Ten things worth knowing about, chosen for how much they rearrange your head rather than for how big they are. Six of them you can see for yourself — that is the point of the list.
Nothing on this page is here because it makes a good headline. Every entry is an object in this site's database, with a page of its own saying what it is, how far away it is, and whether you have any chance of seeing it.
The first time you see the rings through a telescope you will not believe they are real. They look painted on. Everybody says the same thing, and everybody is surprised anyway.
Saturn's rings are countless chunks of ice and rock — from dust specks to houses — and so wide they would almost reach from Earth to the Moon. You can see this one.
A place where stars are being made right now, bright enough to find with your own eyes, and close enough that a small telescope shows the shape of the cloud.
A giant star-nursery you can spot with just your eyes. You can see this one.
The furthest thing a human eye can reach unaided. Two and a half million light-years, and it is coming towards us.
The farthest thing you can see with just your eyes — and it is slowly heading our way! You can see this one.
A black hole four million times the mass of the Sun, at the exact centre of our galaxy. We know its mass because we watched stars orbit it.
A giant black hole at the very centre of our galaxy — as heavy as millions of Suns! You cannot see this one, and that is fine.
A dead star squeezed into something the size of a city, so dense that a teaspoon of it would weigh about as much as a mountain.
Nearest known neutron star, glowing quietly from leftover heat with no radio pulses. You cannot see this one, and that is fine.
A moon with a liquid ocean under an ice crust — more water than every ocean on Earth put together, kept warm by being squeezed.
Europa hides a deep, salty ocean under its icy shell. You can see this one.
The wreckage of a star that Chinese astronomers watched explode in the year 1054. It is still visibly expanding.
Expanding wreckage of a supernova recorded in 1054 AD, with the Crab Pulsar at its center. Reachable with a small telescope and some patience.
A perfect ring of blue stars around a yellow ball, with a gap between them. Nobody is certain how it happened.
Near-perfect ring galaxy of unclear origin, a ring of blue stars around a separate yellow core. You cannot see this one, and that is fine.
Not a smudge and not one star — a knot of hot young stars that formed together and are still travelling together. Six or seven show to the naked eye; a small telescope turns it into a crowd.
The 'Seven Sisters' — a sparkly little group of young stars. You can see this one.
Something from another star system fell through ours, was spotted once, and left. It is never coming back and we will never know more about it than we learned in those few weeks.
First confirmed interstellar object, small and strangely elongated, sped up mysteriously as it left. You cannot see this one, and that is fine.
Six of the ten need nothing more than your own eyes or a small telescope. Choose one, find out when it is above your horizon, and go.