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The Spider and the Fly

Copyright: Dave Boddington Will the spider ever catch the fly? Not if both are large emission nebulas toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). The spider-shaped gas cloud in the image center is actually an emission nebula labelled IC 417, while the smaller fly-shaped cloud on the left is dubbed NGC 1931 and is both […]

Auroral Hummingbird over Norway

Copyright: Mickael Coulon Is this the largest hummingbird ever? Although it may look like a popular fluttering nectarivore, what is pictured is actually a beautifully detailed and colorful aurora, complete with rays reminiscent of feathers. This aurora was so bright that it was visible to the unaided eye during blue hour — just after sunset […]

Milky Way over the Australian Pinnacles

Copyright: Michael Goh What strange world is this? Earth. In the foreground of the featured image are the Pinnacles, unusual rock spires in Nambung National Park in Western Australia. Made of ancient sea shells (limestone), how these human-sized picturesque spires formed remains unknown. In the background, just past the end of the central Pinnacle, is […]

A Conjunction of Crescents

Copyright: Aldo S. Kleiman A waxing crescent Moon and a waning crescent Venus are found at opposite corners of this twilight telephoto field of view. The close conjunction of the two brightest celestial beacons in planet Earth’s western evening sky was captured on February 1 from Rosario, Argentina. On that date, the slender crescent Moon […]

LEDA 1313424: The Bullseye Galaxy

Copyright: The giant galaxy cataloged as LEDA 1313424 is about two and a half times the size of our own Milky Way. Its remarkable appearance in this recently released Hubble Space Telescope image strongly suggests its nickname “The Bullseye Galaxy”. Known as a collisional ring galaxy it has nine rings confirmed by telescopic observations, rippling […]

IC 2574: Coddington’s Nebula

Copyright: Lorand Fenyes 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 reddish regions of glowing hydrogen gas. […]

Copyright: Courtesy of NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Anticrepuscular Rays: A Rainbow Fan over Spain

Copyright: Julene Eiguren Yes, but can your rainbow do this? Late in the day, the Sun set as usual toward the west. However, on this day, the more interesting display was 180 degrees around — toward the east. There, not only was a rainbow visible, but an impressive display of anticrepuscular rays from the rainbow’s […]

Wolf-Rayet Star 124: Stellar Wind Machine

Copyright: Some stars explode in slow motion. Rare, massive Wolf-Rayet stars are so tumultuous and hot that they are slowly disintegrating right before our telescopes. Glowing gas globs each typically over 30 times more massive than the Earth are being expelled by violent stellar winds. Wolf-Rayet star WR 124, visible near the featured image center […]

Comet G3 ATLAS Disintegrates

Copyright: What’s happening to Comet G3 ATLAS? After passing near the Sun in mid-January, the head of the comet has become dimmer and dimmer. By late January, Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) had become a headless wonder — even though it continued to show impressive tails after sunset in the skies of Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. Pictured […]

Nacreous Clouds over Sweden

Copyright: Known as nacreous clouds Vivid and lustrous, wafting iridescent waves of color wash across this skyscape from northern Sweden. Known as nacreous clouds or mother-of-pearl clouds, they are rare. But their unforgettable appearance was captured in this snapshot on January 12 with the Sun just below the local horizon. A type of polar stratospheric […]

The Variable Nebula NGC 2261

Copyright: Tommy Lease The interstellar cloud of dust and gas captured in this sharp telescopic snapshot is seen to change its appearance noticeably over periods as short as a few weeks. Discovered over 200 years ago and cataloged as NGC 2261, bright star R Monocerotis lies at the tip of the fan-shaped nebula. About one […]

Hydrogen Clouds of M33

Copyright: Pea Mauro Gorgeous spiral galaxy Messier 33 seems to have more than its fair share of glowing hydrogen gas. A prominent member of the local group of galaxies, M33 is also known as the Triangulum Galaxy and lies a mere 3 million light-years away. The galaxy’s central 60,000 light-years or so are shown in […]

Dust Shells around WR 140 from Webb

Copyright: What are those strange rings? Rich in dust, the rings are likely 3D shells — but how they were created remains a topic of research. Where they were created is well known: in a binary star system that lies about 6,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) — a system […]

Comet G3 ATLAS over Uruguay

Copyright: Mauricio Salazar Comets can be huge. When far from the Sun, a comet’s size usually refers to its hard nucleus of ice and rock, which typically spans a few kilometers — smaller than even a small moon. When nearing the Sun, however, this nucleus can eject dust and gas and leave a thin tail […]