Hubble’s newest view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2835 adds a stunning twist to a familiar sight. By capturing light in a special wavelength called H-alpha, astronomers have revealed glowing pink nebulae that mark where stars are born and where they fade away.
FULL STORY
Hubble’s latest image of NGC 2835 reveals dazzling pink nebulae glowing in H-alpha light, exposing both newborn stars and remnants of dying ones. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST team
Today's NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week offers a closeup of a nearby spiral galaxy. The subject is NGC 2835, which lies 35 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra (The Water Snake).
A previous Hubble image of this galaxy was released in 2020, and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope turned its gaze toward NGC 2835 in recent years as well. Do you see anything different between today's image of NGC 2835 and the previously released versions? Overall, NGC 2835 looks quite similar in all of these images, with spiral arms dotted with young blue stars sweeping around an oval-shaped center, where older stars reside.
This image differs from previously released images because it incorporates new data from Hubble that captures a specific wavelength of red light called H-alpha. The regions that are bright in H-alpha emission can be seen along NGC 2835's spiral arms, where dozens of bright pink nebulae appear like flowers in bloom. Astronomers are interested in H-alpha light because it signals the presence of several different types of nebulae that arise during different stages of a star's life. Newborn massive stars create nebulae called H II regions that are particularly brilliant sources of H-alpha light, while dying stars can leave behind supernova remnants or planetary nebulae that can also be identified by their H-alpha emission.
By using Hubble's sensitive instruments to survey 19 nearby galaxies, researchers aim to identify more than 50,000 nebulae. These observations will help to explain how stars affect their birth neighborhoods through intense starlight and winds.
Story Source:
Materials[1] provided by ESA/Hubble. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Cite This Page:
ESA/Hubble. "Stunning galaxy blooms with pink nebulae in Hubble’s new image." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 August 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250818102132.htm>.
ESA/Hubble. (2025, August 20). Stunning galaxy blooms with pink nebulae in Hubble’s new image. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 20, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250818102132.htm
ESA/Hubble. "Stunning galaxy blooms with pink nebulae in Hubble’s new image." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250818102132.htm (accessed August 20, 2025).
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May 6, 2024 Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in a new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4951. Located in the Virgo constellation, NGC 4951 is located roughly 50 ...
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Hubble’s newest view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2835 adds a stunning twist to a familiar sight. By capturing light in a special wavelength called H-alpha, astronomers have revealed glowing pink nebulae that mark where stars are born and where they fade away.
FULL STORY
Hubble’s latest image of NGC 2835 reveals dazzling pink nebulae glowing in H-alpha light, exposing both newborn stars and remnants of dying ones. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST team
Today's NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week offers a closeup of a nearby spiral galaxy. The subject is NGC 2835, which lies 35 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra (The Water Snake).
A previous Hubble image of this galaxy was released in 2020, and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope turned its gaze toward NGC 2835 in recent years as well. Do you see anything different between today's image of NGC 2835 and the previously released versions? Overall, NGC 2835 looks quite similar in all of these images, with spiral arms dotted with young blue stars sweeping around an oval-shaped center, where older stars reside.
This image differs from previously released images because it incorporates new data from Hubble that captures a specific wavelength of red light called H-alpha. The regions that are bright in H-alpha emission can be seen along NGC 2835's spiral arms, where dozens of bright pink nebulae appear like flowers in bloom. Astronomers are interested in H-alpha light because it signals the presence of several different types of nebulae that arise during different stages of a star's life. Newborn massive stars create nebulae called H II regions that are particularly brilliant sources of H-alpha light, while dying stars can leave behind supernova remnants or planetary nebulae that can also be identified by their H-alpha emission.
By using Hubble's sensitive instruments to survey 19 nearby galaxies, researchers aim to identify more than 50,000 nebulae. These observations will help to explain how stars affect their birth neighborhoods through intense starlight and winds.
Story Source:
Materials[1] provided by ESA/Hubble. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Cite This Page:
ESA/Hubble. "Stunning galaxy blooms with pink nebulae in Hubble’s new image." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 August 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250818102132.htm>.
ESA/Hubble. (2025, August 20). Stunning galaxy blooms with pink nebulae in Hubble’s new image. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 20, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250818102132.htm
ESA/Hubble. "Stunning galaxy blooms with pink nebulae in Hubble’s new image." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250818102132.htm (accessed August 20, 2025).
Aug. 15, 2025 Hubble has captured the faint beauty of NGC 45, a spiral galaxy in Cetus whose glowing pink star-forming clouds reveal hidden activity. It belongs to the rare class of low surface brightness ...
July 25, 2025 In the sprawling Hydra constellation, 137 million light-years away, lies NGC 3285B—a dazzling spiral galaxy recently spotlighted by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. This cosmic beauty orbits the ...
July 14, 2025 Hubble’s crystal-clear look at NGC 1786—an ancient globular cluster tucked inside the Large Magellanic Cloud—pulls us 160,000 light-years from Earth and straight into a cosmic time machine. ...
June 18, 2025 Astronomers have produced the most detailed map yet of the Sculptor Galaxy, revealing hundreds of previously unseen celestial features in stunning color and resolution. By combining over 50 hours of ...
May 6, 2024 Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in a new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4951. Located in the Virgo constellation, NGC 4951 is located roughly 50 ...
Nov. 24, 2021 Mounded, luminous clouds of gas and dust glow in this Hubble image of a Herbig-Haro object known as HH 45. Herbig-Haro objects are a rarely seen type of nebula that occurs when hot gas ejected by a ...
