ASTRONOMY - Equinox Sunset

2025 September 21

Equinox Sunset
Image Credit: Luca Vanzella

Explanation: Does the Sun set in the same direction every day? No, the direction of sunset depends on the time of the year. Although the Sun always sets approximately toward the west, on an equinox like tomorrow the Sun sets directly toward the west. After tomorrow's September equinox, the Sun will set increasingly toward the southwest, reaching its maximum displacement at the December solstice. Before tomorrow's September equinox, the Sun had set toward the northwest, reaching its maximum displacement at the June solstice. The featured time-lapse image shows seven bands of the Sun setting one day each month from 2019 December through 2020 June. These image sequences were taken from Alberta, Canada -- well north of the Earth's equator -- and feature the city of Edmonton in the foreground. The middle band shows the Sun setting during an equinox -- in March. From this location, the Sun will set along this same equinox band again tomorrow. 

MUSIC - Antonio Vivaldi - Four Seasons *Autumn* - Frederieke Saeijs

OCEANOGRAPHIE - Les scientifiques expliquent enfin le mystère des vagues scélérates (1/29)

Autrefois considérées comme des légendes maritimes, les vagues scélérates sont devenues une réalité scientifique en 1995, lorsqu'un mur d'eau de 24 mètres (80 pieds) de haut a frappé la plate-forme pétrolière Draupner. De nouvelles études montrent que ces vagues extrêmes se forment lorsque des phénomènes océaniques ordinaires, tels que l'alignement ou l'étirement irrégulier des vagues, convergent au mauvais moment. À partir de données recueillies en mer du Nord, les chercheurs ont confirmé que les vagues scélérates résultent de phénomènes physiques courants. Des modèles sont actuellement développés afin de pouvoir un jour aider à prévoir ces dangers soudains et gigantesques.

©Getty Images

(à suivre)

ASTRONOMY - Gibbous vs Crescent

 2025 September 20

Gibbous vs Crescent
Image Credit & Copyright: Luca Bartek

Explanation: Early risers around planet Earth have enjoyed a shining crescent Moon near brilliant Venus, close to the eastern horizon in recent morning twilight skies. And yesterday, on September 19, skygazers watching from some locations in Earth's northern hemisphere were also able to witness Venus, in the inner planet's waxing gibbous phase, pass behind the Moon's waning crescent. In fact, this telescopic snapshot was taken moments before that occultation of gibbous Venus by the crescent Moon began. The close-up view of the beautiful celestial alignment records Venus approaching part of the Moon's sunlit edge in clear daytime skies from the Swiss Alps. Tomorrow, the Sun will pass behind a New Moon. But to witness that partial solar eclipse on September 21, skygazers will need to watch from locations in planet Earth's southern hemisphere.

ASTRONOMY - Galaxies Stars and Dust

 2025 August 28

Galaxies, Stars, and Dust
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Eder

Explanation: This well-composed telescopic field of view covers over a Full Moon on the sky toward the high-flying constellation Pegasus. Of course the brighter stars show diffraction spikes, the commonly seen effect of internal supports in reflecting telescopes, and lie well within our own Milky Way galaxy. The faint but pervasive clouds of interstellar dust ride above the galactic plane and dimly reflect the Milky Way's starlight. Known as galactic cirrus or integrated flux nebulae they are associated with the Milky Way's molecular clouds. In fact, the diffuse cloud cataloged as MBM 54, less than a thousand light-years distant, fills the scene. The galaxy seemingly tangled in the dusty cloud is the striking spiral galaxy NGC 7497. It's some 60 million light-years away, though. Seen almost edge-on near the center of the field, NGC 7497's own spiral arms and dust lanes echo the colors of stars and dust in our own Milky Way.

LES BELLES INVENTIONS DE LEONARD DE VINCI - Léonard de Vinci a revisité la catapulte

Bien que condamnant la guerre, Léonard de Vinci a passé beaucoup de temps à concevoir et dessiner des armes. Comme en témoigne le Codex Atlanticus, il était tout particulièrement fasciné par les catapultes.

Ici, une représentation d'un des dessins qu'il a fait à ce sujet. Il ne s'agit en rien d'une invention car ces armes étaient connues depuis l'Antiquité, mais Léonard y apporte sa touche esthétique si caractéristique.

© Catalogo collezioni, CC by-sa 4.0

ASTRONOMY - Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)

2025 September 18

Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)
Image Credit & Copyright: Team Ciel Austral

Explanation: A new visitor from the outer Solar System, comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) also known as SWAN25B was only discovered late last week, on September 11. That's just day before the comet reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun. First spotted by Vladimir Bezugly in images from the SWAN instrument on the sun-staring SOHO spacecraft, the comet was surprisingly bright but understandably difficult to see against the Sun's glare. Still close to the Sun on the sky, the greenish coma and tail of C/2025 R2 (SWAN) are captured in this telescopic snapshot from September 17. Spica, alpha star of the constellation Virgo, shines just beyond the upper left edge of the frame while the comet is about 6.5 light-minutes from planet Earth. Near the western horizon after sunset and slightly easier to see in binoculars from the southern hemisphere, this comet SWAN will pass near Zubenelgenubi, alpha star of Libra, on October 2. C/2025 R2 (SWAN) is scheduled to make its closest approach to our fair planet around October 20. 

ASTRONOMY - Nebulas and Clusters in Sagittarius

 2025 September 17

Nebulas and Clusters in Sagittarius
Image Credit & Copyright: J. De Winter, C. Humbert, C. Robert & V. Sabet; Text: Ogetay Kayali (MTU)

Explanation: Can you spot famous celestial objects in this image? 18th-century astronomer Charles Messier cataloged only two of them: the bright Lagoon Nebula (M8) at the bottom, and the colorful Trifid Nebula (M20) at the upper right. The one on the left that resembles a cat's paw is NGC 6559, and it is much fainter than the other two. Even harder to spot are the thin blue filaments on the left, from supernova remnant (SNR G007.5-01.7). Their glow comes from small amounts of glowing oxygen atoms that are so faint that it took over 17 hours of exposure with just one blue color to bring up. Framing this scene of stellar birth and death are two star clusters: the open cluster M21 just above Trifid, and the globular cluster NGC 6544 at lower left.

ASTRONOMY - New Comet SWAN25B over Mexico

 2025 September 16

New Comet SWAN25B over Mexico
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Korona

Explanation: A newly discovered comet is already visible with binoculars. The comet, C/2025 R2 (SWAN) and nicknamed SWAN25B, is brightening significantly as it emerges from the Sun's direction and might soon become visible on your smartphone -- if not your eyes. Although the brightnesses of comets are notoriously hard to predict, many comets appear brighter as they approach the Earth, with SWAN25B reaching only a quarter of the Earth-Sun distance near October 19. Nighttime skygazers will also be watching for a SWAN25B-spawned meteor shower around October 5 when our Earth passes through the plane of the comet's orbit. The unexpectedly bright comet was discovered by an amateur astronomer in images of the SWAN instrument on NASA's SOHO satellite. The comet is currently best observed in southern skies but is slowly moving north. The featured image was captured at sunset three days ago just above the western horizon in Zacatecas, Mexico.

ASTRONOMY - Earth During a Powerful Solar Storm

2025 september 15

Earth During a Powerful Solar Storm
Video Credit: NASA's SVS, SWRC, CCMC, SWMF; T. Bridgeman et al.

Explanation: Can our Sun become dangerous? Yes, sometimes. Every few years our Sun ejects a scary-large bubble of hot gas into the Solar System. Every hundred years or so, when the timing, location, and magnetic field connections are just right, such a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) will hit the Earth. When this happens, the Earth not only experiences dramatic auroras, but its magnetic field gets quickly pushed back and compressed, which causes electric grids to surge. Some of these surges could be dangerous, affecting satellites and knocking out power grids -- which can take months to fix. Just such a storm -- called the Carrington Event -- occurred in 1859 and caused telegraph wires to spark. A similar CME passed near the Earth in 2012, and the featured animated video shows a computer model of what might have happened if it had been a direct hit. In this model, the Earth's magnetopause becomes so compressed that it went inside the orbit of geosynchronous communication satellites.