Above: This image captures a small section of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s view of the Virgo Cluster, offering a vivid glimpse of the variety in the cosmos. Visible are two prominent spiral galaxies, three merging galaxies, galaxy groups both near and distant, stars within our own Milky Way, and much more. Image available at rubinobservatory.org. Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (September-October 2025) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, and now Chinese(!) at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).
We spent so much time in 2019-2020 or so (with little else to do) reading about the varying brightness of Betelgeuse and that, maybe, finally, maybe, just maybe, it was *this close* to going off in our lifetime, that we neglected to think about the collateral damage it might cause to anything in close proximity (and close is certainly relative, with anything there that might know the difference within light years certainly in for stormy weather). As it happens, a long-suspected lurking neighbor, here in the form of a pre-Main Sequence star, has recently been discovered according to recent studies with NOIRLab's ‘Alopeke instrument on Gemini North.
And it also looks like a featured-but-featureless picture right out of the National Geographic Picture Atlas Of Our Universe book (the one with the primo John Berkey cover art, mine having suffered slightly at the curious hands of my space cadet kids).
And, of course, the Vera Rubin Observatory coming online and now posting images is the second most important space science story of the past few months (the state of the NASA budget being the first by page hit) and the most important space science progress since James Webb coming online. Let us hope the gap between the capabilities of modern tools and the expectations of the next generation of similar tools only grows.
