Catalogue of the Cosmos

  • Posted 09.01.06
  • NOVA

Learn the difference between pulsars and quasars, antimatter and dark matter, brown dwarfs and white dwarfs, and many other astronomical objects.

Launch Interactive Printable Version

See amazing space telescope images of comets, asteroids, stars, galaxies, nebulas, quasars, and other cosmic wonders.

Glossary excerpted with permission from Cosmic Horizons: Astronomy at the Cutting Edge, edited by Steven Soter and Neil deGrasse Tyson, New York: The New Press, 2001. Definition of gamma-ray burst courtesy of Dr. Jerry Bonnell, Goddard Space Flight Center. This feature originally appeared, in slightly different form, on NOVA's Death Star Web site.

Credits

Images

(asteroid, Earth, elliptical galaxy, globular cluster, Milky Way)
Courtesy NASA
(binary star system)
Courtesy NASA, Susan Terebey/Extrasolar Research Corp.
(black hole)
Courtesy Karl Gebhardt/University of Michigan, Tod Lauer/NOAO
(blue straggler)
Courtesy NASA, Rex Saffer/Villanova University and Dave Zurek/STScI
(comet)
Courtesy NASA, H.A. Weaver/Applied Research Corp., P.D. Feldman/The Johns Hopkins University
(galaxy)
Courtesy NASA, Hubble Heritage Team/STScI/AURA, G.R. Meurer and T.M. Heckman/The Johns Hopkins University, C. Leitherer, J. Harris and D. Calzetti/STScI, M. Sirianni/ The Johns Hopkins University
(gamma-ray burst, nebula)
Courtesy NASA, S.R. Kulkarni and S.G. Djorgovski/Caltech, Caltech GRB Team
(magellanic clouds, spiral galaxy)
Courtesy Hubble Heritage Team/AURA/STScI/NASA
(neutron star)
Courtesy NASA, Fred Walter/State University of New York at Stony Brook
(Orion Nebula)
Courtesy NASA, Hubble Heritage Team/STScI
(planetary nebula)
Courtesy NASA, J.P. Harrington and K.J. Borkowski/University of Maryland
(quasar)
Courtesy NASA, John Bahcall/Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton
(supernova)
Courtesy Chung Shing Jason Pun/NASA/GCFC, Robert P. Kirshner/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
(white dwarf)
Courtesy NASA, Harvey Richer/University of British Columbia, Vancouver

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