The Light, the Dark, and the Dusty
30.11.2022

This colorful skyscape spans about four full moons across nebula rich starfields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy in the royal northern constellation Cepheus. Near the edge of the region's massive...

APOD: 2024 May 7 Б Black Hole Accreting with Jet
7.05.2024

What happens when a black hole devours a star? Many details remain unknown, but observations are providing new clues. In 2014, a powerful explosion was recorded by the ground-based robotic telescopes of the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (Project ASAS-SN), with followed-up observations by instruments including NASA's Earth-orbiting Swift satellite.

APOD: 2004 August 27- The Sedna Scenario
27.08.2004

The discovery of Sedna (aka 2003 VB12), the most distant known object orbiting the Sun, presents a mystery. Pluto's orbit averages about 40 AU in radius, where an AU (Astronomical Unit) is the Earth-Sun distance.

Elements in the Aftermath
1.08.2019

Massive stars spend their brief lives furiously burning nuclear fuel. Through fusion at extreme temperatures and densities surrounding the stellar core, nuclei of light elements ike Hydrogen and Helium are combined to heavier elements like Carbon, Oxygen, etc. in a progression which ends with Iron.

NGC 2266: Old Cluster in the New General Catalog
29.04.1999

The New General Catalog of star clusters and nebulae really isn't so new. In fact, it was published in 1888 - an attempt by J. L. E. Dreyer to consolidate the work of astronomers William, Caroline, and John Herschel along with others into a useful single, complete catalog of astronomical discoveries and measurements.

Zodiacal Light Vs Milky Way
12.02.2009

Two fundamental planes of planet Earth's sky compete for attention in this remarkable wide-angle vista, recorded on January 23rd. Arcing above the horizon and into the night at the left is a beautiful band of Zodiacal Light - sunlight scattered by dust in the solar system's ecliptic plane.

A Dark and Dusty Sky
22.05.2015

In the dusty sky toward the constellation Taurus and the Orion Arm of our Milky Way Galaxy, this broad mosaic follows dark and faint reflection nebulae along the region's fertile molecular cloud.

Exploring the Antennae
28.04.2017

Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly constellation Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, very rarely collide in the course of the ponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of millions of years.

NGC 4651: The Umbrella Galaxy
7.02.2022

It's raining stars. What appears to be a giant cosmic umbrella is now known to be a tidal stream of stars stripped from a small satellite galaxy. The main galaxy, spiral galaxy...

APOD: 2023 May 7 Б The Helix Nebula from CFHT
7.05.2023

Will our Sun look like this one day? The Helix Nebula is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star.