December's solstice means that for many skywatchers the night will be up to 14 hours long — providing lots of time to enjoy the starry sky. This month’s celestial highlights are the close approach of the Moon and Mars (and, for many, a coverup) on December 7th and the Gemind meteor shower on the December 13th. Our fun and factual Sky Tour podcast provides all the details.
It may not be the closest opposition, but this time around Mars arcs high across the sky where good seeing promises sharp views. That's not all. On December 7th, one night before opposition, the full Moon occults the Red Planet!
Stars are most often born as multiples. Now, the TESS telescope has caught one of these multiple systems in a unique setup.
Mars is closest to Earth this week, closer and brighter than we'll see it again until 2033. By late evening it's high overhead in excellent telescopic view.
Polarized X-rays are helping astronomers take a closer look at blazars’ “plasma guns,” the particle jets powered by supermassive black holes.
Jay M. Pasachoff, Chair of the Astronomy Department, Director of the Hopkins Observatory, and Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, succumbed to cancer on Sunday morning, November 20th.
Why did a supernova abruptly change color? A recent study suggests a change in ejecta velocity — a cosmic speed bump — might be the culprit.
A riot of colors in this James Webb Space Telescope infrared image show the warm glow of a feeding infant star, representing a look back in time at a star very like the Sun.
Orion works its way up from behind the horizon after dinnertime and stands high by late evening. Big bright Jupiter and Mars dominate the sky. Jupiter is under the Great Square; Mars is in the horns of Taurus.
The unfolding of the BlueWalker 3's giant flat-panel antenna array resulted in a satellite 40 times as bright, outshining most stars.
Ready to chase comets? We look at two fuzzy solar system travelers that will keep you on your toes all fall and winter long.
NASA’s next-generation Moon rocket has left the launchpad on the first flight of the Artemis program.
The interstellar pancake named 'Oumuamua might have been a chip off a Pluto-like object in another star system.
A luminous flare provides astronomers with a rare opportunity to measure the mass of an otherwise quiescent black hole at the center of a dwarf galaxy.
The Moon shines in the east with ever-brightening Mars, then it wanes down into the early morning hours to leave the evenings dark for deep-sky observing. Jupiter glares on high. Vega and its binary accompaniments await you in the west.
Scientists have discovered one of the oldest planetary graveyards in the Milky Way: a cool white dwarf "polluted" with rocky debris.
Archival Hubble Space Telescope images taken more than a decade ago have revealed an ancient star in the act of exploding.
During October, Editor in Chief Peter Tyson accompanied 19 adventurous skygazers on a 12-day expedition to Chile — the “astronomy capital of the world” — for a tour of breathtaking landscapes and the magnificent southern sky.
Worlds around red dwarf stars might build an ozone "shield" in response to stellar flares.
Astronomers have connected dozens of neutrinos detected by the IceCube Observatory to a nearby galaxy, M77, aka the Squid Galaxy.
The Moon gets totally eclipsed this week as it walks from Jupiter to Mars, the two brightest evening planets. Saturn is at eastern quadrature, which means an effect is under way for evening telescope users.
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