Also known as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, M13 is without doubt the finest globular cluster visible from the northern hemisphere. All told, It contains around 300,000 stars, and spans a distance of 20 […]
M90 (NGC 4569) is an intermediate spiral galaxy that contains around a trillion stars, and hosts roughly 1,000 globular star clusters, making it is one of the biggest members of the 2,000 strong group of […]
M80 is a massive globular cluster located about 32,600 light years away in the constellation Scorpius, and as globular clusters go, it has been described as being the northern hemispheres’ equivalent of Omega Centauri (NGC […]
Messier 4 (NGC 6121) is a massive globular cluster in Scorpius that is found in the night sky close to M80, another globular cluster in the same constellation. M4 was discovered by Philippe Loys de […]
Also commonly known as Praesepe (Latin: manger), M44 is a large open cluster in the constellation Cancer, and among the closest star clusters to Earth. As far back as the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy referred […]
Most people mistake the Orion Nebula for a star in the constellation of Orion, but it is actually the most easily detectable naked-eye nebula in the entire night sky. It is also the favorite deep-sky […]
Part of Local Group If it were possible to travel anywhere in the galaxy, the next step would be to visit our 54 or so neighbouring minor galaxies, most of them dwarfs, that surround the […]
Dutch-American astronomer Bart Bok once famously stated that “the Southern Hemisphere holds all the good stuff,” and he was right. Counted amongst the riches that belong to the southern celestial sphere are an astonishing array […]
Star clusters represent distinct steps in the evolution of the Universe. On the one hand, globular clusters can be thought of as “fossils”, in the sense that in many cases, they are all that remain […]
While we have all marvelled at the spectacular images of various types of nebulae we have seen on-screen or in magazines, its easy to forget that each image we see represents a brief snapshot of […]
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