Twenty-six black hole candidates (labeled in the image) have been discovered in the Milky Way's galactic neighbor, Andromeda (M31). Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered an unprecedented bonanza of black holes in the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way. Using more ...

Illuminated Zhumell Base Modification As anybody with manual degree circle dobsonian quickly realizes, reading azimuth from the base in the dark is quite difficult. I've spent many nights shining a pocket red LED keychain light at the azimuth base while juggling my smartphone astronomy app. I solved my problem this ...

An asteroid big enough to wipe out civilization is getting attention from the White House and from astronomers as it passes by on Friday — and you can track the progress of 1998 QE2's close encounter online. Fortunately, there's no chance that 1998 QE2 and its newly discovered moon will come ...

Saturn's North Pole Mega Storm! On Monday, NASA released stunning images and a video of the storm that rages on Saturn’s north pole. Cassini’s leader of imaging, Carolyn Porco said in an email about the new images and video, “One of the most gorgeous sights we have been privileged to ...

The universe as we know it has gotten a bit older than we originally thought. At a March 21 NASA telephone news conference, scientists from the U.S. team participating in the European Space Agency’s Planck mission to map the cosmic microwave background (CMB) discussed Planck’s first cosmological results, including some ...

PANSTARRS view from Chicago Skies PANSTARRS should begin to finally become visible to Northern Hemisphere skywatchers on Thursday (March 7), weather permitting, when it will rise very low near the west-southwest horizon about a half hour after sunset. Next Tuesday (March 12), the comet will stand almost directly above the western ...

So today is the big day! Asteroid 2012 DA-14 will make the closet "recorded" approach to Earth since we began keeping records of flybys. On average, a 50 meter asteroid passes this close every 40 years or so. It’s random, so the next one could be next week, or not ...

Dashcam view from a Russian driver of the 10 ton meteor streaking over the Russian skies! February 15, 2013 is turning out to be an interesting day astronomically speaking. While everyone around the world was anxiously awaiting the flyby of Asteroid DA-14 a 10 ton behemoth meteor was preparing to ...

The Earth and Moon as seen from the Messenger spacecraft This fantastic image shows the Earth and the Moon as seen from a distance of 114-million miles, or 183-million kilometers. This picture, reminiscent of the famous ‘pale blue dot’ image captured by Voyager 1, shows our small-fragile world drifting through the ...

Asteroid 2012 DA14, which was discovered a year ago when it came closest to the Earth , will come closer to the planet again on the night of February 15. The asteroid, about 148 ft in diameter and weighing 1.30-lakh tonne, will be as close as 34,100 km from the ...