Periodic Comet Swift Tuttle
8.08.2024

A Halley-type comet with an orbital period of about 133 years, Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle is recognized as the parent of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The comet's last visit to the inner Solar System was in 1992.

Twilight with Moon and Planets
21.02.2026

Only two days after the February New Moon's annular eclipse of the Sun, a slender lunar crescent poses above the western horizon after sunset in this wintry twilight skyscape. Its nightside faintly illuminated...

Venus and the Pleiades in April
2.04.2020

Venus is currently the brilliant evening star. Shared around world, in tonight's sky Venus will begin to wander across the face of the lovely Pleiades star cluster. This digital sky map illustrates the path of the inner planet as the beautiful conjunction evolves, showing its position on the sky over the next few days.

Hale Bopp: The Great Comet of 1997
31.03.2007

Ten short years ago, Comet Hale-Bopp rounded the Sun and offered a dazzling spectacle in planet Earth's night. This stunning view, recorded shortly after the comet's perihelion passage on April 1, 1997, features the memorable tails of Hale-Bopp -- a whitish dust tail and blue ion tail.

A Dust Jet From Hale-Bopp
29.07.1996

Approaching the inner Solar System, comet Hale-Bopp's icy nucleus is heated by sunlight, accelerating its production of dust and gas. Shrouded in the resulting cloud, known as the coma, the cometary nucleus remains hidden from direct view.

M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
14.06.2012

In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, "This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent." Of course, M13 is now modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky.

Seven Years of Halley Dust
28.10.2022

History's first known periodic comet Halley (1P/Halley) returns to the inner Solar System every 75 years or so. The famous comet made its last appearance to the naked-eye in 1986. But dusty debris...

The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
1.09.2023

In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, "This is but a little Patch, but it shows itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent." Of course...

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...

NGC 2264: Stars, Dust, and Gas
24.04.2001

The nebula surrounding bright star S Mon is filled with dark dust and glowing gas. The strange shapes that haunt this star forming region originate from fine interstellar dust reacting in complex ways to the energetic light and hot gas being expelled by the young stars.