On April 28th of 2003 the spacecraft GALEX, which means Galaxy Evolution Explorer, was sent into space with the mission of observing galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history through an incorporated telescope.
This mission which was originally planned to last only 29 months was extended and is still active making in the beginning of next week 5 years that it travels the space sending information back to Earth.
GALEX’s ultraviolet observations are telling the scientists how galaxies, the building block of our Universe, evolve and change.
GALEX observations are providing data for NASA’s investigators to find out when and how the stars that we see today were formed and which chemical elements are the galaxies made off.
Thanks to GALEX, which has already observed more than 100 million galaxies, investigators will have the first comprehensive map of the Universe of galaxies under construction, helping them understand how galaxies like our own Milky Way were formed.
In effect, GALEX acts like a time machine through which humans see the universe as it was a few billion years after its birth because it observes places so far away that the light reaching GALEX, even traveling at 299.792.458 meters per second is still the same as billions of years before.
Has you might imagine both the ultraviolet images from our galaxy and other galaxies are something amazing. If there are limits on were our sights can reach right now, we can say that some are being defined by GALEX.
Here you’ll find a collection of the best and most important images sent by GALEX .

(Above) This image from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows the galaxy NGC 300, located about seven million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. It is a classic spiral galaxy with open arms and vigorous star formation throughout.
Blue represents ultraviolet light captured by the telescope’s long-wavelength detector. Green shows ultraviolet light from the short-wavelength detector, and red shows red visible light from the Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.
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(Above) A close-up view of a star racing through space faster than a speeding bullet can be seen in this image from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The star, called Mira (pronounced My-rah), is traveling at 130 kilometers per second, or 291,000 miles per hour. As it hurls along, it sheds material that will be recycled into new stars, planets and possibly even life.
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(Above) A close-up view of a star racing through space faster than a speeding bullet can be seen in this image from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The star, called Mira (pronounced My-rah), is traveling at 130 kilometers per second, or 291,000 miles per hour. As it hurls along, it sheds material that will be recycled into new stars, planets and possibly even life.
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