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A new star, likely the brightest supernovain recorded human history, lit upplanet Earth’s sky in the year 1006 AD.The expanding debris cloud from the stellar explosion,found in the southerly constellationofLupus,still puts on a cosmic light show across theelectromagnetic spectrum.In fact, thiscomposite view includesX-ray data in blue from theChandra Observatory,optical data inyellowish hues, and radio image data in red.Now known as the SN 1006supernova remnant, the debris cloudappears to be about 60 light-years across and is understoodto represent the remains of a white dwarf star.Part of a binary star system,the compact white dwarf graduallycaptured material from its companion star.The buildup in mass finally triggered athermonuclearexplosion that destroyed the dwarf star.Because the distance to the supernova remnant is about 7,000light-years, that explosion actuallyhappened 7,000 years before the light reached Earth in 1006.Shockwaves in the remnantaccelerateparticles to extreme energies and arethought to be a source of the mysteriouscosmic rays

The daytime sky grew dark,the temperature dropped, and lights came onas Chongqing, China, was plunged into theMoon’s shadow during theJuly22nd totalsolar eclipse.This serene, wide-angle view of the event looks to the eastover the large, populous city from a newly constructed park.Despite thin clouds, it captures theshimmering solar coronajust before the end of the eclipse total phase.This total solar eclipse occurrednear Aphelion, the point inEarth’s elliptical orbit farthest from the Sun,and so the Sun was near its smallest apparent size.It also occurred when the New Moon wasnear Perigee, the closest pointto Earth in the Moon’s elliptical orbit, making the Moon near itslargest apparent size.The small Sun and large Moon made this thelongest solar eclipse of this century.

In July of 1994 pieces of CometShoemaker-Levy 9collided with planet Jupiter.The explosive impacts sent plumes of debris high into the Jovianatmosphere creatingdark markings or scars, visible for a timeagainst the cloud bands.Remarkably, 15 years later,another impact scar wasdiscovered in the Jovian atmosphere by amateur astronomer AnthonyWesley as he examined images of the gas giant takenfrom his home observatory just outside Murrumbateman NSW Australia.Jupiter’s south pole is at the top in this July 19 discovery image,with Jupiter rotating from right to left.The dark marking, also likely caused by a comet or asteroid impact,is near the top of the view, left of a pre-existing, whitish, oval-shapedstorm.NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility images from MaunaKea, Hawaii later confirmed the likelyimpact site’s dark scar and plume of particles in Jupiter’s upperatmosphere.Since 2006, major discovery observations by amateur astronomershave also included two red spots on Jupiter