Astronomy

Pluto and Eris now have a new counterpart. On July 11, 2008, the IAU/USGS Working Group on Planetary Nomenclature included Makemake (136472 Makemake) in the plutoid class, makes it officially both a dwarf planet and a plutoid, alongside the two previously known objects.
Discovered on March 31, 2005 by the team led by Michael Brown, the […]

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Pictured here is a Hubble Space Telescope image on Stingray Nebula. Located in constellation Ara (The Altar) at the distance of 18.000 light years, this beautiful object considered as the youngest planetary nebula ever observed!
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After the Cat’s Eye Nebula, we also have Cat’s Paw Nebula. Located in southern Scorpius, near NGC 6357 and the H 12 region with the IC 4628 nebula, it is actually an emission nebula with a red color that originates from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms.
Like typical emission nebula, Cat’s Paw Nebula composed […]

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This picture shows galaxy ESO 593-IG 008, or IRAS 19115-2124. The previously taken Hubble images shows that the object are colliding two galaxies — one a barred spiral, and the other is more irregular. But recent observation with ESO’s Very Large Telescope made clear identification of a third, separate component, an irregular, yet fairly massive […]

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This blog entry is about one of the most famed stars of the sky, Vega. As the luminary of the exquisite constellation Lyra, the Lyre, which represents the harp of the great mythical musician Orpheus, Vega also known as “Alpha Lyrae”. Its name derives from an Arabic phrase that means “the swooping eagle.”
Vega has […]

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Resembling festive lights on a holiday wreath, this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the nearby spiral galaxy M74 is an iconic reminder of the impending season. Bright knots of glowing gas light up the spiral arms, indicating a rich environment of star formation.
M74 (Messier 74), also called NGC 628, is a stunning example […]

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This composite picture shows beautiful detail of G292.0+1.8. Located at a distance of 20,000 light years in constellation Centaurus, this object considered as a “textbook” case of a supernova remnant.
Near the center of G292.0+1.8 is the so-called pulsar wind nebula, most easily seen in high energy X-rays. This is the magnetized bubble of high-energy particles […]

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Did you know what is the brightest star in the night sky? Yes, it is Sirius. We can easily find this star by looking south and to the east from the famous Orion constellation. The name “Sirius” comes from the Greek word for “searing” or “scorching,” certainly appropriate for this star that shines at the […]

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Two galaxies perform an intricate dance in this new Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxies, containing a vast number of stars, swing past each other in a graceful performance choreographed by gravity.
The pair, known collectively as Arp 87, is one of hundreds of interacting and merging galaxies known in our nearby universe. Arp 87 was […]

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This picture shows an object known as I Zwicky 18, a dwarf irregular galaxy that first identified by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in a 1930s photographic survey of galaxies. Observations of this object at the Palomar Observatory around 40 years ago seemed to show that it was one of the youngest galaxies in the nearby […]

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