Galaxies in SpaceThe plane of our Milky Way galaxy extends beyond the limb of planet Earth in this space age exposure captured by astronaut Don Pettit. His camera, with low light and long duration settings, was pointed out the window of a Dragon crew spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on January 29. The orbital outpost was at…Read More

Planetary Nebula Abell 7Very faint planetary nebula Abell 7 is about 1,800 light-years distant. It lies just south of Orion in planet Earth’s skies toward the constellation Lepus, The Hare. Surrounded by Milky Way stars and near the line-of-sight to distant background galaxies its generally simple spherical shape, about 8 light-years in diameter,…Read More

Starburst Galaxy Messier 94Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the hunting dogs, Canes Venatici. A popular target for earth-based astronomers, the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across, with spiral arms sweeping through the outskirts of its broad disk.…Read More

Seven Sisters versus CaliforniaOn the right, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky. The Pleiades contains over 3,000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Surrounding the stars is a spectacular…Read More

A Quadruple Alignment over ItalyWhy does this Moon look so unusual? A key reason is its vivid red color. The color is caused by the deflection of blue light by Earth’s atmosphere — the same reason that the daytime sky appears blue. The Moon also appears unusually distorted. Its strange structuring is an optical effect arising from layers in…Read More