Astronomy Magazine: Space News, Observing, Planets, Galaxies

Picture of the Day

A tall, roughly oval ring of tangled, thread-like clouds fills the frame against a dark red haze sprinkled with tiny stars. The strands glow red with streaks of pale blue and white, brightest along a curved arc at upper left, a long sweeping arc at right, and a pair of thin, nearly straight streaks running diagonally through the middle, while a fainter, looser loop trails off toward the bottom.

Thrown for a loop

Ionut Nedelcu from Central Bedfordshire, England

The Cygnus Loop (Sharpless 2-103), a supernova remnant whose brightest arcs form the Veil Nebula, lies about 2,400 light-years away. Its glowing filaments trace gas heated by the blast wave of a massive star that exploded roughly 10,000 years ago. The imager took 17 hours of exposure in Hα/OIII/RGB filters with a 2.6-inch refractor at f/4.8.

In the Sky

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Observing

The Sky Today on Tuesday, October 13: Vesta at opposition

What’s Launching This Week

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What’s Launching This Week

South Korea, SpaceX, and China ready for launch this week

Today in the History of Astronomy

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A large, spherical space capsule rests on a low ring stand inside a glass display case against plain white museum walls. The capsule’s charred exterior features patches of dark reddish-brown paint and weathered metal, with a circular portal opening that reveals a brightly illuminated, detailed interior packed with instruments, panels, and seating. Light reflects off the surrounding glass enclosure, highlighting the rounded contour and heavy textures of the craft.

Human Spaceflight, Today in the History of Astronomy

Oct. 12, 1964: Voshkod 1 sends the first crew to space

More News

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$Photograph of a spiral galaxy tilted diagonally across the frame, with a glowing golden-tan core threaded with brown dust lanes and pink star-forming regions. Blue-white spiral arms and clusters of young stars extend outward from the core toward the upper right and lower left. A bright blue-white star with prominent diffraction spikes sits just below the core, and several other foreground stars with spikes are scattered across the dark background, along with a few small orange background galaxies.$

Galaxies, Science