[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ZOOM] Early morning dog walkers got a visual treat last week as bright stars and planets appeared to line up. Pictured above, easily visible from left to right, were the Pleiades open star cluster, Jupiter, Venus, and the “Follower” star Aldebaran, all seen before a starry background. The image was taken […]
The glare of Alpha Centauri, one of the brightest stars in planet Earth’s night sky, floods the left side of this southern skyscape. A mere 4.3 light-years distant, Alpha Centauri actually consists of two component stars similar in size to the Sun, locked in a mutual orbit. Much smaller and cooler, a third member of […]
Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form stars too. In fact dwarf galaxy IC 2574 shows clear evidence of intense star forming activity in its telltale pinkish regions of glowing hydrogen gas. Just as in […]
In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, “This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent.” Of course, M13 is now modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. […]
Situated in rich star fields and glowing hydrogen gas, these opaque clouds of interstellar dust and gas are so large they might be able to form stars. Their home is known as IC 2944, a bright stellar nursery located about 5,900 light years away toward the constellation of Centaurus. The largest of these dark globules, […]
Life outside the cubicle . . .Simply amazing! Click here. Then click on ‘Start’. Move the toggle button to the left or right…
French observer Stéphane Lamotte Bailey created this animation of the Whirlpool galaxy’s new supernova using images he took with his 8-inch telescope on May 30 and June 2, 2011. / Stéphane Lamotte Bailey For the second time in six years, a star has exploded in the iconic Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51), and — good news! […]
Rings produced by a computer model of a stellar merger (left) mimic those of supernova 1987A (right) / Illustration: T Morris/P Podsiadlowski; Image: C Burrows/ESA/STScI/NASA A merger of two stars and the deadly dance that preceded it produced the distinctive triple ring system of supernova 1987A, a new study says. SN 1987A exploded in the […]
Image credit NASA, Caltech, MPIA, and Calar Alto Tycho’s supernova remnant, a real-world example of a Type Ia supernova. An an attempt to peer inside powerful star explosions, scientists recently made a “supernova in a jar” using a chemical reaction in a viscous fluid. Called the iodate-arsenous acid (IAA) system, the experiment involved injecting a […]
On 27 December, COROT is to be launched into space on a unique astronomy mission: its twin goals are to detect exoplanets orbiting around other stars and to probe the mysteries of stellar interiors as never before. . . . While CNES is completing preparations for the launch from Baikonur/Kazakhstan, ESA and a large number […]
