Guided sky tour · 6 stops · about 2 minutes

Messengers from the sky

Light of every kind, ghostly neutrinos and ripples in space itself: the different ways the universe sends us news.

Take it on the live map

Sit back: it plays by itself. Space pauses, ← → move, reads it aloud.

Crab Nebula (M1): a sky-survey photograph of its field

Crab Nebula (M1) · 6,500 light-years

Stop 1 of 6

More than meets the eye

Visible light is only one kind of light. The map now shows X-rays: the Crab Nebula glows in them, lit by particles its pulsar whirls up to nearly the speed of light. Other messengers aren't light at all.

6,500 light-years light left 6,500 years ago, around 4,475 BC

Explore it on the map Crab Nebula (M1)'s page

Sagittarius A*: a sky-survey photograph of its field

Sagittarius A* · 26,000 light-years

Stop 2 of 6

Seeing through the dust

Dust hides the centre of our galaxy from visible light, but infrared passes through. There, about 26,000 light-years away, stars race round Sagittarius A*, a black hole of about 4 million Suns.

26,000 light-years light left 26,000 years ago

Explore it on the map Sagittarius A*'s page

SN 1987A: a sky-survey photograph of its field

SN 1987A · 168,000 light-years

Stop 3 of 6

Ghost particles

Neutrinos are tiny particles that pass through whole planets without stopping. When SN 1987A exploded, about two dozen of them were caught on Earth: the first neutrinos ever detected from beyond the Sun.

168,000 light-years light left 168,000 years ago

Explore it on the map SN 1987A's page

TXS 0506+056: a sky-survey photograph of its field

TXS 0506+056 · 4 billion light-years

Stop 4 of 6

A neutrino from a blazar

In 2017 IceCube, a detector made of a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice, caught a high-energy neutrino that came from this blazar, about 4 billion light-years away. It was the first time a neutrino was traced to a source beyond our galaxy. The dots are IceCube's alerts.

4 billion light-years light left 4 billion years ago

Explore it on the map TXS 0506+056's page

NGC 4993 (GW170817): a sky-survey photograph of its field

NGC 4993 (GW170817) · 130 million light-years

Stop 5 of 6

Ripples in space

On 17 August 2017 two neutron stars merged in the galaxy NGC 4993, 130 million light-years away. Detectors on Earth felt the gravitational waves, a gamma-ray burst arrived 1.7 seconds later, and telescopes then watched the glowing debris, where gold and platinum were made.

130 million light-years light left 130 million years ago

Explore it on the map

FRB 121102: a sky-survey photograph of its field

FRB 121102 · 3 billion light-years

Stop 6 of 6

Flashes of radio waves

Fast radio bursts last a few thousandths of a second. FRB 121102 was the first found to repeat, which showed they are not one-off explosions. It lives in a small galaxy about 3 billion light-years away.

3 billion light-years light left 3 billion years ago

Explore it on the map FRB 121102's page

Tour complete

Messengers from the sky

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