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A hundred million light-years down the Celestial River.

Located in the constellation Eridanus, NGC 1266 offers astronomers a rare glimpse into a galaxy caught between two chapters of its life.

Known as a “post-starburst” galaxy, NGC 1266 once experienced an intense period of star formation. Today, however, it has largely quieted down. While the galaxy still contains a relatively young population of stars, very few new stars are currently being born.

Scientists believe this dramatic transformation may have been triggered by a minor merger with another galaxy around 500 million years ago. That encounter likely compressed gas, igniting a burst of star formation before eventually leaving the galaxy depleted of much of the material needed to continue creating stars.

In this Hubble image, NGC 1266 appears almost face-on. Subtle patterns hint at a spiral structure, but distinct spiral arms are absent. A striking band of reddish-brown dust cuts across the galaxy, while distant galaxies shine through the background — and even through some of the thinner regions of NGC 1266 itself.

Galaxies like this help astronomers understand how star formation can switch on, fade away, and reshape a galaxy’s future.

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Image credit: NASA, ESA, K. Alatalo (STScI); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

I’ve just compared two great Smart Telescopes by Dwarflab, the Dwarf 3 and the Mini. What’s best for you? https://youtu.be/RvcAlrnnc0g?is=di0yBBDmmKAOzxGG
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Comparing Smart Telescopes Dwarf 3 vs Dwarf Mini Main differences between these two great Smart Telescopes, battery, photos and all the other performances.📄 FREE weekly updates, insights and opportunities ...

The SMILE mission (Solar wind–Magnetosphere–Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, designed to investigate how the Sun interacts with Earth’s magnetic environment.
https://spaceinfo.club/smile-a-new-window-on-the-sun-earth-connection/
ESA - European Space Agency

ESA SMILE mission. Understanding space weather requires more than a single vantage point. Over the past decades, heliophysics missions have progressively uncovered how energy and particles travel from the Sun to Earth, shaping the environment around our planet.
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From PLATO to the Nancy Grace Roman Space telescope, through Mars and Europe. What’s more? Find out in the update video here: https://youtu.be/QKivdckd5YI?is=NmNylFiEyRsM2Lg9

HAPPENING NOW: NASA’s Psyche Mission is about to perform one of the most important maneuvers of its multi-year journey through deep space: a close flyby of Mars that will use the Red Planet’s gravity to reshape the spacecraft’s path toward its final destination — the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche. Read more: https://spaceinfo.club/nasas-psyche-mission-uses-mars-for-a-precision-gravity-assist-on-its-journey-to-a-metal-world/

The Phantom Galaxy comes into focus.

Captured by the James Webb Space Telescope using its powerful MIRI instrument, this stunning view reveals the intricate structure of the Phantom Galaxy in extraordinary detail.

Webb’s sharp infrared vision uncovers delicate filaments of gas and dust threading through the galaxy’s grand spiral arms, highlighting the material that fuels future generations of stars.

One of the most striking discoveries is the relative lack of gas in the galaxy’s central region. This gives astronomers a rare, unobscured view of the dense nuclear star cluster at the galaxy’s core — a region often hidden behind thick dust in many spiral galaxies.

Observations like this help scientists understand how stars, gas, and galactic structures interact and evolve across cosmic time.

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Credits / , , , J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team.
Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt

It may look calm today, but Abell 2029 had a chaotic past.

Often called “the most relaxed cluster in the universe,” Abell 2029 appears smooth and undisturbed compared to many other galaxy clusters. But new observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory reveal that this giant structure is still recovering from a dramatic collision that happened around four billion years ago.

This composite image shows the cluster as a massive spiral of superheated gas stretching across space like a glowing cosmic seashell. The white points scattered throughout are galaxies and stars seen in optical light, while the neon blue spiral reveals hot X-ray gas filling the space between galaxies.

The spiral structure begins near the cluster’s center and expands outward in a giant corkscrew pattern extending roughly two million light-years across. Astronomers believe this shape formed after Abell 2029 collided with a smaller galaxy cluster, sending waves of hot gas swirling through the system.

By studying galaxy clusters like this, scientists can better understand how the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe evolve over billions of years.

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Credits: NASA/CXC/CfA/C. Watson et al.; PanSTARRS; NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk and P. Edmonds

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER is here 😎 - A New Era of Cosmic Discovery Begins: PLATO, Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, Lithium and Nuclear ☢️ read the full newsletter here:

NASA Completes the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope A New Era of Cosmic Discovery Begins

Hubble spies an active spiral.

IC 486 glows against the darkness of space in this stunning new Hubble image. Located about 380 million light-years away on the edge of the constellation Gemini, this galaxy is classified as a barred spiral — meaning its spiral arms emerge from a bright, elongated bar at the center.

Its structure appears smooth and elegant, with spiral arms wrapping around the core in an almost ring-like pattern. But beneath that beauty lies a dynamic environment shaped by stars, gas, and dust.

Hubble reveals subtle color differences across the galaxy. The bright central region is dominated by older stars, while faint bluish areas in the outer disk mark regions where newer stars are forming. Thin lanes of dust weave through the galaxy, tracing dense clouds of gas that may become future stellar nurseries.

Galaxies like IC 486 help astronomers understand how stars form and how spiral galaxies evolve over billions of years.

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Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth