Planetary nebulae represent a brief, yet illuminating, phase in the evolution of low- to intermediate-mass stars. These glowing shells of ionised gas are shed in the late stages of stellar development ...

A conception of the James Webb Space Telescope orbiting the sun 1 million miles from Earth. Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez In death, there can be great beauty. Astronomers ...

In the cold dark of the constellation Ophiuchus, a faint, wraithlike shell of gas is quietly advertising the fate that awaits our own Sun. Astronomers call it the Little Ghost Nebula, a planetary ...

Polar dunes on Mars, swirling clouds on Jupiter, and stunning sights in the night sky on Earth are featured this week. Plus, ...

When sun-like stars reach the end of their lives, they blossom into beautiful planetary nebulas. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

With no Moon in the sky, we’re centering on M15, which stands 60° high in the southern sky around 3:30 A.M. local daylight time. (Nighttime observers can also catch this object, though it rises about ...

This gallery shows four planetary nebulas from the first systematic survey of such objects in the solar neighborhood made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The planetary nebulas shown here are ...

Oh what a beautiful cosmic web we weave! This little cosmic creepy crawler is the Red Spider planetary nebula (formal designation NGC 6537). It can be found about 4,000 light-years away in the ...

The article details various types of deep-sky objects observable by amateur astronomers, including double stars, variable stars, open and globular star clusters, emission, planetary, and reflection ...