One of the farthest active comets ever spotted will make its closest approach to Earth on July 14, and here's how you can catch the action live.
Space News & Blog Articles
The Fingertip Galaxy: Reflecting Euclid in art
Video: 00:04:21
“After Euclid’s lifetime, it will just be floating in space. What if future beings found Euclid? How would they know anything about the humanity of the people?” – Tom Kitching, lead scientist of Euclid’s VIS instrument.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 1 – 9
The Moon waxes across the evening sky from Leo to Scorpius. The five-planet lineup in the dawn is now four. And amateur astronomers plan to be recording as Saturn's hazy moon Titan occult a star about as bright as Titan itself for most of North America.
Earth from Space: Patagonia
The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission captured this impressive, wide-angled view of Patagonia at the southern end of South America, as well as the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).
July: Stars of the Summer Sky
July offers lots of pretty stars and constellations to check out, and you’ll get a personally guided tour of them by downloading this month’s Sky Tour astronomy podcast.
Most Black Holes Spin Rapidly. This one… Doesn’t
A Chandra X-ray Observatory view of the supermassive black hole at the heart of quasar H1821+643. Courtesy NASA/CXC/Univ. of Cambridge/J. Sisk-Reynés et al.
Atlas 5 launch scrubbed due to stormy weather
ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket, with a lightning strike in the background, during Thursday evening’s countdown. Credit: United Launch Alliance
Officials scrubbed the launch of an Atlas 5 rocket for the U.S. Space Force Thursday due to the risk of lightning from nearby thunderstorms, delaying the liftoff of the $1.1 billon mission until Friday evening.
Tidal Heating Could Make Exomoons Much More Habitable (and Detectable)
Within the Solar System, most of our astrobiological research is aimed at Mars, which is considered to be the next-most habitable body beyond Earth. However, future efforts are aimed at exploring icy satellites in the outer Solar System that could also be habitable (like Europa, Enceladus, Titan, and more). This dichotomy between terrestrial (rocky) planets that orbit within their a system’s Habitable Zones (HZ) and icy moons that orbit farther from their parent stars is expected to inform future extrasolar planet surveys and astrobiology research.
Red Supergiant Stars Bubble and Froth so Much That Their Position in the Sky Seems to Dance Around
Making a 3D map of our galaxy would be easier if some stars behaved long enough to get good distances to them. However, red supergiants are the frisky kids on the block when it comes to pinning down their exact locations. That’s because they appear to dance around, which makes pinpointing their place in space difficult. That wobble is a feature, not a bug of these massive old stars and scientists want to understand why.
US Space Force establishes new unit to track 'threats in orbit'
The United States Space Force has activated a new unit that is tasked with providing "critical intelligence on threat systems, foreign intentions and activities in the space domain."
This is How You Get Multiple Star Systems
Stars form inside massive clouds of gas and dust called molecular clouds. The Nebular Hypothesis explains how that happens. According to that hypothesis, dense cores inside those clouds of hydrogen collapse due to instability and form stars. The Nebular Hypothesis is much more detailed than that short version, but that’s the basic idea.
Live coverage: Countdown begins for Atlas 5 launch from Cape Canaveral
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission, known as USSF 12, will launch the U.S. Space Force’s Wide Field of View Testbed satellite and the USSF 12 Ring spacecraft into geosynchronous orbit. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
Indian rocket launches three satellites for Singapore
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifts off from the Indian east coast with three Singaporean satellites. Credit: ISRO
Three Singaporean satellites lifted off Thursday on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and rocketed into an orbit more than 350 miles above Earth to begin missions supporting military surveillance, technology demonstrations, and solar research.
Watch NASA roll huge Artemis 1 moon rocket off the pad early Friday
NASA plans to start rolling its Artemis 1 moon mission off the launch pad early Friday morning (July 1), and you can watch the slow-moving action live.
Higgs boson: The 'God Particle' explained
The Higgs boson is a fundamental particle discovered on July 4, 2012, by researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) located at CERN, Switzerland.
'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' at 40: Spielberg’s charming sci-fi classic still offers wonder today
40 years ago director Steven Spielberg introduced audiences to a benevolent alien in "E.T" the Extra-Terrestrial
Citizen Scientists Detect Dusty Disks
Disk Detective, a citizen science project dedicated identifying planet-forming disks around young stars, reports their latest results.
'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' episode 8 suffers from a clash of styles
This episode marks a welcome return to Trademark Trek Tomfoolery.
Copernicus Sentinel-1 maps Bangladesh flood
Image: Copernicus Sentinel-1 maps Bangladesh flood
Upcoming sci-fi TV shows for 2022
From returning greats to brand new shows, these are the best upcoming sci-fi TV shows for 2022.