August 15, 2014 The Comet Galaxy, a spiral galaxy in Sculptor Image Credit: NASA & ESA The Comet Galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a little more mass than our Milky Way galaxy, located 3.2 billion light-years away from Earth, within the galaxy cluster Abell 2667, in the small southern constellation of Sculptor. It was [continue reading]
After a decade-long journey chasing its target, ESA’s Rosetta has today become the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, opening a new chapter in Solar System exploration. Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko and Rosetta now lie 405 million kilometers from Earth, about half way between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, rushing towards the inner Solar System at [continue reading]
August 6, 2014 Lupus 3, a dark cloud in Scorpius Image Credit: ESO/F. Comeron Lupus 3 is a dark, star-forming cloud with an associated cluster of brilliant stars, located about 600 light-years from Earth within our Milky Way Galaxy in the southern constellation of Scorpius (the Scorpion). The section shown here is about five light-years [continue reading]
Dear readers, Some of you give a reaction on my website or on a post on it. I appreciate that very much, and I’m trying to answer all reactions. However, I believe some reactions end up in my spam-box, and because I’m getting an awful lot of spam (hundreds a day), I don’t check [continue reading]
July 29, 2014 NGC 514, an intermediate spiral galaxy in Pisces Image Credit: Curt Harris/NOAO/AURA/NSF and Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona (http://skycenter.arizona.edu/gallery) NGC 514 is an intermediate spiral galaxy, located about 95.9 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Pisces (the Fishes), while it is receding from us at approximately 2,472 kilometers per [continue reading]
July 16, 2014 Minkowski’s Footprint, a protoplanetary nebula in Cygnus Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Minkowski’s Footprint [designated Minkowski 92 (M1-92) and IRAS 19343+2926] is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula, located about 8,000 light-years away from Earth in the northern constellation of Cygnus (the Swan), that features two vast onion-shaped structures on either side of a central [continue reading]