What created this unusual space ribbon? The answer: one of the most violent explosions ever witnessed by ancient humans. Back in the year 1006 AD, light reached Earth from a stellar explosion in the constellation of the Wolf (Lupus), creating a “guest star” in the sky that appeared brighter than Venus and lasted for over […]
This pretty nebula lies some 1,500 light-years away, its shape and color in this telescopic view reminiscent of a robin’s egg. The cosmic cloud spans about 3 light-years, nestled securely within the boundaries of the southern constellation Fornax. Recognized as a planetary nebula, egg-shaped NGC 1360 doesn’t represent a beginning though. Instead it corresponds to […]
The glittering, glitzy contents of the globular cluster NGC 6652 sparkle in this star-studded image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. via NASA https://ift.tt/GrZbnIQ
A Full Moon rose as the Sun set on August 1. Near perigee, the closest point in its almost moonthly orbit, the brighter than average lunar disk illuminated night skies around planet Earth as the second supermoon of 2023. Seen here above Ragusa, Sicily, cloud banks cast diverging shadows through the supermoonlit skies, creating dramatic […]
United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi captured this image of the city lights of Baghdad, Iraq, and the Tigris River on July 18, 2023, as the International Space Station orbited 261 miles above the Middle Eastern nation. via NASA https://ift.tt/f61sC3B
In a photo from the early hours of July 29 (UTC), a Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule are on display at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5. Beyond the Redstone, the 8 minute long exposure has captured the arcing launch streak of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The Falcon’s heavy communications satellite payload, at a record […]
On April 28, 2023, the Crew-7 members (from left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa) took a moment to snap a photo atop an emergency egress vehicle at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. via NASA https://ift.tt/fYhIr2M
Why is the Cigar Galaxy billowing red smoke? M82, as this starburst galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81. This doesn’t fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas and dust, however. Evidence indicates that this gas and dust is being driven out by […]
Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve, seen here in an image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the Terra spacecraft on Dec. 30, 2010, is a special site. via NASA https://ift.tt/iF1Rwls
The monsters that live on the Sun are not like us. They are larger than the Earth and made of gas hotter than in any teapot. They have no eyes, but at times, many tentacles. They float. Usually, they slowly change shape and just fade back onto the Sun over about a month. Sometimes, though, […]