Editorial objects

This Webb field combines observed galaxies with a map of something the telescope cannot see directly: dark matter.

Two observatories contribute to this composite view of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant in the Milky Way.

This view of the Tarantula Nebula assigns three observatories to three color channels.

The Eagle Nebula is shown through infrared observations from Spitzer and visible-light observations from Hubble.

NGC 3351 is placed side by side in ultraviolet and visible light.

This view of Stephan's Quintet is explicitly described by its source as a false-color composite.

Five observatories assemble the Crab Nebula across nearly the full electromagnetic spectrum.

Visible and infrared panels turn the Trifid Nebula into a direct comparison of what dust conceals and reveals.

The Pacman Nebula combines high-energy X-rays with infrared observations of the same region.

The Omega Nebula is organized by four infrared wavelength ranges gathered by SOFIA, Herschel and Spitzer.

The Eagle Nebula changes appearance across multiple infrared bands recorded by Spitzer.

Two infrared wavelengths are translated into color inside a single Spitzer view of the Tarantula Nebula.

An oblique orbital photograph turns a vast Andean landscape into an almost abstract field of ridges and basins.

From the Space Shuttle, aurora appears as a luminous layer suspended above Earth’s dark horizon.

Seen edge-on from orbit, Earth’s atmosphere becomes a thin luminous boundary rather than an invisible volume.

At Mars’s north polar edge, layered terrain and frost create boundaries that can resemble terrestrial geology.

Repeated dark forms make this Martian surface readable as a pattern before it becomes readable as a place.

A familiar phenomenon appears on an unfamiliar world: bright auroral signatures near Uranus’s upper atmosphere.