Space News & Blog Articles

It doesn't take much to create a spectacle when it comes to astronomical observation. Just a pinch or two of dust.

Take a few minutes to become an eclipse expert for family and friends.

A recently detected gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A was so intense that it temporarily blinded instruments and disturbed Earth’s atmosphere.

Scientists have detected something unusual around a distant quasar — perhaps the first real evidence of a first-generation star.

Exactly one year from today, the first of two major solar eclipses just six months apart will occur over the Americas.

With a little luck, observers in Australia and western North America may spy the Lucy spacecraft as it flies by Earth on October 16th.

These moonless evenings open the sky for good constellation spotting and deep-sky probing.
Pegasus flies high. Draco eyes Vega. And it's time for the Orionid meteors.

An innovative method enables astronomers to gauge the size and shape of a distant asteroid — and potentially any km-scale object in the solar system.

Can a newly found exoplanet help explain why Earth and Venus diverged so radically?

Every time two giant stars swing around each other, they enrich the cosmos with complex organic molecules.

They needed to slow the moon’s orbit by 73 seconds. They slowed it by more than half an hour.

China has sent up the ASO-S space observatory to study solar flares, eruptions, and the Sun’s magnetic field.

Hypervelocity clouds, generally thought to be falling fast into the Milky Way, might have an alternative explanation that places them near us.

The bright Moon this week passes Jupiter, then Mars. Deep-sky darkness starts returning to the evening sky on the Thursday the 13th. The bulky Andromegasus Dipper is on autumn display.

A simulated map of the Milky Way shows the location of our galaxy's stellar corpses — and they're not where you might think they'd be.

The upcoming Hunter's Moon reminds us of the many ways we can enjoy observing our humble satellite.

Watch what the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has observed (galaxies galore and swarms of asteroids) and then see what goes on behind the scenes.

Meet Scheat, the orange giant star that peaks the Great Square of Pegasus in autumn skies in the Northern Hemisphere.

Why do you look up? Maybe there was something that initially drew you out to the stars...and maybe now it's a habit of the best kind.

October is a great time of year to do some casual stargazing. The stars and planets are waiting for you — all you need is this month’s Sky Tour astronomy podcast. Just download or stream the audio file and take it with you outside.

The Moon poses with Antares at dusk. A few nights later, lunar sunrise unveils the sharp black line of the Straight Wall in Mare Nubium for small-telescope users. Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars span the evening sky. Mercury climbs onstage at dawn.