Wonderfully mysterious, M78 is the brightest swath of nebulosity in a group of specterlike glows some 2½° northeast of Alnitak (Zeta [ζ] Orionis), the eastern star in Orion’s Belt. Pierre Méchain ...

An exquisite, shimmering nebula draped in a veil of interstellar dust is the focus of an image released with new details today (Feb. 16) by the European Southern Observatory. The Messier 78 nebula ...

ESO: The nebula Messier 78 takes center stage in this image taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, while the stars powering the ...

Bright beads of cosmic dust highlight a shimmering nebula in a new photo of a region just north of the famous Orion's Belt in the constellation Orion. The Messier 78 nebula, which is also known as NGC ...

This week’s naked-eye object is the tiny constellation Canis Minor the Small Dog. And, indeed, it is small — this constellation’s size ranks 71st out of the 88 star patterns that cover the sky. Canis ...

This new space wallpaper of the reflection nebula Messier 78 was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory, Chile. This colour picture ...

In a new image captured by the nebula Messier 78, young stars cast a bluish pall over their surroundings, while red fledgling stars peer out from their cocoons of cosmic dust. To our eyes, most of ...

In what’s sure to be one of the most incredible images I’ve come across, we meet a region found about 1,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Orion. After Barnard’s Loop, we have Messier ...

A new image of the region surrounding the reflection nebula Messier 78, just to the north of Orion’s Belt, shows clouds of cosmic dust threaded through the nebula like a string of pearls. The ...

A new image of Messier 78, a nebula located about 1,600 light-years away in the constellation of Orion, reveals stars and other features that in previous observations, had been hidden by cosmic dust.

Sometimes, instead of planetary nebulae like the Helix and Butterfly Nebulae, we get something (arguably) far more stunning: reflection nebulae. A gorgeous object like this is generally the result of ...

Interstellar dust that blocks astronomers' view of space is no match for the European Southern Observatory's "dustbuster" telescope, which just revealed this dazzling view of several stars that have ...