Looking Back
Earth and the Moon are small, glowing dots beneath Saturn's rings in this recent image from the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft.…
Through the Gap
Saturn’s rings arc above the Cassini spacecraft while storms in the planet’s atmosphere pass below it in this artist’s concept…
Grand Spiral
Bright waves of new stars, lanes of dark dust, and a central clump of billions of older stars highlight this…
Island Universes
NGC 6503 is a beautiful spiral galaxy spinning through the constellation Draco, the dragon. It is about 18 million light-years…
Planetary Jewel
Clouds made of the mineral that makes up rubies and sapphires may swirl through the blazing hot atmosphere of HAT-P-7b,…
A New Era
Astronomers and friends are gathering at McDonald Observatory on April 9 to rededicate the giant Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which has undergone…
Looking for Darkness
A supermassive black hole four million times the mass of the Sun inhabits the center of this bright swirl of…
Seeing Orange
Two colorful stars accompany the Moon on the evening of April 1. Aldebaran, the eye of the bull, stands to…
Busy Galaxy
M82 is one of the most vigorous galaxies around, as this Hubble Space Telescope composite image attests. Winds from hot…
Major Storm
A storm erupts on the Sun in this August 2012 image from a Sun-watching spacecraft. The storm includes a solar…