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A sweeping barred galaxy takes center stage in this Oct. 22, 2026, image, but the gravitational lensing at bottom right is the real target. This observation is one of many gravitational lensing images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in preparation for science with the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Astronomers will use these images to analyze gravitational distortions to learn more about dark matter in the foreground galaxies and to lay the groundwork for future Roman observations. Images like this offer a glimpse of how Hubble and Roman will work together to build an even more comprehensive picture of the cosmos.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, and X. Huang (University of San Francisco); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
2026-10-29 14:01

Like a spectral form rising out of a cold mist, NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes have captured a hauntingly dynamic star-forming scene. It lies within the vast Carina Nebula, a diffuse star-forming region located about 7,500 light-years away from Earth. The small, select area both telescopes observed is nicknamed the Cat’s Head Nebula because of its resemblance to a cat sitting with its back toward the viewer. The “head” of the cat is turned to the right, revealing a glowing eye.
Though the Cat’s Head Nebula is a temporary scene that will eventually disperse as stars form and evolve over time, the region is packed with information. Hubble and Webb’s complementary views of the Cat’s Head Nebula are helping astronomers learn more about the elusive, chaotic, and complex process known as star formation.

The distinctive “cat’s head” shape of the nebula was likely sculpted over time by the intense ultraviolet radiation and winds from massive stars in the Carina Nebula. As this stellar feedback erodes the surrounding gas and dust, denser material within the feline-shaped pillar resists erosion, at least for now.
Hubble’s visible-light view reveals an opaque, dark brown pillar of dust. The cat’s glowing red eye may indicate a young star that is still partially embedded in dust. A ridge of hazy yellow seems to follow the edge of the filament’s right side. This bright rim is consistent with gas illuminated and ionized by ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars, potentially driving a process known as photoevaporation.
The diffuse material surrounding the pillar glows blue and cyan above, shifting to yellow, orange, and red toward the bottom. Hubble’s filters capture light emitted by oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur, along with starlight scattered by dust. These color variations reveal a complex mix of excited gas, dust, and stellar illumination.
Webb’s near- and mid-infrared images each offer different pieces of information to help create a more well-rounded understanding of the Cat’s Head Nebula. While the nebula’s overall structure is similar to the visible-light Hubble image, the filament becomes more transparent, and its complex surface structure becomes discernable in near-infrared light seen by Webb. On the cat’s left are ghostly wisps of dust and gas, delicate structures exposed to radiation from nearby massive stars.
Webb’s near-infrared view reveals a dense scattering of stars, shown in blue and yellow. Even in infrared light, some stars are still enshrouded in dust to various degrees. The cat’s eye remains conspicuous. The telescope’s high-resolution imagery even shows faint background galaxies, offering a partial view through our Milky Way galaxy and beyond.

In mid-infrared light, emission from warm dust and carbon-based molecules excited by starlight outlines intricate structures within the nebula. Changes in local conditions and compositions lead to variations in color and brightness. Delicate globules and strands to the pillar’s left are particularly evident in this mid-infrared view.
To the right of the pillar, a bright light source is shown as yellow in the mid-infrared image. Likely an infant star embedded in dust, it lies against reddish emission from surrounding material. A narrow filament appears to cross the source, although the image alone cannot establish whether the two are physically related.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for more than three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

This tour glides through imagery from NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes of the Cat’s Head Nebula. The dust filament broadly remains the same in shape across the different wavelengths of light, but each view contains different details.

NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes captured an eerie, star-forming scene within the Carina Nebula just in time for Halloween.

Captured in infrared light by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth in the Carina Nebula.
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Abigail Major, Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
2026-10-29 13:27
4 min read

Jared Spiers had an interest in contributing to NASA’s mission long before becoming a civil servant for the agency. Growing up close to NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and hearing about his father’s work there, he gained a firsthand connection to the nation’s space program. Before graduating high school, he knew exactly where he wanted to work.
Spiers graduated from Pearl River Community College in 2017, where he earned three associate degrees in instrumentation, electronics, and electrical technology. He started working at NASA Stennis as a contractor on the Monday following graduation.
Spiers contributed to the mission of returning to the Moon through his work at the Thad Cochran Test Stand (B-1/B-2), a facility originally constructed to test Saturn V rocket stages during the Apollo Program. He helped prepare the stand for the Green Run test series of the first core stage for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket before the successful Artemis I test flight.
“Being hands-on with the rocket was a whole different experience,” said Spiers. “Childhood me would have been crazily excited to see it.”
This work helped lay the foundation for the Artemis II test flight around the Moon last April. During that mission, the first astronauts to fly aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft traveled farther in space than humans ever have before.
This past summer, in June 2026, Spiers transitioned to a civil servant role under NASA’s workforce directive to restore core competencies.
“When I joined NASA, it meant a lot more. It felt like a goal achieved,” said Spiers. “As a contractor, I was never treated any differently, but now with NASA, you feel even more a part of the team. There is more ownership and a very significant sense of pride.”
The ownership Spiers takes on as an electrical engineering technician is evident during his 12-hour shifts that begin at 6 a.m. He is part of the team preparing the stand for stage testing of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. This commercial partnership directly supports NASA’s work to achieve the goal of landing American astronauts on the Moon and building a Moon Base.
Spiers’ technical acumen is put to work daily as he ensures facility electronics are operational so accurate data can be collected. He runs conduit and cabling, connects data-collecting instruments, and ensures motor valves operate as intended. The work is fast paced, but Spiers takes pride in making sure everything is done right.
For Spiers, NASA is truly a family affair. His father, Joey Spiers, also transitioned from a longtime contractor to a NASA civil servant during the summer and works as an electrical engineering technician. Spiers’ brother-in-law, Brock Sheppard, joined NASA as a mechanical engineering technician in September.
The excitement for all things NASA extends to his wife and kids in Poplarville, Mississippi. As proud members of the Artemis Generation, his six-year-old son points at the International Space Station when it passes overhead, convinced his dad works there, while his younger daughter calls him at work to ask about the rocket.
He brings a family-oriented mindset to work and views his crew as extended family. Spiers also is appreciative of the veteran employees who mentored him when he was fresh out of college, and now he pays it forward.
During NASA’s Career Technical Education Day at Stennis in September, Spiers shared his path to NASA, the importance of a strong work ethic, and how technical skills contribute to the agency’s mission with community college students and a virtual audience of thousands.
“My crew is great. We love our jobs, we love being together, and we take care of each other,” said Spiers.
2026-10-29 04:05
APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation: That’s no moon. But you could be forgiven for thinking it was a crescent Moon in the sky. It is a lesser known fact that Venus also has phases. (What about other planets?) The featured image shows Venus seen almost directly between the Sun and the Earth. This happens once every year and a half, and it is like the alignment that happens every month during a new Moon. But the new Moon is dark, while Venus’ backlit atmosphere refracts and scatters the sunlight, creating a glowing crescent arc that extends beyond 180 degrees: the tips of this arc are called the “horns”. The crescent can be seen with a small telescope or binoculars during twilight, but those with exceptionally acute eyesight may be able to see it with the unaided eye. Ancient Babylonian astronomers may have been the first to study Venus’ brightness changes, which are related to its phases. Many other cultures have similar astronomical records, including the oldest surviving Maya book.
Tomorrow’s picture: What’s next?
| Date | October 29, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Credit & Copyright | Thierry Legault |
| Authors & editors: | Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Keighley Rockcliffe |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |
2026-10-29 04:01
The first named storm of the 2026 North Indian Ocean cyclone season—Arnab (pronounced Or-nab)—emerged in the Bay of Bengal on October 25, a rather late start for a basin that typically produces named cyclones in April or May.
When the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on NOAA-20 captured this nighttime image at 20:12 Universal Time on October 26 (1:42 a.m. India Standard Time on October 27), the storm had sustained winds of about 140 kilometers (85 miles) per hour, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
When Arnab made landfall on the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coast early on October 28, sustained winds were 130 kilometers per hour. IMD categorizes a storm that strength as a “very severe cyclonic storm,” which is similar to a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. It made landfall between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam, a heavily settled area home to large cities, farmland, and fishing communities.
Arnab caused extensive damage, uprooting trees, inundating crops and homes, limiting fishing operations, and disrupting transportation and power networks, according to news reports. Prior to landfall, Indian authorities had evacuated tens of thousands of people from vulnerable coastal areas.
The storm comes in the midst of an El Niño, a climate pattern marked by warmer-than-normal water temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific that emerges roughly every two to seven years. The changed ocean conditions can influence the atmosphere in ways that alter global weather patterns and change the distribution of rainfall, winds, tropical cyclones, fires, floods, and other phenomena.
In the Bay of Bengal, for instance, some research indicates that altered environmental conditions during an El Niño are associated with a reduction in tropical cyclone activity. The ocean basin sees both less frequent and less intense tropical cyclones during El Niño years, researchers have found.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using VIIRS day-night band data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). Story by Adam Voiland.
Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet.

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