27 stunning photos of the cosmos taken this year

tycho supernova
tycho supernova

X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIKEN & GSFC/T. Sato et al; Optical: DSS

The universe is filled with strange and beautiful objects, and we can now photograph them better than ever.

Space telescopes like Hubble, Spitzer, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory have been capturing images of faraway galaxies in unprecedented detail.

This has also been a year of photographic innovation. Researchers stitched together thousands of Hubble photos to create an image of 265,000 galaxies. And astronomers captured the first photo of a black hole.

Here are 27 mind-blowing photos of the cosmos from 2019.

This was a year of stunning space photography.

gas dust cloud stars universe bubbles spitzer telescope
gas dust cloud stars universe bubbles spitzer telescope

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope published this cloud of gas and dust in September.

Perhaps the most famous image of the cosmos in 2019 was this fuzzy, glowing ring — the first photo ever taken of a black hole.

black hole first picture
black hole first picture

Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

The international Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released the photo on April 10 — a major milestone for space research. The accomplishment earned the team a Breakthrough Prize, which is considered the "Oscars of Science." The $3 million prize was divided equally among the group's 347 scientists.

We also got photos of the most distant object humanity has ever visited: a space rock nicknamed Arrokoth.

new horizons 2014 mu69 ultima thule first close up high res jan 24 2019 jhuapl nasa swri
new horizons 2014 mu69 ultima thule first close up high res jan 24 2019 jhuapl nasa swri

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

"We've never seen something like this orbiting the sun," Alan Stern, principal investigator on the New Horizons mission, said in February after the probe's initial photos were released.

Researchers created this unprecedented mosaic of the deep universe by stitching together 7,500 photos the Hubble Space Telescope took over 16 years.

Hubble Legacy Field
Hubble Legacy Field

NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth and D. Magee (University of California, Santa Cruz), K. Whitaker (University of Connecticut), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), P. Oesch (University of Geneva), and the Hubble Legacy Field team.

The image, published in May, contains about 265,000 visible galaxies crammed into a region smaller than the moon's apparent size in the sky.

"No image will surpass this one until future space telescopes like James Webb are launched," Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said in a press release.

Hubble also captured images that showcase the beauty of individual galaxies. This one is spiral-shaped like our Milky Way.

spiral galaxy
spiral galaxy

ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Erwin et al.Hubble caught this galaxy in profile, giving astronomers an unprecedented look at its outermost reaches.

galaxy hubble
galaxy hubble

ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko, R. JansenSometimes two galaxies are better than one, especially when they fall into each other's gravitational pulls like these do.

galaxies interacting
galaxies interacting

ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Larson et al.Gravitationally locked galaxies can crash into each other. This rare, violent collision creates a ring structure around the galaxies' merging cores for about 100 million years.

galaxy merger
galaxy merger

NASA, ESA, and J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and M. Durbin (University of Washington)

Source: NASA

Such galactic pairs eventually merge into one giant galaxy, like this one Hubble captured in October.

medusa merger galaxy
medusa merger galaxy

ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. AdamoThis Andy Warhol-esque portrait of the Whirlpool galaxy shows how telescopes use different wavelengths of light to see different features of cosmic objects.

whirlpool galaxy
whirlpool galaxy

NASA/JPL-Caltech

The image comes from the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Closer to Earth, space telescopes also captured more familiar sights, like Jupiter's Great Red Spot, in unprecedented detail.

jupiter great red spot hubble
jupiter great red spot hubble

NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley)But sending spacecraft to visit planets, of course, gives us far better photos. As NASA's Juno probe continues zipping around Jupiter, it beams back images of the planet's poles — sides of the gas giant we don't often see.

jupiter south pole
jupiter south pole

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSSUp close, Jupiter's atmosphere can be beautifully turbulent.

jupiter planet atmosphere jet stream clouds
jupiter planet atmosphere jet stream clouds

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald EichstadtNASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has given us unprecedented close-up views of the red planet.

NASA Mars crater
NASA Mars crater

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaSometimes, conditions on Mars lead frost to form, just like some chilly mornings on Earth. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this shot of white frost on the planet's red rock in September.

NASA Mars frost
NASA Mars frost

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaMore distant planets still harbor plenty of mysteries. In February, Hubble discovered a new and enigmatic "dark tempest" on Neptune that's 6,800 miles across.

neptune dark storm vortex planet hubble space telescope 2019 hst nasa esa stsci
neptune dark storm vortex planet hubble space telescope 2019 hst nasa esa stsci

NASA/ESA/A. Simon (GSFC)/M.H. Wong and A. Hsu (UC Berkeley); Business Insider

The image was taken in 2018, but scientists didn't publish the findings until earlier this year. The giant storm (the dark spot toward the top of Neptune in the image above) is so wide that it would stretch from New York City to the tip of South America on Earth.

Sometimes, space photography is all about juxtaposition. If you look closely, that tiny dot to the left of the moon in this image is Saturn.

saturn moon conjunction phone camera photo march 2019 grant petersen 20190329_215913
saturn moon conjunction phone camera photo march 2019 grant petersen 20190329_215913

Copyright of Grant Petersen

Saturn and the moon lined up perfectly in March — a relatively common yet easy-to-miss event called a conjunction. Astrophotographer Grant Petersen captured this photo using a smartphone mounted to a telescope.

Here's a more zoomed-in photo that Petersen took of the conjunction.

saturn moon conjunction phone camera photo march 2019 grant petersen LRM_EXPORT_242602936891666_20190329_064454875 processed
saturn moon conjunction phone camera photo march 2019 grant petersen LRM_EXPORT_242602936891666_20190329_064454875 processed

Copyright of Grant PetersenAn Israeli spacecraft called Beresheet — the first attempt to put a private lunar lander on the moon — also used a captivating juxtaposition in its space selfie.

israel moon lunar lander beresheet selfie planet earth space spaceil
israel moon lunar lander beresheet selfie planet earth space spaceil

SpaceIL

In the end, however, the mission failed. The dishwasher-sized robot smacked down into the lunar surface due to a technical glitch that caused the spacecraft's main engine to malfunction.

China's groundbreaking lunar mission succeeded, though, and gave us the first photos ever taken on the far side of the moon.

china far dark side moon landing panorama wrap around orthographic change 4 lunar mission cnsa 4x3 thumb
china far dark side moon landing panorama wrap around orthographic change 4 lunar mission cnsa 4x3 thumb

CNSA/CLEP

The mission, called Chang'e 4, put a lander and a rover on the moon's far side ("dark side" is a misnomer) in early January. Soon after, China released this detailed panoramic image.

This abstract-looking shot shows the launch of another spacecraft — a Russian Soyuz MS-15 — as seen from the International Space Station.

soyuz launch iss
soyuz launch iss

NASA/Christina KochThroughout the year, space telescopes also captured images of fantastic structures of dust and gas, which sometimes birth thousands of new stars.

Cepheus nebula
Cepheus nebula

NASA/JPL-CaltechThis star nursery has two "wings" — giant bubbles of hot gas blowing from the region's hottest, most massive stars.

nebula
nebula

NASA/JPL-CaltechNewborn stars cluster together in strange shapes. As they get older, they drift apart.

newborn stars christmas tree cluster
newborn stars christmas tree cluster

NASA/JPL-Caltech/P.S. Teixeira (Center for Astrophysics)The Southern Crab Nebula's two dying stars give it an hourglass shape, since one burned-out star is attracting the material its aging companion sheds.

southern crab nebula
southern crab nebula

NASA, ESA, and STScIAging stars undergo colorful, explosive deaths, like this one in the Orion constellation.

dying star
dying star

ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. WadeX-ray images can reveal the clumps of silicon, iron, and other elements that dying stars leave behind after they've disappeared.

tycho supernova
tycho supernova

X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIKEN & GSFC/T. Sato et al; Optical: DSS

X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIKEN & GSFC/T. Sato et al; Optical: DSS

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