The Supernova and Cepheids of Spiral Galaxy UGC 9391
Before we look at the Supernova (the cross) and the Cepheids (the red circles) in the Spiral Galaxy of UGC 9391 it’s worth describing what a Cepheid actually is and why it’s important. A Cepheid variable is a type of...
Comet PanSTARRS and the Helix Nebula
It’s rare that such different objects are imaged so close together. Such an occasion is occurring now, though, and was captured two days ago in combined parallel exposures from the Canary Islands of Spain. On the lower right, surrounded by a...
The Shadow of Surveyor 1
It’s scary to think that more than fifty years ago we sent a giant piece of metal full of explosive fuel up into the sky so high that it broke free of the Earths gravity and headed towards the moon....
NGC 4631: The Whale Galaxy
NGC 4631 is a big beautiful spiral galaxy. Seen edge-on, it lies only 25 million light-years away in the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici. The galaxy’s slightly distorted wedge shape suggests to some a cosmic herring and to others its...
Three Planets from Pic du Midi
Seen any planets lately? All three planets now shining brightly in the night sky are imaged in these panels, captured last week with the 1 meter telescope at Pic du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees. Near opposition and closest...
Inside a Daya Bay Antineutrino Detector
The concept of matter and antimatter is confusing. Essentially it is theorised that when the big bang occurred it should have created the same amount of matter and antimatter, and when those two object pairs come into contact with each...
Milky Way and Planets Near Opposition
In this early May night skyscape, a mountain road near Bursa, Turkey seems to lead toward bright planets Mars and Saturn and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, a direction nearly opposite the Sun in planet Earth’s sky. The...
The Surface of Europa
An enhanced-color view, this image covers a 350 by 750 kilometer swath across the surface of Jupiter’s tantalizing moon Europa. The close-up combines high-resolution image data with lower resolution colour data from observations made in 1998 by the Galileo spacecraft....
The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared
The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place. Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion. Long exposure, multi-wavelength images like this, however, show the Orion Nebula to be a...
Clouds of the Carina Nebula
What forms lurk in the mists of the Carina Nebula? The dark ominous figures are actually molecular clouds, knots of molecular gas and dust so thick they have become opaque. In comparison, however, these clouds are typically much less dense...