Tonight's Sky: July

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute's Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA's Universe of Learning Partners, CalTech IPAC, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Sonoma State University. 
Starfield images created with Stellarium. 

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 Text, July, tonight's sky. Constellations. Stylized drawings of a lion, bull, and ram. 

South, 10:30 PM. Looking up at a night sky filled with stars, at a constellation of lines between stars forming a three-pronged head with a long, curving tail. Text, The warm nights of July provide endless summer treasures to enjoy. A drawing of a scorpion with claws and a curved tail with a stinger appears over the lines of the constellation. Text, Scorpius. Scuttling above the southern horizon is Scorpius, the scorpion, who in Greek mythology stung Orion to death before being crushed. Scorpius' prominent fishhook star pattern resembles the creature's outline. 

At the point where the three-pronged head meets the tail, a bright star. Text, The heart of the scorpion is marked by Antares, a reddish supergiant star nearing the end of its life. Antares is one of the largest known stars. If placed at the center of our solar system, its bloated bulk would extend past the orbit of Mars. 

A dimmer point next to the scorpion's heart. Text, Next to Antares lies the globular star cluster M4. 

Zoom in on M4, a brilliant field of densely packed shining stars in white, reddish and blueish hues. Text, Hubble Space Telescope visible light. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has resolved the center of the cluster filled with thousands of ancient stars, all of which formed around the same time and are ageing together. Two other star clusters, the Butterfly Cluster and the Ptolemy Cluster, can be found on the other end of Scorpius, just above the stinger. 

Small images of clusters of stars. Text, These are known as open clusters, because they are much less compact than globular clusters. Each of these contains only about a hundred stars, most of which are hot, blue, and much younger than those in globular clusters. 

A constellation with lines connecting stars forming a two-legged body aiming a bow and arrow.Text, East of Scorpius is Sagittarius, the archer. A drawing of a man with a horse's body and a man's torso shooting a bow and arrow appears over the constellation. Text, The glowing star clouds in Sagittarius are filled with star clusters, including M22, one of the nearest globular star clusters to Earth. M22, a tightly packed cluster glowing dimly near the bow and arrow. Zoom in on M22, packed so tightly with stars that little black appears behind them. Text, Visible light. A Hubble image shows the core of the cluster. Interactions in this crowded environment cause the massive corpses of stars, including black holes and neutron stars, to move towards the core. A teapot-shaped constellation appears over the bow and arrow of Sagittarius, three more points appear above the teapot. Text, Strung along the Milky Way above the teapot are numerous nebulae, glowing clouds of gas and dust where new stars are forming. Three of the most prominent are the Swan Nebula, the Trifid Nebula, and the Lagoon Nebula. Small images of dim nebula clouds are shown in ground-based view. 

Zoom in on the nebulae, brightly colored clouds in red, green, and yellow scattered with brilliant stars. Text, infrared light. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope collects infrared light from these regions, revealing cool and warm gas that is otherwise invisible to the human eye. Over millions of years, the gas and dust in stellar nurseries like these will eventually come together to form new stars, adding to the constellations in the sky. 

Explore our galaxy's glittering star clusters, glowing nebulae, and legendary figures from your own backyard. Celestial wonders await you in Tonight's Sky.