This website is not tailored to smartphones or other hand-held devices.
Observable comet count is 1189
Current exoplanet count is 5876
Current longitude II of the GRS is 72°
Impact Probablity of 2024 YR4: Insignificant
Asteroid | Size | Probability | Date |
2024 YR4 | 40—90 m | Insignificant | 22 December 2032 |
Please do not let this worry you. The asteroid has been detected just recently meaning that the orbital elements are not yet accurately determined, while they can alter any time due to gravitational pulls.
Today Monitor
Mars: January 16, 2025
Jupiter: January 10, 2026
Saturn: September 21, 2025
Uranus: November 21, 2025
Neptune: September 23, 2025
Evening: January 10, 2025 at 47.2°E
Morning: June 1, 2025 at 45.9°W
Morning: December 25, 2024 at 22.0°W
Evening: March 8, 2025 at 18.2°E
Morning: April 21, 2025 at 27.4°W
Evening: July 4, 2025 at 25.9°E
Morning: August 19, 2025 at 18.6°W
Evening: October 29, 2025 at 23.9°E
Morning: December 7, 2025 at 20.7°W
Evening: Febrary 19, 2026 at 18.1°E
Wednesday, 5 November
Friday, 5 December
given for 00:00 UT
Date | Size | Age | Angle | Phase |
---|---|---|---|---|
23 Feb 2025 | 30.61' | 24.48 | -6.502° | ![]() |
24 Feb 2025 | 31.06' | 25.48 | -6.683° | ![]() |
25 Feb 2025 | 31.54' | 26.48 | -6.463° | ![]() |
22 Mar 2025 | 30.16' | 21.97 | -6.602° | ![]() |
23 Mar 2025 | 30.54' | 22.97 | -7.220° | ![]() |
24 Mar 2025 | 31.00' | 23.97 | -7.497° | ![]() |
25 Mar 2025 | 31.50' | 24.97 | -7.380° | ![]() |
26 Mar 2025 | 32.03' | 25.97 | -6.841° | ![]() |
04 Apr 2025 | 31.86' | 5.54 | 6.674° | ![]() |
05 Apr 2025 | 31.40' | 6.54 | 7.159° | ![]() |
06 Apr 2025 | 30.97' | 7.54 | 7.233° | ![]() |
07 Apr 2025 | 30.58' | 8.54 | 6.935° | ![]() |
19 Apr 2025 | 30.14' | 20.54 | -6.609° | ![]() |
20 Apr 2025 | 30.49' | 21.54 | -7.247° | ![]() |
21 Apr 2025 | 30.91' | 22.54 | -7.602° | ![]() |
22 Apr 2025 | 31.38' | 23.54 | -7.618° | ![]() |
23 Apr 2025 | 31.89' | 24.54 | -7.248° | ![]() |
24 Apr 2025 | 32.39' | 25.54 | -6.459° | ![]() |
02 May 2025 | 32.05' | 4.19 | 6.908° | ![]() |
03 May 2025 | 31.53' | 5.19 | 7.524° | ![]() |
04 May 2025 | 31.04' | 6.19 | 7.652° | ![]() |
05 May 2025 | 30.59' | 7.19 | 7.335° | ![]() |
06 May 2025 | 30.21' | 8.19 | 6.642° | ![]() |
18 May 2025 | 30.56' | 20.19 | -6.624° | ![]() |
19 May 2025 | 30.92' | 21.19 | -6.950° | ![]() |
20 May 2025 | 31.32' | 22.19 | -7.010° | ![]() |
21 May 2025 | 31.75' | 23.19 | -6.758° | ![]() |
30 May 2025 | 32.13' | 2.87 | 6.436° | ![]() |
31 May 2025 | 31.63' | 3.87 | 7.137° | ![]() |
01 Jun 2025 | 31.12' | 4.87 | 7.336° | ![]() |
02 Jun 2025 | 30.65' | 5.87 | 7.064° | ![]() |
29 Jun 2025 | 31.11' | 3.56 | 6.528° | ![]() |
02 Oct 2025 | 30.80' | 10.17 | -6.602° | ![]() |
03 Oct 2025 | 31.28' | 11.17 | -6.712° | ![]() |
04 Oct 2025 | 31.79' | 12.17 | -6.413° | ![]() |
13 Oct 2025 | 32.01' | 21.17 | 6.426° | ![]() |
14 Oct 2025 | 31.60' | 22.17 | 7.017° | ![]() |
15 Oct 2025 | 31.20' | 23.17 | 7.219° | ![]() |
16 Oct 2025 | 30.83' | 24.17 | 7.068° | ![]() |
17 Oct 2025 | 30.51' | 25.17 | 6.617° | ![]() |
29 Oct 2025 | 30.28' | 7.48 | -6.622° | ![]() |
30 Oct 2025 | 30.70' | 8.48 | -7.213° | ![]() |
31 Oct 2025 | 31.18' | 9.48 | -7.461° | ![]() |
01 Nov 2025 | 31.71' | 10.48 | -7.298° | ![]() |
02 Nov 2025 | 32.24' | 11.48 | -6.672° | ![]() |
10 Nov 2025 | 32.23' | 19.48 | 7.097° | ![]() |
11 Nov 2025 | 31.72' | 20.48 | 7.804° | ![]() |
12 Nov 2025 | 31.23' | 21.48 | 8.024° | ![]() |
13 Nov 2025 | 30.78' | 22.48 | 7.808° | ![]() |
14 Nov 2025 | 30.39' | 23.48 | 7.230° | ![]() |
26 Nov 2025 | 30.27' | 5.72 | -6.459° | ![]() |
27 Nov 2025 | 30.63' | 6.72 | -7.095° | ![]() |
28 Nov 2025 | 31.05' | 7.72 | -7.447° | ![]() |
29 Nov 2025 | 31.52' | 8.72 | -7.439° | ![]() |
30 Nov 2025 | 32.02' | 9.72 | -7.008° | ![]() |
08 Dec 2025 | 32.44' | 17.72 | 6.680° | ![]() |
09 Dec 2025 | 31.91' | 18.72 | 7.561° | ![]() |
10 Dec 2025 | 31.38' | 19.72 | 7.916° | ![]() |
11 Dec 2025 | 30.87' | 20.72 | 7.788° | ![]() |
12 Dec 2025 | 30.43' | 21.72 | 7.247° | ![]() |
26 Dec 2025 | 31.06' | 5.93 | -6.615° | ![]() |
27 Dec 2025 | 31.43' | 6.93 | -6.624° | ![]() |
Date | Size | Age | Angle | Phase |
---|---|---|---|---|
12 Jan 2025 | 31.85' | 12.07 | -6.565° | ![]() |
13 Jan 2025 | 31.60' | 13.07 | -6.448° | ![]() |
26 Jan 2025 | 30.57' | 26.07 | 6.621° | ![]() |
27 Jan 2025 | 30.96' | 27.07 | 6.622° | ![]() |
08 Feb 2025 | 31.60' | 9.48 | -6.682° | ![]() |
09 Feb 2025 | 31.36' | 10.48 | -6.624° | ![]() |
22 Feb 2025 | 30.21' | 23.48 | 6.703° | ![]() |
23 Feb 2025 | 30.61' | 24.48 | 6.800° | ![]() |
24 Feb 2025 | 31.06' | 25.48 | 6.559° | ![]() |
07 Mar 2025 | 31.74' | 6.97 | -6.762° | ![]() |
08 Mar 2025 | 31.39' | 7.97 | -6.766° | ![]() |
09 Mar 2025 | 31.05' | 8.97 | -6.404° | ![]() |
21 Mar 2025 | 29.85' | 20.97 | 6.665° | ![]() |
22 Mar 2025 | 30.16' | 21.97 | 6.852° | ![]() |
23 Mar 2025 | 30.54' | 22.97 | 6.721° | ![]() |
03 Apr 2025 | 32.33' | 4.54 | -6.682° | ![]() |
04 Apr 2025 | 31.86' | 5.54 | -6.784° | ![]() |
05 Apr 2025 | 31.40' | 6.54 | -6.493° | ![]() |
17 Apr 2025 | 29.65' | 18.54 | 6.506° | ![]() |
18 Apr 2025 | 29.86' | 19.54 | 6.754° | ![]() |
19 Apr 2025 | 30.14' | 20.54 | 6.698° | ![]() |
30 Apr 2025 | 32.98' | 2.19 | -6.438° | ![]() |
01 May 2025 | 32.55' | 3.19 | -6.675° | ![]() |
02 May 2025 | 32.05' | 4.19 | -6.485° | ![]() |
15 May 2025 | 29.78' | 17.19 | 6.605° | ![]() |
16 May 2025 | 29.99' | 18.19 | 6.587° | ![]() |
28 May 2025 | 32.97' | 0.87 | -6.528° | ![]() |
29 May 2025 | 32.60' | 1.87 | -6.460° | ![]() |
11 Jun 2025 | 29.82' | 14.87 | 6.526° | ![]() |
12 Jun 2025 | 30.02' | 15.87 | 6.530° | ![]() |
24 Jun 2025 | 32.85' | 27.87 | -6.457° | ![]() |
25 Jun 2025 | 32.68' | 28.87 | -6.502° | ![]() |
08 Jul 2025 | 29.84' | 12.56 | 6.561° | ![]() |
09 Jul 2025 | 30.07' | 13.56 | 6.600° | ![]() |
21 Jul 2025 | 32.45' | 25.56 | -6.493° | ![]() |
22 Jul 2025 | 32.38' | 26.56 | -6.624° | ![]() |
04 Aug 2025 | 29.76' | 10.20 | 6.646° | ![]() |
05 Aug 2025 | 29.99' | 11.20 | 6.748° | ![]() |
06 Aug 2025 | 30.28' | 12.20 | 6.541° | ![]() |
17 Aug 2025 | 32.23' | 23.20 | -6.553° | ![]() |
18 Aug 2025 | 32.11' | 24.20 | -6.755° | ![]() |
19 Aug 2025 | 31.94' | 25.20 | -6.550° | ![]() |
31 Aug 2025 | 29.61' | 7.75 | 6.661° | ![]() |
01 Sep 2025 | 29.78' | 8.75 | 6.848° | ![]() |
02 Sep 2025 | 30.05' | 9.75 | 6.733° | ![]() |
13 Sep 2025 | 32.46' | 20.75 | -6.508° | ![]() |
14 Sep 2025 | 32.22' | 21.75 | -6.794° | ![]() |
15 Sep 2025 | 31.95' | 22.75 | -6.665° | ![]() |
27 Sep 2025 | 29.47' | 5.17 | 6.540° | ![]() |
28 Sep 2025 | 29.56' | 6.17 | 6.805° | ![]() |
29 Sep 2025 | 29.74' | 7.17 | 6.779° | ![]() |
30 Sep 2025 | 30.01' | 8.17 | 6.453° | ![]() |
11 Oct 2025 | 32.77' | 19.17 | -6.687° | ![]() |
12 Oct 2025 | 32.41' | 20.17 | -6.652° | ![]() |
25 Oct 2025 | 29.42' | 3.48 | 6.651° | ![]() |
26 Oct 2025 | 29.52' | 4.48 | 6.681° | ![]() |
27 Oct 2025 | 29.69' | 5.48 | 6.423° | ![]() |
07 Nov 2025 | 33.37' | 16.48 | -6.472° | ![]() |
08 Nov 2025 | 33.10' | 17.48 | -6.565° | ![]() |
21 Nov 2025 | 29.39' | 0.72 | 6.513° | ![]() |
22 Nov 2025 | 29.46' | 1.72 | 6.567° | ![]() |
05 Dec 2025 | 33.44' | 14.72 | -6.511° | ![]() |
18 Dec 2025 | 29.42' | 27.72 | 6.502° | ![]() |
19 Dec 2025 | 29.48' | 28.72 | 6.570° | ![]() |
Source: NASA/GSFC
Eye on Infinity: NASA Celebrates Hubble's 35th Year in Orbit
April 23, 2025
Composite shows portions of four Hubble images from left to right. First, the left half of Mars in shades of orange, blues, and browns. Second, a tiny portion of the Rosette Nebula shows very dark gray material against a translucent blue background. Third, a portion of planetary nebula NGC 2899 looks like the number three in shades of red and orange. Fourth, the center of barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 has a milky yellow center that forms a bar surrounded by the beginnings of blue star-filled spiral arms.
Source: stsci.edu/news
17 April 2025
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered evidence that suggests the presence of a long-sought supermassive black hole at the heart of the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 83 (M83). This surprising finding, made possible by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), reveals highly ionised neon gas that could be a telltale signature of an active galactic nucleus (AGN), a growing black hole at the center of a galaxy.
Source: esawebb.org
27 March 2025
This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a rare cosmic phenomenon called an Einstein ring. What at first appears to be a single, strangely shaped galaxy is actually two galaxies that are separated by a large distance. The closer foreground galaxy sits at the center of the image, while the more distant background galaxy appears to be wrapped around the closer galaxy, forming a ring. Einstein rings occur when light from a very distant object is bent (or ‘lensed’) about a massive intermediate (or ‘lensing’) object. This is possible because spacetime, the fabric of the Universe itself, is bent by mass, and therefore light travelling through space and time is bent as well. This effect is much too subtle to be observed on a local level, but it sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales, such as when …
Source: esawebb.org
The asteroid Donaldjohanson as seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI). This is one of the most detailed images returned by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft during its flyby. This image was taken at 1:51 p.m. EDT (17:51 UTC), April 20, 2025, near closest approach, from a range of approximately 660 miles (1,100 km). The spacecraft’s closest approach distance was 600 miles (960 km), but the image shown was taken approximately 40 seconds beforehand. The image has been sharpened and processed to enhance contrast.
Click to enlarge or show full screenWed, 23 Apr 2025 13:50 GMT
Source: www.nasa.gov
Image credit: Grok (modified with red star)
2025-04-18 Exoplanets
Thanks to NASA's JWST, astronomers have detected signatures of life on the exoplanet K2-18b, 124 light-years away in Leo, which is 2.6 times larger and 8.6 times more massive than the Earth. The planet's atmosphere contains dimethyl sulfide (DMS), naturally produced by living organisms. Already in September 2023 NASA reported that the JWST has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide. Link to source 🔗
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, W. Balmer (JHU), L. Pueyo (STScI), M. Perrin (STScI)
2025-03-18 Exoplanets
HR 8799 is a young star with 1.5 solar masses, about 130 light-years away in Pegasus and known to have four giant gas planets rich in carbon dioxide gas. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope took a spectrum and imaged the four planets while the light of the star has been blocked. Link to source 🔗
Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor/J. Pollard
2025-03-14 Exoplanets
Next to the Alpha Centauri system, Barnard's star is the second nearest at 5.96 light-years away in Ophiuchus. As of March 2025, the red dwarf star, only 0.16 as massive as the sun, is home to four known (confirmed) planets each of them less than half the mass of Earth and none of them orbiting inside the habitable zone. Only between 2.8 and 4.1 million kilometers away from the star on 2.34 to 6.74 days orbits, their surfaces are supposed to be heat scorched with no outlook for life. Link to source 🔗
Image credit: European Space Agency
2025-02-07 solar system
2024 YR4 is an extremely faint asteroid with a low albedo of 5% to 25% and is 40 to 90 meters in size which, as of today, has a minute 2.2% probability of impacting Earth at 14:02 UTC on December 22, 2032. The asteroid rotates around its axis every 19.5 minutes and travels around the sun on a highly 0.662 eccentric orbit plane once in about 4 years at a mean distance of 2.5165 AU. Its last perihelion (sun passage) occurred on 2024-Nov-22. The iron-nickel asteroid that created the Barringer Crater in Arizona 50,000 years ago was about 50 meters wide. Link to source 🔗
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)
2025-02-01 Exoplanets
Gliese 12 (TOI-6251) is a red dwarf star some 40 light-years away in Pisces. Its known planet, b, about the same size as Venus and, because a red dwarf is much cooler than our sun, the planet also receives the same amount of energy from its host star although orbiting much closer and once in about 12.8 days. In astronomical terms, the planet lies nearby and is a potentially terrestrial, temperate exoplanet inviting further investigations, such as atmospheric spectroscopy with the help of the JWST. Link to source 🔗
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
2025-01-31 Universe
Scheduled for launch past February 2025, SPHEREx is NASA's latest orbiting space telescope, designed for a spectral survey of the entire sky for a duration of tentatively two years in order to explore the origins of the universe. Link to source 🔗
Image credit: NASA / CXC / A. Hobart / Josh Barnes, University of Hawaii / John Hibbard, NRAO
2025-01-20 galaxies
Astronomers at the University of Tokyo discovered a rare quasar-like object with a long-term periodic luminosity variation with a cycle of about 190 days. Two black holes moving periodically at high speed may be the cause of the variability, hypothetically a supermassive blackhole binary. The extremely luminous object lies in the constellation of Hydra and is designated J0909+0002 in short. Link to source 🔗
Image credit: NAOJ
2025-01-15 Exoplanets
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers scanned the atmosphere of the planet GJ1214 b located 48 light-years away in Ophiuchus. Instead of a hydrogen rich super-Earth, or a water world, the new data, in spite of many uncertainties, revealed concentrations of carbon-dioxide (CO2) comparable to the levels found in the dense CO2 atmosphere of Venus. Link to source 🔗
Backlog
No, we are not on Facebook but proudly on AstroBin with Mille Gracie to the author Salvatore Iovene:
If anybody is interested in the night life of bats, here is a funny 1-minute MP4 video (24MB).
1. Certain people appear to enjoy filling forms with random letters for no purpose but insane self-satisfaction. Most of this stupid folks leave their IP addresses which are forwarded to their provider companies. All so received forms are automatically deleted. Sadly, the world is overfilled with idiots, trolls and criminals. This is a public web site without any sensitive data. No need for these irrational displays.
2. Now in the process of changing all large images to AVIF or WEBP format resulting in considerably reduced file size and download time hardly sacrificing quality as compared with JPEG.
In case of abuse or hacking attempts, we reserve the right to report to providers, ISPs and legal authorities. The contents of this site is public, no hidden secrets. The data is backed up in regular intervals.
This website does NOT send and use "cookies".
Your visit is anonymous. The author processes merely the data that a web browser is typically sending back. The only purpose is for the [Visitors Online] section below.
In order for location dependent data to show correctly you need to register. In the interest of your privacy this website does not automatically retrieve your location via third party services, etc.
Website tested under Windows and Android only. Although largely compatible with smartphones this website is primarily designed for desktops, note books and tablets. This applies in particular to database tables. Double click on page top banners to remove them.
If you do not wish to register (no problem) but need to see data for your location only once or so, then you can add the following string to the URL:
?lat=xx.xxx&lon=xxx.xxx&tzn=z.zz
where xx.xxx need to be replaced by your geographic coordinates, z.zz with your time zone. This data will not be stored.
This 'once-view' will work for most pages, such as Planisphere, Deepsky Observer, Ephemerides and Today Monitor.
Unique visitors today: 37 (since 0:00 UTC) from:
Newest flag: Nigeria -- Welcome!
Total page views 7484 since 2025-04-01
from 92 different countries (excluding bots & idiots).
Operating SystemsWindows: 3160Macintosh: 1727 iPhone: 1186 Android: 716 Linux: 617 Unknown: 36 Other: 36 iPad: 6 |
Most Visitedindex.php: 2305hipparcos.php: 586 starref.php: 484 timeslip.php: 478 nexstar.php: 473 apscopes.php: 390 algol.php: 300 messier.php: 167 plamoon.php: 156 exosingle.php: 146 |
Constellation | Auriga |
Distance | 9.53 parsec |
Magnitude | 14.64 vis. |
Spectral type | M5.0 V |
Mass | 0.132 xSun |
Known planet(s) | 2 |
Ma Wei (Del Cen) in Cen [HIP 59196]
Distance: 395 light-years, Magnitude: 2.58
Delta Centauri, named Ma Wei (Chinese for the horse's tail) is variable subgiant star with 8.6 solar masses and 5.9 solar radii, outshining the sun 5,000 times. It rotates rapidly at 263 km/s and is engulfed by circumstellar gas. Yet unconfirmed, a companion with up to 7 solar masses could orbit in 4.6 years at a distance of 6.9AU.
Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗WISE 1049-5319 (Luhman 16) in Vela
Distance: 7 light-years, Magnitude: 14.94
In March 2013, a pair of brown dwarfs has been discovered on a map of the entire sky produced by the WISE satellite. With a distance of 6.58ly, it is the closest neighbor of the Sun that has been found in nearly a century. It is only slightly more distant than Barnard's star, which is the second nearest known system. Luhman 16 is also the nearest known star/brown-dwarf system to Alpha Centauri, located 3.63 ly from it. Luhman 16 is located in the southern constellation of Vela. The secondary,B, orbits in 3 AU with a 25 years period. In January 2014 astronomers map out clouds on the surface of Luhman 16B and created a map of dark and light patches. Temperatures in the clouds of Luhman 16B are 927°C. The clouds are probably comprised of iron and silicate minerals in a largely hydrogen-helium atmosphere.
Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗
M94 (Galaxy) in Canes Venatici
Magnitude: 8.9
M94 was classified Sab because of its extremely bright nucleus. Around the brilliant circular disk is a ring of active star-forming regions, revealed as blue young star clusters. This artifact delineates it from the faded outer ring of an older yellowish stellar population. However, on the frontier there is another stellar producing ring making M94 a rare galaxy.
Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗Pavo (southern), area rank: 44
Located near the celestial south pole, this constellation can be seen from the vantage of less than 30 degrees northern latitudes. The constellation lines describe a peacock with a stretched neck and raised tail feathers. The 2nd-magnitude star in the neck is also called 'Peacock'.
Star Chart1P/Halley
Known since prehistoric times, comet 1P/Halley, with a 15km wide peanut-shaped nucleus, is the most popular short period comet returning every 75 to 76 years. The comet was named after English astronomer Edmond Halley, who determined the comet's periodicity. Halley's last perihelion occurred in 1986, next next is expected for mid 2061. In 1986, comet Halley has been imaged by ESA's Giotto and the multi-national Vega missions.
Iris (Asteroid)
Semi-major: 2.38534 AU, Size: 240 km
Discovered on August 13, 1847, by J. R. Hind from London, UK, Iris is an S-type asteroid in the main belt and the seventh asteroid to be discovered overall. Its surface likely exhibits albedo differences, with possibly a large bright area in the northern hemisphere. The surface is very bright and is probably a mixture nickel-iron metals and magnesium- and iron-silicates. Iris regularly comes within 0.4AU of Mars and will next do so on November 2, 2054. With an axial tilt of 85°, Eugenia rotates in 7.14 hours. The asteroid has a mean mass of 1.62x1019kg and a density of 3.21g/cm³
Iapetus (moon of Saturn)
Discovered in 1671, Iapetus is dark as coal on its leading hemisphere and bright on its trailing caused by a mechanism which is still unknown, probably thermal segregation. The second most notable feature of Iapetus is its equatorial ridge, a chain of 10km high mountains girdling the moon's equator.
WASP-84 b (in Hydra)
Mass: 0.692 xJup
Radius: 0.956 xJup
SMA: 0.0778 AU
Period: 8.5235 days
Distance: 100.588 parsec
Category: Hot Jovian
ESI: 0.09