Solar Eclipse of 2006 March ` - Mar 29, 2006

See images of the 2006 March 29 solar eclipse. The moon's shadow first darkened the eastern tip of Brazil, and then moved across the Atlantic Ocean to make landfall in Ghana. It moved northeast through Niger, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, across the Mediterranean and into Turkey. It will continue through central Asia.

Hubble's Latest Look at Pluto's Moons Supports a Common Birth ` - Mar 10, 2006

This pair of NASA Hubble Space Telescope images shows the motion of Pluto's satellites between February 15th and March 2nd, 2006. During this 15-day period, Pluto's newly-discovered satellites S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2 revolved counterclockwise less than one revolution while Pluto's much larger moon Charon completed more than two counterclockwise revolutions.

Giant Impact Crater Found In Egytian Desert ` - Mar 5, 2006

Boston University geologists Farouk El-Baz and Eman Ghoneim have used Landsat images to uncover the 31-km Kebira crater, now the largest known impact remnant in the Sahara. Kebira is located in the remote western desert of Egypt bordering Libya.

Hubble's Sharpest View of the Orion Nebula ` - Jan 15, 2006

This HST ACS mosaic is the highest resolution image of the entire Orion Nebula star-forming region ever obtained. Many of the 3000 stars have never been seen in visible light. Among them are young brown dwarfs and a small population of binary brown dwarfs.

A Gallery of Einstein Rings ` - Dec 16, 2005

Adam Bolton and collaborators have used the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Hubble Space Telescope to discover 8 new nearly perfect Einstein rings. The blue ring is gravitationally lensed light from a distant background galaxy. The rings have allowed astronomers to measure the mass of the intervening elliptical galaxy.

SN 1006 ` - Dec 16, 2005

Chandra X-ray Observatory false-color mosaic of the remnant of the supernova first observed in 1006 AD. The red and green colors represent mutli-million degree ejecta in the supernova explosion. The blue color represents non-thermal synchrotron X-ray emission from electrons accelerated by the blast wave. SN 1006 is in the constellation Lupus at a distance of 7000 light years.

Spitzer Captures Cosmic Mountains of Creation ` - Dec 14, 2005

Spitzer infrared image of the W5 star-forming region in Cassiopeia. The "Mountains of Creation" pictured here are ten times larger than the "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula. The two dense concentrations contain hundreds of newly-born, optically invisible stars.

Neptune-Mass Exoplanet Around Small Star ` - Dec 9, 2005

French and Swiss astronomers using the HARPS instrument on ESO's 3.6-m telescope at La Silla have found a neptune-mass exoplanet around a red-dwarf star. Because these stars are very common, the discovery is crucial in the census of other planetary systems.

Crab Nebula Mosaic ` - Dec 9, 2005

Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 mosaic of the Crab Nebula, the remnant of a supernova explosion recorded by Japanese and Chinese astronomers in 1054. The orange filaments glowing in H-alpha are the ejected remains of the progenitor. The neutron star powers the synchrotron nebula, seen here in blue.

Crab Nebula Mosaic ` - Dec 8, 2005

Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 mosaic of the Crab Nebula, the remnant of a supernova explosion recorded by Japanese and Chinese astronomers in 1054. The orange filaments glowing in H-alpha are the ejected remains of the progenitor. The neutron star powers the synchrotron nebula, seen here in blue.