2020 May 22 South of Carina Image Credit & Copyright: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo Explanation: With natal dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas, this colorful and chaotic vista lies within one of the largest star forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy, the Great Carina Nebula. The tele […]
2020 May 21 Phases of Venus Image Credit & Copyright: Richard Addis Explanation: Just as the Moon goes through phases, Venus’ visible sunlit hemisphere waxes and wanes. This composite of backyard telescopic images illustrates the steady changes for Venus during its current stint as our ev
2020 May 20 Moon, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Milk Way Image Credit & Copyright: Mihail Minkov Explanation: It is not a coincidence that planets line up. That’s because all of the planets orbit the Sun in (nearly) a single sheet called the plane of the ecliptic. When viewed from inside that pla
2020 May 19 Posters of the Solar System Image Credit: NASA Explanation: Would you like a NASA astronomy-exploration poster? You are just one page-print away. Any of the panels you see on the featured image can appear on your wall. Moreover, this NASA page has, typically, several more posters of each
2020 May 18 Journey into the Cosmic Reef Video Credit: NASA’s GSFC, SVS; Lead Producer & Music: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) Explanation: What would you see if you could fly into the Cosmic Reef? The nebular cloud NGC 2014 appear to some like an ocean reef that resides in the sky, specifical
2020 May 17 A Waterspout in Florida Image Credit & Copyright: Joey Mole Explanation: What’s happening over the water? Pictured here is one of the better images yet recorded of a waterspout, a type of tornado that occurs over water. Waterspouts are spinning columns of rising moist air that
2020 May 15 Galaxy Wars: M81 and M82 Image Credit & Copyright: Dietmar Hager, Torsten Grossmann Explanation: These two galaxies are far far away, 12 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation of the Great Bear. On the left, with grand spiral arms and bright yellow core is spi
2020 May 14 Comet Halley vs Comet SWAN Image Credit & Copyright: Luc Perrot (TWAN) Explanation: The pre-dawn hours of May 3rd were moonless as grains of cosmic dust streaked through southern skies above Reunion Island. Swept up as planet Earth plowed through dusty debris streams left behind per
2020 May 13 Jupiter in Infrared from Gemini Image Credit: International Gemini Observatory, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA; M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley) & Team; Acknowledgment: Mahdi Zamani; Text: Alex R. Howe (NASA/USRA, Reader’s History of SciFi Podcast) Explanation: In infrared, Jupiter lights up the
2020 May 12 Lyrid Meteors from the Constellation Lyra Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek Explanation: Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Small Harp (Lyra). That is why the famous meteor shower that peaks e
