Astro Image in the News:
The Infrared Helix
The Spitzer Space Telescope has peered at the Helix Nebula with its infrared eyes.
Hubble Spies New Uranus Rings and Moons
Scientists looked at the Uranus four times between July 2003 and August 2005 with the Hubble Space Telescope and found two new moons and two new rings.
Milky Way Supernova Rate Confirmed
This image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows detailed structures in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. The supernova that produced this remnant was probably the one observed by John Flamsteed in 1680 — the last observed supernova in the Milky Way Galaxy. Click on the image to view a larger…
A Creator's Possible Calling Card
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is leftover radiation from the Big Bang redshifted (stretched) by the universe's expansion into the microwave region of the spectrum. In this image NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) records minuscule temperature fluctuations in the CMB as different colors. In principle, an advanced civilization could…
Year in Astronomy: 2005
Titan's surface looks orange in full-color images. This shot was taken after the Huygens probe touched down onto Titan's surface on January 14th. The two 'large' rocks in the middle of the image are really only about 15 centimeters (left) and 4 centimeters (center) across.Courtesy ESA/NASA/University of Arizona. As 2005…
Mars Receding in the Evening Sky
Blazing in the eastern sky these evenings, Mars is putting on a rare appearance not to miss.
A Short-Lived Spiral?
Will M77's pinwheel pattern soon wind its way out of existence?
Greenwich Observatory Fund Drive Succeeds
The Royal Greenwich Observatory, once the center of the timekeeping universe, will become an even more inviting astro tourist site.
The Highest Full Moon Overhead
On Thursday, December 15, 2005, the full Moon will be just about at the most northerly declination it can ever attain.S&T: Rick Fienberg. When the Moon is full this Thursday, December 15th, go out around midnight and look up. I mean really up. If you live in the world's midnorthern…
Long-Lived SOHO Celebrates a Milestone
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory continues to monitor the Sun night and day #151; long past its expected lifetime.
Einstein Rings
The Hubble Space Telescope snapped these images of eight newly discovered lensed galaxies that each displays what astronomers call Einstein rings. This unique type of gravitational lensing reflects the light of a distant galaxy positioned perfectly in line with the foreground galaxy so that the gravitational warping of the light…
Bursting Neutron Star Mystery
An artist depicts a neutron star. These objects are the dead cores of stars that exploded as supernovae. They cram more than a Sun's worth of mass into a ball only about 20 kilometers (12 miles) across, achieving extraordinarily high densities. Powerful magnetic field lines (blue) thread through these objects.…
Astro Image in the News:
Hubble Dissects the Crab
Astronomers have unveiled a super-sharp mosaic of this singular stellar corpse.
Astro Image in the News:
Ice Volcanoes Captured
Finally astronomers have the photographic proof they've been looking for — ice volcanoes actively erupting on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Hayabusa Hits Paydirt
After several close calls that threatened to end the mission, a Japanese craft has landed on an asteroid and grabbed a sample of its surface.
Astro Image in the News: Massive Meteorite Found
A mammoth stony-iron meteorite, found buried on a Kansas farm, ranks among the world's largest.
Advanced Imaging Conference 2005
Astrophotographers of all experience levels convened in San Jose, California, on November 11th to attend the second-annual Advanced Imaging Conference.
Powerful Magnetar Blast from Another Galaxy
This illustration represents how a magnetar might appear if we could view it up close with X-ray vision. But this is not something you'd want to do. Magnetars are neutron stars with magnetic fields so powerful that they could kill a person from 1,000 kilometers away by warping the atoms…