As featured in Astronomy Picture of the Day for 24/8/25.

The Crab Nebula as seen in visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope (purple,) X-ray light as imaged by the Chandra X-ray observatory (blue) and infra-red from the Spitzer Space Telescope (red.) The Crab Pulsar is the bright spot in the swirl’s centre:-

This is an arresting image from Astronomy Picture of the Day for 21/8/22. It’s of the area surrounding the Crab Pulsar, a spinning neutron star at the centre of the picture and is the remanants of a supernova witnessed on Earth in 1054.

The image combines visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope, X-ray light from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and infra-red light from the Spitzer Space Telescope.

The neutron star spins 30 times a second.

This beautifully detailed photo appeared on Astronomy Picture of the Day for 21/7/20.

It was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and shows the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302, with emissions by iron atoms in red.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 27/11/19.

This is Hoag’s Object, in a newly reprocessed picture from the Hubble Space Telescope. How this unusual structure formed is something of a mystery. Remarkably within the dark part of the ring you can see another ring galaxy:-

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 6/11/19.

The Pinwheel Galaxy is more properly designated M101.

Here it is seen in an amalgamation of colour-coded photos taken in X-ray (purple,) ultra-violet (blue,) visible light (yellow) and infra-red (red) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope respectively.

Given it looks like a spinning Catherine wheel firework they should have posted this a day earlier.

Then again, they’re USian, they probably wouldn’t know the significance of the 5<sup<th November in the UK.

Another stunning picture from the Hubble Space Telescope via Astronomy Picture of the Day, 18/12/2016.