These micrometeorites were recovered from the ocean floor. They average about a millimeter across. Credit: Donald Brownlee/University of Washington As I look down into a Petri dish of sand through a binocular microscope, the larger grains become obelisks, with smaller ones forming avenues between them. It’s a microscopic echo of the Chicago skyline that I…
A successful courtship | Astronomy Magazine false product a-successful-courtship https://www.astronomy.com/picture-of-the-day/photo/a-successful-courtship/ A successful courtship | Astronomy Magazine Haim Huli from Kibutz Ramat HaKovesh, Israel NGC 1360 — also known as the Robin’s Egg — lies in Fornax, roughly 1,400 light-years distant. Observations in 2017 showed this planetary nebula has not one but two white dwarfs at…
An artist’s impression of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Credit: NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan All space missions come to an end. Some die quietly of old age, running out of fuel or power. Some go in a blaze of glory, plunging into an atmosphere and burning up, sending back data to the last. Others self-destruct, never…
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Back to Article List From the August 2024 issue The newer TESS mission covers almost the entire sky, compared to the small patch of sky observed by Kepler. Kepler stared at only a few small fields (blue) of about 116 square degrees each in the sky during its lifetime: one in Cygnus and several along…
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Back to Article List From the August 2024 issue To perfectly frame objects in your field of view, you’ll need to know your telescope’s focal length — and a bit of math. My first image of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) was effectively zoomed in so far that the object looked nothing like a lagoon. It…
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The International Space Station, as photographed by astronauts in October 2018. Credit: NASA Although it may seem hard to believe, the International Space Station (ISS) is nearing the end of its operational lifespan. Some readers might’ve even been born after the first section of the ISS was launched in 1998 and have never lived in…
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The Pragyan rover’s wheels penetrated several centimeters into the lunar soil, allowing the rover’s APXS instrument to analyze the composition of the lunar regolith below the top surface layer. Credit: ISRO 4.5 billion years ago, amid the chaos of the early solar system, the young Earth was rocked by a cataclysmic collision with another planet…
Read More “India’s lunar rover found remnants of the Moon’s ancient global magma ocean” »
The wild Duck Cluster (Messier 11) is a superb open cluster that’s rich enough to be mistaken for a globular cluster. Image: Jim Misti. The Wild Duck Cluster in Scutum, known also Messier 11 and NGC 6705, is a deep-sky showpiece of the summer sky as one of the most spectacular open clusters in the…
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Sunspots were widely spread on the Sun on 1 August 2023. Image: Sheri Lynn Karl. The Sun is our very own special star, which we rely on totally for our continued existence. The long summer days, hopefully blessed with the year’s best weather conditions, when the Sun rides high in the sky, are ideal for…
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Messier 4 is one of largest and loosest globular clusters in the Messier catalogue. Image: Adam Block. The night sky in early summer is packed with so many great globular clusters that it’s hard to know where to look first. Messier 13 and Messier 5 are clear favourites, and the Messier hoards in Ophiuchus beckon,…
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