The cosmic tornado

Scientists working with the James Webb Space Telescope have likened this object to an ice cream sundae. Others examining it with the now-defunct Spitzer Space Telescope dubbed it the cosmic tornado. T

Galaxies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They can be broadly classified as spiral, elliptical or irregular, but each of these still leaves plenty of scope for variety. Take, for instance, the s

New model suggests Hawking radiation is speeding cosmic decay Scientists have long predicted that the Universe’s lifetime is effectively forever – specifically, 101100 years. But now scientists from R

We start with open cluster IC 4756, right at the top of the tail, located 4.2° west and 0.9° north of mag. +5.6 Alya (Theta1 (θ1) Serpentis). It’s a large, bright object perfectly suited for a small t

Head for the stars and discover what it is that makes the Great Attractor such a magnetic idea

On 23 July 1999, Space Shuttle Columbia launched its heaviest-ever payload: the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a new flagship telescope for NASA. It is the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, capable o