Astronomy & Space News

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures a triple-star star system.

"For the girls or women in science — or in any profession or job — opportunities are more abundant than they were previously. Sometimes you need to take bold steps. Just a little push, and then you will get there." — Dr. Yihua (Eva) Zheng, Space Physics and Space Weather Scientist, Heliophysics Science Division, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

An illuminated waning gibbous moon contrasts the deep black of space as the International Space Station soared 270 miles over the Southern Ocean.

The aurora turns the sky near Malad City, Idaho, red, purple, and green in this 8-second exposure taken on May 11, 2024.

An American Flamingo takes a sip of water in the Indian River at Haulover Canal on Merritt Island on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. The American Flamingos are more common in Mexico and Cuba but the winds from Hurricane Idalia relocated them to Florida in September 2023. Kennedy Space Center in Florida shares a border with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge where more than 310 species of birds inhabit the refuge.

This image of the Andromeda galaxy uses data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope. Multiple wavelengths are shown, revealing stars (in blue and cyan), dust (red), and areas of star formation.

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this oblique photograph of the Sulaiman Mountains in central Pakistan. The range resulted from the slow-motion collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates that began about 60 million years ago. Peaks rise to more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level in the northern portion of the mountain range, shown in this photograph.

This image of Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot and surrounding turbulent zones was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The color-enhanced image is a combination of three separate images taken on April 1, 2018, as Juno performed its 12th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the images were taken, the spacecraft was 15,379 miles (24,749 kilometers) to 30,633 miles (49,299 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet.

During a mission dress rehearsal, NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronaut Suni Williams flashes a thumbs up in her Boeing spacesuit inside the crew suit-up room inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, April 26, 2024. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Williams and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore are the first to launch to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 10:34 p.m. ET Monday, May 6.

The Moon, left, Jupiter, right, and Saturn, above and to the left of Jupiter, are seen after sunset with the Washington Monument, Thurs. Dec. 17, 2020, in Washington. The two planets drew closer to each other in the sky as they headed towards a “great conjunction” on Dec. 21, where the two giant planets appeared a tenth of a degree apart.

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer was launched on April 28, 2003. Its mission was to study the shape, brightness, size and distance of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history.

In a historic first, all six radio frequency antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex – part of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) – carried out a test to receive data from the agency's Voyager 1 spacecraft at the same time on April 20, 2024. Known as "arraying," combining the receiving power of several antennas allows the DSN to collect the very faint signals from faraway spacecraft. A five-antenna array is currently needed to downlink science data from the spacecraft's Plasma Wave System instrument. As Voyager gets further way, six antennas will be needed.

"What you eventually realize is that your success as a leader is not really yours, it’s the team’s. You’re not successful without the team, so it’s your ability to support, motivate, and guide the team that allows us to accomplish amazing things." — Dana Weigel, International Space Station Program Manager, NASA’s Johnson Space Center

Rising from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33, which resides roughly 1,300 light-years away. The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. Webb’s new view focuses on the illuminated edge of the top of the nebula’s distinctive dust and gas structure.

The magnificent central bar of NGC 2217 (also known as AM 0619-271) shines bright in the constellation of Canis Major (The Greater Dog), in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Roughly 65 million light-years from Earth, this barred spiral galaxy is a similar size to our Milky Way at 100,000 light-years across.

The phenomenon of a Full Moon arises when our planet, Earth, is precisely sandwiched between the Sun and the Moon. This alignment ensures the entire side of the Moon that faces us gleams under sunlight. Thanks to the Moon’s orbit around Earth, the angle of sunlight hitting the lunar surface and being reflected back toContinue reading "2024 Full Moon calendar: Dates, times, types, and names"

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Nicholas Clarke from Cohuna, Victoria, Australia IC 2948 is a reflection and emission nebula in Centaurus more popularly known as the Running Chicken Nebula, associated with the open cluster IC 2944. This crop of the nebula highlights Bok globules at top center — dense clouds of gas that serve as stellar nurseries. The image representsContinue reading "Bok bok bok"

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A team of professional and citizen scientists has found a Neptune-like exoplanet orbiting one of two Sun-like stars in a binary system. The planet, dubbed TOI 4633 c (and nicknamed Percival), was identified using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).  The exoplanet was spotted when it passed in front of its host star,Continue reading "New exoplanet discovered in habitable zone of a multi-star system "

The post New exoplanet discovered in habitable zone of a multi-star system  appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Barry Sawchuk and his son were tending to their farmland in southeastern Saskatchewan when they came across several pieces of space junk that may have come from a SpaceX mission, according to reports in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix and AM980 CJME. “Not every day you go out in your field and find space junk,” theContinue reading "‘It ain’t no garbage.’ Canadian farmer finds chunks of space debris in a remote part of Saskatchewan"

The post ‘It ain’t no garbage.’ Canadian farmer finds chunks of space debris in a remote part of Saskatchewan appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Friday, May 17The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, at 2:59 P.M. EDT. Luna will then sit some 251,432 miles (404,641 km) away. By evening, the Moon is close to 4th-magnitude Zavijava (Beta [β] Virginis) in Virgo. How close? Many observers in the U.S. and Canada will see the MoonContinue reading "The Sky This Week from May 17 to 24: The Moon visits Antares"

The post The Sky This Week from May 17 to 24: The Moon visits Antares appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected two galaxies and their supermassive central black holes caught in a merging dance when the universe was only 740 million years old. This makes the find the farthest — and earliest — detection of merging black holes. The study builds off one the most important results soContinue reading "JWST discovers black holes merging near the dawn of the cosmos"

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An international team of astronomers has discovered exoplanet SPECULOOS-3 b and its ultra-cool red dwarf star, some 55 light-years away from Earth. Despite being the size of Earth, the newly discovered exoplanet could not be more different from our home planet. According to the NASA news release from May 15, this terrestrial world is bakedContinue reading "Found: An Earth-sized exoplanet named SPECULOOS-3 b"

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On the evening of Sept. 23, 2023, I was training my 3-inch Tele Vue refractor on the Moon to catch sunrise over Lambert Crater when a brilliant pyramid of light just to the east of the crater grabbed my attention instead. This isolated peak was the brightest feature to emerge from the lunar twilight thatContinue reading "Secret Sky: Undset’s forgotten mountain"

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Abhijit Patil, taken from Death Valley National Park, California Aurorae fill the sky over California’s Death Valley on the night of May 10/11. The imager used a Nikon Z 6II mirrorless camera (astromodified) and 14–24mm lens at 14mm and f/2.8 (with a UV/IR-cut and Hα-pass filter) to take a 10-second sky exposure at ISO 2000Continue reading "Sand and sky"

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The geomagnetic storm that struck Earth on May 10 was the strongest in 21 years — exceeding forecasts and bringing the spectacle of the aurora borealis south (and the aurora australis north) to millions of people who had the chance to see it for the first time. A lot has changed since 2003, the lastContinue reading "Your best pictures of this past weekend’s aurorae"

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This week the Moon occults Beta Virginis, then Antares. The last star of the Summer Triangle finally rises before bedtime. On the other side of the sky, the Arch of Spring sinks low.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 17 – 26 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

This oddly shaped cloud of dusty gas is shaped by the winds and radiation from nearby stars.

The post Cosmic "Hand" Reaches for the Stars appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A new planet candidate discovered in data from NASA's TESS mission could be an extreme lavaworld, pushed and pulled by the gravity of its own star and two other close-in planets.

The post Planet Candidate Could Be Incandescent with Lava Flows appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

This large constellation abounds in deep-sky delights, including many fine open star clusters.

The post Explore the Star Clusters of Centaurus appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

An extreme (G5) geomagnetic storm hit Earth last weekend, delighting viewers as far south as Florida with green and red curtains of light.

The post See Photos of the Widespread Aurorae Last Weekend appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A severe geomagnetic storm has just hit Earth — which means we could see auroras tonight! Here's what you'll need to know.

The post Severe Geogmagnetic Storm Has Arrived! Auroral Blast Expected Friday Night appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The waxing Moon this week travels eastward from the horns of Taurus past the heads of Gemini, the Beehive in Cancer, then the forefoot of Leo on its way to occulting Beta Virginis.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 10 – 19 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A new visualization from NASA takes the viewer on a one-way journey into a black hole.

The post Video: Plunge into a Black Hole appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Are you excited about Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS's prospects for a bright appearance this autumn? Guess what? It's already gorgeous.

The post Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Brightens, Grows a Tail appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Is GRB 191019A a typical burst of gamma rays from a dying star, an anomalously long burst from colliding objects, or something else entirely?

The post Is This Gamma-Ray Burst a Shredded Star in Disguise? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Looking like a glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula in a new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The triple-star system is made up of the variable star HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3. HP Tau is known as a T Tauri star, a type of young variable star that hasn't begun nuclear fusion yet but is beginning to evolve into a hydrogen-fueled star similar to our Sun.

Astronomers have just discovered a new Earth-sized exoplanet around SPECULOOS-3, an 'ultracool dwarf' star as small as Jupiter, twice as cold as our Sun, and located 55 light-years from Earth. After the famous TRAPPIST-1, SPECULOOS 3 is the second planetary system discovered around this type of star.

Astronomers have just discovered WASP-193b, an extraordinarily low-density giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star.

Astronomers discovered three of the oldest stars in the universe, and they live in our own galactic neighborhood. The stars are in the Milky Way's 'halo' -- the cloud of stars that envelopes the entire main galactic disk -- and they appear to have formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago, when the very first galaxies were taking shape.

Astrophysicists discovered that an exoplanet is covered with so many active volcanoes that seen from a distance it would take on a fiery, glowing-red hue.

A recent study has discovered a novel method for detecting the first-generations stars, known as Population III (Pop III) stars, which have never been directly detected. These potential discoveries about Pop III stars hold the promise of unlocking the secrets of the universe's origin and providing a deeper understanding of the remarkable journey from the primordial cosmos to the world we inhabit today.

Researchers may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of any rocky planet atmosphere outside our solar system.

After starting science operations in February, Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) studied the monster black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 4151.

Billions of years ago, Venus may have harbored as much water as Earth. Today, almost all of it has disappeared. A new study may help to explain why.

Astronomers observed the elusive starlight surrounding some of the earliest quasars in the universe. The findings may shed light on how the earliest supermassive black holes became so massive despite having a relatively short amount of cosmic time in which to grow.

Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in a new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4951. Located in the Virgo constellation, NGC 4951 is located roughly 50 million light-years away from Earth. It's classified as a Seyfert galaxy, which means that it's an extremely energetic type of galaxy with an active galactic nucleus (AGN).

New discoveries about Jupiter could lead to a better understanding of Earth's own space environment and influence a long-running scientific debate about the solar system's largest planet.

Recent reports of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope finding signs of life on a distant planet understandably sparked excitement. A new study challenges this finding, but also outlines how the telescope might verify the presence of the life-produced gas.

Researchers have discovered a potential 'cosmic glitch' in the universe's gravity, explaining its strange behavior on a cosmic scale.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of a zoomed-in portion of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show the top of the 'horse's mane' or edge of this iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing the region's complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution.