Composite of 2 spiral galaxies - offered in celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope's 27th birthday today - shows how our Milky Way galaxy might look if we were outside it.
During Cassini's close pass of Titan on April 21-22, Titan's gravity will bend Cassini's orbit around Saturn, shrinking it slightly, so that instead of passing just outside the rings, the spacecraft will begin its Grand Finale dives just inside the rings. Wow!
The European Space Agency is monitoring the progress of the crack in Antarctica's Larsen-C ice shelf. The crack is eventually expected to produce a massive iceberg.
Large asteroid 2014 JO25 safely passed Earth on April 19, 2017 at some 1,098,733 miles (1,768,239 km) or about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon. Images from the EarthSky community here.
Deborah Byrd (asteroid 3505 Byrd) helps edit EarthSky.org and is a frequent host of EarthSky videos. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named in her honor in 1990, a Public Service Award from the National Science Board in 2003, and the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 2020. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.