Perseid Meteor, Red Sprites, and Nova RS Oph
16.08.2021

This was an unusual sky. It wasn't unusual because of the central band the Milky Way Galaxy, visible along the image left. Most dark skies show part of the Milky Way. It wasn't unusual because of the bright meteor visible on the upper right.

Naked Eye Nova Sagittarii 2015 No 2
24.03.2015

It quickly went from obscurity to one of the brighter stars in Sagittarius -- but it's fading. Named Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2, the stellar explosion is the brightest nova visible from Earth in over a year. The featured image was captured four days ago from Ranikhet in the Indian Himalayas.

Nova over Thailand
21.11.2016

A nova in Sagittarius is bright enough to see with binoculars. Detected last month, the stellar explosion even approached the limit of naked-eye visibility last week. A classical nova results from a thermonuclear explosion...

Carina in Perspective
5.05.2020

You need to be in the south, looking south, to see such a sky. And only then if you're lucky. Just above the picturesque tree is the impressive Carina Nebula, one of the few nebulas in the sky that is visible to the unaided eye.

WR32 and Interstellar Clouds in Carina
8.02.2021

Stars can be like artists. With interstellar gas as a canvas, a massive and tumultuous Wolf-Rayet star has created the picturesque ruffled half-circular filaments called WR32, on the image left. Additionally, the winds...

Explosions from White Dwarf Star RS Oph
22.08.2021

Spectacular explosions keep occurring in the binary star system named RS Ophiuchi. Every 20 years or so, the red giant star dumps enough hydrogen gas onto its companion white dwarf star to set off a brilliant thermonuclear explosion on the white dwarf's surface.

Nova Cygni 1992
27.12.1995

In 1992 a tremendous explosion occurred in the constellation of Cygnus. Dubbed Nova Cygni 1992, this event most probably occurred in an accretion disk binary system. Astronomers hypothesize that this system's white dwarf had so much gas dumped onto it's surface that conditions became ripe for nuclear fusion.

T Pyxidis: Recurrent Nova
25.09.1997

What happens when a thermonuclear blast occurs on the surface of a white dwarf star? Over the years astronomers have watched (at a safe distance ...) as, 6,000 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Pyxis, a binary star known as T Pyxidis repeatedly produces these fearsome explosions.

Unusual Giant Galaxy NGC 1316
16.08.2000

Can unusual giant galaxy NGC 1316 help calibrate the universe? Quite possibly -- if it turns out this atypical galaxy is composed of typical stars. NGC 1316, pictured above, is most obviously strange because...

A Bright Nova in Cassiopeia
7.06.2021

WhatБs that new spot of light in Cassiopeia? A nova. Although novas occur frequently throughout the universe, this nova, known as Nova Cas 2021 or V1405 Cas, became so unusually bright in the skies of Earth last month that it was visible to the unaided eye.