IC 2574: Coddington’s NebulaGrand 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…Read More

Comet G3 ATLAS Setting over a Chilean HillWhere is Comet ATLAS going? In the featured time-lapse video, the comet is not itself moving very much, but the Earth’s rotation makes it appear to be setting over a hill. The Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) sequence was captured with an ordinary camera on January 22 from the Araucanía Region in central Chile.…Read More

Anticrepuscular Rays: A Rainbow Fan over SpainYes, 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 center. In…Read More

Wolf-Rayet Star 124: Stellar Wind MachineSome 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,…Read More