Space photo of the day for May 13, 2025
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What might look like sparkling wisps of candy floss, or cotton candy, are dusty gas clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy, as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The pink, blue and green colors are not only beautiful to look at but can inform the viewer about the many wavelengths that comprise this photo.
A part of a nebula in a dwarf galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, the photo by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a gas cloud strewn in front of a star field.
This type of view is made possible by Hubble's cameras, including the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) that was used to collect the observations for this image. WFC3 has a variety of filters, each of which lets through only specific wavelengths, or colors, of light.
This image combines observations made with five of WFC3's different filters, including some that capture ultraviolet and infrared light that are outside the field of vision for the human eye.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is located 160,000 light-years from Earth in the constellations Dorado and Mensa. It is the largest of the Milky Way's many small satellite galaxies.
People often wonder if the colors depicted in photos like these match what humans would see if they were to travel to the location.
The specialists who process Hubble's images combine the telescope's raw data to compose multi-colored images like this one. To do so, they assign a color to each wavelength filter. Visible-light observations are typically matched to the color that the filter allows through. As such, shorter wavelengths of light, such as ultraviolet, are usually colored in blue or purple hues, while longer wavelengths, like infrared, are typically shown in shades of red.
This way, the images stay close to reality while adding in new information from the portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot see with our eyes alone.
You can read more about the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Hubble Space Telescope. You can also learn more about how Hubble Space Telescope images are made.
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Stem cells can develop into different types of cells in the body. In certain cancers that affect blood cells, stem cell transplants can be used to replace the cells lost in the course of cancer treatments such as chemotherapy. Each individual who has been cured of HIV also had one of these cancers, so their doctors searched for stem cell donors who carry a rare gene that makes them resistant to HIV infection. By swapping in cells from an HIV-resistant individual, the procedure essentially locks the virus out of the patient's CD4 cells. There is one exception to this rule: A person known as the "Geneva patient" was potentially cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant, but the donor didn't have this special genetic resistance. It's unclear exactly why the man entered long-term remission from the infection after this procedure, but scientists are investigating. There have also been a couple of cases in which people's own immune systems somehow rallied against the virus and controlled it without treatment; these people are known as "elite controllers." Scientists hope to learn from both the stem cell recipients and from elite controllers to discover cures that could reach far more people with HIV/AIDS. Meanwhile, some researchers are exploring the use of gene-editing tools like CRISPR to cure the infection, while others are investigating the use of drugs and modified immune cells. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) – Combinations of medications that lower the amount of HIV in a person's blood. These drugs, given as pills or shots, prevent the viral infection from progressing to AIDS and dramatically lower a person's risk of complications and of transmitting the virus to others. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) – Medicines that people at risk of being exposed to HIV take to prevent the infection. Viral load – The amount of HIV in a person's blood. This is measured in terms of the number of HIV RNA molecules — the virus's genetic material — found in a milliliter of blood. It's an important way to measure how well ART is working. Viral suppression – When a person's viral load falls to 200 copies/mL or lower. Viral suppression is the goal of ART, as it both lowers a person's likelihood of spreading the virus and extends their lifespan by preventing the infection from progressing to AIDS. CD4 T lymphocyte – A type of white blood cell that helps coordinate the actions of other immune cells to fight infections. HIV infects CD4 cells and uses them to multiply while the virus depletes the number of CD4 cells in the body. Image 1 of 4 In the 1980s and 1990s, groups organized "die-ins" to protest the lack of U.S. government attention to the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis. Die-ins were also conducted to push for support for research to uncover effective treatments and, once treatments were discovered, to demand that those drugs be released to the public. The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power — known as ACT UP — was a major force behind such protests and remains an active organization today. Image 2 of 4 Kaposi's sarcoma, an example of an AIDS-defining illness, characteristically causes big, purple patches or nodules to appear on the skin and mucous membranes. Image 3 of 4 The public health slogan "U = U," depicted on this sign, refers to the fact that people living with HIV who have undetectable viral loads cannot transmit the virus to others via sex. It stands for "undetectable = untransmittable." Image 4 of 4 The "Berlin patient," pictured here, was the first person cured of HIV via a stem cell transplant. His name was later revealed to be Timothy Ray Brown. Brown went on to launch a foundation under his name that was dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS. 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