The Sleeping Gypsy is an 1897 oil painting by French Naïve artist Henri Rousseau (1844–1910). It is a fantastical depiction of a lion musing over a sleeping woman on a moonlit night.   What is the Sleeping [ … ]

N44 is an emission nebula with superbubble structure located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way in the constellation Dorado.   What is the emission nebula N44? Originally catalogued in Karl Henize’s “Catalogue of H-alpha emission stars [ … ]

The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant in the constellation of Taurus. The now-current name is due to William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, who observed the object in 1840 using a 36-inch telescope and produced a drawing that [ … ]

Sagittarius A* is a bright and very compact astronomical radio source at the center of the Milky Way, near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius.   What is Sagittarius A*? Sagittarius A* is part of a larger [ … ]

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. The descriptive “milky” is derived from the appearance from Earth of the galaxy – a band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that [ … ]

Puffins are any of three small species of alcids (auks) in the bird genus Fratercula with a brightly coloured beak during the breeding season. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water.   What [ … ]

The raccoon, sometimes spelled racoon, also known as the common raccoon, North American raccoon, is a medium-sized mammal native to North America.   What is a raccoon? The raccoon is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length [ … ]

A zebroid or zorse, is the offspring of any cross between a zebra and any other equine: essentially, a zebra hybrid.   What is a zebroid? Zebroids have been bred since the 19th century. Charles Darwin noted several zebra hybrids [ … ]

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. The descriptive “milky” is derived from the appearance from Earth of the galaxy – a band of light seen in the [ … ]