February 20, 2012 - Sideways Supernova

Published in cooperation with The Planetary Society

Spend the year in space, one week at a time

Recent Weeks

May 14, 2012 - Monkey Nebula

May 7, 2012 - Getting a Grip on INTELSAT

April 30, 2012 - Dust in the Wind

April 23, 2012 - Celebrate Astronomy Day

April 16, 2012 - Rover Rides Again

April 9, 2012 - Mercury’s Marvelous Morphology

April 2, 2012 - A Matter of Truss

March 26, 2012 - Hubble Bubble

March 19, 2012 - Rocket Pioneer Centennial

March 12, 2012 - Southern Lights on Saturn

March 5, 2012 - A New Star in Town

February 27, 2012 - Hubble Upgrade

February 20, 2012 - Sideways Supernova

February 13, 2012 - Auroras Gone Wild

February 6, 2012 - Hubble Telescope Tune-Up

January 30, 2012 - Lunar Orbiter Liftoff

January 23, 2012 - Magellan Turns up the Stereo

January 16, 2012 - Southern Sibling Sees Stars

January 9, 2012 - Hitching a Ride Home

January 2, 2012 - Transforming the Space Frontier

December 26, 2011 - These Laws Can't Be Broken

December 19, 2011 - Long and Winding Road

December 12, 2011 - Blast from the Past

December 5, 2011 - It’s Just Like Folding a Map

November 28, 2011 - A Warmer, Wetter Mars

November 21, 2011 - Spy in the Sky

Customer Comment

I love each new year's pictures, and flat calendar layout - plenty of room to write in for each day of the month.

--Joellen S., Saratoga, CA

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2012 Desk Calendar

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144 full-color pages
6" x 9", spiral bound
Art-quality paper

Weekly photo essay
Daily Moon phases
Night sky events
Space trivia
Holidays
Room for notes/appts

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Customer Comment

When my son worked for NASA he requested the calendar for Christmas. I loved it and have been getting it for myself and both sons ever since.

--Gail M., Dallas, GA

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The Week in Space

February 20-26, 2012

Sideways Supernova Twenty-five years ago this week, astronomers the world over witnessed the closest and brightest supernova in nearly four centuries. Known as SN1987A, this catastrophic explosion took place 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy, and it was visible to the naked eye for nearly a year. Supernovae occur when massive stars collapse and eject most of their mass in a violent explosion. Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory have studied the ejected matter of the SN1987A, which from Earth appears as three overlapping rings. This artist’s impression reveals the hourglass shape that SN1987A would display if we could view it from the side. Two outer rings, one inner ring, and the deformed, innermost expelled material are visible.

Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada

Weekly Calendar

February 20-26, 2012

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 20

Presidents' Day

1962: Friendship 7 launched; John Glenn becomes first American to orbit Earth
1965: Ranger 8 impacts the Moon, returns photographs
1994: Clementine enters lunar orbit