Astronomy & Space News

NASA astronaut and Expedition 74 crew member Chris Williams smiles for the camera during a spacesuit fit verification inside the International Space Station’s Quest airlock.

An American bald eagles flies away from its nest and tree at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, March 13, 2026.

At any given moment, about 20 volcanoes on Earth are actively erupting. Often among them is Mayon—the most active volcano in the Philippines.

These X-ray computed tomography (XCT) scans of particles from asteroid Bennu show the most common types of crack networks observed in Bennu samples.

Dr. Robert H. Goddard and a liquid oxygen-gasoline rocket in the frame from which it was fired on March 16, 1926, at Auburn, Mass.

Early morning sunlight illuminates the western wall of this unnamed crater, leaving deep shadows on the ground and in the interior. The image was taken on August 30, 2023, by LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera).

Two powerful instruments of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope joined forces to create this scenic galaxy view. This spiral galaxy is named NGC 5134, and it’s located 65 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.

In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared, and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colorful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the center formed. Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with high-resolution visible-light images, adding extra detail in the center of this image. The whole nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together in modern astronomical surveys. Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 — revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.

This impact crater, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2015, appeared relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta.

A brain-new image from Webb! What looks like a brain (complete with what appear as left and right hemispheres) is actually a dying star blowing off a shell of gas, and within that shell, a cloud of various gases.

Weekends on the International Space Station are for housecleaning and haircuts. NASA astronaut Jessica Meir trims the hair of fellow NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway, both Expedition 74 flight engineers, using an electric razor attached to a vacuum that collects loose clippings to keep the station’s atmosphere clean in microgravity.

A total lunar eclipse rises over New Orleans, home of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 3. A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes directly between the Sun and Moon, casting a huge shadow across the Moon’s surface. The Moon appears dark red or orange as the Sun’s light filters through Earth’s atmosphere.

For the first time, a much younger version of the Sun has been caught red-handed blowing bubbles in the galaxy, by astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Off the coast of California, NASA’s Artemis Landing and Recovery team and the Department of War that will work together to retrieve the Artemis II crew and Orion spacecraft following their return to Earth and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean are performing a final simulation of their activities, called a just-in-time training, at sea on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. During the training, teams use the Crew Module Test Article, a full-scale mockup of the Orion spacecraft, to simulate as close as possible the conditions they can expect to encounter during splashdown of the Artemis II mission.

The sun's glint beams off a partly cloudy Atlantic Ocean just after sunrise as the International Space Station orbited 263 miles above.

Born March 21, 1866, in New York, Antonia Maury was born into a family with an astronomical legacy: Her grandfather, John William Draper, was the second person to photograph the Moon (and the first whose photo survived to be shown publicly). Her uncle and aunt, Henry and Anna Draper, made several landmark astrophotographs themselves andContinue reading "March 21, 1866: The birth of Antonia Maury"

The post March 21, 1866: The birth of Antonia Maury appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  March 20: The Moon passes Venus on the vernal equinox This is the ideal night to run the 2026 Messier marathon. This annual event challenges observers to view every object in Charles Messier’s catalog in a single night, from sundown to sunup.Continue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, March 21: It’s Messier marathon night"

The post The Sky Today on Saturday, March 21: It’s Messier marathon night appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Astronomy advocacy groups are ringing alarm bells about two proposed satellite constellations, warning that they threaten to change the sky forever. SpaceX has applied to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch up to 1 million satellites as orbital data centers for artificial intelligence. California-based startup Reflect Orbital wants to deploy as many asContinue reading "New satellite constellations could ruin the night sky, astronomers warn"

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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 "2026 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases"

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On March 20, 71 C.E., a hybrid solar eclipse darkened skies along a path that was 19 miles (31 kilometers) wide at its peak. Totality passed over Greece, where the philosopher Plutarch observed it and noted the corona. He later wrote in his dialogue De facie in orbe lunae, “Even if the moon, however, doesContinue reading "March 20, 71 C.E.: Plutarch witnesses an eclipse"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  March 19: Mercury stands still The Moon passes 5° north of Venus at 9 A.M. EDT, although neither is visible then. Instead, you can view them together in the evening sky.  Some 40 minutes after sunset, the first bright stars are likelyContinue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, March 20: The Moon passes Venus on the vernal equinox"

The post The Sky Today on Friday, March 20: The Moon passes Venus on the vernal equinox appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, March 20The vernal equinox occurs at 10:46 A.M. EDT, bringing astronomical spring to the Northern Hemisphere as the Sun stands directly over Earth’s equator. On this day, the Sun also sits at the celestial equator as its path takes it from south toContinue reading "The Sky This Week from March 20 to 27: Spring begins"

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If you plan to see Project Hail Mary this weekend, make sure to stick around for the end credits. Scrolling alongside the names of the cast and crew is Brisbane-based astrophotographer Rod Prazeres, whose deep-sky imagery provides the backdrop for the film’s closing sequence. The production team opted for authentic astronomical data over CGI, featuringContinue reading "The astrophotography of ‘Project Hail Mary’"

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Are you ready to meet Rocky? Project Hail Mary opens March 20, 2026, sending science teacher (and former molecular biologist) Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, on an adventure light-years from Earth in a last-ditch effort — one might even say a Hail Mary play — to save the Sun. Based on the best-selling novelContinue reading "Before you see the movie, rewatch the final trailer for ‘Project Hail Mary’"

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Salvo Lauricella, taken from Palazzolo Acreide, Italy M106 is a spiral galaxy about 24 million light-years away in Canes Venatici, its disk slightly warped by a previous gravitational encounter. In this image, it lies surrounded by numerous background galaxies, including NGC 4217 (top) and NGC 4220 (left). The imager collected 3 hours 40 minutes ofContinue reading "A galactic sea"

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The Rubin Observatory has detected thousands of new asteroids, including several that spin a lot faster than expected for typical rubble piles.

The post Rubin Observatory Detects Record-Breaking Asteroids appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The waxing Moon grows along the horns of Taurus, then passes first quarter as it bunches up with Jupiter and the heads of the Gemini twins.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 20 – 29 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

When Andy Weir published Project Hail Mary, he based his novel on two worlds. We explore these planet candidates — and why they probably don’t exist.

The post Explore the Worlds of Project Hail Mary appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

As the comet prepares for its perilous perihelion passage, we look at what to expect.

The post Latest News on the Kreutz Sungrazing Comet C/2026 A1 MAPS appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Samples returned from Ryugu contain all five nucleobases, just like from asteroid Bennu. The find suggests life’s ingredients could have come from outside Earth.

The post Asteroid Ryugu Also Contains Life’s Building Blocks appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way, is undergoing a complete galactic transformation after a recent collision with its nearest neighbor.

The post A Nearby Dwarf Galaxy is Transforming Before Our Eyes appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

An oddly low-density planet isn't quite rocky or gaseous — instead, it might have a deep ocean of magma and a stinky, sulfurous atmosphere.

The post Molten Sulfurous World Blurs Exoplanet Categories appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A rare, near perfect young-Moon challenge awaits North Americans after sunset on March 19th. Jupiter rules the evening from on high in central Gemini.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 13 – 22 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The disk of gas that spirals onto a newborn magnetar wobbles, creating "bumps" in the brightness of the supernova that accompanied this object's birth.

The post Super-Bright Supernovae Are Birth Cries of Magnetars appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers have used 40 years’ worth of data to peer inside the Sun, revealing that the solar cycle can leave a distinct fingerprint beneath the visible surface.

The post The Solar Cycle Leaves Its Fingerprint on the Sun’s Interior appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

In an incredibly lucky cosmic accident, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a comet breaking apart in real time—something astronomers have long tried and failed to observe. The comet, C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), wasn’t even the original target, but when researchers pivoted to it, they unknowingly caught it mid-disintegration into multiple pieces.

A mysterious spike of platinum buried deep in Greenland’s ice has long fueled theories of a catastrophic comet or asteroid strike 12,800 years ago—possibly triggering a sudden return to icy conditions known as the Younger Dryas. But new research points to a far less dramatic, yet still powerful culprit: volcanic eruptions. Scientists found the platinum signal doesn’t match space debris and actually appeared decades after the cooling began, ruling out an impact as the trigger.

A nearby galaxy is behaving strangely—and now scientists know why. The Small Magellanic Cloud’s stars move in chaotic patterns because it slammed into its larger neighbor millions of years ago. That collision disrupted its structure and even created the illusion that its gas was rotating. The discovery means this once “textbook” galaxy may not be as typical as astronomers believed.

Kepler-51d is a giant, ultra-light “super-puff” planet wrapped in an unusually thick haze that’s blocking scientists from seeing what it’s made of. Observations from JWST revealed that this haze may be one of the largest ever detected, possibly stretching as wide as Earth itself. The planet’s low density and close orbit don’t match existing models of how gas giants form or survive. Now, researchers are left with more questions than answers about how such a strange world came to be.

Astronomers have identified a strange new kind of exoplanet that challenges how scientists classify worlds beyond our Solar System. The planet, L 98-59 d, appears to contain a vast ocean of molten rock beneath its surface that traps large amounts of sulfur deep inside. Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope revealed unusual sulfur-rich gases in its atmosphere and a surprisingly low density for its size.

A mysterious metal-rich asteroid called Psyche has been baffling scientists for over two centuries, and its true origin remains one of the biggest unanswered questions in planetary science. Is it the exposed core of a failed planet, or a chaotic mix of rock and metal forged through countless violent collisions? To find out, researchers simulated how a massive crater near Psyche’s north pole formed, revealing that the asteroid’s internal “porosity” — how much empty space it contains — may hold the key to its secrets.

The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details in a bizarre nebula that looks like a brain floating in space. Formed by a dying star, the “Exposed Cranium” nebula shows layered gas and a dark central divide that creates its eerie shape. Webb’s infrared view suggests powerful jets may be shaping the structure. The images capture a brief and dramatic phase in a star’s final evolution.

Astronomers may have found an exciting new clue about dark energy—the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion. They discovered an extraordinarily bright supernova from more than 10 billion years ago whose light was bent and magnified by a foreground galaxy, creating multiple images through gravitational lensing. Because the light from each image traveled slightly different paths, it arrived at Earth at different times, letting scientists effectively watch different moments of the same cosmic explosion simultaneously.

Scientists studying a mysterious effect called cosmic birefringence—a subtle twist in the polarization of the universe’s oldest light—have developed a new way to reduce uncertainty in how it’s measured. This faint rotation in the cosmic microwave background could point to entirely new physics, including hidden particles such as axions and clues about dark matter or dark energy.

Astronomers have discovered the brightest fast radio burst ever detected and traced it to a nearby galaxy using a new network of CHIME Outrigger telescopes. The flash, nicknamed RBFLOAT, lasted only a fraction of a second but briefly outshone every other radio source in its galaxy. Follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope spotted a faint infrared signal at the same location. The burst’s unusual behavior—showing no signs of repeating—may challenge current ideas about what causes these mysterious cosmic flashes.

New research suggests Mars may have remained habitable much longer than scientists once thought. Ancient sand dunes in Gale Crater appear to have been soaked by underground water billions of years ago, leaving behind minerals that can preserve signs of life. Even after surface water disappeared, subsurface flows may have created protected environments for microbes. These hidden habitats could be key targets in the ongoing search for past life on Mars.

NASA’s Curiosity rover is investigating strange spiderweb-like ridges on Mars that may reveal a hidden chapter of the planet’s watery history. These “boxwork” formations likely formed when groundwater flowed through cracks in the rock, leaving minerals that hardened into ridges while surrounding material eroded away. New chemical analyses of drilled rock samples show minerals linked to water activity.

Mars didn’t always look like the barren world we see today. Over billions of years, the Sun’s solar wind stripped away much of its atmosphere, helping transform it from a warmer, wetter planet into a frozen desert. NASA’s twin-spacecraft ESCAPADE mission aims to watch this process in action by measuring how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ fragile magnetic environment. The findings could reveal how Mars lost its habitability—and help prepare humans for future missions there.

Scientists have uncovered evidence that our Sun may have traveled across the Milky Way as part of a massive migration of Sun-like stars billions of years ago. The journey may have carried the solar system away from the galaxy’s crowded center into a calmer region where life could eventually emerge.

Scientists analyzing a gravitational-wave signal have discovered that a neutron star and black hole spiraled together on an oval-shaped orbit just before merging. This unusual motion, detected in the event GW200105, contradicts the long-held expectation that such pairs settle into nearly perfect circles before collision. The eccentric orbit suggests the system likely formed in a chaotic stellar environment with strong gravitational interactions.