The interstellar cloud of dust and gas captured in this sharp telescopic snapshot is seen to change its appearance noticeably over periods as short as a few weeks. Discovered over […]

Comets can be huge. When far from the Sun, a comet’s size usually refers to its hard nucleus of ice and rock, which typically spans a few kilometers — smaller […]

Stars come in bunches. The most famous bunch of stars on the sky is the Pleiades, a bright cluster that can be easily seen with the unaided eye. The Pleiades […]

Why does this comet have so many tails? C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has developed several long and intricate tails visible from Earth’s southern hemisphere over the past two weeks. Many observers […]

Clouds of stardust drift through this deep skyscape, across the Perseus molecular cloud some 850 light-years away. Dusty nebulae reflecting light from embedded young stars stand out in the nearly […]

Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS has made a dramatic appearance in planet Earth’s skies. A visitor from the distant Oort Cloud, the comet reached its perihelion on January 13. On January […]

Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you can find this cosmic expanse of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies. NGC 7814 is centered in the sharp […]

The North America nebula on the sky can do what the North America continent on Earth cannot — form stars. Specifically, in analogy to the Earth-confined continent, the bright part […]

What’s that in the sky? Above the city, above most clouds, far in the distance: it’s a comet. Pictured, the impressive tail of Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) was imaged from […]

Why does Comet ATLAS have such colorful tails? Last week Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) passed its closest to the Sun — well inside the orbit of Mercury — and brightened […]