For most of human history, the night sky demanded our attention. The shape-shifting Moon, wandering planets, pointillist stars, and occasional comet enchanted our sensibilities...
Spot naked-eye exoplanet host stars!
Want to see something new in the night sky? To date, more than 700 exoplanetary systems have been identified in...
Galactic ecosystems encompass the varied complexes of inter-relating stellar, nebular, and other matter that are actively forming new stars. These include molecular clouds, cloud cores, protostellar and protoplanetary systems, HII regions and starbursts.
It is not hyperbole to state that galactic ecosystems have spawned pretty much everything that we hold dear – including ourselves. These nebular nurseries have incubated all the stars, planetary systems, and many of the complex molecules known to humanity.
More than fifty years ago, Apollo 15 photographed something unusual on the far side of the Moon. In a panoramic photograph taken from lunar orbit, two bright, sharply defined objects stood out from the otherwise subdued landscape on the floor of a crater called Paracelsus C.
Today we can take a much closer look.