PIX4571082: Comete 17P/Holmes et nebuleuse California - Comet 17P/Holmes with California nebula - View de la comete 17P/Holmes devant la nebuleuse California, March 6, 2008. Comet 17P/Homes seen with California new on march 6 2008 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571188: The Lovejoy comet seen from space - December 2011 - Comet Lovejoy seen from space - December 2011 - The Lovejoy comet above the Earth's atmosphere seen on 22 December 2011 from the International Space Station (ISS). Comet Lovejoy is visible near Earth's horizon in this nighttime image photographed by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, Expedition 30 commander, onboard the International Space Station on Dec. 22, 2011 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571198: Lovejoy Comet - December 2011 - Comet Lovejoy - December 2011 - Lovejoy Comet seen in Chile on December 23, 2011. Comet Lovejoy seen from Chile on Dec. 23, 2011 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571217: Lovejoy Comet - December 2011 - Lovejoy Comet seen in Australia, (Yorkrakine Rock). 26 December 2011. Comet Lovejoy wide - angle taken near Yorkrakine Rock, West Australia on Dec. 26, 201 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571224: La comete Lovejoy - December 2011 - Comet Lovejoy - December 2011 - La comete Lovejoy seen at the Paranal Observatory in Chile on December 23, 2011. Comet Lovejoy seen from Paranal observatory in Chile on Dec. 23, 2011 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571259: La comete Lovejoy - janvier 2015 - Comet Lovejoy - January 2015 - La comete Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 seen on January 12, 2015. Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 seen on January 12 2015 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571270: La comete Lovejoy - janvier 2015 - Comet Lovejoy - January 2015 - La comete Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 seen on 13 January 2015 over the Alps. Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 seen on January 13 2015 above english Alps / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571310: The ISON Comete - 05/2013 - The ISON Comet seen on May 8, 2013 by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Hubble Space Telescope image showing comet ISON on May 8 2013 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571311: Comete Panstarrs C/2011 L4: Comete PanStarrs (C/2011 L4) on 21 March 2013 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571315: Comete PanStarrs (C/2011 L4): Comete PanStarrs (C/2011 L4) on 21 March 2013 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571327: The ISON comet near March - 10/2013 - The ISON comet passes near the planet Mars on October 19, 2013. Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) and planet Mars on October 19 2013 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571399: Comete - Illustration - Comet - Illustratio / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571434: Comete vue de Mercure - Illustration - Comet seen from Mercury - Illustratio / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571438: Artist's view of the comete Hale - Bopp - Comet Hale - Bopp - Illustratio / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571474: A Comete Flies the Earth - Close Comet Pass - A comete flies the Earth without hitting it. The very close passage of a comet would create an incredible spectacle on Earth. Artwork, Bergeron, Joe / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571569: A comet approaches the Sun - Illustration - Comet near our Sun - artwork - Artwork of a comet approaching our sun / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571607: Summer Triangle - Summer Triangle - The Summer Triangle is an asterism formed by the brilliant stars Deneb (at the top of the picture, in the Swan), Vega (on the right in the Lyre) and Altair (on the left, in the Eagle). Summer Triangle is an asterism made of three bright stars: Deneb (top in Cygnus, Vega (right in Lyra) and Altair (left in Aquila) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571623: Constellation of the Great Bear - Constellation of Ursa Major: Plate extracted from the Mirror of Urania -1824. Ursa Major, the constellation of the Great Bear, from Urania's Mirror, a colourful set of constellation cards published in 1824. Over the years, the star at the end of the tail has been known by two popular names, Alkaid and Benetnasch but Alkaid is now the official name / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571657: Star Sky in Winter - Starry Sky in Winter - A woman in the Lofoten Mountains in Norway. In the sky, the winter hexagon, an asterism formed by the stars Sirius (masked by the mountain), Procyon, Pollux, Capella, Aldebaran and Rigel. A female hiker is seen on the top of a mountain in Lofoten, Norway, under the Winter Hexagon, an asterism formed by Sirius (hidden by the mountain), Procyon, Pollux, Capella, Aldebaran and Rigel / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571678: Shooting star rain - Perseides - Shooting star rain of the Perseid swarm seen on August 13, 2013. The Perseides are a rain of shooting stars associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. Meteors as appeared in the sky during the peak hours of 2013 Perseid Meteor Shower / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571699: Star Antares in Scorpio - Star Antares in Scorpius - Supergeant star - On its left the globular cluster M4. To its left, the globular cluster M4 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571743: Capella Star in the Coach - Star Capella in Auriga - The brightest star in the constellation of the Coach, Capella (Aur), is a yellow giant star with an apparent magnitude of 0.08 and the sixth brightest star in the sky. Located 42 years of light from us, it is one of the 100 closest stars on Earth. Star Capella in Auriga constellation is the 6th brightest star in the night sky. It is located 42 light years from the earth / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571758: Star Vega in the Lyre - Star Vega in infrared - Vega (Alpha Lyrae) is the main star of the constellation Lyra, located only 25.4 light years from the Sun. It is the second brightest star after Sirius in the northern hemisphere. It's seen here in infrared by the Spitzer space telescope. Observed in this wavelength, the dust cloud surrounding the star appears. Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope captured these images of the star Vega, located 25 light years away in the constellation Lyra. Spitzer was able to detect the heat radiation from the cloud of dust around the star and found that the debris disk is much larger than previously thought. This side - by - side comparison, taken by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer, shows the warm infrared glows from dust particles orbiting the star at wavelengths of 24 microns (on the left in blue) and 70 microns (on the right in red). Both images show a very large, circular and smooth debris disk. The disk radius extends to at least 815 astronomical units. (One astronomical unit is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is 150 - million kilometers or 93 - million miles). Scientists compared the surface brightness of the disk in the infrared wavelengths to determine the temperature distribution of the disk and then refer the corresponding particle size in the disk. Most of the particles in the disk are only a few microns in size, or 100 times smaller than a grain of Earth sand. These fine dust particles originate from collisions of embryonic planets near the star at a radius of approximately 90 astronomical units, and are then blown away by Vega's intense radiation. The mass and short lifetime of these small particles indicate that the disk detected by Spitzer is the aftermath of a large and relatively recent collision, involving bodies perhaps as big as the planet Pluto. The images are 3 arcminutes on each side. North is oriented upward and east is to the left / Bridgeman Images

MDA4571810: Parisian corner building Rue Chenier in Paris 2. / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571821: Proxima Star of Centauri - Proxima Centauri - Proxima of Centaur (in the center of the image) is the closest star to the Sun, at a distance of 4.2 years - light. Image obtained from the 1.2m Schmidt UK telescope of Siding Spring. Proxima Centauri is the nearest known star to the sun, at a distance of about 4.2 light years. It is an intrinsically faint red star, more than ten magnitudes (ten thousand times) fainter than the Sun. It is also much cooler, with a surface temperature of about 3100 C. Its visual (apparent) magnitude is eleven, so it is only visible with a good telescope, and only then from southern latitudes. Proxima is about one - tenth the mass of the sun, which accounts for its low surface temperature. It is possibly an outlying member of the triple alpha Centauri system just a few light days closer to us than the other, much brighter stars in the group / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571830: The three stars that make up the Centaur Alpha System are the closest stars to the Sun. The image on the left shows the double alpha star of the Centauri (Alpha Centauri A and B) overexposed to the red dwarf star Proxima of the Centaurus (indicated by the arrow). Proxima du Centaur is located at a distance of 4.22 years - light from the Sun but is invisible to the naked eye. Alpha Centauri A and B are a little further away, 4.36 years from the Sun. These two stars are relatively similar to the Sun. Although Proxima of Centauri is distant from the Alpha couple of Centauri, its movement seems to link it to this system and is sometimes called Alpha Centauri C. Location of the Alpha Centauri triple stellar system in the sky. The brighter stars (Alpha Centauri A and B) are strongly overexposed, with the outlying member, Proxima lying approx. 2.2* to the south - west (arrow). Smaller areas around the stars are shown in the inserts to the right. The photo has been reproduced from a blue - sensitive photographic plate obtained by the ESO 1 - m Schmidt Telescope, a wide - angle telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chile that has now been decommissioned. The Alpha Centauri triple stellar system is our closest neighbour in space. It is located at a distance of 4.36 light - years, or 41 million km, in the direction of the southern constellation Centaurus (The Centaur). The two main stars in the system, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, are rather similar to the Sun; their stellar spectral types are “” G2V”” and “” K1V””, respectively. The third star is a “” red dwarf”” known as Proxima. It is much cooler and smaller than the other two. Alpha Centauri A and B orbit each other at a distance of about 3600 million km, or somewhat more than the distance of planet Uranus from the Sun. The orbital period is almost exactly 80 years. Their smaller companion, Proxima, is about / Bridgeman Images

RCT4571847: The Georges Pompidou center in Paris. Architects Renzo Piano and Ricard Rogers, construction 1977. Photography 25/08/07., Rogers, Richard (b.1933) and Piano, Renzo (b.1937) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4571864: Barnard's Star Movement - The proper motion of Barnard's star - Barnard's Star is a red dwarf less than six years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus. Its proximity makes it move quickly ahead of the other stars. Barnard's star is known for having the most important clean movement. This composite image made from three images taken in 1988 (blue), 1991 (red) and 1993 (green) shows the shift of the star in 15 years. Barnard's Star is red dwarf star approximately 6 light - years away from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus Its proper motion is 10.3 arcseconds per year, which remains the largest known proper motion of any star relative to the Sun. The monochrome plates from which this 3 - colour picture were made were taken in 1988 (blue), 1991 (red) and 1993 (green) showing its movement over 15 years / Bridgeman Images

RCT4571871: The bookshop Acte Sud in Arles (Bouches du Rhone). / Bridgeman Images

TEC4572010: Montparnasse 2 station in Paris. Construction 1990, architect Jean Marie Duthilleul., Duthilleul, Jean Marie (b.1952) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4572039: Polaris - Illustration - Polaris System - Illustration - Polaris is a triple system composed of a supergiant star and two dwarf stars. It is a pulsating variable star, cepheide of low amplitude. This illustration shows the triple system of this star, Polaris A and Polaris Ab, and further on, his companion Polaris B. This is a view from within the Polaris triple star system. The North Star, Polaris A is a bright supergiant variable star.Just above Polaris is a small companion, Polaris Ab, which is 2 billion miles from Polaris. Much farther away, near the top of the illustration, is the wide companion Polaris B. Polaris B is located approximately 240 billion miles from Polaris A. The two companion stars are the same temperature as Polaris A, but are dwarf stars. The wide companion star is visible in small telescopes. It was first noticed by William Herschel in 1780. The close companion, Polaris Ab was known to exist from measurements of a wobble in Polaris, caused by the gravitational tug of its companion, but has only been seen directly now using Hubble / Bridgeman Images

PIX4581298: Circumpolar - South Hemisphere - Circumpolar - Southern hemisphere - Photographic installation around the south celestial pole. Bad Cap, The Reunion. Startrail at Cap Mechan / Bridgeman Images

PIX4581507: The Pleiades cluster with zodiacal light - The Pleiades cluster with zodiacal light - The zodiacal light that extends here from the bottom right of the image to the Pleiades and the Taurus, comes from the reflection of the light of the Sun on the countless interplanetary dust; it draws the plane of the Solar System. The faint cone of light extending from the horizon along the ecliptic is known as zodiacal light. It comes from the reflexion of the sun's light off tiny interplanetary dust particles in the plane of the solar system. One can see it here from the bottom right of the image to beyond the Pleiades cluster in the center of the image / Bridgeman Images

PIX4581790: Lighthouse and starry night - Lighthouse and starry night - The light beam at the end of the Audierne dam draws a cone of light in the night. Brittany, 27 September 2008. The light beam of the lighthouse located at the end of the dike of Audierne is drawing a cone in the night. Brittany, 27 September 2008 / Bridgeman Images

PIX4581929: Star sky above the castle of Lordat (09) - Starry sky above the castle of Lordat - Star sky above the castle of Lordat in Ariege. Starry sky above the castle of Lordat / Bridgeman Images

PIX4581941: The castle of Roquefixades (09) under the stars - Starry sky above the castle of Roquefixade - Star sky above the cathar castle of Roquefixade in Ariege. Starry sky above the Cathar castle of Roquefixade / Bridgeman Images