Astronomy Now

In the years following the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have tallied over 1 trillion galaxies in the universe. But only one galaxy stands out as the most

There’s a picturesque early evening scene at the start of February as the Moon passes dazzling Venus and fading Saturn. The Moon lies between Venus and Saturn on the early-evening

Orion’s three, evenly spaced central ‘Belt’ stars are easy to spot and lead the way to the iconic Horsehead Nebula. Orion’s magnificent Belt, with the Horsehead and Flame Nebulae lying

M67 is an ancient open cluster in Cancer that hosts many red-giant stars. Image: Bernhard Hubl. Messier 67 in Cancer is somewhat of an anomaly for an open cluster, having

A composite image of the 2014 Quadrantids. Image: Leo Lam. The Quadrantid meteor shower kicks off the meteor-watching calendar, peaking this year on 3 January. Renowned for its reliability, it

Mercury in a transparent early-evening sky on 24 January 2021. Image: Martin Campbell. Mercury, the fast moving inner planet, passed through inferior conjunction between Earth and the Sun on 6

Jupiter, by far the Solar System’s dominant planet, imaged on 29 November 2024. Image: Damian Peach. Jupiter reaches its long-awaited opposition on 7 December when it lies in Taurus with

Venus and a young crescent Moon close together on the early-evening of 26 April 2020. A young moon lies close to Venus on soon after sunset on 5 November, Bonfire

Image: ESO/VPHAS+ Team. This eerie, dark silhouette is a cometary globule designated GN 16.43.7.01. Despite their name, cometary globules have nothing to do with comets, beyond having a similar shape

A Hubble Space Telescope false-colour view (left) of a 100-billion-mile-wide disc of dust around the star Vega. The James Webb Space Telescope (right) resolves the glow of warm dust in