A Happy Sky over Bufa Hill in MexicoSometimes, the sky itself seems to smile. A few days ago, visible over much of the world, an unusual superposition of our Moon with the planets Venus and Saturn created just such an iconic facial expression. Specifically, a crescent Moon appeared to make a happy face on the night sky when paired with seemingly…Read More

Saturn’s Rings Appear to DisappearWhere are Saturn’s ears? Galileo is credited, in 1610, as the first person to see Saturn’s rings. Testing out Lipperhey’s recently co-invented telescope, Galileo did not know what they were and so called them “ears”. The mystery deepened in 1612, when Saturn’s ears mysteriously disappeared. Today we know exactly…Read More

Gum 37 and the Southern TadpolesThis cosmic skyscape features glowing gas and dark dust clouds alongside the young stars of NGC 3572. A beautiful emission nebula and star cluster, it sails far southern skies within the nautical constellation Carina. Stars from NGC 3572 are toward top center in the telescopic frame that would measure about 100…Read More

IC 418: The Spirograph NebulaWhat is creating the strange texture of IC 418? Dubbed the Spirograph Nebula for its resemblance to drawings from a cyclical drawing tool, planetary nebula IC 418 shows patterns that are not well understood. Perhaps they are related to chaotic winds from the variable central star, which changes brightness…Read More

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335This stunning portrait of NGC 5335 was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Some 170,000 light-years across and over 200 million light-years away toward the constellation Virgo, the magnificent spiral galaxy is seen face-on in Hubble’s view. Within the galactic disk, loose streamers of star forming regions lie…Read More