Month: October 2016

Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula

Halloween’s origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the...

/ October 31, 2016

Haunting the Cepheus Flare

Spooky shapes seem to haunt this jeweled expanse, drifting through the night in the royal constellation Cepheus. Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds faintly visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far from your own neighborhood on planet Earth, they...

/ October 29, 2016

Propeller Shadows on Saturn’s Rings

What created these unusually long shadows on Saturn’s rings? The dark shadows — visible near the middle of the image — extend opposite the Sun and, given their length, stem from objects having heights up to a few kilometers. The...

/ October 27, 2016

Clouds Near Jupiters South Pole from Juno

What’s happening near the south pole of Jupiter? Recent images sent back by NASA’s robotic Juno spacecraft are showing an interesting conglomeration of swirling clouds and what appear to be white ovals. Juno arrived at Jupiter in July and is...

/ October 26, 2016

Eagle Aurora over Norway

What’s that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal mass ejection occurred on our Sun five days before this 2012 image was taken, throwing a cloud of fast moving electrons, protons, and ions toward the Earth. Although most of...

/ October 24, 2016

The Antlia Cluster of Galaxies

Galaxies dot the sky in this impressively wide and deep image of the Antlia Cluster. The third closest cluster of galaxies to Earth after Virgo and Fornax, the Antlia cluster is known for its compactness and its high fraction of...

/ October 19, 2016

Jing Haipeng enters space

As of just now the Astronaut Jing Haipeng, Commander, has reached Space after launching on the October 16, 2016. Jing Haipeng is from China and for more information you can read all about it on http://ift.tt/2dUIBX6.

/ October 17, 2016

Chen Dong enters space

As of just now the Astronaut Chen Dong, Flight Engineer, has reached Space after launching on the October 16, 2016. Chen Dong is from China and for more information you can read all about it on http://ift.tt/2dh34at.

/ October 17, 2016

Chen Dong enters space

As of just now the Astronaut Chen Dong, Flight Engineer, has reached Space after launching on the October 16, 2016. Chen Dong is from China and for more information you can read all about it on http://ift.tt/2dh34at.

/ October 17, 2016

Chen Dong enters space

As of just now the Astronaut Chen Dong, Flight Engineer, has reached Space after launching on the October 16, 2016. Chen Dong is from China and for more information you can read all about it on http://ift.tt/2dh34at.

/ October 17, 2016