StarDate
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Galactic ‘Twin?’
The Small Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It’s about 200,000 light-years away, it contains hundreds of millions of stars, and it’s easily visible to the eye alone — from the s
Moon and Leo
The heart of the lion stays close to the Moon the next couple of nights. The bright star that marks the lions heart is Regulus. Its to the lower left of the Moon at nightfall this evening, and to th
Jupiter and Uranus
Two giants of the solar system huddle close together in the evening twilight the next few days. The viewing window is short, so you need to time it just right to see them.Jupiter and Uranus are low i
Arcturus
The star Arcturus is a little bit heavier than our own star, the Sun. Yet that small difference has a big effect on the stars evolution: Arcturus entered a late stage billions of years earlier than t
Moon and Gemini
The Moon creeps up on the twin stars of Gemini this evening. As night falls, Pollux and Castor are above the Moon. Pollux is on the left, and is a bit brighter than its twin.Theres a lot more to G
Vanishing Hunter
This time of year is pretty inviting for some evening skywatching. The evening hours are warm but not usually too hot, and spring storm activity generally hasnt reached its peak pleasant conditions
Vaporized Planets
Planetary systems can be violent. In our own solar system, for example, the Moon probably was born from the debris left over when a planet as big as Mars rammed into Earth billions of years ago. And t
Vaporizing Planet
Planets like Earth live in the Goldilocks zone the region around a star where conditions are most comfortable for life. But most planets arent so cushy. Theyre either far away and cold, or close
Seeing Giants
If you heat up some alphabet soup, you shouldnt end up with all the letters clumped together they should be fairly evenly spread throughout the pot.According to the current understanding of the un
Moon and Planets
Europa is one of the more intriguing bodies in the solar system and one that scientists are especially eager to land a spacecraft on. The big moon of Jupiter may have a global ocean below its icy cr