Home | Science | From Nebulae Shaped Like a Cranium to Giant Stellar Bubbles: The Universe as You’ve Never Seen It

From Nebulae Shaped Like a Cranium to Giant Stellar Bubbles: The Universe as You’ve Never Seen It

The Cranium Nebula from the Webb Telescope (Photo: NASA)

By Rafael Bello

April 6, 2026
2:17 am
Los Angeles, CA

From frozen landscapes on Mars to distant galaxies glowing across unimaginable distances, modern astronomy continues to reveal a universe far more vast and mysterious than we once imagined. Through the lenses of powerful space telescopes and planetary missions, scientists and photographers have captured images that not only advance our understanding of space, but also invite us to pause and reflect on our place within it. In this collection, images shared by NASA offer glimpses into some of the most fascinating phenomena observed in the cosmos. While each photograph comes with its own scientific explanation, taken together they tell a broader story: the universe is a place of extraordinary scale, complexity, and beauty. Every new image reminds us that beyond our small world lies a cosmos filled with phenomena both

In this collection, images shared by NASA offer glimpses into some of the most fascinating phenomena observed in the cosmos. While each photograph comes with its own scientific explanation, taken together they tell a broader story: the universe is a place of extraordinary scale, complexity, and beauty. Every new image reminds us that beyond our small world lies a cosmos filled with phenomena both curious and awe-inspiring—many of which we are only beginning to understand.

These images do more than document scientific discoveries. They invite us to look outward, to wonder, and to consider the immense and intricate universe that surrounds us.

NGC 1566: The Spanish Dancer Galaxy

Explanation: If not perfect, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic. An island universe containing billions of stars and situated about 40 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish (Dorado), NGC 1566 presents a gorgeous face-on view. Classified as a grand design spiral, NGC 1566 shows two prominent and graceful spiral arms that are traced by bright blue star clusters, red emission nebulas, and dark cosmic dust lanes. Numerous Hubble Space Telescope images of NGC 1566 have been taken to study star formation, supernovas, and the spiral’s unusually active center. NGC 1566’s flaring center makes the spiral one of the closest and brightest Seyfert galaxies, likely housing a central supermassive black hole wreaking havoc on surrounding stars and gas.

The Astrosphere of HD 61005

Explanation: Do young stars blow bubbles? The larger view shows a stellar field observed with the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, and the inset highlights HD 61005, a star like our Sun, only 120 light-years away. Much younger than the Sun, at just about 100 million years old, it blows a fast and dense stellar wind that pushes out the cooler dust and gas that surrounds it, forming a bubble called an astrosphere. The star-blown bubble was detected with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and it has a diameter roughly 200 times the Earth-Sun distance. Our Sun has a bubble too, called the heliosphere, which protects the planets from cosmic radiation. Also shown in the inset is debris left behind from star formation, observed by Hubble. The debris appears as wings, giving the star its nickname: the Moth.

Flying over the North Pole of Mars

Explanation: If you could fly over the North Pole of Mars, what would you see? Images from ESA’s Mars Express mission in 2019 were compiled into the featured video which shows just such a trip. First you see below you a landscape tinted orange by rusted iron in the fine soil, with some land appearing darker due to exposed rock. Soon the northern polar cap comes into view, mostly white because of its reflective frozen water. Surrounding the polar cap is the North Polar Basin, a layered depression covered with dust and sand. The frames in the featured video were captured during northern Martian Spring when the carbon-dioxide ice is evaporating, leaving the underlying water-ice in the cap. Mars Express continues to study the Martian surface and look for clues about the Red Planet’s ancient climate and potential for life.

The Cranium Nebula from the Webb Telescope

Explanation: What’s going on inside the head of this nebula? Dubbed the Exposed Cranium Nebula for its similarity to the human brain, what created the nebula remains a mystery. One thought is that the Cranium Nebula, also known as PMR 1, is a planetary nebula surrounding a white dwarf star. In this mode, the outer atmosphere was expelled when the original Sun-like star ran out of central nuclear fuel and contracted. A competing thought is that the central star is much more massive, possibly a Wolf-Rayet star, that is ejecting gas and dust via turbulent stellar winds. Adding to the intrigue is the dark vertical central division and the thin outer gaseous shell. The featured image was taken by the Webb Space Telescope in mid- infrared light, while a second image, included as a rollover, is in near-infrared. Future observations may reveal if this brainy system will quietly just fade from view or, many years from now, suddenly erupt in a powerful supernova.