Month: April 2020

IC 2944: The Running Chicken Nebula

To some, it looks like a giant chicken running across the sky. To others, it looks like a gaseous nebula where star formation takes place. Cataloged as IC 2944, the Running Chicken Nebula spans about 100 light years and lies...

/ April 20, 2020

Just Another Day on Aerosol Earth

It was just another day on aerosol Earth. For August 23, 2018, the identification and distribution of aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere is shown in this dramatic, planet-wide digital visualization. Produced in real time, the Goddard Earth Observing System Forward...

/ April 18, 2020

The Windmill and the Star Trails

Stars can’t turn these old wooden arms, but it does look like they might in this scene from a rotating planet. The well-composed night skyscape was recorded from Garafia, a municipality on the island of La Palma, Canary Islands, planet...

/ April 17, 2020

Comet ATLAS Breaks Up

Cruising through the inner solar system, Comet ATLAS C2019/Y4 has apparently fragmented. Multiple separate condensations within its diffuse coma are visible in this telescopic close-up from April 12, composed of frames tracking the comet’s motion against trailing background stars. Discovered...

/ April 16, 2020

A Cosmic Triangle

It was an astronomical triple play. Setting on the left, just after sunset near the end of last month, was our Moon — showing a bright crescent phase. Setting on the right was Venus, the brightest planet in the evening...

/ April 15, 2020

NGC 253: The Silver Coin Galaxy

NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, but also one of the dustiest. Dubbed the Silver Coin for its appearance in smalltelescopes, it is more formally known as the Sculptor Galaxy for its location within the boundaries...

/ April 14, 2020

A Sailing Stone across Death Valley

How did this big rock end up on this strange terrain? One of the more unusual places here on Earth occurs inside Death Valley, California, USA. There a dried lakebed named Racetrack Playa exists that is almost perfectly flat, with...

/ April 13, 2020

Venus and the Pleiades in April

Shared around world in early April skies Venus, our brilliant evening star, wandered across the face of the lovely Pleiades star cluster. This timelapse image follows the path of the inner planet during the beautiful conjunction showing its daily approach...

/ April 11, 2020

Full Moon of Spring

From home this Full Moon looked bright. Around our fair planet it rose as the Sun set on April 7/8, the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox and the start of northern hemisphere spring. April’s full lunar phase was...

/ April 10, 2020

A Flow of Time

This surreal timelapse, landscape, panorama spans predawn, blue hour, and sunrise skies. Close to the start of planet Earth’s northern hemisphere spring, the flow of time was captured between 4:30 and 7:00 am from a location overlooking northern New Mexico’s...

/ April 9, 2020