Sungrazer
26.02.1997

Arcing toward a fiery fate, this Sungrazer comet was recorded by the SOHO spacecraft's Large Angle Spectrometric COronagraph (LASCO) on Dec. 23rd, 1996. LASCO uses an occulting disk, partially visible at the lower...

Sungrazer
20.05.2000

Arcing toward a fiery fate, this Sungrazer comet was recorded by the SOHO spacecraft's Large Angle Spectrometric COronagraph (LASCO) on Dec. 23rd, 1996. LASCO uses an occulting disk, partially visible at the lower...

Aurigids from 47 000 Feet
5.09.2007

On September 1, Aurigid meteors filled the sky, in keeping with inovative predictions of an outburst from this historically tentative meteor shower. Astronomers flying at 47,000 feet on a dedicated mission to observer the outburst collected image data for this composite photo of the Aurigids' bright and colorful streaks.

Orionids in Taurus
26.10.2023

History's first known periodic comet, Comet Halley (1P/Halley), returns to the inner Solar System every 76 years or so. The famous comet made its last appearance to the naked-eye in 1986. But dusty...

Schwassmann Wachmann 3: Fragment B
4.05.2006

Periodic comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has fallen apart before. A cosmic souffle of ice and dust left over from the early solar system, this comet was seen to split into several large pieces during the close-in part of its orbit in 1995.

LINEAR s Tail and Two Nuclei
31.05.2001

Arcing toward southern skies in late March, this faint comet LINEAR - the one officially designated C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) - brightened unexpectedly. The outburst, apparently due to the fragmentation of its nucleus, delighted observers as the comet eventually increased to naked-eye brightness.

Hyakutake, Big Dipper, and Observatory Dome
1.04.1996

In one of the more spectacular pictures yet taken, Comet Hyakutake is shown here on March 26 high in the dark Missouri sky. In the foreground is Elmcrest Observatory complete with a dim red light glowing inside the dome.

Forest and Sky
17.11.2007

With pine trees in dim silhouette, this skyscape from Breil-sur-Roya in southern France was captured on November 11. In the early evening scene, a satellite seems to streak through the branches, while bright, round, fuzzy Comet Holmes appears to lie just beyond them, near the stars of the constellation Perseus.

A Lucky Lunar Eclipse
3.04.1996

Tonight's full moon would normally washout the spectacle of Comet Hyakutake's lovely tail, even for those far from light polluted skies. Except that tonight comet observers are in luck - the dance of the planets calls for a total lunar eclipse! Lunar eclipses are caused when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow.

Near the Nucleus of Hyakutake
28.03.1996

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the near-nuclear region of Comet Hyakutake on March 25 as the comet approached within 9.3 million miles of the Earth. It covers a relatively "small" 2,000 mile wide area with the sunward direction toward the lower right (tailward is upper left).