Dec 6 - Astronomy Cave Art

December 6 Astronomy Cave Art by:

The Shaft Scene in the Lascaux Caves in France. It features a dying man and several animals. Researchers now say this ancient cave art might commemorate a comet strike around 15,200 BC. Image via Alistair Coombs. Prehistoric cave art suggests ancient use of complex astronomy Researchers have learned that - as far back as 40,000 years ago - cave-dwellers in what's now Turkey, Spain, France and Germany used a method of date-keeping based on the stars. Some of their cave paintings aren't just depictions of wild animals. Instead they represent constellations in the night sky. Read more. Thousands of globular star clusters scattered between galaxies Peering into the heart of the Coma cluster of galaxies, the Hubble Space Telescope captured a whopping 22,426 globular star clusters, scattered among Coma's 1,000 galaxies. Astronomers say these scattered globular clusters might help them map dark matter. Read more. New moon is December 7 The exact moment of new moon comes before dawn on December 7 for us in the contiguous U.S. Read more. What we're reading … The 'camera that saved Hubble' turns 25 Twenty-five years ago this week, NASA held its collective breath as 7 astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour caught up with the Hubble Space Telescope 353 miles (568 km) above Earth. Their mission: to fix a devastating flaw in the telescope's primary mirror. Read more.

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Tonight … Orion the Hunter and the Milky Way The constellation Orion is very noticeable. Given a dark sky, you can see the luminous band of the Milky Way running behind it.

A few people caught Mercury! We weren't sure if any of you would catch Mercury so near the sunrise glare. But you did! This photo is from our friend Lunar 101-Moon Book. We're expecting more Mercury photos. Here's why. Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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