Helping Hand in Cassiopeia
8.11.2024

Drifting near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy these dusty molecular clouds seem to extend a helping hand on a cosmic scale. Part of a local complex of star-forming interstellar clouds they include LDN 1358, 1357, and 1355 from American astronomer Beverly Lynds' 1962 Catalog of Dark Nebulae.

A Setting Sun Trail
29.07.2002

The Sun appears to move on the sky because the Earth rotates. The extreme brightness of the Sun, however, makes it difficult to capture a sun-trail -- the path the Sun traces on the sky.

Night Launch of Endeavour
7.08.1995

Space Shuttle Endeavour thunders off into orbit in a rare night launch. This March 1995 mission is most famous for operating the set of astronomical telescopes known as Astro-2. Astro-2's telescopes observed the universe in ultraviolet light - light so blue humans by themselves can't see it.

Lasers in Eta Carinae
11.01.1996

Have you heard about the great LASER light show in the sky? Well, nobody had until it was announced just yesterday by a team led by K. Davidson (U. Minnesota) and S. Johansson (U. Lund).

Hale Bopp and the North American Nebula
9.10.1997

Comet Hale-Bopp's recent encounter with the inner Solar System allowed many breath-taking pictures. Above, Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed on March 8th in the constellation of Cygnus. Visible on the right in red is the North American Nebula, a bright emission nebula observable from a dark location with binoculars.

Seeing Through Galaxies
5.12.1997

In this dramatic picture, spiral galaxy NGC 5091 appears in the foreground. Tilted nearly edge-on, the dust lanes between its spiral arms are clearly visible. The large elliptical galaxy NGC 5090 lies just beyond it - both are about 100 million light years distant in the southern constellation Centaurus. Can you see through the spiral galaxy?

The Cat's Paw Nebula
7.12.1999

As soon as we find out whose cat did this . . . Nebulae are as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. No cat, though, could have created the vast Cat's Paw Nebula visible in Scorpius.

Milky Way over Devils Tower
30.10.2014

A mysterious formation known as Devils Tower rises into the dark above northeastern Wyoming's prairie landscape in this 16 frame panoramic view. Seen against the night sky's thin, pale clouds and eerie...

Aurora Australis
4.07.2015

Not fireworks, these intense shimmering lights still danced across Earth's night skies late last month, seen here above the planet's geographic south pole. The stunning auroral displays were triggered as a coronal mass ejection blasted from the Sun days earlier impacted the magnetosphere, beginning a widespread geomagnetic storm.

Rosetta and Comet Outbound
28.11.2015

Not a bright comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko now sweeps slowly through planet Earth's predawn skies near the line-up of planets along the ecliptic. Still, this composite of telescopic images follows the comet's progress as it moves away from the Sun beyond the orbit of Mars, from late September (left) through late November (far right).