Lunar Month JS Model ` - Aug 4, 2020

The EJS Lunar Month JS model displays the appearance of the Moon over the course of the lunar (synodic) month.

Eclipse Safari ` - Jul 28, 2017

This is an interactive guide to the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse, available as an app for both Android and iOS devices.

When Galaxies Collide: Arp 148 ` - Nov 1, 2013

Arp 148, nicknamed Mayall's object, is the aftermath of an encounter between two galaxies, resulting in a ring-shaped galaxy and a long-tailed companion. The collision between the two parent galaxies produced a shockwave effect that first drew matter into the center and then caused it to propagate outwards in a ring. Arp 148 is located in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, approximately 500 million light-years away.

Hubble directly observes Planet Orbiting Fomalhaut ` - Nov 13, 2008

This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting its parent star, Fomalhaut.

The small white box at lower right pinpoints the planet's location. Fomalhaut b has carved a path along the inner edge of a vast, dusty debris ring encircling Fomalhaut that is 21.5 billion miles across. Fomalhaut b lies 1.8 billion miles inside the ring's inner edge and orbits 10.7 billion miles from its star.

The inset at bottom right is a composite image showing the planet's position during Hubble observations taken in 2004 and 2006. Astronomers have calculated that Fomalhaut b completes an orbit around its parent star every 872 years.

The white dot in the center of the image marks the star's location. The region around Fomalhaut's location is black because astronomers used the Advanced Camera's coronagraph to block out the star's bright glare so that the dim planet could be seen. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than its star. The radial streaks are scattered starlight. The red dot at lower left is a background star.

The Fomalhaut system is 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis.

This false-color image was taken in October 2004 and July 2006.

Eskimo Nebula ` - Nov 4, 2008

In its first glimpse of the heavens following the successful December 1999 servicing mission, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a majestic view of a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a dying, Sun-like star. This stellar relic, first spied by William Herschel in 1787, is nicknamed the "Eskimo" Nebula (NGC 2392) because, when viewed through ground-based telescopes, it resembles a face surrounded by a fur parka. In this Hubble telescope image, the "parka" is really a disk of material embellished with a ring of comet-shaped objects, with their tails streaming away from the central, dying star. The Eskimo's "face" also contains some fascinating details. Although this bright central region resembles a ball of twine, it is, in reality, a bubble of material being blown into space by the central star's intense "wind" of high-speed material.

Hubble Captures a Rare Eclipse on Uranus ` - Oct 8, 2008

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image is a never-before-seen astronomical alignment of a moon traversing the face of Uranus, and its accompanying shadow. The white dot near the center of Uranus' blue-green disk is the icy moon Ariel. The 700-mile-diameter satellite is casting a shadow onto the cloud tops of Uranus. To an observer on Uranus, this would appear as a solar eclipse, where the moon briefly blocks out the Sun as its shadow races across Uranus's cloud tops. This color composite image was created from images at three wavelengths in near infrared light obtained with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys on July 26, 2006.

The colorful Demise of a Sunlike Star ` - May 2, 2008

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the colorful "last hurrah" of a star like our Sun. The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. Ultraviolet light from the dying star then makes the material glow. The burned-out star, called a white dwarf, appears as a white dot in the center

'Death Star' Galaxy Black Hole Fires at Neighboring Galaxy ` - Jan 6, 2008

A powerful jet from a super massive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy, according to new findings from NASA observatories. This never-before witnessed galactic violence may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and trigger a burst of star formation in its destructive wake.

Flight of the Phoenix ` - Jan 6, 2008

Two massive spiral galaxies and a third irregular galaxy collide in this combined image from ESO's Very Large Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope.

"The Bird" contains a 'head' galaxy that is birthing stars at a violent rate of almost 200 suns per year, along with a 'heart' and 'body' consisting of two galaxy nuclei between tidal tails or 'wings.' The wings stretch more than 100,000 light years, roughly the size of our Milky Way.

                                                                    --Space.com

The Eagle Nebula ` - Jun 8, 2007

For the 15th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists used the ACS, Hubble's newest camera, to record a new region of the eerie-looking Eagle Nebula, producing an image with stunning detail. The new Eagle Nebula image reveals a tall, dense tower of gas being sculpted by ultraviolet light from a group of massive, hot stars.