Astronomy & Space News

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently took a self-portrait against a sweeping backdrop of ancient Martian terrain at a location the science team calls “Lac de Charmes.”

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir poses with an Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit during an official portrait session at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

This celestial image captured from a window on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station highlights the Milky Way rising above Earth's atmospheric glow.

A sliver of the edge of Earth is brightly illuminated against the vast darkness of space.

A newly discovered object may be a key to unlocking the true nature of a mysterious class of sources that astronomers have found in the early universe in recent years.

America’s first human spaceflight begins as the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) space vehicle, with astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. aboard, launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 5, 1961.

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the glittering spiral galaxy NGC 3137, located 53 million light-years away in the constellation Antlia (the Air Pump).

Nasdaq Chair and Chief Executive Officer Adena T. Friedman, left, and NASA’s Artemis II crew ring the closing bell of the Nasdaq market session, Thursday, April 30, 2026.

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for the Artemis III mission moves into the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.

The barred spiral galaxy IC 486 glows with a soft, ethereal light in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image.

Expedition 74 flight engineers Chris Williams of NASA and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency work together in the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox.

The X-59’s tail and jet engine feature a new marking — a Freedom 250 logo celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026.

NASA celebrates Hubble’s 36th anniversary with a new image of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region it first captured in 1997. The telescope leveraged almost its full operational lifetime to show us changes in the nebula on human time scales with an improved camera.

Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our Sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

This image, released in celebration of Earth Day, shows the terminator – the line between night and day – on Earth. The Artemis II astronauts captured this view on April 2, 2026, during their journey to the Moon.

Humanity has spent eons looking up at the stars and wondering whether we’re alone, or if there are others like us out there in the vast unknown. Our curiosity has only increased as we have become a technological civilization capable of scanning the heavens for potential signs or signals from other civilizations, called technosignatures. ButContinue reading "Should we keep looking for ET?"

The post Should we keep looking for ET? appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

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"

The post 2026 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

On May 13, 1921, the first in a series of strong coronal mass ejections (CMEs), driven by a huge and complex sunspot group, reached Earth. A second followed the same day, their combined force essentially clearing the space between the Earth and Sun of interplanetary plasma. This allowed a third CME, which hit May 14,Continue reading "May 13, 1921: The New York Railroad Storm"

The post May 13, 1921: The New York Railroad Storm appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 12: A new view of the Moon Bright Venus stands proudly between the horns of Taurus the Bull after sunset tonight, forming a nearly straight line with the stars marking the tips of the horns. Visible in the west within anContinue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, May 13: Venus grabs the Bull by the horns"

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John Vermette, taken from Starfront Observatory, Texas Lying 1,000 light-years away, NGC 1333 is the most active star-forming region in the Perseus molecular complex, producing newborn stars that carve cavities in the surrounding dust. The imager collected 8 hours of exposure with a one-shot color camera and a 4-inch f/5 refractor.

The post A stellar nursery in Perseus appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

This week, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to explore the Whirlpool Galaxy, cataloged as M51. It lies in Canes Venatici near the Big Dipper asterism along with its companion galaxy, NGC 5195. How to find the Whirlpool Galaxy — video transcript Hi, I’m Dave Eicher, editor emeritus of Astronomy magazine. Welcome toContinue reading "Fall into the Whirlpool Galaxy"

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After a trip to Germany where he witnessed the history-making first Zeiss projection planetarium, which had opened its doors in 1925, retired Sears, Roebuck & Co. executive Max Adler was eager to bring the technology to Chicago. In addition to making a donation of $500,000 (today, about $9.5 million) to drive the process, Adler purchasedContinue reading "May 12, 1930: Adler Planetarium opens"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 11: Egeria moves along Early risers have a great view of a lunar feature normally located near the limb this morning. An hour before sunrise, the Moon is roughly 20° above the eastern horizon. About 25 percent of its nearside isContinue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, May 12: A new view of the Moon"

The post The Sky Today on Tuesday, May 12: A new view of the Moon appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Mission Highlight: Starship Flight 12 EDITOR’S NOTE: SpaceX has officially revealed its target for Starship Flight 12 to NET Tuesday, May 19. This mission was included in this week’s article based on earlier reporting that indicated a May 15 target date. We are retaining the full mission highlight below with the corrected timeline. SpaceX isContinue reading "SpaceX’s most powerful Starship yet is cleared for launch"

The post SpaceX’s most powerful Starship yet is cleared for launch appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Winter hibernation is officially over. Spring has arrived. Warmer nights make this a great time to pull out your binoculars and enjoy everything the season offers. So, here are 10 great targets to get you started tonight. And because springtime for Northern Hemisphere amateur astronomers means it’s also galaxy season, half the objects I’ve chosenContinue reading "10 great spring binocular sights"

The post 10 great spring binocular sights appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Watch the crescent Moon dance with the planets when it returns next week.

The post Moon, Planets Gather in a Twilight Spectacle May 18-20 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

In 2019, a supermassive black hole in a galaxy 300 million light-years away woke up. Now, it’s puzzling astronomers with an unexpected slowdown in its X-ray bursts.

The post A Black Hole’s Puzzling X-Ray Bursts appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Jupiter, shining high the western dusk, inches down day toward brighter Venus. Venus, meanwhile, creeps toward the horntip stars of Taurus and stands between them on May 13th.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 8 – 17 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The imminent lunar impact of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster highlights the growing amount of space debris near the Moon.

The post SpaceX Booster Will Hit the Moon This August appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers may have found the missing link required to understand one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s most puzzling discoveries.

The post Astronomers Spot Possible Missing Link to Webb’s Little Red Dots appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope has observed the surface of a bare rocky exoplanet, revealing old, dark rock akin to that on our Moon.

The post Nearby Super-Earth Has No Atmosphere and a Dark, Moon-like Surface appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The manufacturer of the highly coveted Questar telescope has closed its shutters after 76 years of serving the astronomy community.

The post Questar Ceases Operations appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Leo, the Lion, is one of the most recognizable of the spring constellations, with its large size, distinctive shape, and plentiful bright stars.

The post Meet the Constellations: Leo, the Lion appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Observations — including from an amateur astronomer — show that the Plutino 2002 XV93 has a thin wisp of air around it.

The post Astronomers Find Atmosphere Around a Pluto-like World appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Venus hangs in place in the western twilight while Aldebaran and the Pleiades continue their downward slide behind it. And if Venus is the Evening Star, then bright Jupiter, high to its upper left, counts as the False Evening Star.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 1 – 9 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A medieval monk may have beaten Edmond Halley to one of astronomy’s greatest discoveries by nearly 700 years. Researchers say Eilmer of Malmesbury recognized that the blazing comet seen in 1066 was the same one he had witnessed in 989. At the time, comets were viewed as terrifying omens tied to war and royal deaths, adding even more drama to the famous celestial event shown in the Bayeux Tapestry. The discovery is sparking debate over whether Halley’s Comet deserves a different name.

Hubble has revealed a giant planet-forming disk unlike anything astronomers have seen before. Nicknamed “Dracula’s Chivito,” the enormous structure appears turbulent and oddly lopsided, with towering filaments visible on only one side. The disk contains enough material to potentially create multiple giant planets, making it a fascinating new laboratory for studying how planetary systems are born.

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have created the clearest map yet of the universe’s “cosmic web” — the enormous hidden structure that connects galaxies across space. By analyzing more than 164,000 galaxies through the massive COSMOS-Web survey, researchers were able to trace this vast network back to when the universe was just a billion years old.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is about to pull off a dramatic close flyby of Mars, skimming just 2,800 miles above the planet to get a powerful gravitational boost on its journey to the mysterious metal-rich asteroid Psyche. The maneuver will save propellant while giving mission scientists a rare chance to test and calibrate the spacecraft’s instruments using Mars as a target. As Psyche approaches from the planet’s dark side, it’s expected to capture striking crescent views of Mars, search for faint dust rings around the planet, and even gather magnetic and cosmic ray data during the encounter.

NASA’s Curiosity rover had an unexpectedly stubborn Mars souvenir after drilling into a rock nicknamed “Atacama” — the entire chunk ripped loose from the ground and stayed stuck to the rover’s drill. Engineers watched as Curiosity shook, vibrated, tilted, and spun the drill over several days in an effort to free the rock, while cameras captured the strange scene on the Red Planet.

Dante’s Inferno may have been far more than a religious epic. New research argues that the 14th-century poet essentially imagined a catastrophic asteroid impact centuries before modern science understood meteors. In this interpretation, Satan crashes into Earth like a giant cosmic object, blasting through the Southern Hemisphere and reshaping the planet itself — carving out the circles of Hell while forcing up Mount Purgatory on the opposite side of the globe.

A mysterious comet from beyond our solar system is giving astronomers a rare glimpse into alien worlds — and it may have formed in a place far colder and stranger than anything around our Sun. The interstellar visitor, called 3I/ATLAS, contains an astonishingly high amount of “heavy water,” far exceeding anything seen in our own solar system.

The Universe’s biggest black holes may not be born giants after all. Scientists analyzing gravitational-wave signals from dozens of black hole collisions found evidence that the heaviest black holes are likely “cosmic recyclers” — formed through repeated smashups inside incredibly crowded star clusters. These violent chain reactions appear to create a distinct class of rapidly spinning black holes that stand apart from ordinary ones formed by dying stars.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted something that shouldn’t exist—at least not so early in the universe. A massive galaxy, formed less than 2 billion years after the Big Bang, appears to have no rotation at all, a trait usually seen only in much older, evolved galaxies. This challenges current theories that young galaxies should still be spinning from their formation.

A bizarre planetary pairing 190 light-years away is challenging everything astronomers thought they knew about how worlds form. A “lonely” hot Jupiter — typically found without nearby companions — is sharing its system with a smaller mini-Neptune tucked even closer to the star, a setup once thought nearly impossible.

A bold step toward returning humans to the Moon is underway with Blue Origin’s uncrewed MK1 “Endurance” lander, designed to test the technologies that future astronauts will rely on. Built in partnership with NASA, the mission will showcase precision landing, autonomous navigation, and advanced cryogenic propulsion—key capabilities for operating on the lunar surface. It will also carry cutting-edge NASA instruments to study how rocket plumes interact with the Moon and to improve navigation accuracy from orbit.

A powerful new electromagnetic thruster has taken a major step forward after a successful high-energy test at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Fueled by lithium vapor and driven by intense magnetic forces, the experimental engine reached record-breaking power levels—far beyond anything currently used in space. Glowing hotter than molten lava and firing inside a specialized vacuum chamber, the thruster hints at a future where spacecraft could travel farther and more efficiently than ever before.

A scorching, airless world just 48 light-years away is offering scientists a rare glimpse into the geology of distant planets. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers studied LHS 3844 b—a tidally locked “super-Earth” with a permanent dayside hot enough to melt metal—and discovered it’s a dark, barren rock with no atmosphere.

Astronomers have spotted something surprising in the far outer Solar System—a faint, short-lived atmosphere clinging to a tiny icy world that shouldn’t be able to hold one at all. The object, called 2002 XV93, is far smaller than Pluto, yet observations during a rare stellar alignment revealed its presence through a subtle dimming of starlight. Even more puzzling, calculations suggest this atmosphere should vanish within about 1,000 years unless it’s constantly being replenished.

Artemis II proved NASA’s deep space systems are ready for the next leap. Orion survived its high-speed return with improved heat shield performance and pinpoint landing accuracy, while the SLS rocket nailed its trajectory. Even the launch pad upgrades paid off, with minimal damage despite the powerful liftoff. With only minor issues to resolve, NASA is now gearing up for Artemis III and future Moon missions.