Cosmic Curiosities
“I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.”
- Amy Tan, American Author
Fun Summer Constellations
We've passed the summer solstice. The sun is getting lower each day. Daylight time is getting shorter, but night is lengthening—meaning more time to stargaze while still nice and warm! Plan a night away from the city lights, and don't forget to bring the bug spray.
The four fun constellations below are not the brightest or very popular like Scorpius, Sagittarius, or the Summer Triangle. They can be a little harder to spot, too. But finding them is fun and rewarding! I recall when I first saw these gems years ago and was simply dazzled. If you need help locating these, let us know at one of our Wisconsin Stargazing programs! Or, download a free astronomy app such as Google Sky or Stellarium.
DELPHINUS THE DOLPHIN AND SAGITTA THE ARROW
Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani
Look high in the sky near the bright star Altair, the southern-most star in the summer triangle, and locate Delphinus and Sagitta constellations. To me, the stars of Delphinus actually resemble a dolphin. Most constellations leave you scratching your head, saying, “How did they ever see that?” These faint stars of Delphinus attract attention, because the stars are near the same brightness and are so close together. They are easy to distinguish on a dark, clear night. Some say this constellation looks more like a heavenly diamond. Also, near Altair and Delphinus is Sagitta the arrow. Once again, it looks like its official name. This constellation is even smaller than the dolphin and dimmer. Still, if the skies are dark and clear, give it a try and look high overhead about an hour after sunset.
Many cultures imagined an arrow here. Sagitta was called Oisto by the Greeks. Its Arabic name is Al-Sahm.
CORONA BOREALIS THE NORTHERN CROWN AND HERCULES THE HERO
Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani
Between the bright stars of Arcturus and Vega, you can find the constellations of Corona Borealis and Hercules. Corona Borealis has a bright star called Alphecca—an Arabic word that means “the bright one of the dish.” The stars are also known as Gemma—a Latin word that means “pearl of the crown.” Look high in the southwest in July for this small yet splendid jewel of stars.
Hercules is a large, faint summer constellation. It is the fifth largest constellation in the sky. Its name comes from the Roman hero Heracles. A well-known feature is the Keystone. I think it looks like a distorted baseball diamond. This distinctive pattern of stars forms Hercules's torso. His arm-stars connect southward, and his legs extend north. So, he often looks upside down in the sky. Hercules is standing on the head of Draco the Dragon, whom he defeated in one of his ancient stories.
Remember to escape the city light to find these fun summer stars with a little imagination. Catch a few falling stars while you are looking up!
Expanding Moon Quests
Our moon is easily the most viewed astronomical object in the sky. It is our cosmic neighbor. Though often in our arts and heart, human feet have not touched the lunar soil since December 14, 1972, just before Eugene Cernan stepped back onto the Apollo 17 module with his last moonwalk.
Cernan on the moon in December 1972; Credit: NASA
In that moon-race past, it was only America and the Soviet Union who were able to launch into space and land on the moon. Today, China's CNSA, India's DOS, Japan's JAXA, and Europe's ESA have all had successful soft landings on the lunar surface. In addition to expanding access to space, there has recently been a wave of private interest in the space economy, especially returning to the moon.
SpaceX and Blue Origin are household names to most space enthusiasts, and there are other companies who have also pointed their engines toward the moon. Intuitive Machines was the first private company to have a soft landing on the moon with their Odysseus craft in February 2024. That quest was quickly followed by Firefly Aerospace in March 2025 with their successful Blue Ghost craft. The Axiom Space company is contracted to develop a new lunar spacesuit for the Artemis missions.
Resilience testing in Japan; Credit: Bloomburg/Hanai
Recently, a Japanese company has been attempting to land on the lunar surface. Tokyo-based ispace has been developing robotic spacecraft and technologies to facilitate transportation and exploration in space. They launched the Hakuto-R Mission 2 with the spacecraft Resilience in January 2025. The company was also awarded a NASA contract to help facilitate the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, delivering scientific technologies to the moon.
After a long fly-by, Resilience attempted to land on June 5, 2025, but engineers lost contact with the craft one minute and 45 seconds before its scheduled touchdown, indicating an unsuccessful and hard landing not unlike ispace's previous mission, Hakuto-R Mission 1.
Mare Frigoris, outlined in teal; Credit NASA/JPL
Both Japanese missions intended to land within Mare Frigoris, one of the Moon's basaltic plains near the North Pole. Resilience would have been Japan's first private spacecraft to land safely on the moon.
Exploring the moon's polar regions brings the potential for new scientific research and discoveries. America's Apollo landings occurred near the moon's equator. Most recent lunar trips, both public and private, have been focusing on the poles. For example, NASA's Artemis III aims to visit the south pole region, where water ice has been confirmed. The moon also provides a pristine environment to research the evolution of our solar system, as its landscape has not been subject to weathering or erosion.
NASA's Artemis II crew; Credit: NASA
Why go to the moon when we have been there? Why go when there is no atmosphere and not many changes?
With these recent lunar efforts, new ideas and technologies need to be developed. From research comes innovation. Many past space journeys have trickled down to Earth. Think of GPS (global positioning system), solar cells, and even memory foam. New voyages inspire a new generation of thinkers and creators.
The moon can also be a launch-point for future Mars missions—and maybe even deeper into our solar system. No one knows exactly what the future holds, but part of going to space has always been satisfying our curiosity. We want to know our neighbors. We want to keep exploring.
Future artistic rendition of the moon; Credit: NASA
Space has never been easy. There have been many failures in the past, and we have many today. Human safety is always at the top of the list, but astronauts know that pushing the boundaries is risky. They are willing to take that risk.
For us in America, NASA is in a period of budgetary uncertainty with missions and projects being delayed or cancelled. Will the recent wave of going back to the moon keep expanding for us or the world's space programs? If we do walk once again on the moon's surface, hopefully a new inspiration will bloom back on Earth.
Galaxies on the Move
Credits: Chandra X-Ray Telescope/NASA
The Milky Way galaxy is part of the Local Group. The Local Group, our galactic neighborhood, contains more than 50 galaxies. Most of these are dwarf galaxies. The Andromeda, Milky Way, and Triangulum galaxies are the largest. The Local Group is part of the larger Virgo Supercluster.
You may have heard that the Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy billions of years from now. Will it? More on that in a bit, but first, do you know what objects collide the most in space?
A. Stars
B. Planets
C. Black holes
D. Galaxies
The answer is D, galaxies! They are the most likely to collide with one another. Relative to their size, galaxies are not that far away from each other. In fact, they are often found in clusters.
Credits: NCSA, NASA, B. Robertson, L. Hernquist
This visualization shows two colliding galaxies that merge into a single elliptical galaxy throughout a period spanning two billion years.
Galaxy collisions are one of the primary ways that galaxies evolve and change over time. When galaxies run into each other, gas, dust, stars, and planets get flung around in space. Sometimes, the galaxies will fly through each other, but often, they will spin around each other a bit before eventually merging into one large galaxy.
Credit: NASA
The supermassive black holes at their centers also combine. The whole process can jumpstart star formation in previously inactive galaxies.
Because the merger and acquisitions of galaxies takes so long, we do not “watch” any collisions as they happen—like in the videos. These animations come from astronomers carefully exploring images taken by the great telescopes around the world and in space. They piece together the steps involved based on the various stages of galaxy merging.
Different stages of galaxies colliding; Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University), K. Noll (STScI), and J. Westphal (Caltech)
Until just recently, astronomers were convinced that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, would inevitably collide with the nearest neighboring major galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy.
Credit: Robert Gendler
The Andromeda galaxy is another spiral galaxy like the Milky Way. At 2.5 million light years distant, Andromeda is the closest major galaxy to us. There are smaller galaxies closer to us than Andromeda, like the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, but they are considered satellite dwarf galaxies, not major galaxies.
Astronomers have measured Andromeda's light and noticed it is blue-shifted—meaning it is moving towards us. We knew this before we knew it was a galaxy! It was considered a nebula until 1923. As time went on and more observations were made, researchers all became more and more convinced that in 4 to 5 billion years, Andromeda and the Milky Way would eventually smash together and merge into one large, the Milkdromeda galaxy.
If the Milky Way does merge with Andromeda, there will not be many head-on cosmic collisions. Stars, planets, and other smaller celestial objects very rarely collide directly. The distance between stars is too huge. For example, roughly 10 million suns can fit between itself and the nearest star. Also, if the galaxies merge far into the future, the sun may be done. It is expected to swell into a red giant star in about 5 billion years and engulf the Earth.
As mentioned, the Milkdromeda merger was once considered a near-certainty, with some astronomers even suggesting that it had already begun. However, recent calculations have reduced the odds to a 50/50 chance—a coin flip. Observations from Hubble and Gaia have indicated that Andromeda may have much more perpendicular motion than previously believed, and this combined with the gravitational attraction of other galaxies in our Local Group may pull the Milky Way and Andromeda off their collision course. There may be no fusion of the two galaxies at all!
Space in Sixty Seconds
Catch the star making a nebula, our moon, planets, and fireworks this July!
Sky Sights
Mars moves through the constellation Leo the Lion all July. Due to the Earth's orbit, the red planets gets lower each night. It will get so low and hard to see in early October.
Mercury can be glimpsed in early July. Look low in the west after sunset—except maybe during a fireworks show!
Crazily bright Venus can still be easily seen on early July mornings. Jupiter returns but starts the month very low in the ENE sky. Spot the Moon passing by the two brightest planets. Keep watching these jewels, and by August 12, they will be only one degree apart!
A waxing crescent Moon swings by Mars a second time from July 27 to 30.
Saturn rises by 12:30 a.m. at July's start and by 10:30 p.m. by month's end. Look for the ring jewel in the south sky one hour before sunrise.
July Star Map
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