FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, CLICK ON IMAGE. Wisps like this are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star. About 9,000 years ago that star exploded in a supernova leaving the Veil Nebula, also known as the Cygnus Loop. At the time, the expanding cloud was likely as bright as a crescent Moon, remaining visible […]
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is as constant as the North Star. In other words, it only looks constant — its constancy depends on how long we watch it. … Last week John Rogers (British Astronomical Association) confirmed that the storm is still tightening its waistline. Rogers clocked the maelstrom’s rotation period by using images taken […]
NEW DELHI — Adding to the litany of issues besetting neighboring nuclear rivals China and India, ranging from border disputes to the Dalai Lama to trade deficits, is a new one: UFOs. “Over 100 UFOs seen along China border,” said a headline in Tuesday’s Times of India. Indian troops guarding the often-tense 2,100-mile border between […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION] In this stunning vista, based on image data from the Hubble Legacy Archive, distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted spiral galaxy Arp 188, the Tadpole Galaxy. [A] mere 420 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation Draco, … its eye-catching tail is about 280 thousand light-years long […]
Frederick Meiwald’s obituary in the Las Vegas Journal-Review last August was brief but distinguished. During a 28-year military career that included posts with Strategic Air Command and Space Command, he earned the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters and the Joint Service Commendation Medal. What it didn’t include, not […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION] Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The bubble of expanding gas pictured above is the planetary nebula PK 164 +31.1, the remnants of the atmosphere of a Sun-like star expelled as its supply of fusion-able core hydrogen became depleted. Visible near the center of the […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION.] This lovely blue cosmic cloud begins the van den Bergh Catalog (vdB) of stars surrounded by reflection nebulae. Interstellar dust clouds reflecting the light of the nearby stars, the nebulae usually appear blue because scattering by the dust grains is more effective at shorter (bluer) wavelengths. The same type […]
One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud. Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. The red glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the […]
[CLICK TO SEE INFOGRAPHIC] Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner set a new world record Sunday when he leapt from a capsule suspended 128,100 feet–about 24 miles–above Earth’s surface. Watching the livefeed as he opened the capsule door and prepared to jump, we thought he looked very much like a man perched on the edge of space. […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION] What did the first galaxies look like? To help answer this question, the Hubble Space Telescope has just finished taking the eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), the deepest image of the universe ever taken in visible light. Pictured above, the XDF shows a sampling of some of the oldest galaxies […]
