Space

You’ll find this terrific open cluster midway between 5th-magnitude Sigma Cassiopeiae and 6th-magnitude Rho Cas. This group glows at magnitude 6.7, so even through a 4-inch telescope, you’ll see 50 stars evenly spread across this rich cluster’s face. An 8-inch telescope shows more than a hundred members and the number just keeps increasing with aperture.Continue reading “Michael’s Miscellany: Observe Herschel’s Spiral Cluster”

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NASA’s Discovery Program, begun in the 1990s and continuing today with missions like Lucy and Psyche, is focused on frequent, cost-effective investigations of our solar system. Its first mission launched in 1996 to near-Earth asteroid Shoemaker; the second mission was the Mars Pathfinder mission, also launched in 1996. On Jan. 6, 1998, the third missionContinue reading “Jan. 6, 1998: Lunar Prospector launches”

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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out in the evening of January 6 and find the Moon. Near Luna, glowing at magnitude 1.3, will be Regulus, the Alpha star of the constellation Leo the Lion. The distances between these two objects will change hourly, so maybe check them several times thatContinue reading “This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Moon encounters Regulus”

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Though a banker by profession, Wilhelm Beer, who was born Jan. 4, 1797, in Germany, dedicated his life to astronomy, establishing a private observatory in Berlin and acting as a patron and collaborator to professional astronomer Johann Madler. Between 1834 and 1836, Beer and Madler created and published Mappa Selenographica, the most complete and correctContinue reading “Jan. 4, 1797: The birth of Wilhelm Beer”

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The Spirit rover landed on Mars on Jan. 4, 2004. Like its twin, Opportunity, Spirit was assigned an initial mission of only 90 sols. It exceeded this mission lifetime by more than 20 times, delivering invaluable science as it explored the Red Planet. It made its home in Gusev Crater, an ancient impact site andContinue reading “Jan. 3, 2004: Spirit lands on Mars”

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The phenomenon of a Full Moon arises when our planet, Earth, is precisely sandwiched between the Sun and the Moon. This alignment ensures the entire side of the Moon that faces us gleams under sunlight. Thanks to the Moon’s orbit around Earth, the angle of sunlight hitting the lunar surface and being reflected back toContinue reading “2026 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases”

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If you have access to an 8-inch or larger telescope, look in the northern part of the constellation Andromeda the Princessfor a planetary nebula called the Blue Snowball. Insert an eyepiece that will give you a magnification around 100x, and you’ll see immediately why astronomers gave it that name. Specifically, point your scope roughly 4½° east of the magnitudeContinue reading “Michael’s Miscellany: Observe the Blue Snowball”

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Starlight and stardust are not enough to drive the powerful winds of giant stars, transporting the building blocks of life through our galaxy. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The team, from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, focused on the star R Doradus. Its result overturns a long-held ideaContinue reading “How did the atoms needed for life get into space?”

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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out in the evening and early morning hours around January 4. The time before sunrise on that date will be the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower. The Moon will be bright, so look away from it. Hopefully, you’ll see some bright shooting stars.Continue reading “This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Quadrantid meteor shower”

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When NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) rode safely to space on an Ariane 5 booster from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, the liftoff at 7:20 A.M. EST on Dec. 25, 2021, marked the end of a development full of delays and cost overruns — and the beginning of the telescope’s month-longContinue reading “Dec. 21, 2021: JWST sees its final delay”

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On Dec. 20, 1900, astronomer Michel Giacobini spotted a 10th-magnitude comet while working at Nice Observatory, in France. Calculations following his discovery suggested the comet had an orbital period of a bit less than seven years. When German astronomer Ernst Zinner rediscovered the comet on Oct. 23, 1913, happening across it by accident while observingContinue reading “Dec. 20, 1900: The discovery of 21P/Giacobini-Zinner”

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Beauty often comes in small packages. Take Circinus the Compasses. This southern constellation ranks 85th in size among the sky’s 88 stellar groupings, yet it holds the stunning dark nebula known as the Circinus West molecular cloud. A dense region of dust and cold gas, Circinus West effectively blocks all the light from the richContinue reading “DECam captures the dark heart of Circinus the Compasses”

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The recent stranding of the Shenzhou-21 crew, caused by debris damage to the Shenzhou-20 return capsule, underscores the practical risks of an increasingly crowded low Earth orbit. With launch cadences nearly 12 times higher in 2024 than in 2014, the volume of debris in orbit traveling at dangerous speeds will only continue to grow, threateningContinue reading “Can game theory help declutter space? “

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Since 3D printing became accessible to the average consumer in the 2010s, the internet has exploded with printable designs from creators around the world. Sites like Thingiverse and Printables host millions of downloadable files, and decent printers can be had for as little as $200. I got a Prusa i3 Mk3s+ for Christmas in 2022Continue reading “Can you 3D-print a telescope?”

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Star maps and charts are a mainstay of both amateur and professional sky observers. Whether it’s on a simple seasonal map or in a comprehensive atlas, the stars listed appear steadfast and constant.  Yet there are stars that have appeared in these publications and then vanished. Some have been misplaced or even just imagined. UnderstandingContinue reading “Stars lost to history”

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Developed together, the twin Mariner 1 and 2 spacecraft were based on the Ranger lunar probe and planned for a joint mission to our closest neighboring planet. The probes featured seven instruments for studying Venus’ atmosphere, temperature, and magnetic field. On July 22, 1962, Mariner 1 launched, but the spacecraft was destroyed only minutes intoContinue reading “Dec. 14, 1961: Mariner 2 flies by Venus”

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Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of astronomers has found the earliest known supernova, one which exploded when the universe was just 730 million years old. This observation shattered JWST’s previous record, a supernova that occurred when the universe was 1.8 billion years old. The team was following up on a gamma rayContinue reading “JWST captures the earliest supernova yet”

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The annual Geminid meteor shower, whose peak occurs on the night of December 13, usually puts on a great show. Occurring less than a month after the Leonid meteor shower, the Geminid shower generally produces the brightest meteors of the year. In 2025, the Moon will be a waning crescent, so its light won’t affectContinue reading “Don’t miss the Geminid meteor shower”

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Approximately 424 million light-years away, a vast chunk of the cosmic web (the network-like distribution of matter the universe displays on the largest scale) appears as if it’s been caught in a vortex. It’s the biggest single spinning structure astronomers have ever seen, measuring around 117,000 light-years across and 5.5 million light-years long. The discoveryContinue reading “Fourteen galaxies whirl together on a cosmic carousel”

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