Space Contents Archive

My son asked me a question I can't answer - is there any evidence of a moon with its own moon?

The wife and I on Mauna Loa, Hawaii

Elephant's Trunk Nebula- 6 hours from the city

Distance Between the Stars on Orions Belt

I’m having trouble finding the distance between the stars on Orion’s Belt. The distance to them from earth yes- but from each other. Any help?

Infrared Image of Betelgeuse's Enigmatic Environment (Credits: ESA/Herschel/PACS/L. Decin et al)

Betelgeuse (center) is surrounded by a clumpy envelope of material in its immediate vicinity. The arcs to the left are material ejected from the star as it evolved into a red supergiant, and were shaped by its bow shock interaction with the interstellar medium. A faint linear bar of dust is illuminated at left, and may represent a dusty filament connected to the local galactic magnetic field, or the edge of an interstellar cloud. If so, then Betelgeuse’s motion across the sky implies that the arcs will hit the wall in 5,000 years time, with the star itself colliding with the wall 12,500 years later. This image was taken by Herschel's Photodetecting Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS).

How can we see planets but not the asteroid belt?

Ok so I’m not an astronomer or anything like that, but, can someone explain why we can see other planets with our naked eye but unable to see the asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter? Especially since sunlight reflects off the moon and other planets which is why we can see them but we can’t see the asteroid belt with our naked eye.

Rho Ophiuchi in honor of the James Webb post

NASA begins tests on most powerful solar electric propulsion thrusters

The thrusters will play an important role on NASA's Gateway, the outpost orbiting the Moon.

Helix nebula ....God's eye growing in detail

IC1396 - Elephant's Trunk Nebula - 15h18m with a small refractor

Powerful NASA-ISRO Earth Observing Satellite Coming Together in India

What's NASA sending into space next? Keep an eye on our Launch Schedule page for a lineup of upcoming missions

Saturn photographed by me!

M17 - Omega Nebula

NASA switches to electric vehicles. Astronauts will ride this futuristic vehicle