Why is the Solar System Flat?
About 4.6 billion years ago, a giant shapeless cloud full of dust and gas condensed in one place due to the irresistible force of gravity. This is how the Moon, the Sun and all the planets in our system are … Read More
A New NASA Map Shows Detected Fireballs and Their Impact Energy From The Last 30 Years
During the peak of the Perseids meteor shower last month, numerous streaks of light raced across the night sky. Every year in mid- to late-August, Earth’s orbit intersects with the debris trail left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, resulting in a spectacular … Read More
See A Rare Double Quasar Caught in Action
Monsters lurk in the cores of all galaxies: supermassive black holes millions or billions of times the mass of our Sun. And as galaxies merge, so, too, do these black holes, which gradually approach each other over millions of years. … Read More
The Carrington Event – The Most Powerful Geomagnetic Storm in History
On August 28, 1859, the Carrington event began with a massive ejection of a solar coronal mass that struck the Earth’s magnetosphere and caused the most powerful geomagnetic storm in history. They called it a solar superstorm. Solar activity, with … Read More
These Two Galaxies Were Spotted Mid-Collision
Imaged by the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, the galaxies NGC 5394 (the smaller one, on the right) and NGC 5395 (the larger one, on the left) are in the middle of colliding over the span of millions of years. It … Read More
Perseverance Rover Spots Tiny Mars Moon Deimos (video)
NASA’s Perseverance rover has given us an otherworldly skywatching treat — the minuscule Mars moon Deimos, twinkling in the dusty Red Planet skies. “Skywatching is fun no matter where you are. I took this short time-lapse movie to watch for … Read More