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AURA was founded in 1957 to create astronomical facilities for use by all qualified researchers, and to serve the community through public outreach, education, and dissemination of information. AURA is the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, a consortium of 47 US institutions and 3 international affiliates that operates world-class astronomical observatories.

05/26/2026

This observation of Arp 107 captures the mid-infrared light emitted from its young stars, soot-like molecules, and even its central supermassive black hole.

The structure of the spiral galaxy has been disturbed by an off-center collision with an elliptical galaxy. This elliptical galaxy, the fuzzy blue object to the spiral galaxy’s left, has mostly older star populations with little dust or gas.

Collisions like these can disperse the existing structure of a galaxy, creating the gaps seen in the image and depriving new stars of the dust and gas they would need to form. However, they can also compress matter within the resulting system and ignite new bouts of star formation.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI.

05/26/2026
05/22/2026

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05/22/2026

🔮✨ The Crystal Ball Nebula is not predicting your future.

It is, however, showing astronomers what happens near the end of a star’s life.
This glowing cloud of gas, known as NGC 1514, was captured by the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF NOIRLab.
The nebula lies about 1500 light-years from Earth. This means the light that Gemini North captured in this image was first emitted by a dying star around 1500 years ago.
At the center are actually two stars orbiting each other every nine years, helping shape the nebula’s unusual lumpy shells through powerful stellar winds 🌌

📷: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

05/21/2026
05/20/2026
05/20/2026

🌹✨ The Rosette Nebula would like your attention for a moment

This giant star-forming region in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn 🦄) covers an area of sky more than six times larger than the full Moon 🌕

Captured with the WIYN 0.9-meter Telescope at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab, this image shows glowing gas shaped by young, hot stars hidden inside the nebula.

This image was processed in false color, meaning specific wavelengths of light were assigned visible colors to help reveal details in the gas:
❤️ Hydrogen-alpha
💚 Oxygen [O III]
💙 Sulfur [S II]

📸 T. A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, WIYN and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

05/20/2026
05/19/2026

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