Sky Candy Dreaming

Okay, I know the gravitational lens is scientifically important, but wow, that's a great galaxy picture.

A gorgeous galaxy marks the spot in this image, but the real treasure is the gravitational lens in the lower-right corner, where a distant background galaxy is being magnified and distorted by the gravity of a closer galaxy: https://t.co/Y5Y3v8pxl4 https://t.co/Z3rQihoMoq

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) October 22, 2026

We've talked about false color images before. This one is an X-ray image, so we know it's a false color. 

That's our jam 🎼 Astronomers used @ChandraXray to find out that this radio wave formation, known as the "Treble Clef" thanks to its distinctive shape, was likely caused by an outburst from a supermassive black hole, followed by a collision of two galaxy clusters. https://t.co/8A0BYfhB8f

— NASA (@NASA) October 22, 2026

This one from Hubble is largely visible light...

A cosmic butterfly 🦋 In this shimmering view captured by @NASAHubble, the complexities of the Twin Jet Nebula are seen in striking detail, with lobes of material stretching outward while jets of gas stream from a central star system. https://t.co/NwrIV0e8xU

— NASA Ames (@NASAAmes) October 21, 2026

...but it's been modified to use these colors.

@NASAAmes @NASAHubble The colors behind this cosmic view👀 https://t.co/4ypZ5nTAG5

— Meditations in Color (@MeditateColor) October 21, 2026

Related: Sunday Supplement: 'It's Made Out of Meat'

This is a reflection nebula — it's lit by nearby young stars.

I captured M78, a bright reflection nebula in Orion, about 1,350 light-years away. It glows blue as nearby young stars scatter light off the surrounding dust, and it is one of the brightest reflection nebulae in the sky, sitting within the larger Orion molecular cloud. 343 x 30s (2 hours and 51.5 mins of integration) Processed in Astro Wizard.

— Enoch Omololu (@EnochOmololu) October 23, 2026

Another spectacular spiral galaxy.

A beautiful @ESO image of the spiral galaxy NGC 1350. https://t.co/uX7e3RRtgr

— Mario Livio (@Mario_Livio) October 23, 2026

Just one more brick in the wall.

The Cygnus Wall — a cosmic frontier where stars are born About 2,600 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus lies a vast region of ionized hydrogen. This isn’t just a nebula — it’s an enormous stellar nursery, where the light of young stars is actively carving and illuminating the surrounding gas. The image captures one of its most dramatic features: the famous Cygnus Wall. Here, dense, cold, nearly opaque clouds of gas and dust stand like a dark barrier right beside areas of active star formation. The contrast is striking — on one side, heavy, shadowy clouds still waiting to collapse into new stars; on the other, bright, turbulent regions where hot young stars have already ignited, their radiation eroding and sculpting the gas into striking shapes. These are the places where the Universe is currently building its next generation of stars.

— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) October 23, 2026

I can't decide if I see the chameleon or not.

AstroBin's Image of the Day: "Bernes 142: Lanterns in the Chamaeleon Molecular Cloud" by Ani Shastry - https://t.co/KjXkcBtZlF #astrophotography https://t.co/j5yUYt4gHB

— AstroBin.com (@AstroBin_com) October 22, 2026

I think I do see the Dodo.

vdB 152, commonly known as the Dodo Nebula, is a faint reflection nebula located about 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. Its bluish glow is produced by starlight scattered by interstellar dust, https://t.co/7uqtdCodvR 🔭 #Astrophotography 🔭📷 1/4 https://t.co/hS56KvujhI

— Matthias Steinmetz (@GalacticRAVE) October 22, 2026

Clear Arctic skies.

The Milky Way ✨ This past weekend, I spent some wonderful days and nights in Handöl, #Sweden. Clear skies and almost no wind for several days. #Nikon Z6II – Astro-modified #Astronomik UV-IR-Block L2 XT Clip-filter Nikon Z 14–24mm f/2.8 S @NikonEurope #astrophotography https://t.co/lud1BRBheY

— Göran Strand (@Astrofotografen) October 22, 2026

Related: They're Blinding Us With Science

It looks like it must be AI. I sure like the image, anyway.

A true once-in-a-lifetime shot. An extremely bright Perseid meteor streaked across the sky over the Great Pyramid of Giza at dawn this morning, with Jupiter and Venus glowing in this picture-perfect cosmic moment. ☄️🛕 https://t.co/IL6J9HcW87

— Anomalous reality (@spacevibex) October 23, 2026

So that's it for this week's Sky Candy. Sunday Supplement coming. I think this time I'm going to do something my brother requested and talk about quantum computers, but we'll see. As always, questions and comments are gladly accepted and much appreciated.

Related: Sunday Supplement: Spinning Asteroids and Unexpected Biology