Fluffy strands of cosmic gas and dust illuminated by bright young stars form a beautiful cloudscape in a neighboring nebula.

In 1920, astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis held a Great Debate. Shapley argued that the spiral nebulae were small ...

In 1920, astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis held a Great Debate. Shapley argued that the spiral nebulae were small and in the Milky Way, while Curtis took a more radical position that they ...

The center of our Milky Way galaxy is hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes by clouds of obscuring dust and gas.

The objects that follow include targets for the Milky Way photography enthusiast, the visual observer with plenty of aperture ...

For the next 300 years, astronomers assumed that the Milky Way was the entire universe. Charles Messier also produced a catalog of over 100 prominent nebulae in 1781. Messier was interested in ...

It takes dark skies to find without aid, but the Dark Horse Nebula can be seen prancing across the sprawl of the Milky Way. Credit: John Chumack There are many bright nebulae and star clusters in ...

The footage, captured by the Hubble telescope, highlights the Tarantula Nebula. This fascinating region lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. A Star-Forming ...

Nature of the nebulae In 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei used the newly invented telescope to show that the Milky Way was composed of a huge number of faint stars. For the next 300 years ...

Toward the end of the 18th century, astronomer William Herschel used star counts to map out the Milky Way. He cataloged a thousand new nebulae and clusters of stars. He believed that the nebulae ...