2019 November 14 Mercury and the Quiet Sun Image Credit & Copyright: John Chumack Explanation: On November 11, 2019 the Sun was mostly quiet, experiencing a minimum in its 11 year cycle of activity. In fact, the only spot visible was actually planet Mercury, making a leisurely 5 1/2 hour transit […]
2019 November 13 Mercury in Silhouette Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Wise Explanation: The small, dark, round spot in this solar close up is planet Mercury. In the high resolution telescopic image, a colorized stack of 61 sharp video frames, a turbulent array of photospheric convection cells
2019 November 12 NGC 3717: A Nearly Sideways Spiral Galaxy Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Processing: D. Rosario Explanation: Some spiral galaxies are seen nearly sideways. Most bright stars in spiral galaxies swirl around the center in a disk, and seen from the side, this disk can be appear
2019 November 11 Lunar Craters Langrenus and Petavius Image Credit & Copyright: Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau Explanation: The history of the Moon is partly written in its craters. Pictured here is a lunar panorama taken from Earth featuring the large craters Langrenus, toward the left, and Petavi
2019 November 9 Saturn the Giant Image Credit: NASA Explanation: On May 25, 1961 U.S. president John Kennedy announced the goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the decade. By November 9, 1967 this Saturn V rocket was ready for launch and the first full test of its capabilities on the
2019 November 8 NGC 3572 and the Southern Tadpoles Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis Explanation: This cosmic skyscape features glowing gas and dark dust clouds along side the young stars of NGC 3572. A beautiful emission nebula and star cluster in far southern skies, the region is often o
2019 November 7 Messier 45: The Daughters of Atlas and Pleione Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona Explanation: Hurtling through a cosmic dust cloud a mere 400 light-years away, the lovely Pleiades or Seven Sisters open star cluster is well-known for
2019 November 6 21st Century M101 Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CXC, JPL – Caltech, STScI Explanation: One of the last entries in Charles Messier’s famous catalog, big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is definitely not one of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous,
2019 November 5 Spiral Galaxies Spinning Super-Fast Image Credit: Top row: NASA, ESA, Hubble, P. Ogle & J. DePasquale (STScI); Bottom row: SDSS, P. Ogle & J. DePasquale (STScI) Explanation: Why are these galaxies spinning so fast? If you estimated each spiral’s mass by how much light
