Things have calmed down a little in human spaceflight, so let's look a little farther out this week.
Appropriately, we get a soundtrack that's also farther out. If you don't know the term, "microtonal" means using tones less than the conventional half-step apart — so notes between, say, E♭and F, but on purpose, not like me as a boy in my cello lessons.
So I think today's theme is "Go big..."
🚨: The James Webb Space Telescope has done it again—revealing a breathtaking structure now dubbed the “Cosmic Vine”: a string of 20 galaxies stretching across a staggering 13 million light-years!
— Latest in Cosmos (@latestincosmos) April 17, 2026
What makes this discovery so shocking? This colossal formation dates back nearly… pic.twitter.com/TyKHDnSD47
"... or go home."
🚨: This image of Earth was captured today by Japan's Himawari Satellite. pic.twitter.com/rSS17o8k7J
— Curiosity (@CuriosityonX) April 17, 2026
Tax Day meteors.
🌠✨ Ja han arribat els Lírids!
— Parc Astronòmic Prades (@parcastroprades) April 17, 2026
Aquests dies el cel ens regala una de les pluges d’estels més antigues i elegants de l’any: els Lírids, actius del 15 al 29 d’abril.
📷 Marko Korosec ☄️ Bòlid Lírid pic.twitter.com/gEyNXAexfL
"The Lyrids have arrived! These days the sky gifts us one of the oldest and most elegant meteor showers of the year: the Lyrids, active from April 15 to 29. "
This won't be a naked eye comet unless you have darker sky and better eyes than I do, but a comet's a comet. And there should be a good one with Comet MARS coming up.
Tomorrow morning is your best chance to see comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS)!
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 16, 2026
Grab your binoculars and look for a bright streak near the eastern horizon in the constellation Pegasus about 90 minutes before sunrise. pic.twitter.com/xwpbjFJIwN
This is a bigger surprise than it might seem at first. To an astronomer, "metals" are anything farther up the periodic table than hydrogen and helium. To get heavier nuclei, early stars have to run through their life cycle — the fusion at the end of a star's life makes heavier elements, up to iron. The earliest stars are known as "population 3" stars and would have very low metallicity.
So where'd this come from?
🚨: A group of students discover a Tiny Star with almost No Metals that shouldn't be in the Milky Way pic.twitter.com/NiJEX6uh0B
— For all Curious (@fascinatingonX) April 17, 2026
But then the sky is still full of surprises.
Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our Sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a new study using @chandraxray.
— NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) April 15, 2026
READ MORE >> https://t.co/UVRS2pL7ig pic.twitter.com/dxY41d3p0e
"Better to rule in Hell..."
AstroBin's Image of the Day: "'Fallen Angel' - M45 in HaLRGB" by Brent Newton - https://t.co/zO5LAwvazd#astrophotography pic.twitter.com/KaRO0LT7rd
— AstroBin.com (@AstroBin_com) April 13, 2026
Is this the contrail?
AstroBin's Image of the Day: "LBN 917 and the Depth of Eridanus" by Marco Lorenzihttps://t.co/fLtGJFJE9H#astrophotography pic.twitter.com/IzvmUs4X67
— AstroBin.com (@AstroBin_com) April 11, 2026
AstroBin has had a run of good stuff this week.
AstroBin's Image of the Day: "NGC3293" by Laurent Desbats - https://t.co/rdPhSc5MBn#astrophotography pic.twitter.com/b1WpkLM0KI
— AstroBin.com (@AstroBin_com) April 16, 2026
"Spring is galaxy season"
『NGC4725 棒渦巻銀河』
— やまーだ@天文と絵 (@ymd_astro) April 11, 2026
春は銀河(その2)。
かみのけ座の方向、約4000万光年離れた位置にある棒渦巻銀河。#天体写真 #astrophotography pic.twitter.com/pLFqCauS56
I know I've mentioned this before, but one of the things that amazes me now is the length of exposures amateurs can make. When I was in the Astronomy Club in 8th grade, we were limited to about an hour at best, and that only with black and white film, because of "reciprocity failure" — film emulsion becomes less sensitive over time.
So, here's almost 34 hours.
Barnard 30 in Orion
— Jaume Zapata (@jaume_zapata) April 10, 2026
33h 50' total integration#Astrophotography#CielosESA #Astronomy pic.twitter.com/8IradY03Es
And here's a little more Artemis II to close things out.
Artemis II may have splashed down, but our photos and videos from the mission are still rolling in! Keep an eye on the latest: https://t.co/rzM1P0QbOl pic.twitter.com/HahXb0gCYC
— NASA (@NASA) April 11, 2026
So that's the week in the sky candy store. Come back next week, and as always, comment and share this to friends.
