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Space Telescope Science Institute
@stsci.edu
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The Space Telescope Science Institute is the Science Operations Center for Webb, Hubble, and the upcoming Roman space telescopes, & Mission Operations Center for Webb. We help humanity explore the universe with advanced space telescopes and data archive.
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The Horsehead Nebula is a dark cloud of dense gas and dust located just below the belt of Orion. A visible light view shows a strong silhouette resembling the horse's head used for a knight in chess.

Infrared light, however, reveals a more complex scene, as shown in Hubble's 2013 image. 🔭 🧪
A Horse of a Different Color: The Gaseous Landscape of the Horsehead Nebula in Infrared
The Horsehead Nebula is a dark cloud of dense gas and dust located just below the belt of Orion on the sky. A visible light view shows a strong silhouette resembling the horse's head used for a knight in chess. Infrared light, however, reveals a more co...
youtu.be
November 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM
stsci.edu
Dr. Munazza Alam, an assistant astronomer at STScI, was named in The City University of New York's 50 Under 50 alumni awards in 2025. Each year the school celebrates a class of distinguished graduates who have made headway in their respective fields over the past year. 👏
Munazza Alam – The City University of New York
26 Colleges. One University.
www.cuny.edu
November 21, 2025 at 6:41 PM
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Stare into the depths of space with Hubble! At top- and bottom-center are two blue nearby stars. The enormous spiral galaxy UGC 11397 is 250 million light-years away. Many far more distant galaxies show up as orange and red dots. Credit: NASA, ESA. 🔭 🧪
A spiral galaxy seen at an angle. The galaxy’s central disk is golden with a bright core. The galaxy has two spiral arms that curl out from the center. They start narrow but broaden as they wrap around the galaxy before merging into a faint halo. A swirl of dark dust strands and speckled blue star-forming regions follow the arms through the disk. The background of space is black, speckled with tiny stars and distant galaxies.
November 21, 2025 at 2:46 PM
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Our ears are ringing with stellar news: #NASARoman will be well suited to study red giant stars in the Milky Way’s galactic bulge. Based on simulated data Roman will collect, this sonification converts the waves moving inside these stars into sound: https://bit.ly/3KYZIK8 🔭 🧪
November 20, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Space Telescope Science Institute
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NEWS: Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to refine the orbit of two Wolf-Rayet stars—named for the Egyptian god of chaos—to a lengthy 190 years and confirmed a third star carves their ongoing carbon dust ejections. 🔭 🧪 (1/6) 🧵
Four dust shells expand away from three central stars that appear as a single pinpoint of light. The innermost shell is smallest, like the size of a thumbprint, and brightest. It is yellow and forms a backward lowercase e. A line at 3 o’clock swoops to the bottom-left in an arc that ends at 8 o’clock. A second line at 9 o’clock dips down to start, but then goes straight up, angling around the top. The second shell, about the size of a fist, is orange and has looser arcs. One appears from 4 to 7 o’clock. A brighter orange triangle appears from 10 to 12 o’clock. Its outer edges overlap, forming a rough circle. The third shell extends almost to the edges and is semi-translucent red, with similar arcs and a darker red line that also forms a faint triangle at top left. The widest shell is faintest and at the edges. A semi-transparent blue appears across the scene. A larger foreground star with spikes is at bottom left, and more distant stars and galaxies are strewn across the black expanse of space.
November 19, 2025 at 6:24 PM
stsci.edu
NEWS: Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to refine the orbit of two Wolf-Rayet stars—named for the Egyptian god of chaos—to a lengthy 190 years and confirmed a third star carves their ongoing carbon dust ejections. 🔭 🧪 (1/6) 🧵
Four dust shells expand away from three central stars that appear as a single pinpoint of light. The innermost shell is smallest, like the size of a thumbprint, and brightest. It is yellow and forms a backward lowercase e. A line at 3 o’clock swoops to the bottom-left in an arc that ends at 8 o’clock. A second line at 9 o’clock dips down to start, but then goes straight up, angling around the top. The second shell, about the size of a fist, is orange and has looser arcs. One appears from 4 to 7 o’clock. A brighter orange triangle appears from 10 to 12 o’clock. Its outer edges overlap, forming a rough circle. The third shell extends almost to the edges and is semi-translucent red, with similar arcs and a darker red line that also forms a faint triangle at top left. The widest shell is faintest and at the edges. A semi-transparent blue appears across the scene. A larger foreground star with spikes is at bottom left, and more distant stars and galaxies are strewn across the black expanse of space.
November 19, 2025 at 6:24 PM
stsci.edu
Three #NASAWebb discoveries in ONE! Webb shows there are FOUR dust shells (only one was previously seen), allowing researchers to narrow the stars’ orbit of one another to a LONG 190 years. Plus, they confirmed a third star is part of the “party”: https://bit.ly/4n1tpas 🔭 🧪
November 19, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third object ever identified as entering our solar system from elsewhere in the galaxy. NASA will host a live event at 3 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Nov. 19, to share imagery of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS collected by a number of the agency’s missions. 🔭 🧪
NASA Shares Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Images - NASA+
Live event to share imagery of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS collected by a number of the agency's missions.
plus.nasa.gov
November 18, 2025 at 4:24 PM
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What do you get if you sign up for Inbox Astronomy? Spectacular images and astronomical discoveries! Sign up to get news from the universe right in your inbox: https://bit.ly/3KSp8IY 🔭 🧪
Promotional image for Inbox Astronomy featuring the James Webb Space Telescope against a starry background, highlighting the latest news, images, and discoveries about the universe.
November 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM
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Nope, your eyes aren't deceiving you. That really is Hubble's image of the Bubble Nebula in the background of Vogue’s December cover, featuring actor Timothée Chalamet.

This image of the nebula was released in 2016 to mark Hubble’s 26th anniversary.
The Universe According to Timothée
“My superpower is my fearlessness.”
www.vogue.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:50 PM
stsci.edu
This #NASAWebb image features a cosmic creepy-crawly called NGC 6537—the Red Spider Nebula. Using its Near-InfraRed Camera, Webb has revealed never-before-seen details in this picturesque planetary nebula with a rich backdrop of thousands of stars. 🔭 🧪
Cosmic Creepy-Crawly NGC 6537 -- James Webb Space Telescope #shorts
This new James Webb Space Telescope image features a cosmic creepy-crawly called NGC 6537--the Red Spider Nebula. Using its Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), Webb has revealed never-before-seen details in this picturesque planetary nebula with a rich backd...
youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:10 PM
stsci.edu
This 3-D visualization flies across a small portion of the Veil Nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. This region is a small part of a huge expanding remnant from a star that exploded many thousands of years ago. 🔭 🧪
Vibrant Gaseous Ribbons: The Veil Supernova Remnant
This 3-D visualization flies across a small portion of the Veil Nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. This region is a small part of a huge expanding remnant from a star that exploded many thousands of years ago. Hubble resolves tangled ...
youtu.be
November 14, 2025 at 6:50 PM
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The brightest point in this Hubble image of FS Tau is a binary system, consisting of two stars orbiting each other, that have cleared much of its surrounding dust and gas away.

Credit: NASA, ESA, K. Stapelfeldt (NASA JPL), G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America). 🔭 🧪
A nebula that contains stars and protostars. To the right of center, there is a bright white point made up of two orbiting stars with a four-pronged diffraction pattern. At 2 o’clock from this star, there is another, smaller bright light, a protostar, surrounded by a dark, edge-on disk of matter, which appears as a vertical line. In the center of the image is a cavity where the clouds are thinner and background stars shine through. The stars and protostar are on the edges of this cavity and are surrounded by dark clouds that appear like thick smoke in the light. A thin, short blue jet of material extends roughly horizontally, emerging from both sides of the disk. The jet is interrupted by the cavity and then continues to the left, cutting through the center of the frame.
November 14, 2025 at 2:59 PM
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Get excited about the future of STEM with an afternoon full of future-focused hands-on discovery at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore.

STScI staff will deliver #NASAWebb and Roman telescope science content during the “Invent the Future” event on Saturday, November 15. 🔭 🧪
Invent the Future | Maryland Science Center
Get excited about the future of STEM with an afternoon full of future-focused hands-on discovery.
www.mdsci.org
November 13, 2025 at 6:02 PM
stsci.edu
Watch this visualization of the supernova remnant known as SNR 0509-67.5. The delicate sphere of gas, photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, is the result of gas that is being shocked by the expanding blast wave from a supernova. 🔭 🧪
The Red Bubble: Supernova Remnant SNR 0509-67.5
This movie presents a visualization of the supernova remnant known as SNR 0509-67.5. The delicate sphere of gas, photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is the result of gas that is being shocked by the expanding blast wave from a supernova. The ...
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 2:27 PM
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“This record-breaking response reflects Webb’s exceptional performance and unprecedented capacity to inspire the scientific community and to transform our understanding of the universe,” said STScI Director Jen Lotz. 🔭 ☄️
stsci.edu Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 12d
The demand to use #NASAWebb shows no signs of slowing! For its fifth year, researchers around the world submitted a record-breaking 2,900+ proposals.

The types of requests show astronomers are ready to answer even bolder scientific questions: https://bit.ly/4nYC0LS 🔭 🧪
Illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope at the right with its gold, hexagon-shaped primary mirror and multi-layer sunshield. At left is a representation of its 18 primary mirror segments, which takes up about two-thirds of the view. Each segment is outlined in yellow and contains a different Webb image, artist’s concept, or spectrum (graph). The images display dying stars puffing off layers of gas and dust, spiral galaxies, planets, and deep fields of space spattered with fuzzy white galaxies. Three yellow, orange, and red wavy lines appear atop everything else, running left to right. The backdrop shows filaments of red gas and dust, white and blue stars, and distant galaxies, all against the black background of space.
November 12, 2025 at 8:25 PM
stsci.edu
The demand to use #NASAWebb shows no signs of slowing! For its fifth year, researchers around the world submitted a record-breaking 2,900+ proposals.

The types of requests show astronomers are ready to answer even bolder scientific questions: https://bit.ly/4nYC0LS 🔭 🧪
Illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope at the right with its gold, hexagon-shaped primary mirror and multi-layer sunshield. At left is a representation of its 18 primary mirror segments, which takes up about two-thirds of the view. Each segment is outlined in yellow and contains a different Webb image, artist’s concept, or spectrum (graph). The images display dying stars puffing off layers of gas and dust, spiral galaxies, planets, and deep fields of space spattered with fuzzy white galaxies. Three yellow, orange, and red wavy lines appear atop everything else, running left to right. The backdrop shows filaments of red gas and dust, white and blue stars, and distant galaxies, all against the black background of space.
November 12, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Space Telescope Science Institute
stsci.edu
STScI has three goals: 1) to excel in the science operations of NASA's current and future astrophysics missions; 2) to advance astronomical research, archives, and tools for scientific discovery; and 3) to make astronomical information accessible to all: https://www.stsci.edu/ 🔭 🧪
November 11, 2025 at 3:12 PM
stsci.edu
STScI has three goals: 1) to excel in the science operations of NASA's current and future astrophysics missions; 2) to advance astronomical research, archives, and tools for scientific discovery; and 3) to make astronomical information accessible to all: https://www.stsci.edu/ 🔭 🧪
November 11, 2025 at 3:12 PM
stsci.edu
Our fascinating Public Lecture Series is now on YouTube! 👀 We currently have the 2022-2025 lectures available to watch: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm0MBdI3VlBV9UAeU8Vbgwd-hPdQh6ZXT 🔭 🧪
November 10, 2025 at 9:22 PM
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The ridge-like Orion Bar, seen in the lower left of this Hubble image, is created when stars’ ultraviolet light—capable of carving more diffuse matter—collides with denser, less penetrable matter.

Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI. 🔭 🧪
A portion of the Orion Nebula. There are clouds of different colors and densities throughout. In the center, there are several bright white orbs, which are stars, surrounded by a pale-yellow cloud of dust and gas. Filaments of brown are spread throughout the pale-yellow clouds. Between 9 o’clock and 2 o’clock, and between 4 o’clock and 7 o’clock, there are darker brown clouds that spread to the image’s edges. A sharp diagonal line separates the pale-yellow clouds and a more purple-colored region, which contains two more bright-white stars. To the right of the pale-yellow clouds are black clouds of dust and gas. Red stars are spread throughout.
November 10, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Space Telescope Science Institute
stsci.edu
Flying through Dulles Airport near D.C.? If you’re taking the Metro, expect to be awed by almost 40 recently installed images from #NASAWebb, paired with more than 30 from the ever-active Hubble, on your way to the main terminal: https://bit.ly/4qPfl7m #wmata 🔭 🧪
November 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
stsci.edu
Flying through Dulles Airport near D.C.? If you’re taking the Metro, expect to be awed by almost 40 recently installed images from #NASAWebb, paired with more than 30 from the ever-active Hubble, on your way to the main terminal: https://bit.ly/4qPfl7m #wmata 🔭 🧪
November 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
stsci.edu
The Whirlpool Galaxy is one of the nearest and best examples of a grand design spiral galaxy.

Watch as Hubble's high-resolution view of this magnificent spiral galaxy comes to life in this 3D visualization.
Flyby of the Whirlpool Galaxy
YouTube video by Space Telescope Science Institute
youtu.be
November 5, 2025 at 4:00 PM
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In 2023, #NASAWebb observed a spectacular light show on Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The planet’s auroras are hundreds of times brighter and more energetic than Earth’s. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Nichols (University of Leicester), M. Zamani (ESA/Webb). 🔭 🧪
November 4, 2025 at 3:23 PM