Sirius: The Brightest Star in the Night
11.06.2000

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius is visible on the far left of the above photograph, to the left of the constellation of Orion and Comet Hale-Bopp. Intrinsically, Sirius is over 20 times brighter than our Sun and over twice as massive.

Game: Super Planet Crash
19.06.2022

Can you create a planetary system that lasts for 1000 years? Super Planet Crash, the featured game, allows you to try. To create up to ten planets, just click anywhere near the central star.

Water Vapor Discovered on Distant Exoplanet
17.09.2019

Where else might life exist? One of humanity's great outstanding questions, locating planets where extrasolar life might survive took a step forward recently with the discovery of a significant amount of water vapor in the atmosphere of distant exoplanet K2-18b.

The Protoplanetary Disk of HL Tauri from ALMA
9.11.2014

Why does this giant disk have gaps? The exciting and probable answer is: planets. A mystery is how planets massive enough to create these gaps formed so quickly, since the HL Tauri star system is only about one million years old.

Super Planet Crash
11.01.2015

Can you create a planetary system that lasts for 500 years? Super Planet Crash, the featured game, allows you to try. To create up to ten planets, just click anywhere near the central star.

Nova Scotia Northern Lights
2.04.2022

This almost otherworldly display of northern lights was captured in clear skies during the early hours of March 31 from 44 degrees north latitude, planet Earth. In a five second exposure the scene looks north from Martinique Beach Provincial Park in Nova Scotia, Canada.

APOD: 2008 June 17- Eta Carinae and the Homunculus Nebula
17.06.2008

How did the star Eta Carinae create this unusual nebula? No one knows for sure. About 165 years ago, the southern star Eta Carinae mysteriously became the second brightest star in the night sky. In 20 years, after ejecting more mass than our Sun, Eta Car unexpected faded.

APOD: 2023 September 20 Б Methane Discovered on Distant Exoplanet
20.09.2023

Where else might life exist? One of humanity's great outstanding questions, locating planets where extrasolar life might survive took a step forward in 2019 with the discovery of a significant amount of water vapor in the atmosphere of distant exoplanet K2-18b.

M31 versus M33
26.09.2013

Separated by about 14 degrees (28 Full Moons) in planet Earth's sky, spiral galaxies M31 ,left, and M33 are both large members of the Local Group, along with our own Milky Way galaxy.

Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232
30.09.1998

Galaxies are fascinating not only for what is visible, but for what is invisible. Grand spiral galaxy NGC 1232, recently captured in detail by the new Very Large Telescope, is a good example.