Huang Dandan, taken from Shennongjia, Hubei, China The gegenschein, a faint glow of sunlight scattered back toward Earth by dust grains in the inner solar system, sits in Aquarius at the point directly opposite the Sun in this all-sky view. The Milky Way arcs across the center, and the red light at bottom is aContinue reading "Gegenschein over Shennongjia"

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Mike Selby/Warren Keller, taken from El Sauce Observatory, Chile NGC 6902 is a rarely-imaged face-on spiral galaxy about 130 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. Its outer blue arms are filamentary, winding around a bright, yellow core of older stars. The image was taken with a 17-inch PlaneWave CDK astrograph and LRGBContinue reading "A feathery spiral in Sagittarius"

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Patrick Cosgrove from Honeoye Falls, New York Sharpless 2–140 is sometimes called the Hidden Nebula for the way it appears to be partially swallowed by the neighboring dark cloud LDN 1204, adjacent to the bright shock front of ionized gas. It glows about 3,000 light-years away in Cepheus. The imager took just over 12 hoursContinue reading "The Hidden Nebula’s glowing edge"

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Alessandro Carrozzi, taken near Palencia, Spain The Sun’s corona glows in all its glory in this high-dynamic range image taken during totality on Aug. 12. Bright prominences are visible at the Sun’s limb, as well as faint outer structures formed by the solar wind streaming out along magnetic field lines. Earthshine is also apparent, dimlyContinue reading "The corona from Spain"

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Anushtup Roy Choudhury from Kolkata, India Looming over the Himalayas in this vista are the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex and the Blue Horsehead Nebula (IC 4592). The former’s blue reflection nebulae, red clouds of emission, and dark dust lanes spread across Ophiuchus and Scorpius some 460 light-years away. The latter, lit by the blue subgiantContinue reading "A colorful cosmic canvas"

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Gerald Rhemann, taken from Farm Tivoli, Namibia The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a planetary nebula around 650 light-years away in Aquarius, the glowing remains of a dying, Sun-like star’s outer layers. They now surround a hot white dwarf left at the nebula’s center. The imager captured about 24.3 hours of exposure in Hα/OIII/LRGB filtersContinue reading "A glowing eye"

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Mark Killion, taken from Beryl, Utah The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) is a dark, dense column of gas and dust about 2,400 light-years away in Cepheus, part of the larger IC 1396 emission region. The feature is being sculpted by radiation and winds from a nearby massive star, which ionizes the bright rim ofContinue reading "A dusty trunk"

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Chris Schur, taken from Payson, Arizona In 1983, NASA’s pioneering Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) imaged the sky and found dust trails littered throughout the solar system. The cause turned out to be comets, which leave trails of dust that build up in their orbit. The dust trail of 10P/Tempel (also known as Comet Tempel 2)Continue reading "Comet Tempel 2’s dust trail"

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John Vermette, taken from Starfront Observatory, Texas The famous galaxy group Markarian’s Chain in the heart of the Virgo cluster of galaxies dominates this wide-field vista as a line of eight galaxies stretching from upper left. But there are many more galaxies in this image: Every dot of light is a galaxy, as the photographerContinue reading "Virgo vertigo"

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Massimo Di Fusco, taken via Chilescope NGC 6727 is a reflection nebula and star-forming region in Corona Australis, part of the larger Corona Australis Molecular Cloud. It is accompanied in this image by globular cluster NGC 6723, sometimes called the Chandelier Cluster. This wide-field portrait combines 54 minutes of RGB exposure with a 20-inch f/3.8Continue reading "A glob and a stellar nursery"

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Gaetan Thibault from Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Quebec, Canada A meteor slices across the Summer Triangle — glowing hot blue as it reaches peak brightness in the center of its trail. This wide-field view combines 21 minutes of total exposure taken with a Canon astrophography DSLR and 20mm lens at f/3.2 (one meteor frame and 20 additional 60-secondContinue reading "A June Epsilon Cygnid"

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📷 Mark Johnston from Scottsdale, Arizona A line of filaments march toward the limb of the Sun, which itself is bedecked with multiple prominences in this Hα image. Both phenomena are made of loops and tendrils of plasma that arch off the surface of the Sun; their varying appearance depends on the viewing geometry. TheContinue reading "Prominent filaments"

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Emmanuel Delgadillo from Jalisco, Mexico The Eagle Nebula (M16) is well-known for its dense star-forming pillars of gas and dust — including those in the famed Hubble Space Telescope’s “Fingers of Creation” image. It lies roughly 5,000 light-years away in Serpens. This photographer combined over 14 hours of exposure taken with Hα/OIII and SII/OIII dual-bandContinue reading "The Eagle’s lair"

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Jeffrey Horne, taken from Nashville, Tennessee The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237–9) is a vast star-forming complex about 5,000 light-years away in Monoceros. This portrait combines 200⅓ hours of SHO data taken from Jan. 1 to April 12, 2026, with a 5-inch f/5.6 scope. The extremely deep exposure reveals myriad delicate tendrils within the nebula, whereContinue reading "Budding stars"

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Carl Parnell, taken from Dawlish, Devon, UK The Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443 or Sharpless 2–248) is the remnant of a supernova that went off some 30,000 years ago in Gemini. Filling the top half of the image is a glowing molecular complex threaded by multiple dark nebula (LDN 1565–8). The supernova debris plowing into thisContinue reading "Sky nettle"

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Marco Wong, taken from Sussex, U.K. The Milky Way’s bright star fields and dense dust lanes arch above the chalk cliffs of Beachy Head and the English Channel in this wide-field nightscape. The photographer used a Canon DSLR and a 28mm f/1.4 lens to take a tracked vertical panorama of five panels of stacked skyContinue reading "Milky Way over Beachy Head"

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📷: Greg Meyer from Phoenix, Arizona The Antenna Galaxies (NGC 4038/9; at left) in Corvus are one of the most famous examples of interacting galaxies. As the two galaxies merge, gravitational tidal forces have flung their stars out into long tails. At right are the galaxy NGC 4027 and its smaller companion NGC 4027A. TheContinue reading "A galactic collision"

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