Month: November 2024

Picture This

The Dark Tower

3 November 2024 Astronomy Now

This eerie, dark silhouette is a cometary globule designated GN 16.43.7.01. Despite their name, cometary globules have nothing to do with comets, beyond having a similar shape of a dusty head with a tail.

News

Legendary star lacks evidence for large planet formation

1 November 2024 Astronomy Now

In the 1997 movie “Contact,” adapted from Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel, the lead character, scientist Ellie Arroway, takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm of debris encircling the star – but no obvious planets are visible. It looks like the filmmakers got it right.