March 31, 2013 The Egg Nebula, a protoplanetary nebula in Cygnus Image Credit: W. Sparks (STScI) and R. Sahai (JPL), NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) I’m Wishing You and Your Loved Ones a Very Happy Easter!! The Egg Nebula (designated CRL 2688) is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula with an estimated diameter of [continue reading]
A new analysis of data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggests that Saturn’s moons and rings are gently worn vintage goods from around the time of our Solar System’s birth. Saturn, the second largest planet in the Solar System, has a prominent ring system and at least 62 moons. This does not include the hundreds of [continue reading]
A new look at conditions after a Manhattan-sized asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico in the dinosaur days indicates the event could have triggered a global firestorm that would have burned every twig, bush and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80 percent of all Earth’s species, says a new [continue reading]
March 30, 2013 ESO 148-2, a pair of colliding galaxies in Tucana Image Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University) ESO 148-2 (also known as ESO 148-IG002 or AM 2312-591) is a pair of interacting galaxies that lie around 550 million light-years from Earth in [continue reading]
March 29, 2013 The Retina Nebula, a planetary nebula in Lupus Image Credit: C. R. O’Dell (Vanderbilt Univ.) et al., Hubble Heritage Team, NASA The Retina Nebula (designated IC 4406) is a bipolar planetary nebula that measures about 0.13 × 0.45 light-year. It is located some 2,000 light-years away, near the western border of the southern constellation [continue reading]
Astronomers detect titanium oxide and titanium dioxide around the giant star VY Canis Majoris An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and from the University of Cologne, successfully identified two titanium oxides in the extended atmosphere around a giant star. The object VY Canis Major is [continue reading]