the entire view and appear to be overlapping. The background of space is black, dotted with tiny foreground stars and extremely distant galaxies.

Science

Gazing Deeply Through Time

Alan Taylor

December 11, 2024

A field of galaxies on the black background of space. In the middle is a collection of dozens of yellowish galaxies that form a foreground galaxy cluster.

Science

The Glow of Hot, Young Stars

Alan Taylor

December 10, 2024

Many small galaxies are scattered on a black background. The image is dominated by an irregular galaxy with a bright central region of white and blue stars appear as two distinct lobes, surrounded by brown dusty filaments.

Science

A Dark and Dusty Galaxy

Alan Taylor

December 9, 2024

A telescopic view of a distant spiral galaxy dominated by thick lanes of dark dust

Science

A Mysterious Nebula

Alan Taylor

December 8, 2024

Colorful swirls and cloudlike structures captured by telescope

Science

A Supernova Seen Thrice

Alan Taylor

December 7, 2024

A view of many galaxies in deep space, with several of them smeared, distorted, and magnified in the center

Science

A Galactic Collision

Alan Taylor

December 6, 2024

A telescopic view of two colliding spiral galaxies, with one tilted and slightly warped

Science

Day 5 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar

Alan Taylor

December 5, 2024

A telescope view showing a cloud-like structure of gas and dust at the bottom of the image, with distant stars and galaxies visible above.

Science

Day 4 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar

Alan Taylor

December 4, 2024

A view of the planet Jupiter, showing many broad and multi-colored bands of swirling storms in its atmosphere, and one small moon that casts a shadow

Sections

The Print Edition

Dusty Pillars

A Gravitational Lens

The Heart of a Tarantula

The Cosmic Cliffs

A Spider Among the Stars

Distant Starbursts

A Sea of Galaxies

Looking for Signs of a Black Hole

A Cosmic Tornado

A Cosmic Cat’s Paw

Hot Stars in the Lobster Nebula

2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar

The Black Hole That Could Rewrite Cosmology

Awe Is Essential

The Most Distant Known Galaxy

An Energetic Stellar Nursery

A Spray of Glowing Filaments

The Edge of a Spiral

Inside a Chaotic Nebula

A Galactic Chain

A Beacon in the Clouds

An Energetic Protostar

A Gathering of Ancient Stars

A New View of a Distant Spiral

Glowing From Within

A Sky Full of Stars

A Cloud in the Deep Sky

A Clash of Titans

Gazing Deeply Through Time

The Glow of Hot, Young Stars

A Dark and Dusty Galaxy

A Mysterious Nebula

A Supernova Seen Thrice

A Galactic Collision

Day 5 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar

Day 4 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar