Posted in Astronomy at 12:00 on 20 May 2025
Recently (12/5/25 and 13/5/25) Astronomy Picture of the Day published two reconstructions (one each on consecutive days from data collected by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft) of how our home galaxy The Milky Way looks from the side and from above.
Side view:-
From above. Our sun is circled below within the galaxy’s Orion Arm:-
Posted in Astronomy at 13:00 on 5 December 2011
Yesterday’s (4/12/11) Astronomy Picture of the Day.
This is a picture of the after effects of a stellar explosion of sorts. The star, V 838 Mon, suddenly flared to many times its usual brightness as an ejection of matter took place. This made it the brightest star in our own Milky Way galaxy for a while. The stellar flash wasn’t a nova or supernova, though, as the star is still there. The circular areas of brightness are so-called light echoes and are due to surrounding interstellar dust reflecting the light from the explosion.
They give the photo almost the appearance of a dress ring with a ruby or garnet stone. Beautiful.
