Steven Winkelstein @winkelstein

The moon

Sweet dreams 💤

09.11.2025 02:49 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

NGC 6357: Cathedral to Massive Stars

Image Credit: NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (IAA, Spain); Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

03.02.2025 10:53 — 👍 1922 🔁 187 💬 11 📌 5

Sup, Barney !

29.01.2025 15:41 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Many stars crowd the image, shining in shades of white, blue, and orange, and more closely concentrated at the center.

Bright blue stars are in a cluster at the center of the image. They are surrounded by a shell of brownish and burnt orange dust and gas. The shell has ridges that reach towards the stars like teeth. Stars within the dust and gas are hidden from Hubble but visible to Webb in the infrared. A number of more distant galaxies also appear in the background.

Ferocious stellar winds, likely from the bright blue star at the top of the image, are blowing through a curtain of dust. The fine dust scatters the starlight at blue wavelengths. Farther down, another bright, super-hot star shines through filaments of obscuring dust, looking like the Sun shining through scattered clouds. A diagonal string of fainter accompanying stars looks reddish because dust is filtering starlight, allowing more of the red light to get through. The bottom of the picture presents a keyhole peek deep into the dark nebula. Hubble captures the reddish glow of ionized hydrogen. It looks like a fireworks finale, with several overlapping events.

Fluffy tan-colored nebula clouds, with rust-colored highlights, surround a black central area. Within that area, the focal point of the image is one large yellow star with eight long thin points. To the right of this star is a bright star cluster in an oval shape. The stars within the cluster look like tiny pale blue sparkles. The cluster is more densely packed at its core and scatters outward. Towards the bottom of the image, multiple arms appear to spiral out of a cloudy tan knob. Taken together, the structures resemble a spider or a squid. Other blue and yellow eight-pointed stars, as well as distant galaxies, are dotted throughout the image. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

i can’t fix anything that’s going on right now, but i can show you some beauty that’s out there… 🌌✨

28.01.2025 21:19 — 👍 9200 🔁 918 💬 216 📌 44