The latest observations from professional and amateur astronomers around the world show that the much-hyped comet ISON is still very much alive, and new data suggests that it may very well survive its close swing by the Sun on November 28. The big question on skywatchers’ minds, however, is how good of a sky…
The latest observations from professional and amateur astronomers around the world show that the much-hyped comet ISON is still very much alive, and new data suggests that it may very well survive its close swing by the Sun on November 28. The big question on skywatchers’ minds, however, is how good of a sky…
Astronomers have stumbled on a cosmic mystery surrounding some of the most beautiful objects in our galaxy. New deep-sky images of the Milky Way’s central core reveal picturesque butterfly-shaped gas clouds left behind by dying stars called bipolar planetary nebulae. And all appear to be mysteriously aligned with one another. Planetary nebulae form during the…
Astronomers have stumbled on a cosmic mystery surrounding some of the most beautiful objects in our galaxy. New deep-sky images of the Milky Way’s central core reveal picturesque butterfly-shaped gas clouds left behind by dying stars called bipolar planetary nebulae. And all appear to be mysteriously aligned with one another. Planetary nebulae form during the…
Will the much talked about comet ISON, discovered by Russian amateur astronomers last year, turn out to be what some are calling the ‘comet of the century’ ? Not likely, says one researcher who has just concluded a preliminary study using the latest observations of the icy interloper. (Related: “New Comet Discovered.”) Astronomer Ignacio Ferrin,…
The Hubble Space Telescope has spied a pair of giant galaxies that bear a striking resemblance to a penguin guarding its egg. This cosmic zoological find—known as Arp 142—is in reality the blue spiral galaxy, NGC 2936, twisted by the gravitational pull of the smaller elliptical galaxy NGC 2937 below it. Hubble has been able…