Cosmic dust clouds cross a rich field of stars in this telescopic vista near the northern boundary of Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. Less than 500 light-years away the dust clouds effectively block light from more distant background stars in the Milky Way. Top to bottom the frame spans about 2 degrees or over 15 […]
In this self-portrait from 2018, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover sits atop Vera Rubin Ridge, which the rover had been investigating. via NASA https://ift.tt/3CiObwf
South is up in this detailed telescopic view across the Moon’s rugged southern highlands. Captured on July 20, the lunar landscape features the Moon’s young and old, the large craters Tycho and Clavius. About 100 million years young, Tycho is the sharp-walled 85 kilometer diameter crater near center, its 2 kilometer tall central peak in […]
An army marches on its stomach, the saying goes, and astronauts fly on theirs. via NASA https://ift.tt/3fxjvh7
How do supermassive black holes create powerful jets? To help find out, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) imaged the center of the nearby active galaxy Centaurus A. The cascade of featured inset images shows Cen A from it largest, taking up more sky than many moons, to its now finest, taking up only as much […]
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Starliner spacecraft aboard is illuminated by spotlights on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021, as it sits on the launch pad. via NASA https://ift.tt/3A4FAv9
It was bright and green and flashed as it moved quickly along the Milky Way. It left a trail that took 30 minutes to dissipate. Given the day, August 12, and the direction, away from Perseus, it was likely a small bit from the nucleus of Comet Swift-Tuttle plowing through the Earth’s atmosphere — and […]
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen as it is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. via NASA https://ift.tt/3rMtior
Pluto is more colorful than we can see. Color data and high-resolution images of our Solar System’s most famous dwarf planet, taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in 2015 July, have been digitally combined to give an enhanced-color view of this ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface. The featured enhanced […]
It was just last July. If you could see the stars of the Big Dipper, you could find Comet NEOWISE in your evening sky. After sunset denizens of the north could look for the naked-eye comet below the bowl of that famous celestial kitchen utensil and above the northwestern horizon. The comet looked like a […]