Andromeda on the rocks

Andromeda on the rocks

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION]   The Andromeda Galaxy 2.5 million light years away is the most distant object easily seen by the unaided eye. Other apparent denizens of the night sky, stars, clusters, and nebulae, typically range from a few hundred to a few thousand light-years away and lie well within our own […]

Astrophotography winner: Two interacting galaxy groups

Astrophotography winner: Two interacting galaxy groups

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION]: Martin Pugh (Heaven’s Mirror Observatory) A careful look at this colorful cosmic snapshot reveals a surprising number of galaxies both near and far toward the constellation Ursa Major. The most striking is NGC 3718, the warped spiral galaxy near picture center. NGC 3718’s spiral arms look twisted and extended, […]

When home is far away

When home is far away

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION] / Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA & NASA/JHU Applied Physics Lab/Carnegie Inst. Washington In a cross-Solar System interplanetary first, our Earth was photographed during the same day from both Mercury and Saturn. Pictured on the left, Earth is the pale blue dot just below the rings of […]

Sombrero Galaxy’s bulge packed with clusters of star clusters

Sombrero Galaxy’s bulge packed with clusters of star clusters

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION]  Caltech / Palomar Observatory / Paul Gardner, Salvatore Grasso, and Ryan Hannahoe Named the Sombrero Galaxy for its hat-like resemblance, M104 features a prominent dust lane and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. Reasons for the Sombrero’s hat-like appearance include an unusually large and extended central bulge […]

What if all satellites stopped working?

What if all satellites stopped working?

Here is what might happen if we suddenly encountered a day without satellites… 08:00 There was nothing sudden. Planes did not fall out of the sky, the lights didn’t go out or the water supplies fail. At least, not at first. … But outside, the loss of global satellite communications was putting the world in […]

Remarkable symmetry at center of 120,000 light-year-diameter Messier 109

Remarkable symmetry at center of 120,000 light-year-diameter Messier 109

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION]  / Bob Franke Beautiful barred spiral galaxy M109, 109th entry in Charles Messier’s famous catalog of bright Nebulae and Star Clusters, is found just below the Big Dipper’s bowl in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In telescopic views, its striking central bar gives the galaxy the appearance of the […]

Freeze frame miracle: Venus, moon, clouds, birds

Freeze frame miracle: Venus, moon, clouds, birds

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION] /  Isaac Gutiérrez Pascual Sometimes the sky above can become quite a show…. In the above image taken in Spain, a crescent Moon and the planet Venus, on the far right, were captured during sunset posing against a deep blue sky.   In the foreground, dark storm clouds loom across […]

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