Andromeda is the 19th biggest constellations, with its brightest star, Alpheratz (Alpha Andromedae), a +2.06 magnitude double star 97 light years distant with an orbital period of 96.7 days The best time to view Andromeda […]
Algol (Beta Persei), known informally as the Demon Star, is a triple star system in which the components are designated Beta Persei Aa1, Aa2, and Ab, respectively. The Algol system is not only the first, […]
Mirfak (Alpha Persei) is a yellow supergiant located about 510 light years away in the constellation of Perseus that is about sixty times bigger than our sun. It is the most luminous star in the […]
Constellations that are prominent in the northern sky (other than the circumpolar constellations) at this time include Cancer, Leo, Hydra, and rather surprisingly, the little, and rather faint constellation Sextans (the Sextant), squeezed in between […]
The image above shows the dwarf planet 136472 Makemake, which with a diameter roughly 60% that of Pluto is possibly the biggest object in the “classical population” of the Kuiper belt. Upon its discovery by […]
There’s a star located 1,280 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus that has been confusing astronomers ever since it was discovered in 2015 during the Kepler mission. The star, officially called KIC 8462852, is 50% […]
The dwarf planet designated 136108 Haumea and its two satellites were discovered by Mike Brown et al. (Caltech) at Palomar Observatory in 2004. Haumea is the largest member of its collisional family, a group of […]
The image above shows a near true color picture of the dwarf planet designated 134340 Pluto, the first object to be discovered in the Kuiper Belt after Clyde Tombaugh identified it in 1930. Pluto is […]
The image above includes a light-curve derived 3D model of the C-type asteroid designated 10 Hygiea, the fourth largest asteroid in the solar system by both volume and mass, the latter of which is estimated […]
The image above shows the somewhat oblate shape of the B-type asteroid designated 2 Pallas, which is the second asteroid to be discovered, and the third most massive, containing about 7% of all the mass […]
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