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While visiting a dark sky park during mid June of 2023 to see the Milky Way core rise in the summer night sky, photographer and CIERA graduate student Imran Sultan got a rare treat: an incalculable number of fireflies had recently emerged in the central Illinois forest preserve. The dance of the terrestrial and celestial

The swirling oranges and sparkling refractions of light in this photo, captured by CIERA graduate student Imran Sultan, are the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. The Pillars of Creation are part of an active star-forming region within the nebula and hide newborn stars in their cloud-like columns. This sight was captured from Bortle

When looking up into the sky, one of the first constellations many see is Orion, made up of three bright stars, one of which is the 11th brightest star in the sky. This photo of the Orion constellation, which also features the Great Orion Nebula and Horsehead/Flame Nebulae, was captured by CIERA graduate student Imran

This photo, captured by CIERA graduate student Imran Sultan, is a widefield shot of the interstellar gas and dust in the Cepheus constellation, prominently featuring the Shark Nebula. Interstellar gas is composed primarily of hydrogen, followed by helium with trace amounts of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. These clouds’ glowing nature is credited to the fluorescence

The purple and blue hues in this photo highlight the Lion Nebula, which was shot in the last two nights of July 2023 in dual narrowband (H-alpha and O III) in Illinois. This image was taken by Imran Sultan, a graduate student in CIERA Professor Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere’s group who practices astrophotography in his free time.

This is a wide-field view of the Heart and Soul Nebulae in the constellation Cassiopeia. Captured by CIERA graduate student Imran Sultan from Bortle Class 8-9 city skies over three nights in dual narrowband (H-alpha and O III). Sultan, who practices astrophotography in his free time, is a graduate student in CIERA Professor Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere’s

This emission around Sadr (including the Butterfly and Crescent nebulae), was captured by Imran Sultan from Bortle Class 8-9 city skies in narrowband, a filter that allows astronomers to isolate particular emission lines of gasses in astronomical objects. The Bortle Class scale measures the brightness of the night sky, with 8-9 signifying that the sky

In October 2022, an international team of researchers, including Northwestern University astrophysicists, observed the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever recorded, GRB 221009A. In a paper published in April 2024, a team led by CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow Peter Blanchard has confirmed that the phenomenon responsible for the historic burst — dubbed the B.O.A.T. (“brightest of all time”)

The April 8, 2024 solar eclipse, photographed by CIERA Postdoctoral Associate Meng Sun. This image of the partial eclipse before totality was captured in New Castle, Indiana, USA. Sun spots can be seen just above the moon and on the upper left of the sun. New Castle was located close to the center of eclipse’s

The April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, photographed by CIERA Postdoctoral Associate Meng Sun. This composite image of all phases of the eclipse was captured in New Castle, Indiana, USA. New Castle was located close to the center of eclipse’s path of totality, meaning that totality lasted longer than at the edges of the path

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the host galaxy of an exceptionally powerful fast radio burst, FRB 20220610A. In summer 2022, astronomers detected the most powerful fast radio burst (FRB) ever observed. And coming from a location that dates halfway back to the Big Bang, it also was the farthest known FRB spotted to date.

The May 2023 full moon, photographed by graduate student and CIERA member Imran Sultan. This image won runner-up in the 2023 Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition’s astronomy category. “The May full moon is known as the Flower Moon, a name originating from the Algonquin peoples that marks the blooming of flowers during spring. This year’s

The colorful Western Veil Nebula, photographed by graduate student and CIERA member Imran Sultan, is a stunning remnant left behind from the explosion of a massive star 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. Located 2,100 light-years away, the nebula resides within the constellation Cygnus (the Swan). Sultan’s photo of the Western Veil Nebula won first place in

Light from 23 distant galaxies, identified with red rectangles in the Hubble Space Telescope image at the top, were combined to capture incredibly faint emission from eight different elements, which are labelled in the JWST spectrum at the bottom. Although scientists regularly find these elements on Earth, astronomers rarely, if ever, observe many of them

Artist conception of early starbursting galaxies. Stars and galaxies are shown in the bright white points of light, while the more diffuse dark matter and gas are shown in purples and reds. When scientists viewed the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first images of the universe’s earliest galaxies, they were shocked. The young galaxies appeared

Simulated image of an accretion disk, the violent whirlpool of gas that encircles a supermassive black hole, broken apart into inner and outer rings. According to new high-resolution 3D simulations, spinning black holes twist up the surrounding space-time, ultimately ripping apart the violent whirlpool of gas (or accretion disk) that encircles and feeds them. This

Simulated image of an accretion disk, the violent whirlpool of gas that encircles a supermassive black hole, broken apart into inner and outer rings. According to new high-resolution 3D simulations, spinning black holes twist up the surrounding space-time, ultimately ripping apart the violent whirlpool of gas (or accretion disk) that encircles and feeds them. This