The SolarSystem.com News, Space, Science, Technology and Shopping Portal
This book, Délimitation Scientifique des Constellations, written by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte and published in 1930, established the boundaries of the 88 current constellations. Credit: Michael E. Bakich The term “constellation” conjures up several connotations. The most well-known is “a group of stars visible to the naked eye, sometimes connected by imaginary lines or superimposed
The Pragyan rover's wheels penetrated several centimeters into the lunar soil, allowing the rover's APXS instrument to analyze the composition of the lunar regolith beneath the upper surface layer. Credit: ISRO 4.5 billion years ago, amid the chaos of the early solar system, the young Earth was rocked by a cataclysmic collision with another Mars-sized
The Wild Duck Cluster (Messier 11) is a magnificent open cluster rich enough to be mistaken for a globular cluster. Image: Jim Misti. The Wild Duck Cluster in Scutum, also known as Messier 11 and NGC 6705, is a jewel of the deep summer sky and one of the most spectacular open clusters in the
Considering regulation of the space industry now could prevent the proliferation of colonial practices in the future. Credit: NASA The past decade has seen rapid expansion of the commercial space industry. Rival nations are competing for prime military and economic positions beyond Earth. Public and private entities are crying out to mine the moonand a
Saturn is occulted by a nearly full Moon before dawn on August 21, in an event visible across the UK. From London, Saturn disappears behind the Moon's bright edge at 4.27am BST, reappearing at 5.20am. Titan is also occulted. AN graphics by Greg Smye-Rumsby. Hopefully clear skies will be available on the morning of 21
Jupiter's equatorial zone and Great Red Spot stand out in this infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope because their high-altitude haze reflects sunlight well. Also notice the bright auroral emissions near the giant planet's north and south poles. Credit: NASA/ESA/Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt Dark matter is a mysterious substance
Back to list of articles After nearly a decade of successful asteroid detection, the space telescope took its final image on July 31. An artist's rendering of NEOWISE is superimposed over the mission's first image of the asteroid. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech After 10 years and nearly 27 million images, NASA said goodbye to the Near-Earth Object
This 1874 lithograph was created by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot using the 15-inch refractor at the Harvard College Observatory, in order to measure the extent of the nebula. A glass plate with dark black lines was placed at the focus of the telescope to mark the location. Not surprisingly, it shows no central star. Credit: Annals
Image processing at wavelengths outside the visible range of the spectrum can produce spectacular results, such as this iconic James Webb Space Telescope image of the so-called cosmic cliffs. Gas and dust in the field of view surround NGC 3324 near the Carina Nebula. The filters used in this image range from 0.9 to 4.7
NASA's InSight lander ended its mission in 2022, but the data it collected revealed evidence of liquid water deep below the landing site. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Deep beneath the surface of Mars lies a vast reservoir of liquid water, according to seismometer data from NASA's retired InSight lander. The findings, published Aug. 12 in Proceedings of
