Top 100 Images

Ranking
Date

1. Galactic Dance

Image of the interacting galaxy pair NGC 5394/5 obtained with NSF's NOIRLab's Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Hawai'i's Maunakea using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph in imaging mode. This four-color composite image has a total exposure time of 42 minutes

2. Carina Nebula (NGC 3372)

This image shows a giant star-forming region in the southern sky known as the Carina Nebula (NGC3372), combining the light from 3 different filters tracing emission from oxygen (blue), hydrogen (green), and sulfur (red). The color is also representative of the temperature in the ionized gas: blue is relatively hot and red is cooler. The Carina Nebula is a good example of how very massive stars rip apart the molecular clouds that give birth to them. The bright star near the center of the image is Eta Carinae, which is one of the most massive and luminous stars known. This ...

3. Gemini South Captures Planetary Nebula CVMP 1

The international Gemini Observatory composite color image of the planetary nebula CVMP 1 imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile.

4. Silver Galactic Sliver

The Silver Sliver Galaxy — more formally known as NGC 891 — is shown in this striking image from the Mosaic instrument on the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. NGC 891 is a spiral galaxy that lies almost perfectly edge-on to us, leading to its elongated appearance and its striking resemblance to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, as seen from the Earth. Since NGC 891 is oriented edge-on, it’s great for investigating the galactic fountain model. When stellar winds and supernovae from the disk of a galaxy eject gas ...

5. Jupiter's Red Spots

Gemini North adaptive optics image of Jupiter and its two red spots (which appear white because this is a near-infrared image; in visible light they appear reddish). In this color composite image, white indicates cloud features at relatively high altitudes; blue indicates lower cloud structures; and red represents still deeper cloud features. The two red spots appear more white than red, because their tops hover high above the surrounding clouds. Also prominent is the polar stratospheric haze, which makes Jupiter bright near the pole (unlike the other orange/red features in this image, the polar haze is high in Jupiter's atmosphere). ...

6. Clear Skies at Cerro Pachón

Vera C. Rubin Observatory basks under a cloudless sky in this image. The observatory is currently under construction atop Cerro Pachón in Chile. If you look closely, you can see a sliver of the teal-blue steel of the telescope structure within the nearly finished dome. Further sheets of the same blue steel are neatly stacked in the building site nearby. Beyond Cerro Pachón, the domes of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory are visible on a nearby summit, and other ridges of the Andean foothills fade into blue in the distance.
When complete, Rubin Observatory will use its 8.4-meter telescope and 3200-megapixel ...

7. Elliptical galaxy NGC 474 — excerpt from the Dark Energy Survey

Elliptical galaxies are generally characterized by their relatively smooth appearance when compared with spiral galaxies (one of which is to the left), which have more flocculent structures interwoven with dust lanes and spiral arms. NGC 474 is at a distance of about 100 million light-years in the constellation of Pisces. This image shows unusual structures around NGC 474 characterized as tidal tails and shell-like structures made up of hundreds of millions of stars. These features are due to recent mergers (within the last billion years) or close interactions with smaller infalling dwarf galaxies.
This image is an excerpt from ...

8. A Snowball SOARs

The white dome of the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope looks a little like a giant snowball, juxtaposed against the icy backdrop. SOAR is an optical telescope, meaning that it observes the skies in the wavelength range that the human eye is sensitive to (and a little beyond). The telescope, however, is equipped with a 4.1-meter mirror, so it can collect a lot more light than human eyes. SOAR is based in Chile at Cerro Pachón. It stands at an altitude of 2,700 meters (8,900 feet) above sea level, which in this winter scene, explains the frosted mountain tops! SOAR ...

9. DECam image of the bulge of the Milky Way

This color-composite shows a main part of the new Blanco DECam Bulge Survey of 250 million stars in our galaxy’s bulge. The 4 x 2 degrees excerpt can be explored in all its whopping 50,000 x 25,000 pixels in this zoomable version.
In the image interstellar dust and gas seemingly acts like a red “filter” in front of the background stars, scattering the blue light away. Since we are surrounded by dust and gas in the Milky Way, this scattering effect is important to many parts of astronomy and is known as interstellar reddening.
DECam was primarily funded by the ...

10. An Astronomer’s Crystal Ball

The Milky Way appears to be trapped in a crystal ball in this fisheye image taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Thanks to its remote location atop Cerro Tololo in northern Chile, CTIO enjoys a breathtaking panoramic view of the southern hemisphere’s night sky, and a spectacular perspective on the heart of the Milky Way. Though the dusty band of our Milky Way dominates this image, several of CTIO’s telescopes can also be seen along the edges. With more than 20 telescopes operating at the site, CTIO is fully equipped to take advantage ...

11. Gazing at the Milky Way

The Milky Way spills across the night sky above the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Commissioned in 1974, the telescope was once the largest optical telescope south of the equator and remains an astronomical powerhouse to this day. This photograph captures the open dome of the telescope as it gazes upwards at the luminous band of stars and dust lanes making up our galaxy. Like all telescopes at CTIO, the Blanco benefits from the crystal-clear observing conditions in northern Chile — as you can see from this star-filled ...

12. vdB 152, Barnard 175

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Also known as Barnard 175, vdB 152 is a reflection nebula atop of a dark Bok globule. Embedded in the top right side of the nebula is the Herbig Haro object HH 450, a jet emitted from a newly forming star. The thin, red filaments in the upper-right corner of the image are the remnants of a supernova explosion. It is not yet clear whether or not the supernova remnant will collide with vdB 152. The image was ...

13. Planetary Nebula HFG1

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. HFG1 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It was produced by a binary star system (V664 Cas) that is moving rapidly through our Galaxy. The star is moving towards the upper-right of the image. As HFG1 plows through the interstellar medium, a bluish bowshock is produced; and a red trail of gas is left behind in its wake. The image was generated with observations in the Hydrogen alpha (red) and Oxygen [OIII] (blue) filters. In ...

14. A Sign of the Zodiac

This image of the Gemini South telescope is so full of light that it is difficult to believe that it was captured at night. Gemini South is the southern half of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The wedge-shaped light on the right side of the photo is not from an artificial source (although there are city lights below it), but is a natural phenomenon known as zodiacal light. This occurs when sunlight is scattered off dust particles in the plane of our Solar System, causing part of the sky to become illuminated either after Sun-down or ...

15. A Colorful Night

These whirling lines in the sky are the trails of stars after an hour-long exposure above Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The trails are shortest around the North Star, Polaris, a star that happens to coincide almost directly with the celestial north pole. The different colors in the trails reflect the different temperatures of the stars, with blue being the hottest stars and yellow/red the coolest. The telescope visible above the horizon is the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope, and the red glow on the mountain is caused by red lights used to ensure the ...

16. Desert Stars

A shooting star streaks above Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Silhouetted against the night sky and the faint glow of Earth’s atmosphere are (from left to right) the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, the SMARTS 1.0-meter Telescope, the former University of Chile telescope, Las Cumbres Observatory 1-meter Telescope, and the KMTNet 1.6-meter Telescope. This image also features scattered boulders and desert plants (left) of Cerro Tololo. Before being purchased in 1967 to create an astronomical observatory, the land upon which CTIO stands supported a handful of subsistence farmers and goat herders. As the site’s old ...

17. Larger than Life

We are so accustomed to skies full of light pollution that this photograph of the Milky Way appears almost unreal in its vividness. It was taken at the site of the KPNO 2.1-meter Telescope of the Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The locations for advanced telescopes are chosen based on several key criteria: the lack of artificial light sources nearby, an arid environment, and clear skies. Not only do these conditions facilitate science-quality telescopic observations, but they make for extraordinary astrophotography.

18. Dazzling in the dark

If you took only a quick glance at this image, you might think that the dark patches occulting the stars were smoke, rising from the ground. In fact this dazzling image — taken on Maunakea, Hawai’i at the northern site of the international Gemini Observatory (right), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab — shows the Milky Way in vivid detail, allowing us to see not only the stars, but the dusty regions which block their light. Tiny flecks mostly inorganic matter make up cosmic dust which in turn forms enormous obscuring clouds. The dark, smoke-like trail through the heart of the ...

19. Heart of the Milky Way

In this time-exposure photo, the center of the Milky Way glows in various colors — an effect invisible to oneʻs eyes — above the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The heart of our galaxy is best viewed from the southern hemisphere and areas near the equator (such as Hawaiʻi) because of its orientation relative to the Earth. Thanks to its location in the mountains of northern Chile, CTIO makes the southern skies accessible to US astronomers. As well as hosting large research telescopes, CTIO accommodates a variety of smaller tenant observatories. The small domes populating ...

20. A (Galactic) Arm’s Length Away

The two galaxies in this image — NGC 672 (top right) and IC 1727 (bottom left) — appear to be so close that they are almost elbowing each other, like playful children. In fact, the galaxies shown in this beautifully detailed image taken at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, are classified as a galactic pair, and the gravity of each galaxy influences the other. The pair are located around 20 million light-years away from Earth and the space between them spans over 80,000 light-years, a seemingly enormous gap. However, from the perspective of the galaxies’ ...

21. Sunlight Paints a Crimson Sky Over Gemini South

During rare cloudy weather, a vivid red sunset reflects off the dome of the international Gemini Observatory’s Gemini South telescope in Chile, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. In this image, sunlight is scattered and reflected by gas, dust and particulates in the Earth’s atmosphere and spreads an artist’s palette of red and orange colors across the sky as the Sun sets over Chile’s Pacific coast. Fortunately, the nearby clouds reflecting these colors cleared out in time for the 8.1-meter Gemini primary mirror to collect starlight and complete a productive night of science observations — but not before treating the observatory ...

22. An Insider’s View

Take a peek at the inner workings of a world-class observatory in this image of the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Illuminated by the Moon outside this picture, the open structure of silver beams holding the secondary mirror (center) allows cool night air to pass freely between the mirrors. Combined with the open sides of the dome, the entire design ensures a uniform temperature matching the outside environment. Any variations of temperature create local turbulence that blurs astronomical images. Although this is a picture of the Gemini South telescope in Chile, its twin, the Gemini North telescope ...

23. Radiant Horizons

The stars and dust lanes of the Milky Way hang above telescope domes in this richly hued image of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The two bright, wispy ovals to the right are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, dwarf galaxies visible only in the southern hemisphere. The band of color along the horizon is a phenomenon known as airglow, a visible reaction between molecules in Earth’s atmosphere and solar radiation. In this picture are the Curtis Schmidt Telescope (left), the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope (middle), and the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope (right). These telescopes, ...

24. WIYN Enveloped by Celestial Aura

The glow behind the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope looks like a celestial aura, but it is really a phenomenon known as the Zodiacal Light. This faint glow, created by the scattering of light by small dust particles left over from the formation of our Solar System, is only visible during evening and morning twilight (in the west and east, respectively) and along the plane of the Solar System or the zodiac (hence the name zodiacal light). The WIYN telescope is part of the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Also visible is the brilliant light of the ...

25. A Backdrop of Blue and Red

A colorful sunset and layers of blue mountaintops backdrops the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Most prominent in the image is the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, which sits atop Cerro Tololo itself. The SMARTS 1.5-meter and 0.9-meter telescopes, as well as a selection of CTIO’s tenant observatories, are scattered along the ridge. This location allows astronomers a stellar view of the southern night sky, providing access to objects not visible from the northern hemisphere, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

26. Purple Sky at Night: Astronomer’s Delight!

This scene shows an arresting purple sky streaked with star trails over Cerro Pachón, the site of the Gemini South telescope (right) and the 4.1 meter Southern Astrophysical Research telescope (SOAR, left), both programs of the NSF’s Optical Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. From this mountaintop perch, which lies at an altitude of 2,737 meters (8980 ft) in the Chilean Andes, the 8.1-meter Gemini South telescope can survey the Southern sky — complementing the view from Gemini North atop Maunakea in Hawaiʻi. Together, these astronomical twins can access the entire night sky.

27. Shooting for the Stars!

Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, is located on land leased from the Tohono O’odham Nation. NSF’s NOIRLab staff frequently partner with the American Indian Science and Engineering Students (AISES) chapter at Tohono O’odham Community College to host star-gazing events and other local engagement activities. One popular activity is for students to build and launch water rockets out of two-liter bottles with glow sticks attached to make the flights visible against the dark Arizona skies. This image shows the trajectory of a launch that reaches its apex near the constellation of Orion. The winter Milky Way also ...

28. Trails Near and Far

This long-exposure photograph shows the motion of stars during the night above the Blanco 4-meter telescope (left) and the SMARTS 1.5-meter telescope (right) at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a program of the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. Also visible in the photo are the trails left by astronomers walking to the Blanco telescope, created by their flashlights. Stars streak through the sky over the course of this one-hour exposure, appearing to spin around the south celestial pole in the upper left of the image. The star closest to the south celestial pole is Sigma Octantis, a relatively ...

29. Circumpolar Laser Tests at Gemini North

As stars appear to circle around the north celestial pole, a new laser at the Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea undergoes rigorous testing, as seen in this image from early October 2019.
The international Gemini Observatory, a program of the NSF's NOIRLab, recently completed testing of a new laser from the company TOPTICA which is a critical component in the telescope’s adaptive optics system. Adaptive optics utilize artificial guide stars, produced by a laser, as a reference when compensating for distortions caused by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere. The result is ultra-sharp images that rival the view from ...

30. Starlit Solar Panels at Gemini South

This night-time photo of the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón, Chile features a marvelous view of the Milky Way arching overhead and reflecting off some of the 668 photovoltaic panels that help power the facility. The same clear skies that provide such spectacular views of our galaxy also allow Gemini South, one of two telescopes making up the international Gemini Observatory a program of NSF’s Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, to enjoy abundant sunlight during the day — making solar panels a down-to-earth addition to the facility. Starlight isn’t bright enough to generate electricity at night, when the astronomical observations ...

31. Glowworm Glowing in the Dead of Night

When the weather conditions are just right, glowworms come out at night at Kitt Peak National Observatory. This glowworm crossed the road in front of the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope as the last of the summer Milky Way sets behind the WIYN dome. Although only the tail end of the glowworm is bioluminescent, the glowworm appears as a streak over the 10 second exposure, and the image shows how much distance it covered over the period of the exposure.

32. Storm Lifting Over Gemini

After more than a week of wintery weather, the clouds started lifting over the Gemini North telescope of the international Gemini Observatory (center) on Maunakea. Joy Pollard of NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory snapped this shot during a visit to the mountain on 15 January. While snow is not uncommon on the nearly 14,000-foot summit area, this is the first major snowfall this winter on the mountaintop. The snowfall left drifts as high as 2 meters (7 feet) surrounding Gemini North and required the recruitment of staff volunteers to help shovel snow off the dome in order to get ...

33. Sunset over Kitt Peak National Observatory

Every year around the winter solstice, the Sun appears to set behind Kitt Peak National Observatory as seen from Mount Lemmon almost 100 km (60 miles) away. Local photographers meet every year around the holidays to capture photos and videos of this interesting alignment. For a brief time, you can see many of the Kitt Peak telescopes, from the distinctive McMath-Pierce Solar telescope (left) to the large dome of the Mayall 4-meter telescope (right). The still image depicts the silhouettes of the telescopes with a green segment above the Sun and was taken on 17 December 2016. The video was ...

34. Galactic Rainbow

The Milky Way hangs poised over the Gemini South telescope
The colorful band of the Milky Way is poised above the 8.1-meter Gemini South telescope of NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory in this arresting image, which depicts bright patches of stars threaded through with winding lanes of dust. The Galactic Center hangs directly above the telescope, framing one of the most powerful astronomical observatories in the southern hemisphere.
The picture also captures the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which appear on the left side of the image. These dwarf irregular galaxies are satellites of the Milky Way, and lack ...

35. Convergence Over Cerro Pachón

Jupiter, Venus and the Moon Converge over Observatories: Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope operator Carlos Corco obtained this image of the recent conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon (right) over the 8-meter Gemini South telescope (left) on Cerro Pachón in Chile. A conjunction is the apparent meeting of two or more celestial bodies in the night sky. Also visible (in the distance, just right of center) is the silhouette of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) which is currently under construction. In late 2022, LSST is slated to begin an unprecedented, decade-long, survey of the night sky in optical ...

36. Starry Skies at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Breathtaking observatory panorama showcases the Milky Way
This breathtaking panorama, captured by Hernan Stockebrand, showcases the pristine skies at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). CTIO, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, is a complex of astronomical telescopes and instruments in the Chilean Andes. CTIO’s mountainous surroundings and altitude — the site is 2200 meters (7200 feet) above sea level — ensure the mountaintop observatory enjoys spectacular night skies. This colorful panorama shows the arch of the Milky Way hanging above the observatory facilities, as well as strands of low clouds illuminated by the Moon, which is visible on the right ...

37. The Starry Dandelion and the Cosmic Gecko NGC 6520

Millions of years ago, a dust cloud about 5,200 light-years from the Sun coalesced to begin the process of star birth. Today, some 190 million years later, NGC 6520 is ablaze with hot, massive young stars arrayed in a dandelion seed-shaped cluster. Not far away lies the gecko-shaped remains of what may be their birth cloud, Barnard 86. This image, taken using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on Gemini South, shows details in a 9.7- x 5.4-arcmin section of a larger, highly populated region in the Sagittarius star cloud. It provides the clearest optical view of the cluster and its nearby ...

38. Spiral Galaxy IC342

Spiral Galaxy IC342 is located roughly 11 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis, “the giraffe.” Its face-on appearance in the sky—as opposed to our tilted and edge-on views of many other nearby galaxies, such as the large spiral galaxy Andromeda (M31)—makes IC342 a prime target for studies of star formation and astrochemistry. The image, obtained in late 2006, was taken using the 64-megapixel Mosaic-1 digital imager on the Mayall 4-meter telescope. This image is the subject of NOAO press release 07-03

39. Dark Energy Survey deep field image

Ten areas in the sky were selected as “deep fields” that the Dark Energy Camera imaged several times during the survey, providing a glimpse of distant galaxies and helping determine their 3D distribution in the cosmos. The image is teeming with galaxies — in fact, nearly every single object in this image is a galaxy. Some exceptions include a couple of dozen asteroids as well as a few handfuls of foreground stars in our own Milky Way.

40. Carina Nebula western wall (with adaptive optics)

A 50-trillion-km (33-trillion-mile, or 5 light-year) long section of the western wall in the Carina Nebula, as observed with adaptive optics on the Gemini South telescope. This mountainous section of the nebula reveals a number of unusual structures including a long series of parallel ridges that could be produced by a magnetic field, a remarkable almost perfectly smooth wave, and fragments that appear to be in the process of being sheared off the cloud by a strong wind. There is also evidence for a jet of material ejected from a newly-formed star. The exquisite detail seen in the image is ...

41. Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope

Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

42. Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory from above

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory seen from Cerro Pachón.

43. Through the Camera Lens

Cameras allow us to see things which our eyes cannot! This atmospheric light painting was captured at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The composition is framed by an inky sky and the spectacular arch of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope serves as a backdrop. Light painting — where a moving light source is captured with a long camera exposure — has been practiced for well over a century. It has both scientific and artistic applications. NOIRLab’s Colors of Nature Summer Academy explores the science of color and the role color plays in art and nature. Colors ...

44. High resolution solar spectrum

A high resolution version of the spectrum of our Sun, this image was created from a digital atlas observed with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the McMath-Pierce Solar Facility at the National Solar Observatory on Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona (‘Solar Flux Atlas from 296 to 1300 nm’ by Robert L. Kurucz, Ingemar Furenlid, James Brault, and Larry Testerman: National Solar Observatory Atlas No. 1, June 1984.). The images shown here were created to mimic an echelle spectrum, with wavelength increasing from left to right along each strip, and from bottom to top. Each of the 50 slices covers 60 ...

45. M45 Pleiades

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona. The Pleiades are an open cluster easily visible to the naked eye. The cluster is dominated by several hot, luminous and massive stars. The blue nebulosity surrounding the brightest stars are due to blue light from the stars scattering off of dust grains in the interstellar gas between us and the stars. The cluster is also known as the 'Seven Sisters'. And in Japan it is called Subaru. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), V ...

46. Nebula Sh2-239

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Sh2-239 is a distinct nebula in which stars have been forming for quite some time. It contains two clusters of highly embedded very young stars as well as many stars that are more evolved. The many outflows are visible as bright red knots and jets, particularly in the cavity at the center-top of the image. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), V (green), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. In this image, North is ...

47. Planetary Nebula PuWe 1

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. PuWe 1 is one of the largest and faintest planetary nebula known to exist. The nebula was created when a red giant star blew off its outer layers near the end of its life. The gas is energized by the remaining core of the star, which is called a white dwarf. However it is very faint due to its large size. As planetary nebulae expand they become fainter because the gas moves further from the white dwarf that ...

48. Whole disk NIRI image sharp

This image showing the entire disk of Jupiter in infrared light was compiled from a mosaic of nine separate pointings observed by the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab on 29 May 2019. From a “lucky imaging” set of 38 exposures taken at each pointing, the research team selected the sharpest 10%, combining them to image one ninth of Jupiter’s disk. Stacks of exposures at the nine pointings were then combined to make one clear, global view of the planet. Even though it only takes a few seconds for Gemini to create each image in a lucky imaging ...

49. NOIRLab’s current and potential future system

NOIRLab’s current and potential future system of observatories and data-driven exploration tools.

50. Clear Skies at Cerro Pachón

COVID-19 restrictions in the La Serena region of Chile have impacted construction activity, but progress on the summit is still being made, with a focus on high-priority work.

51. Artist’s impression of quasar J0313-1806

An artist’s impression of quasar J0313-1806 showing the supermassive black hole and the extremely high velocity wind. The quasar, seen just 670 million years after the Big Bang, is 1000 times more luminous than the Milky Way, and is powered by the earliest known supermassive black hole, which weighs in at more than 1.6 billion times the mass of the Sun.

52. LMC and SMC over Cerro Tololo

CTIO Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope and SMARTS telescopes.

53. Under the Dome

This image shows an immersive view from inside the dome of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The rotating dome is an impressive feat of engineering — designed to protect the delicate telescope from the elements. It weighs in at 430 tonnes (475 tons) and was built to withstand Chilean earthquakes. In addition to the Blanco’s dome, this photograph shows some of the equipment needed to run an astronomical observatory, ranging from calibration targets to good old-fashioned ladders! Glimpses of the mountains surrounding CTIO can be seen through ...

54. Glistening Spiral Galaxy

The spiral galaxy NGC 2541 is shown in extravagant detail in this astronomical snapshot from the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Astronomers recognize a variety of galaxy types, and NGC 2541 is classified as an unbarred spiral galaxy. These galaxies possess spectacular spiral arms like the ones shown here, but lack the central bar-shaped structure displayed by galaxies such as the Milky Way. NGC 2541 lies 37 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Lynx (The Lynx). Sandwiched between the constellations of Ursa Major, Gemini, and Leo, Lynx is ...

55. Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

56. Planetary Nebula Sh2-290

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Sh2-290 is an ancient planetary nebula. A planetary nebula is created when a low-mass star blows off its outer layers at the end of its life. Sh2-290 is one of the largest known planetary nebulae, with a diameter of about 7 parsecs. The bluish interior is from energized oxygen atoms. The bright side of the nebula is due to its interaction with ambient interstellar gas. The image was generated with observations in Hydrogen-alpha (red) , Sulphur [SII] (cyan) ...

57. Reflection Nebula NGC 1788

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NGC 1788 is an unusual reflection nebula (bluish white at the center of the image) surrounded by a glowing red ring of hydrogen gas. The stars inside the nebula are only about a million years old, which is very young compared to most stars. The ring of glowing hydrogen gas is energized by nearby hot, massive stars not visible in the image. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. ...

58. Dark Nebula LDN 810

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. LDN 810 is a dark nebula that was first cataloged by B.T. Lynds in 1962. The dark region at the center contains gas and dust out of which new stars are forming. A bipolar outflow of gas from one of these stars has also been detected. A faint trail of dust and gas extends from the center of the image to the upper-left corner. The image was generated with observations in the Us (violet), B (blue), V (green) ...

59. IC 1396A Elephant Trunk Nebula

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. IC 1396 is a giant emission nebula that is over 3 degrees in diameter. It is illuminated by a hot, massive O-type star (HD 206267) near its center. The star is not visible in this image- it is off of the top edge. This image is of IC 1396A, a dark, dense cloud of gas embedded in the nebula. It is informally known as the “Elephant Trunk Nebula” because of its distinctive shape. Images of other parts of ...

60. Clear Skies at Cerro Pachón

Vera C. Rubin Observatory basks under a cloudless sky in this image.

61. Rubin Observatory under Construction on Cerro Pachón

Rubin Observatory under Construction on Cerro Pachón, on a night with a full Moon in May 2020.

62. Trails Through the Night Sky

Although this appears to be a daytime scene, star trails circle and illuminate the night sky in this long-exposure photo of Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The telescope visible at the highest peak is the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope and almost directly above it, at the center of the concentric star trails, sits the North Star, Polaris. As the Earth turns and the stars appear to move through the sky, Polaris remains stationary at the north celestial pole, our planet’s axis of rotation. The lights of Tucson, Arizona, glow yellow on the horizon about ...

63. Rubin Observatory at sunset

This photo of the Rubin Observatory at sunset was taken from behind the nearby Gemini South telescope.

64. Comet NEOWISE Over Gemini North

Comet NEOWISE — technically known as C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) — is visible in this spectacular image of the pre-dawn sky to the right (East) of the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, one of the pair of telescopes of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. First discovered by the NEOWISE project using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope in March 2020, the comet is a dirty snowball of gas, dust and ice roughly 5 km (3 miles) across. The curving golden tail of C/2020 F3 visible in this image is composed of gas and dust ...

65. Cosmic Fireworks

The spiral galaxy NGC 925 reveals cosmic pyrotechnics in its spiral arms where bursts of star formation are taking place in the red, glowing clouds scattered throughout it.

66. McMath Pierce Solar telescope at night with star trails

A nine-hour exposure of the McMath-Pierce Solar Facility on Kitt Peak. The normally white building appears red due to high altitude haze following the 1991 eruptions of Mount Pinatubo. No filters or multiple exposures were used.

67. Dark Energy Camera's 1 millionth exposure

The Dark Energy Camera's 1 millionth exposure. At the time of this exposure DECam was making an of a galaxy cluster. The 1 millionth exposure has been combined with 127 earlier exposures to make this view of the field. This demonstrates the power of DECam and an archive of a million exposures.
The biggest galaxy in the field is the face-on spiral galaxy ESO 440-11. Several galaxy clusters, thousands of background galaxies and a few handfuls of foreground Milky Way stars can be seen in this “random” image of the sky.
One of the most powerful digital cameras in ...

68. A Vista of NGC 2626 with the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope

This image is so beautiful that it could almost be a painting, but it is real. It has been produced using observations made at the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), which is a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. It features a reflection nebula known as NGC 2626, which lies 3300 light-years from Earth.
Reflection nebulae are not luminous themselves, but they reflect light from a nearby star or stars. The light scatters off the dust particles in the nebulae, which often results in reflection nebulae having a blue tint, because blue light scatters more efficiently. ...

69. Telescope Trio

The three buildings featured in this image house an important trio of telescopes: the SMARTS 1.0-meter Telescope, the Curtis Schmidt Telescope, and the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope (far right). They are situated at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Clustered under the extraordinarily vivid sky, this telescope team is poised for action.

The Blanco has actually been active since 1976. It is an optical telescope, which means that it collects light with similar wavelengths to that seen by the human eye. The lens in a human eye only has a diameter of about 1 ...

70. Colorful Cosmic Reflections

This striking image, streaked with bright swathes of color, captures the beautiful reflection nebula NGC 2170. The diffuse clouds of interstellar dust in the nebula scatter and reflect light from nearby stars, creating this vividly colorful scene. Dust grains reflect blue light from hot stars embedded in the nebula. And warm hydrogen gas glows a deep red. Seen as dark tendrils, dust also absorbs the light from stars and gas behind it. This particular nebula lies in the constellation Monoceros (The Unicorn) — a faint constellation on the celestial equator. It was observed using the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro ...

71. Star trails and Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope

Star trails and Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope.

72. One Half of a Whole

Pictured here is Gemini South, sitting on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile. It is the southern member of the pair of 8.1-meter telescopes, which together comprise the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. Gemini North saw its first light in 1999, and — appropriately for twin telescopes — Gemini South followed quickly behind with its first light in 2000. Since then, the united Gemini twins have provided a wealth of scientific observations. In this image, Gemini South is framed by the spectacular Milky Way, which — thanks to the photographic technique used — appears as a ...

73. Eclipse over Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

The Total Solar Eclipse over Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile on 2 July 2019. Photo was taken with a DJI Phantom Pro 3. Clearly visible are the eclipse and the path of totality in the sky.

74. NOIRLab releases best view yet of a neighboring dwarf galaxy

Barnard’s Galaxy, a dwarf galaxy neighboring the Milky Way, is revealed in this stunning image from the Víctor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab. The image reveals regions of intense star formation and a scattering of immense cosmic bubbles. Despite its small size, the galaxy contains some spellbinding cosmic objects. Glowing red regions of star formation are scattered throughout Barnard’s Galaxy and indicate that incandescent star birth is widespread. Several other regions are well known in their own right and have been well studied since they were first detected by Edwin Hubble ...

75. Star-Birth “Fireworks”

This Gemini North telescope image reveals no less than six gas jets emerging at supersonic speeds from the reddish Herbig-Haro 24 (HH 24) complex — a small cluster of young stars embedded in a molecular cloud some 1,300 light years distant in the constellation Orion. It is the most detailed image ever obtained from the ground of this remarkable region, which contains the highest concentration of jets known anywhere. One jet is highly disturbed, suggesting that the source may be a close binary whose orbit perturbs the jet body. This dynamic environment also may be responsible for expelling some of ...

76. Star Bathing

This Image of the Week enjoys an unusual juxtaposition — solar panels bathing in light, but not light from our Sun. Instead, these solar panels are illuminated by the light of a night sky. Dark skies make this location ideal for Gemini South, which makes up one half of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. Gemini South is located on Cerro Pachón, Chile, which has exceptionally clear skies, making it a perfect spot for astronomical observation by night, and for solar panels to collect sunlight effectively during the day.

77. Seeing Red at Kitt Peak

This image captures the Milky Way arching above a pair of telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope (right) and the UArizona Bok 2.3-meter Telescope (center) jut above the desert skyline, outlined by the subtle colors of airglow. As well as the spectacular night sky, the red lights illuminating Kitt Peak lend further color to this image.
These red lights are not simply for aesthetic purposes. When you are in a dark environment, your eyes gradually become accustomed to the low-light conditions. This process is called “dark adaptation,” and ...

78. Promotional poster for “Chilean astronomy: A window to the Universe

Promotional poster for “Chilean astronomy: A window to the Universe"

79. A Sky Aglow

The sky above Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, is aglow with color in this image. The bright region at the center of this image is the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, which lies approximately 26,000 light-years from Earth. As well as stars and dark dust lanes, our home galaxy’s heart contains a colossal black hole, roughly 4 million times as massive as the Sun.
Though the heart of the Milky Way is a spectacular sight, the majority of the colors in this image arise much closer to home. As well as the tint of ...

80. Cover of the SATCON2 Executive Summary

81. Telescopes Standing Sentry

Three telescopes stand sentry under an unusual skyscape in this image from Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The prominent bright ring which hangs ominously above the telescopes is an optical phenomenon known as a 22° halo, and is created by the interplay of ice crystals and light in Earth’s atmosphere. When sunlight or moonlight encounters icy high-altitude clouds such as the wispy cirrus clouds in this image, countless ice crystals refract and redirect the rays of light and cause a halo to form. The angle of refraction depends on the wavelength of light, which causes ...

82. Gemini North’s Back Yard

Gemini North, one of the two telescopes that make up the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, has the good fortune to be located near the peak of Maunakea, a dormant volcano situated on the island of Hawai‘i. This image features the beautiful Hilo Bay and the city of Hilo, which is only a 70-kilometer (45-mile) drive from the telescope. Maunakea can be seen in the background (zoom in here).
While Hilo and Gemini North are near neighbors, they could not have more different environments. Hilo is situated on the coast, and has a warm, wet, tropical ...

83. Crags and Clouds

Gemini South, part of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, gleams against an unusually cloudy backdrop in this dramatic photo. The patch of sunlight that has picked out the telescope dome — visible to the right of this image — makes it look almost toy-like. In reality, the top of the dome is more than 15 stories above the mountaintop and weighs 780 tons! Breaks in the cloud also allow patches of sunlight to accentuate the craggy slopes of Cerro Pachón, the mountain which, at 2700 meters (8900 feet) high, hosts not only Gemini South but also ...

84. Cloudy Sunset at CTIO

A rare richly colored sunset sky is the backdrop to this image of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. While clouds can make for a spectacular sunset, water vapor in the atmosphere also impacts astronomical observations by absorbing starlight. Astronomers and engineers have developed a suite of instruments to measure its impacts. One such instrument is housed in the small clamshell dome in the foreground of this image: the aTmCam (Atmospheric Transmission Monitoring Camera) is a new calibration system that lets astronomers measure how much light is passing through the atmosphere.
aTmCam isn’t the only instrument ...

85. Night view from CTIO

A view of a group of telescopes at the summit of Cerro Tololo with the Magellan clouds and the MIlky way framing the scene. From left to right: Lunar Scintillator, Curtis Schmidt Telescope, 4m Víctor Blanco Telescope, SMARTS 1.5m Telescope, SMARTS 0.9m Telescope.

86. Sunset and Shadow

At first glance, this looks like an image of a telescope perched by a sea shore. The telescope — Gemini North, one of the two telescopes that make up the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab — is actually situated at an altitude of over 4000 meters (13,000 feet). The churning waves are a rippling cloud deck, not a choppy sea, over which Maunakea’s shadow stretches for miles.
Maunakea’s highest point (far right) is tinged with light from the setting Sun, as shadows fall over Gemini North. As the day ends, the telescope’s work begins. A key ...

87. Portrait of the Great Barred Spiral

This image captures the elegant galaxy NGC 1365 in the Fornax Cluster of galaxies. Also known as The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy, NGC 1365 is a strikingly perfect example of a barred spiral galaxy. This image shows the galaxy’s prominent bar and its graceful spiral arms, with lanes of dust obscuring the extended diffuse glow of stars. The central bar of NGC 1365 influences star formation throughout the entire galaxy and conceals a supermassive black hole hidden behind multitudes of newly formed stars. Astronomers are interested in barred spiral galaxies like NGC 1365 for more than just their elegance — ...

88. A Whirlpool of Stars

Gemini North, one of the pair of telescopes that make up the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, stands in the foreground of this image with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in the background. The domes appear poised to leap into the swirling blue of the sky. The whirlpool of stellar streaks is an illusion, however, known to astrophotographers as star trails.

Just as the Sun progresses across the sky during the daytime, the Moon and stars progress across the sky at night. In both cases the reason is the same — the rotation of the Earth on ...

89. Telescope Trio

The gleaming dome of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope is flanked by two telescopes of the SMARTS Consortium in this image from Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Above the telescopes, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — two satellite galaxies that are neighbors to the Milky Way — hang over the scene. The starry band of the Milky Way itself streaks across the left hand side of the image, complete with dark lanes of dust.

The vibrant colors of the night sky are due to the faint hues of airglow and the first hints ...

90. A Giant’s Funeral Pyre

This image shows the planetary nebula Sh2-42 in the constellation Sagittarius, and was captured by using the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Despite the name, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets — they are spectacular funeral pyres formed by red giant stars at the end of their lives. As these giant stars expand and throw their outer gaseous layers into space, the hot exposed core of the star ionizes the surrounding material, causing it to glow in a range of vivid colours. As it reaches the end of its life, ...

91. Hanging by a Thread

In this image, one of the Maunakea observatories appears to be hanging by a golden thread. In reality, the thread is a beam of light, and it is not descending from the sky, but is pointing upwards from the telescope itself. It originates from Gemini North, part of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The light beam is a laser guide star , and its purpose is to form an artificial constellation of stars in the atmosphere, 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the Earth’s surface.

Intuitively it seems that the laser beam must be extraordinarily powerful. ...

92. A Study in Scarlet

This snapshot captures the towering Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope and one of the four SMARTS Consortium telescopes, both set against the spectacular backdrop of the early evening sky. The dome of the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope — which is actually gleaming white — has been illuminated in scarlet light, giving the observatory an unusually vivid appearance.
This image was captured at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The observatory’s high-altitude desert location — it lies 2200 meters (7200 feet) above sea level at the edge of Chile’s Atacama Desert — provides astronomers with the pristine conditions ...

93. Gemini North Infrared View of Jupiter

This infrared view of Jupiter was created from data captured on 11 January 2017 with the Near-InfraRed Imager (NIRI) instrument at Gemini North in Hawaiʻi, the northern member of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. It is actually a mosaic of individual frames that were combined to produce a global portrait of the planet.
In the image warmer areas appear bright, including four large hot spots that appear in a row just north of the equator. South of the equator, the oval-shaped and cloud-covered Great Red Spot appears dark.

94. Gemini and its Laser Beam

A beam of light shining into the night sky illuminated by moonlight. Its origin is Gemini North, one of the twin telescopes that make up the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The light is in fact a laser guide star, and it serves a remarkable purpose. The laser guide star’s light encounters a layer of sodium high in the Earth’s atmosphere (about 90 kilometers (56 miles overhead) where it creates an artificial star. This artificial star is used as a reference by Gemini North, to allow the telescope to correct for much of the turbulence of Earth’s ...

95. Moonrise Over Gemini North

A gathering of telescopes perch near the summit of Maunakea, a dormant volcano on Hawai‘i Island with an elevation of 4207 meters (13,803 feet), making it an ideal location for astronomical observations. Nearly centered under the rising full Moon is Gemini North, the northern member of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Its twin telescope, Gemini South, has its home in Chile. The two telescopes are practically identical, each with an impressive 8-meter primary mirror to collect light. Whilst the twin telescopes will never meet, their separation serves a purpose — between them, they can observe almost ...

96. Spiral Galaxy Messier 106

This image of the spiral galaxy Messier 106, or NGC 4258, was taken with the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. A popular target for amateur astronomers, Messier 106 can also be spotted with a small telescope in the constellation Canes Venatici. This view captures the entire galaxy, detailing the glowing spiral arms, wisps of gas, and dust lanes at the center of Messier 106 as well as the leisurely twisting bands of stars at the galaxy’s outer edges. Two dwarf galaxies also appear in the image: NGC 4248 in the ...

97. Lightning Strikes Up

The telescopes at Maunakea sit calmly beneath a sky filled with extraordinary light. Amongst these telescopes is Gemini North, the northern member of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Gemini North sits at an altitude of around 4200 meters (13,800 feet). Not only does this altitude facilitate world-class astronomical observations, but Gemini North’s nighttime Cloud Cams were able to capture the extraordinary light phenomena seen on the right side of the image.
The column of blue and red lights surrounded by a bright blaze of white light appears so otherworldly that it looks like it must be ...

98. Snowy Sunrise on Maunakea

In this Image of the Week the sunrise lights up a snow-capped Maunakea, home to the Maunakea Observatories that include the northern member of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSFʻs NOIRLab. When most people think of Hawai‘i, what comes to mind is a warm and sunny climate. However, during the northern winter months, snow sometimes blankets the two largest mountains on Hawaiʻi Island, Maunakea and Maunaloa, creating captivating winter scenes. Gemini North on Maunakea saw snow on 25 January 2021 and the snow remains even now on 10 February, 2021.

99. Serpent’s Nebula

The emission nebula Sh2-54 glows brightly in this image from the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Gathering the fine details of this particular image required almost twenty minutes of observations and three different wavelength filters. Situated within the constellation of Serpens (The Serpent), Sh2-54 forms part of a much wider nebulosity which includes the famous Eagle Nebula. Serpens is a unique constellation, the only one of the official 88 used today that is split into two unconnected parts: Serpens Caput — the Serpent’s Head — and Serpens Cauda — The Serpent’s Tail.

100. Sunset Skies at CTIO

The mountains of northern Chile fade into the distance under a vibrant orange sky in this sunset photograph of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. More than 20 telescopes operate at CTIO — and many of them can be seen jutting from the mountain in the foreground of this image. The Víctor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope and the SMARTS Telescopes dominate the mountain peak, with smaller telescopes spread along the ridge. Despite the tranquility of the sunset, the engineers and astronomers at the observatory are working hard, spending the hours before dusk preparing a packed ...

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