Astronomy Magazine: Space News, Observing, Planets, Galaxies

Picture of the Day

A round, cloud-like shell fills the center of the frame, its interior a tangle of glowing orange and red wisps edged by a faint blue-green rim. The surrounding sky is dark and speckled with stars, with soft reddish haze drifting across the background.

A wind-blown crescent

Aloke Palsikar, taken from Pie Town, New Mexico

The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) is an emission nebula about 5,600 light-years away in Cygnus. Its distinctive shape was formed by fast stellar winds from the Wolf-Rayet star at its center colliding with material the star shed earlier in its life. The astroimager took 3 hours of exposure in Hα and OIII filters with a 12-inch f/4.9 astrograph.

In the Sky

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A labeled close-up of the Moon's surface showing the craters Galilaei and Galilaei A near the crater Reiner, separated by the bright streak-like feature Reiner Gamma, with a compass indicating north and east and an inset showing the location on the full lunar disk.

Observing

The Sky Today on Wednesday, September 23: Around Reiner Gamma

What’s Launching This Week

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What’s Launching This Week

China targets two launches as SpaceX takes It easy

Today in the History of Astronomy

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A slender, pale blue crescent arches upward across the upper portion of the frame against a deep navy blue background. Strong edge lighting illuminates the smooth outer curve of the sphere, highlighting a faint, whispy white cloud feature near the upper right. The shadowed inner curve fades gradually into the surrounding dark space, creating high contrast and emphasis on the crescent's illuminated crescent edge.

Today in the History of Astronomy

Sept. 23, 1846: Johann Galle discovers Neptune

More News

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Features, Science

Finding light’s true nature

Observing

How to become a variable star observer

Exoplanets

Have astronomers discovered the first moon outside of our solar system?

$A telescopic photograph of a nearly face-on ringed spiral galaxy with a bright, glowing white-yellow core surrounded by multiple faint concentric blue-white spiral rings extending outward. The field is rich with distant background galaxies of various shapes and sizes scattered across the black sky, and a bright foreground star with prominent blue diffraction spikes is visible in the upper right.$

Science