Say hello to the Crab Nebula, first among the Messier (pronounced MESS-ee-ay) objects. This image shows the Crab Nebula as it appeared in late 2017. The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant, the aftermath...
What happens when galaxies collide? Pictures of interacting galaxies like this tend to look quite dramatic. They beg the question: what would happen if a galaxy collided with ours? As it turns out, the...
This week we will take a look at an open star cluster named NGC 1027. An open star cluster is a cluster of stars that are very loosely held together by gravity, if at all. One of the things that astronomers...
When we picture an astronomer at work, we normally think of someone staying up at an observatory till the wee hours of the morning, gathering and analyzing data. However, there is one object that can only...
By far the most common question I get while working at the observatory is, “What is a Nebula?” The answer is complex, because there are many different kinds of nebulae. One of the things many nebulae...
Most people picture an inert ball of colored gas when they think about Jupiter. This ball is separated into orange, brown and white stripes, with the notorious red spot looming large over the southern...
Many people can name the eight planets of our solar system but few are familiar with their hosts of natural satellites. While our own moon will be forever dear to us, it has conditioned us to think of...
