First Step
The United States restarted the race to the Moon with the launch of Apollo 7 on October 11, 1968. It…
Bright Interloper
The globular cluster Messier 30 appears to be an interloper from another galaxy. The dense cluster probably belonged to a…
Heading for Mercury
BepiColombo, a European mission, approaches Mercury in this artist’s concept. The craft is scheduled for launch as early as October…
Pancake Galaxy
NGC 5907, one of the flattest galaxies known, forms a thin streak across the sky. Unlike most disk galaxies, including…
‘Peaceful’ Galaxy
A pair of colliding galaxies known as NGC 7252 resembles a picture of an atom, with electrons orbiting a nucleus.…
Close Clouds
The Magellanic Clouds — two companion galaxies of the Milky Way — shine through the dark skies above ALMA, a…
Moon Over Yellowstone
The Moon rises above Mt. Everts near Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. The Moon will be full on…
Violent Merger
Two neutron stars whirl together and merge to form a low-mass black hole in this artist’s concept. Detectors on Earth…
Getting High
One of the world's first high-altitude observatories was built atop ice-covered Mont Blanc, in France. It took its first observations…
Chip off the old Asteroid
Ida, the first known moon of an asteroid, is the tiny dot to the right of the asteroid Dactyl in…