Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features the smouldering Messier 82. 1/4

Join NSF NOIRLab in Washington, D.C. on 20 September 2025 for Hofstra University's Astronomy Festival on the National Mall! ⭐️ We hope to see you there! 🔗 See hofstra.edu/dcstars for more info

Anyone can help protect our dark skies with a smartphone! 🤳✨ Join @GlobeAtNight & measure the sky brightness from September 14-23, 2025 with your phone, tablet, or computer! 🗺️ Every data point counts. Let’s hit 20,000 measurements by the end of 2025! 🌃 #GlobeAtNight

Missed the DRAGONS webinar on Gemini Observatory GMOS long-slit and imaging data reduction hosted by the US NGO last week? No worries! All the materials are now available. Visit our website and find the link to the webinar repository (slides, demos, Q&A). Check them out anytime!

Solar Activity Report: Sep 8-14, 2025 ☀️Subdued week with sporadic low-level C-class flares on several days. Active regions on the solar disk were fewer than recent weeks. The most intense flare—a C7.6 event—originated from Active Region 14207 near the NW limb on Sep 11. 🧵

Quiet please 🤫 planet formation in progress These images show disks of gas, dust, and other materials orbiting young stars. The disks may eventually coalesce into newborn planets. 📷: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Esposito (UC Berkeley)

Pardon our dust 🚧🌌 NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help scientists better understand our Milky Way galaxy by providing more information about the gas and dust strewn between stars. go.nasa.gov/3VQocqO

Bursting at the seams! Located about 50 million light-years away, NGC 3125 is classified as a starburst galaxy – meaning that an unusually high number of stars form here, springing to life within intensely hot clouds of gas. Read more: go.nasa.gov/4mhCkUU

This Hubble image shows interacting galaxies AM 1054-325. The clusters of stars born from the galaxy merger appear like a string of pearls. Formations like these were common in the early universe. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Jayanne English (University of Manitoba). 🔭 🧪

New milestone alert! 🚨 When Hubble launched in 1990, there were no confirmed planets outside of our solar system. But now, NASA's tally of exoplanets has surpassed 6,000! Find out how Hubble helps study worlds beyond our solar system: science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble…

🌟 An Epic Moment at Rubin Observatory 🌟 As the Sun set over Cerro Pachón, the NSF–DOE NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory opened its dome for the very first test run ahead of First Look Observations in May 2025. 🌌 📷 Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/P. Horálek

Is it lunchtime yet? 🍔 Sink your teeth into NGC 3628, the Hamburger Galaxy. Dark dust lanes form a meat patty between buns and cheese that glow with the light from billions of stars. 📷: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Glen Saurdiff and Joan Simpson/F. Haase, S. Peterson, K. Garmany

A nearby, burned-out star is eating a fragment of a Pluto-like object. Only Hubble could identify that this is taking place with its unique ultraviolet vision: bit.ly/4mZk6sx 🔭 🧪

Gemini South, ½ of Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by @NOIRLabastro, finds Hayabusa2’s target asteroid is 3x tinier and spinning 2x faster than previously thought! 🔗: noirlab.edu/public/news/no…

See the size of two protostellar jets imaged by #NASAWebb. The first is an large jet located in Sh2-284. The outflows from the massive protostar are 8 light-years long. In comparison, a jet the nearby region of Rho Ophiuchi is one light-year long. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

Bringing a whole new meaning to "remote work" 👩‍💻 NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory sits stop Cerro Pachón in Chile, but we have remote observing locations in Chile and the US! Read about how the control room SLAC will help enable Rubin to #CaptureTheCosmos: rubinobservatory.org/news/slac-cont…

The NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory control room at @SLACLab is a critical real-time operational station directly connected to the observatory. Get the scoop on the room where it happens on our blog: noirlab.edu/public/blog/ey… 📸: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/A. Pizarro D.

As night settles over Haleakalā, the stars light the sky above the U.S. National Science Foundation Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope 🤩🌌 Image taken by NSO team member Anthony Santini, Haleakalā Amateur Astronomers #Astronomy #InouyeSolarTelescope #Haleakalā

Let’s play Name That Nebula! ✏️ Sh2-68 is a planetary nebula flying through the disk of our galaxy. 💿🌌It’s estimated to be at least 45,000 years old. 🤯 What nickname would YOU give Sh2-68? 🤔 Comment below! ⬇️ 📷KPNO/NOIRLab/WIYN/NSF/AURA/H. Schweiker, T.A. Rector

Let’s explore two different views of a spiral galaxy. When it comes to NGC 628, #Hubble and #NASAWebb’s images show a contrast between hot stars in visible light, and cool stars and dust in infrared light: bit.ly/42XwnGj 🔭 🧪