The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: IC 443: The...
IC 443: The Jellyfish Nebula Explanation: Why is this jellyfish swimming in a sea of stars? Drifting near bright star Eta Geminorum, seen at the right, the Jellyfish Nebula extends its tentacles from...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: Rainbow Aurora...
Rainbow Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall Explanation: Yes, but can your aurora do this? First, yes, auroras can look like rainbows even though they are completely different phenomena. Auroras are...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: Jupiter and the...
Jupiter and the Geminid Explanation: For a brief moment, this brilliant fireball meteor outshone Jupiter in planet Earth's night. The serendipitous image was captured while hunting meteors under cold...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: Shakespeare in...
Shakespeare in Space Explanation: In 1986, Voyager 2 became the only spacecraft to explore ice giant planet Uranus close up. Still, this newly released image from the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: The Last Full...
The Last Full Moon Explanation: Known to some in the northern hemisphere as December's Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon, the last full moon of 2023 is rising in this surreal mountain and skyscape. The...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: Illustris: A...
Illustris: A Simulation of the Universe Explanation: How did we get here? Click play, sit back, and watch. A computer simulation of the evolution of the universe provides insight into how galaxies...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: NGC 1232: A Grand...
NGC 1232: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy Explanation: Galaxies are fascinating not only for what is visible, but for what is invisible. Grand spiral galaxy NGC 1232, captured in detail by one of the...
View ArticleThe Observation Deck: Latest Sky Photography • Submissions: 2024 January
__________________________________________________________________________________________________Please post your images here. Please see this thread before posting images; posting images...
View ArticleThe Observation Deck: Latest Sky Photography • Found Images: 2024 January
Have you seen a great image or video somewhere that you think would make a great APOD? Nominate it for APOD! Please post as much information here as you have about the image/video with a link to any...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: Rocket Transits...
Rocket Transits Rippling Moon Explanation: Can a rocket make the Moon ripple? No, but it can make a background moon appear wavy. The rocket, in this case, was a SpaceX Falcon Heavy that blasted off...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: A SAR Arc from...
A SAR Arc from New Zealand Explanation: What is that unusual red halo surrounding this aurora? It is a Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arc. SAR arcs are rare and have only been acknowledged and studied since...
View ArticleThe Communications Center: Breaking Science News • Discovery of a large and...
I would like to share with you my recent discovery of a large and faint nebula in the Triangulum galaxy, M33. I've been working on this project since 2021. Last fall, I gathered 153h of data and found...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: Zeta Oph: Runaway...
Zeta Oph: Runaway Star Explanation: Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this stunning infrared portrait....
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: Trapezium: At the...
Trapezium: At the Heart of Orion Explanation: Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of the Orion Nebula, are four hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium. Gathered within a...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: The Snows of...
The Snows of Churyumov-Gerasimenko Explanation: You couldn't really be caught in this blizzard while standing by a cliff on periodic comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Orbiting the comet in June of...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: The Cat's...
The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray Explanation: To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a giant cosmic conch shell. It is actually one of the brightest and most highly...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: The Phases of...
The Phases of Venus Explanation: Venus goes through phases. Just like our Moon, Venus can appear as a full circular disk, a thin crescent, or anything in between. Venus, frequently the brightest...
View ArticleThe Asterisk Café: Discuss Anything Astronomy Related • Quantum gravity
Quantum mechanics explains the forces of Nature asa quantum field where particles interact and transportsmall amounts of. Energy - quanta -Quantum mechanics explains the electromagnetism;strong...
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: Thor's...
Thor's Helmet Explanation: Thor not only has his own day (Thursday), but a helmet in the heavens. Popularly called Thor's Helmet, NGC 2359 is a hat-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages....
View ArticleThe Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: The Light, the...
The Light, the Dark, and the Dusty Explanation: This colorful skyscape spans about three full moons across nebula rich starfields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern...
View Article