Seekers of the Cosmos

This is what remains after a Sun-like star dies.

Abell 39 is a nearly perfect shell of glowing gas about 6,800 light years away in Hercules.

Unlike most planetary nebulae this one is a near perfect 5 light year sphere left behind after the star shed its layers and a hot white dwarf lit it up.

🔭 Klaus Barth

11 hours ago | [YT] | 481

Seekers of the Cosmos

Comet Lemmon's amazing tail.

This is a processed image to bring out faint structure.
warm/yellow = dust tail reflecting sunlight
blue rippled = ion/plasma tail pushed by the solar wind

3 days ago | [YT] | 1,428

Seekers of the Cosmos

Those % show how much of each world is water or ice by volume.

Earth is just 1%. Some of these moons are mostly water. 💧

4 days ago | [YT] | 616

Seekers of the Cosmos

A powerful sunspot is rotating toward Earth, and its solar storm is expected to hit this weekend.
Expect auroras.

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6 days ago | [YT] | 736

Seekers of the Cosmos

The Red Spider Nebula captured by JWST in infrared detail.

Swipe to compare with Hubble.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 1,194

Seekers of the Cosmos

A size comparison of our Solar System:

Jupiter → Saturn → Uranus → Neptune → Earth → Venus → Mars → Ganymede → Titan → Mercury → Callisto → Io → Moon → Europa → Triton → Eris → Pluto.

Note that we now know Pluto is slightly larger than Eris.

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1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 942

Seekers of the Cosmos

Astronomers announce a nearby “super Earth” in a red dwarf’s habitable zone.

Meet GJ 251 c, about 18 light years away, ~4× Earth’s mass, a 54 day orbit around the red dwarf GJ 251 in Gemini.

No life claim yet, just an excellent candidate.

1 week ago | [YT] | 958

Seekers of the Cosmos

King of the Planets.

🔭 Juno’s close pass over Jupiter’s turbulent clouds.

1 week ago | [YT] | 1,284

Seekers of the Cosmos

How big are our EYES ON THE SKIES?

From Hubble and JWST to the next-gen giants, all shown to scale.

See the tennis and basketball courts at the bottom for scale.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 427

Seekers of the Cosmos

Close-up of Starship’s Super Heavy with all 33 Raptors lit, the heaviest thing humans have ever flown.

More thrust than any rocket in history, more than twice Saturn V.

📸 James McCarthy

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 899