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The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this image of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 61, also known as NGC 4303. The galaxy, located only 55 million light-years away from Earth, is roughly the size of the Milky Way, with a diameter of around 100 000 light-years. The galaxy is notable for one particular reason — six supernovae have been observed within Messier 61, a total that places it in the top handful of galaxies alongside Messier 83, also with six, and NGC 6946, with a grand total of nine observed supernovae.

In this Hubble image the galaxy is seen face-on as if posing for a photograph, allowing us to study its structure closely. The spiral arms can be seen in stunning detail, swirling inwards to the very centre of the galaxy, where they form a smaller, intensely bright spiral. In the outer regions, these vast arms are sprinkled with bright blue regions where new stars are being formed from hot, dense clouds of gas.

Messier 61 is part of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, a massive group of galaxies in the constellation of Virgo (the Virgin). Galaxy clusters, or groups of galaxies, are among the biggest structures in the Universe to be held together by gravity alone. The Virgo Cluster contains more than 1300 galaxies and forms the central region of the Local Supercluster, an even bigger gathering of galaxies.

The image was taken using data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 2. Different versions of this image were submitted to the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestants Gilles Chapdelaine, Luca Limatola, and Robert Gendler.

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Ligeia Mare, shown here in a false-color image from the international Cassini mission, is the second largest known body of liquid on Saturn’s moon Titan. It measures roughly 420 km x 350 km and its shorelines extend for over 3,000 km. It is filled with liquid hydrocarbons, such as ethane and methane.

The mosaic shown here is composed from synthetic aperture radar images from flybys between February 2006 and April 2007.

The Cassini–Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and ASI, the Italian space agency.

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From the latest space ferry to the very first Alphasat, Europe has never been more active in space, with a crowded manifest of ESA launches across the rest of the year. But where are all these varied missions born? See for yourself this October, as ESA’s ESTEC research and technology centre opens its doors to the public.

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The first suborbital rocket launch from Spaceport America funded by NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program to carry multiple space technology payloads will launch on June 21.

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One of humankind’s most challenging ventures, sending vehicles to other worlds, will draw 150 experts for the International Planetary Probe Workshop.

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A NASA scientist, whose research and leadership helped revolutionize planetary probe and sample return technology, today received an award for his work.

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A view of Earth as seen from the Cupola on the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station. Visible in the top left foreground is a Russian Soyuz crew capsule. In the lower right corner, a solar array panel can be seen. This photo was taken from the ISS on June 12, 2013. Image Credit: NASA

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NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier and other agency officials will debut a new machine for manufacturing NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and check on development progress with the heavy-lift rocket at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans Friday, June 21.

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After an extensive year-and-a-half search, NASA has a new group of potential astronauts who will help the agency push the boundaries of exploration and travel to new destinations in the solar system, including an asteroid and Mars.