Nasa releases amazing photos to show off space telescopes
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The US space agency has released amazing photos to show off their space telescopes, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and the new James Webb Space Telescope - which only went into space in 2021. Nasa has called these pics the "Fab Five".
The Galactic Centre - the heart of the Milky Way - is about 26,000 light-years away from Earth, but powerful telescopes, like Nasa’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, can show it virtually. It contains a supermassive black hole, super-hot clouds of gas, and giant stars.
This photo shows Vela Pulsar - which Nasa scientists are studying right now. It's the aftermath of a star that collapsed and exploded and now sends out a storm of particles and energy into space.
Urgh, this one looks like an eye, or a gross space tongue licking it's lips, but it's actually Kepler's Supernova Remnant - the remains of an exploded star! The blue colour is the blast itself and the white and yellow show the debris.
ESO 137-001 is the catchy name of another galaxy! As it moves through space at 1.5 million miles per hour, it leaves two tails behind it, made of superheated gas. Here you can see the red colour which highlights hydrogen atoms.
NGC 1365 is another galaxy - a spiral galaxy - containing a supermassive black hole being fed by a stream of material. Some of the hot gas revealed in the X-ray image (highlighted in purple) will eventually be pulled into the black hole.