Message to all visitors of this site: We are very sorry to have to inform you that Anne has died at January 30th, 2015. In her honor we will keep this site open, but we are not able to post new articles or information on it. The site will from now on function as an [continue reading]

  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]