Exploring the AntennaeSome 60 million light-years away in the southerly constellation Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, very rarely collide in the course of the ponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of millions of years. But the galaxies’ large clouds of molecular gas and…Read More

Destruction of Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS)As the crew of Artemis II travelled towards the Moon this week, Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was expected to have its closest approach to the Sun on Monday. At this point, comet and Sun would be closer than half the distance separating the Earth and Moon. The comet did not survive; the featured video was made with 40…Read More

IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection NebulaDo you see the horse’s head? What you are seeing is not the famous Horsehead nebula toward Orion, but rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the here-imaged molecular cloud complex is reflection nebula IC 4592. Reflection nebulas are made up…Read More

The Path of Artemis IIWhy doesn’t Artemis II land on the Moon? The main reason is that Artemis II is primarily a test mission designed to make a future Artemis missions — which will land humans on the Moon — better prepared. Similarly, NASA’s Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 went right near the Moon as tests before Apollo 11 — which landed. As the…Read More

The Path of Artemis IIWhy doesn’t Artemis II land on the Moon? The main reason is that Artemis II is primarily a test mission designed to make a future Artemis missions — which will land humans on the Moon — better prepared. Similarly, NASA’s Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 went right near the Moon as tests before Apollo 11 — which landed. As the…Read More