Shows
George's Random Astronomical ObjectGeorge's 2020 Data Processing Project from HellAs the second closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, Messier 33 has been a very popular observing target for both amateur and professional astronomers, and even I have made images of the galaxy.
2023-12-2515 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectNo References to the Six Wives of Henry VIIIAbell 514 is a cluster of galaxies that contains six radio galaxies, and the polarized radio emission from those six radio galaxies can be used to probe the magnetic fields within the cluster.
2023-05-2709 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectDouble the Black Holes for Double the FunMarkarian 266 is a pair of merging galaxies that now contains two supermassive black holes.
2023-05-1511 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectA Runaway CowMu Columbae is a bright, blue star that was ejected from the Orion Nebula in a complex gravitational interaction involving three other stars.
2023-05-0111 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Proof-Of-Concept ExoplanetWASP-1 was the first star identified as having an exoplanet by the Wide Angle Search for Planets and thus helped to validate the techniques used by that survey.
2023-04-1711 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectTwo Non-Archaeological RelicsThe cluster Abell 168 formed from the merger of two smaller clusters, and this had many weird effects on the intracluster gas between the galaxies.
2023-04-0308 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectSo Hot and So SmallWD 2211-495 is a small, hot white dwarf with a rather unusual amount of heavy elements in its outer atmosphere, implying that something from a surrounding planetary system occasionally falls into the star.
2023-03-2008 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectSuperthinUGC 7321 is an unusually flat (or superthin) spiral galaxy, which is indicative of how it has avoided gravitational interactions with other galaxies that could alter its shape.
2023-03-0709 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectLook at This Elliptical Galaxy InsteadThe elliptical galaxy contains an abnormal amount of interstellar dust with no accompanying interstellar gas, which is weird.
2023-02-2011 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Second Air Pump GalaxyAntlia 2, which was recently found orbiting the Milky Way, is the most diffuse galaxy that anyone has ever discovered up to this point in time.
2023-02-0611 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Globular Cluster in a Forest FireUKS 1 probably lies on the far side of the Milky Way, and the light from the cluster is heavily obscured by interstellar dust, but even though it's hard to see, astronomers are still really interested in it.
2023-01-2309 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectRelationship Status - It's ComplicatedR Aquarii could be described as one of the closest symbiotic binary star systems to Earth, but it's more complicated than that.
2023-01-0908 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectSome Sort of Weird, Ultraviolet Freak of NatureNGC 6052 looks like a spiral galaxy smashing into a wall of stars, which is more or less what is actually happening.
2022-12-2611 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Fake SphereAlthough at first NGC 6781 may look like a spherical planetary nebula, it actually has a cylindrical shape, which has rather complex scientific implications for analyzing this object.
2022-11-2809 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectTwo Hellscapes Orbiting a Red DwarfThe red dwarf HD 260655 has two large, hot, rocky planets orbiting very close to it.
2022-11-1412 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Swedish Stellar SuperstoreAs the largest open cluster that anyone has found in the Milky Way, Westerlund 1 contains a lot of rare and weird stars.
2022-10-3112 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectEccentricityThe evolved red star HD 214362 is orbiting the center of the Milky Way in a very eccentric way (as in either its orbit is a very elongated ellipse or its orbit is just plainly strange).
2022-10-1709 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectNumber 1 in 1970In 1970, the quasar 4C 05.34 was the most distant known object in the universe, but this is not the only interesting fact about this object.
2022-10-0313 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectOfficially PeculiarA large mass of gas fell into the lenticular galaxy NGC 3593 about 2 billion years ago, and this gas both changed the appearance of the galaxy and also created new stars that now orbit the galaxy in the opposite direction from the older stars.
2022-09-1909 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectUnusually ShockingWhat may be most interesting about the pulsar PSR J2124-3358 is not that it is spinning very rapidly but that stellar winds from the pulsar have collided with the interstellar medium, producing a glowing bow shock.
2022-09-0509 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Confusing and Controversial Names EpisodeThe star WR 124 (also called Merrill's Star, although that name ignores two of the people involved in the discovery) is a really hot Wolf-Rayet star that has produced the surrounding nebula M1-67 (which has no relation to Messier 1) and that is hurling through the Milky Way in an unusual direction at an unusual speed.
2022-08-2210 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Magic of Circumstellar SemanticsThe star HD 131835 had a circumstellar disk of dust and gas that technically is neither a debris disk nor a protoplanetary disk but instead some sort of weird hybrid of these two things.
2022-08-0811 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectA Dwarf Galaxy with Something for EveryoneLocated within the Local Group, the dwarf galaxy IC 1613 has been popular with professional astronomers for a variety of reasons, and it is also a notable albeit difficult-to-see amateur astronomy object as well.
2022-07-2512 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectAnother 90's Gamma Ray FlashbackGRB 980326 was the first gamma ray burst to be associated with a supernova, which was truly groundbreaking even if the astronomers who discovered it were probably using Netscape at the time.
2022-07-1110 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectA Modern Non-CometSakurai's Object was discovered in 1996 by the amateur astronomer Yukio Sakurai, who had been searching for comets but who had instead found a dying star that had brifly undergone a final burst of fusion, causing it to increase dramatically in brightness.
2022-06-2708 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Completely Unconcerned Open ClusterThe open cluster NGC 3680 is 1.4 billion years old, making it unusually long-lived for such a cluster.
2022-06-1309 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Brightest Star on the ArgoAs the second brightest star in the night sky, Canopus is associated with many different myths, yet as the closest yellow supergiant to Earth, the star is also scientifically important.
2022-05-3012 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectA Very Distant Infrared SmudgeThe hyperluminous infrared galaxy IRAS 10214+4724 was the most distant infrared object seen by astronomers in the 1980s.
2022-05-1614 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectNo Face Masks Are Needed for MonocerotisGX Monocerotis is a evolved star near the end of its life that is expelling its outer gas layers, and because the star is in orbit in a binary star system, those gas layers have formed a spiral pattern.
2022-05-0208 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Black Hole That Didn't Get Its Morning CoffeeThe center of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 71 contains multiple regions where stars are forming as well as an inactive supermassive black home that needs some caffeine.
2022-04-1809 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Uncredited StarEta Aquilae was the first Cepheid variable ever discovered, but this class of stars was named after Delta Cephei instead.
2022-04-0408 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectHow To Avoid Photobombing AsteroidsThe North Ecliptical Pole points to a location perpendicular to the plane of the Solar System, which makes it a unique place for certain types of astronomical observations.
2022-03-2111 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectReflections in Quotation MarksThe spiral galaxy NGC 6814 is a source of strong but variable X-ray emission that astronomers are using to measure the mass of a supermassive black hole at its center.
2022-03-0709 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Weird SphereThe abnormal-looking globular cluster Messier 71 is unusual in that its stars contain an excessive amount of heavy elements and in that it is being gravitationally shredded by the Milky Way.
2022-02-2112 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThis Episode Brought to You by the Letter BThe binary star system b Centauri contains an exoplanet named b Centauri b that, despite its confusing name, has changed astronomers' perspectives on how and where planets can form.
2022-02-0714 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Infrared TwinEven though HD 106252 has an exoplanet orbiting it, astronomers are much more interested in the fact that HD 106252 looks very similar to the Sun.
2022-01-2410 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectAn Actual Use for Einstein's Famous EquationVER J0521+211 is a distant galaxy that produces gamma rays with such high energy that, when the gamma rays hit the Earth's atmosphere, the photons transform into electrons and positrons.
2022-01-1011 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectA Rant About Variable Star ClassificationsUX Ari is an RS CVn type variable star system, which is a confusing way to classify variable star systems but which means that UX Ari contains two stars very close together with complex, interacting magnetic fields that produce all sorts of weird effects.
2021-12-2709 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectImaged Before the Hubble Space Telescope Was FixedNGC 7457 was one of the first things imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, which meant that the images of it were relatively blurry, but this is not the most interesting fact about this lenticular galaxy.
2021-12-1308 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectGreater Than OneSPT-CL J0546-5345 is an abnormally large cluster that formed very quickly after the Big Bang, which places some strong constraints of models of the formation and evolution of the universe.
2021-11-2913 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectConclusively InconclusiveUM 425 could be either a pair of very similar quasars at the same distance from Earth or a single quasar that has been gravitationally lensed so that it appears twice in the sky.
2021-11-1509 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectDo Not Confuse With VV CepheiVW Cephei is an eclipsing binary star system containing two stars that are so close that they share an outer gas layer.
2021-11-0107 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectInsert Guitar Riff HereChi Cygni is a Mira-type variable star with some of the most extreme variations in brightness among any variable stars in the sky.
2021-10-1810 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectOne of 57 Varieties of Active Galactic Nuclei3C 147 is not the first object ever identified as a quasar, but it is sort of one of the first two objects ever called a quasar.
2021-10-0412 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Next Best Thing to an ExoplanetAstronomers may not have found an exoplanet orbiting the star HD 191089, but they found the next best thing.
2021-09-2009 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Quiet Kid on the Edge of the PlaygroundThe WLM Galaxy is located at the edge of the Local Group where it is relatively unaffected by everything happening around the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.
2021-09-0609 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectBuild Your Own Hypothesis At HomeJets of gas that are several light years long are emerging from the blue supergiant MWC 137, and no one knows why.
2021-08-2310 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectFortified with IronMost globular clusters are among the first stars to form in the universe, but the globular cluster NGC 6352 seems abnormally young in comparison.
2021-08-0909 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe 10 Year Long DiscoveryIt took 10 years of observations for astronomers to determine that the star HD 154345 had a Jupiter-like exoplanet orbiting it.
2021-07-2610 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectSwipe Right for Gamma RaysWhile the gamma ray burst GRB 090926A itself might be interesting to some astronomers (particularly desperate gamma ray astronomers), the interstellar gas between the burst and Earth may be even more interesting.
2021-07-1209 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectIt's Blue but not BlueberryIC 10 is a nearby starburst, a type of galaxy that is forming stars at a very high rate (for its size) that should not be confused with the fruit flavored candy.
2021-06-2811 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectBig in the SouthThe cluster of galaxies Abell S1063 was only reported as a discovery in the 1980s, but it has attracted a lof of attention because of how it gravitationally distorts the light of galaxies behind it.
2021-06-1408 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectIt's Too Obvious To Say It's ComplexThe S254-S258 Complex is a chain of ionized gas bubbles connected by a filament of cold interstellar gas and dust where star are forming in a complicated (or possibly complex) way.
2021-05-3109 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectBYOBNGC 3504 contains three rings, two bars, and a supermassive black hole but no locations licensed to sell alcohol (as far as astronomers know).
2021-05-1709 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectStability within a CataclysmAn exoplanet has managed to stay in a stable orbit around LX Serpentis despite the fact that it is a cataclysmic binary star system with a chaotic past.
2021-05-0309 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectTry Turning it Off and On AgainMarkarian 590 contains an active galactic nucleus with a supermassive black hole, and the region around the black hole has strangely changed in brightness a couple of times in the past 50 years.
2021-04-1908 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Understated Exoplanet DiscoveryWhen it was discovered, WD 0806-661B was described as a very cool, very low mass brown dwarf, but it could actually be better characterized as a large exoplanet.
2021-04-0509 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectDoes It Dark Matter?The dwarf galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 may be one of the very few galaxies that contains no dark matter, although the non-existence of something we cannot see in this galaxy is still being debated.
2021-03-2210 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Inside Joke GalaxyThe dust disk in the spiral galaxy NGC 891 is so useful for studying interstellar dust that many astronomers show up to conferences with science results specifically about this spiral galaxy.
2021-03-0811 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectBobbinsBoBn 1 is not only a planetary nebula with an odd-to-pronounce name but also one of a very few planetary nebulae that have been found in the Milky Way's halo.
2021-02-2210 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectSugar FormationIRAS 16293-2422 is a complex protostellar object that contains multiple objects that are forming into Sun-like stars.
2021-02-0809 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectSort of Faster than the Speed of LightGas ejected from the center of the quasar 1642+690 looks like it's travelling faster than the speed of light even though it isn't.
2021-01-2508 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Clickbait StarHD 220140 is often referred to as a naked young star, and it is a source of both X-ray emission and double entendres.
2021-01-1109 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectBlowing Bubbles (or Cavities)Hickson Compact Group 62 contains hot intracluster gas with two large cavities (which I want to call bubbles) that formed from gas that was blown out of the galaxy at the centre of the group.
2020-12-2809 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectSeventeen Ways to OscillateHD 60435 is a nearby example of a class of stars called rapidly oscillating Ap stars that can change brightness in just a few minutes.
2020-12-1411 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Ursa Major Eye TestMizar and Alcor have been visible as a double star since ancient times, but as technology has progessed over the centuries, astronomers have discovered that Mizar and Alcor are not just one pair of stars.
2020-11-3014 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectLonger Than This Podcast EpisodeThe gamma ray burst GRB 111209A was notable for being almost seven hours long, which is much longer than gamma ray bursts normally last as well as much longer than a typical Ariana Grande concert.
2020-11-1609 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectPart of a Vegetarian SausageMessier 56 is a particularly old globular cluster that attracts a lot of attention from professional astronomers, although amateur astronomers have a tendency to overlook it.
2020-11-0212 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectSynonyms for LargeAs a large elliptical galaxy with a supermassive black hole and supersized jets of gas emerging from its nucleus, NGC 6251 inspires some astronomers to use thesauruses.
2020-10-1909 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectJelly Bean AnalysisThe red dwarf GJ 3470 has a gaseous exoplanet orbiting it in such a way that the planet passes between the star and the Earth, allowing astronomers to examine the atmosphere of the exoplanet.
2020-10-0510 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectMeasure the Correct Distance and Win a PrizeNGC 3621 is one of a few galaxies where its distance has been measured with high accuracy using Cepheids and other stars with known brightness, thus making it very important for measuring the expansion of the universe.
2020-09-2113 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectHigh ContrastA project using an interesting combination of methods was able to find a very faint red dwarf in orbit around the bright, nearby star Zeta Virginis.
2020-09-0709 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectStellar AssassinationPGC 43234 was a relatively uninteresting galaxy until its central supermassive black hole shredded a star in an event known as ASASSN-14li.
2020-08-2409 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectMore Powerful than a Football Player with a Rocket LauncherWR 40 is one of the brightest and best-studied Wolf-Rayet stars, a class of stars that are so hot that they are blowing themselves apart.
2020-08-1011 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectCold at 14 Million Degrees CelsiusThe group of galaxies called the IC 1860 Group looks like it was recently disturbed by a spiral galaxy falling into it.
2020-07-2709 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Ultracool NeighborThe nearby star DENIS J104814.7-395606 is cool (in the sense that it is awesome) because it is so cool (in the sense that it has a very low surface temperature for a star).
2020-07-1309 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectToo Fast but Not Too FuriousPSR 0820+02 is the second pulsar ever discovered to be in a binary star system.
2020-06-2909 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectThe Counterrevolutionary from CentaurusA number of peculiarities about the lenticular galaxy NGC 5102 indicate that a dwarf galaxy fell into it several hundred million years ago.
2020-06-1510 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectAbove and Below or Something Like ThatNGC 55 has the interesting distinction of being the closest galaxy to Earth that is seen edge-on, and it also contains an ultraminous X-ray source (ULX) uncreatively named NGC 55 ULX.
2020-06-0114 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectRetro Gaming and Star FormationNGC 281, which is also called the Pacman Nebula, is a place where star formation has been triggered two different ways, although the stars are not chased by any Ghost Nebulae.
2020-05-1809 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectA Classic Non-CometEven though it may be rather ordinary from a scientific standpoint, the open cluster Messier 23 is a very popular with amateur astronomers.
2020-05-0410 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectProbably Not the Y2K BugEverything about the triple star system V505 Sgr looked normal aside from an abrupt change in the orbits of the stars sometime around the year 2000.
2020-04-2009 minGeorge's Random Astronomical Object0.2 Seconds of Gamma RaysThe short gamma ray burst GRB 100206A was found in a luminous infrared galaxy, which is very unusual place to find such gamma ray bursts.
2020-04-0607 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectConfusing U4U 1957+115 is a low mass X-ray binary, a binary star system with a normal star about the size of the Sun and a relatively small black hole three times the mass of the Sun, and it also has an unfortunately confusing name.
2020-03-2309 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectPlaying Golf on the MoonThe extremely bright, point-like emission from J1955+5131 in visible light and radio waves makes it useful for matching up images from different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as an interesting object in its own right.
2020-03-0913 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectCalibrated VariabilityDespite the variability of the gamma radiation from J0510+1800, this blazar is used as a flux calibrator at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths.
2020-02-2413 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectExoplanetary Acronym 103bWASP-103 has an acronym for a name and also has a gaseous planet orbiting so close to it that the planet is in danger of being destroyed.
2020-02-1010 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectStellar Companion Facial ReconstructionBV Centaurus is an unusual example of a class of U Gem cataclysmic variable stars in which a white dwarf is stripping gas from a companion star.
2020-01-2707 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectWatching Infrared Paint DryELAIS N1 is a extragalactic deep field selected specifically for identifying many distant, faint galaxies at infrared wavelengths.
2020-01-1311 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectHowling Fast Differential RotationPsi Capricorni was the first star other than the Sun where the phenomenon of differental rotation was ever measured.
2019-12-3009 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectRam Your JellyfishAbell 85 is a large, nearby cluster of galaxies with so many things happening inside that it could be called a ball of chaos.
2019-12-1611 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectA Cruise Holiday with a Peculiar Carbon StarThe star HD 214714 contains not only a large amount of carbon in its stellar atmosphere but also a peculiar combination of other heavy elements as well.
2019-12-0209 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectA Misbehaving LIRGII Zw 96 is a luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) where most of the infrared emission comes from some type of off-center region, which is weird compared to most other LIRGs.
2019-11-1810 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectCircles within Circles30 Ari contains four stars and an exoplanet all arranged in a rather complex set of nested orbits.
2019-11-0411 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectExtra PeculiarHD 98851 is both an Am chemically peculiar star and a delta Scuti variable star, and it has two different pulsation cycles, which makes it really peculiar.
2019-10-2108 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectSome Unexpected HeliumRV Octantis would be considered a run-of-the-mill RR Lyrae variable star if it wasn't for the unexpected discovery of helium in its atmosphere.
2019-10-0710 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectA Damp Lyman Alpha ElephantThe most interesting thing about the quasar LBSQ 0058+0155 is not the quasar itself but the galaxy between the quasar and Earth.
2019-09-2313 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectRoom TemperatureHD 85512 is a nearby star slightly smaller and more orange than the Sun. It happens to have an exoplanet that could be close to Earth-like.
2019-09-0908 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectVariable VariabilityHS Hydrae is a variable eclipsing binary star, which sounds more unusual than it actually is. However, it's precessing, which is not only unusual but also causes the variability to vary over time.
2019-08-2609 minGeorge's Random Astronomical ObjectNot the PopeThe Leo IV Dwarf Galaxy is one of several ultra faint dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. Galaxies like this are weird relics of when the universe first formed; they contain very old stellar populations and abnormally large amounts of dark matter.
2019-08-1208 min