Mariner's Mercury
Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, remains the most mysterious of the Solar System's inner planets. Hiding in the Sun's glare it is a difficult target for Earth bound observers. The only spacecraft to explore Mercury close-up was Mariner 10 ...
The Pulsar Powered Crab
In the Summer of 1054 A.D. Chinese astronomers reported that a star in the constellation of Taurus suddenly became as bright as the full Moon. Fading slowly, it remained visible for over a year. It is now understood that a spectacular supernova ...
Nozomi: Earth and Moon
Japan launched its first mission to orbit Mars, Nozomi (Hope), on July 3rd from the Kagoshima Space Center on the island of Kyushu. Nozomi's goal is to explore the Martian atmosphere and magnetic field as well as regions of the planet's surface ...
SGR 1900+14: Magnetar
On August 27th an intense flash of X-rays and gamma-rays swept through our Solar System. Five spacecraft of the Third InterPlanetary gamma-ray burst Network, Ulysses, WIND, RXTE, NEAR, and BeppoSAX, recorded the high energy signal -- a signal so ...
Saturn from Earth
Saturn is the second largest planet in our Solar System. Saturn has been easily visible in the sky since history has been recorded. Galileo used one of the first telescopes in 1610 to discover Saturn's rings, which he first thought were moons. ...
A Colorful Aurora
A solar storm overtook the Earth on August 26th. The Earth survived unscathed, as usual, although many northerners reported an impressive display of aurora. Many of these auroras changed rapidly, with patterns appearing and disappearing ...
A3827: Galactic Cannibal
It was mealtime in galaxy cluster Abell 3827. The hungry cluster dominant galaxy in A3827's center is seen being fed. Breakfast included five smaller galaxies unfortunate enough to wander too close to the cluster's central supergiant galaxy. ...
The Sun Erupts
The Sun is a seething ball of extremely hot gas. Above, the Sun was captured by Skylab in 1973 throwing off one the largest eruptive prominences in recorded history. The Sun has survived for about 5 billion years, and will likely survive for ...
Orion Star Colours
What determines a star's colour? Its temperature. Red stars are cool, around 3,000 kelvins (K), while blue stars are hotter and can have temperatures over 30,000 K. Our own lovely yellow Sun's temperature is a comforting 6,000 K. Differences in ...
Hydrogen Trifid
Clouds of glowing hydrogen gas mingle with dark dust lanes in the Trifid Nebula, a star forming region in the constellation Sagittarius. In this and other similar emission nebulae, energetic ultraviolet light from an embedded hot young star ...
