Astronomy & Space News

NASA’s Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology Project’s Mobile Acoustics Facility is parked in the background of Joby’s prototype aircraft near Big Sur, California.

Diana Trujillo, an aerospace engineer, is currently Technical Group Supervisor for Sequence Planning and Execution and a Tactical Mission Lead for Perseverance.

In this image, NASA astronaut and SpaceX Crew-3 Commander Raja Chari trains aboard the ing session at SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in Hawthorns, California.

Inside the Integrated Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the Landsat 9 spacecraft is moved into position for encapsulation.

The National 9/11 Flag was raised over the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex after Florida's contribution was added.

At NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Orion’s newly completed pressure vessel for the Artemis III mission is lifted out of the welding tool.

Mary W. Jackson grew up in Hampton, Virginia and attended the historically black college Hampton Institute (now Hampton University).

Apurva Varia joined the Goddard Space Flight Center in 2002 as a propulsion engineer.

Instrumentation technician Michael Hodgins performs installation measures on the trans-sonic truss-braced wing model at Langley Research Center’s 14x22 subsonic wind tunnel.

This Mastcam-Z image shows a sample of Mars rock inside the sample tube on Sept. 1, 2021 – the 190th sol, or Martian day, of the mission.

In this image from Aug, 30, 2021, the SpaceX Cargo Dragon vehicle approaches the International Space Station.

Johanna Lucht, who was born deaf, never thought she would work for NASA.

Taken on Aug. 29, 2021, this image shows Hurricane Ida shows as a category 4 storm.

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), located 210,000 light-years away, is one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space.

Contamination control engineers in a clean room at the Goddard Space Flight Center evaluate a propellant tank before it is installed in our Europa Clipper spacecraft.

Galaxies can receive and exchange matter with their external environment thanks to the galactic winds created by stellar explosions. An international research team has now mapped a galactic wind for the first time. This unique observation helped to reveal where some of the Universe's missing matter is located and to observe the formation of a nebula around a galaxy.

Dark energy, the mysterious force that causes the universe to accelerate, may have been responsible for unexpected results from the XENON1T experiment, deep below Italy's Apennine Mountains.

A 900-year-old cosmic mystery surrounding the origins of a famous supernova first spotted over China in 1181AD has finally been solved, according to an international team of astronomers. New research says that a faint, fast expanding cloud (or nebula), called Pa30, surrounding one of the hottest stars in the Milky Way, known as Parker's Star, fits the profile, location and age of the historic supernova.

New research has found the Moon may have been subjected to much greater impacts from asteroids and other bodies than previously thought, building on our understanding of the Moon's earliest geologic evolution.

Transporting a single brick to Mars can cost more than a million British pounds -- making the future construction of a Martian colony seem prohibitively expensive. Scientists have now developed a way to potentially overcome this problem, by creating a concrete-like material made of extra-terrestrial dust along with the blood, sweat and tears of astronauts.

An enormous amount of gravity from a cluster of distant galaxies causes space to curve so much that light from them is bent and emanated our way from numerous directions. This 'gravitational lensing' effect has allowed astronomers to observe the same exploding star in three different places in the heavens. They predict that a fourth image of the same explosion will appear in the sky by 2037. The study provides a unique opportunity to explore not just the supernova itself, but the expansion of our universe.

An international team of researchers developed the largest and most detailed simulation of the Universe to date and has made it freely available on the cloud to everyone. This simulation, named Uchuu, will help astronomers to interpret results from Big Data galaxy surveys.

Astronomers have obtained the sharpest and most detailed images yet of the asteroid Kleopatra. The observations have allowed the team to constrain the 3D shape and mass of this peculiar asteroid, which resembles a dog bone, to a higher accuracy than ever before. Their research provides clues as to how this asteroid and the two moons that orbit it formed.

In order to better understand the history and evolution of the Milky Way, astronomers are studying the composition of the gases and metals that make up an important part of our galaxy. Three main elements stand out: the initial gas coming from outside our galaxy, the gas between the stars inside our galaxy -- enriched with chemical elements --, and the dust created by the condensation of the metals present in this gas. Until now, theoretical models assumed that these three elements were homogeneously mixed throughout the Milky Way and reached a level of chemical enrichment similar to the Sun's atmosphere, called the Solar metallicity. Today, a team of astronomers demonstrates that these gases are not mixed as much as previously thought, which has a strong impact on the current understanding of the evolution of galaxies. As a result, simulations of the Milky Way's evolution will have to be modified.

Could dying stars hold the secret to looking younger? New evidence suggests that white dwarfs could continue to burn hydrogen in the final stages of their lives, causing them to appear more youthful than they actually are. This discovery could have consequences for how astronomers measure the ages of star clusters.

As their name suggests, ultradiffuse galaxies, or UDGs, are dwarf galaxies whose stars are spread out over a vast region, resulting in extremely low surface brightness, making them very difficult to detect. An international team of astronomers reports it has used sophisticated simulations to detect a few 'quenched' UDGs in low-density environments in the universe. A quenched galaxy is one that does not form stars.

The Very Large Array Sky Survey gave astronomers the first clue that ultimately revealed a dramatic story -- the remnant of a star that exploded long ago had plunged into the core of its companion star causing it, too, to explode as a supernova.

Vesta, like Earth, is composed of rock in its crust and mantle, and it has an iron core. Therefore, studying Vesta helps us understand the very early days of our planetary neighborhood and how our own planet formed.

Researchers combined observations and modeling to infer the distribution of cold planets in the Milky Way. The results suggest that this distribution is not strongly dependent on the distance from the galactic center. Cold planets seem to be present throughout our galaxy, even in the galactic bulge, where their existence was uncertain. The findings could improve our understanding of both planetary formation and its history in the Milky Way.

The Bernese theoretical astrophysicist Kevin Heng has achieved a rare feat: On paper, he has derived novel solutions to an old mathematical problem needed to calculate light reflections from planets and moons. Now, data can be interpreted in a simple way to understand planetary atmospheres, for example. The new formulae will likely be incorporated into future textbooks.

Watch the Moon visit several planets and reach Full phase as autumn begins from September 17 to 24.

I’ve seen it suggested that the hypothetical planet Nine could be a black hole five to 10 times the mass of Earth. As I understood it, however, the minimum weight of a black hole is 3 solar masses, so how could the Planet be a black hole? William Jennings Eugene, Oregon Typically, black holes fall into one of three categories: stellar-mass, intermediate-mass, or supermassive. The lower limit for a stellar-mass black hole is still unclear. When a large star goes supernova, it leaves beh

The Inspiration4 mission is sending four civilians to space for three days. Though still funded by a billionaire, the mission is a step forward in the nascent space tourism industry.

A rocket booster that launched a 1966 NASA lunar probe was captured by Earth’s gravity in November 2019. It then escaped our gravity in March 2021. What gave it enough energy to escape? R.C. Timm Florissant, Colorado The motion of the booster, named 2020 SO, is primarily driven by the gravity of the Sun and Earth. Prior to 2019, the booster was orbiting the Sun with an orbit similar to Earth’s, but moving at a slower velocity relative to our planet. So, when Earth “caught u

It’s also time to enjoy the First Quarter Moon and catch Mercury at sunset from September 10 to 17.

This week, astronomers have solved one supernova mystery and predicted a new one — to be solved in 2037.

The post 60-second Astro News: Solving Supernova Mysteries appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The waxing gibbous Moon shines with Jupiter and Saturn on its way to full. And as summer turns to fall, Deneb replaces Vega as the zenith star after dusk.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, September 17 – 25 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Spice up your fall observing with a dash of Pallas and nibble of Neptune. Both planet and asteroid are easy to spot in a small telescope.

The post Asteroid Pallas Makes a Point in Pisces appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

An amateur astronomer has discovered a possible new impact flash in Jupiter's equatorial region. Observers may yet see the dark impact scar.

The post Amateurs Spot New Impact Flash at Jupiter appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

New analysis shows the best view of the Milky Way halo to date, providing a window into our galaxy's future star formation.

The post Take a Deep Look into the Milky Way Halo appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers have found the first circumstantial evidence for a supernova triggered by a merger with a neutron star or maybe even a black hole.

The post New Kind of Supernova Implodes Stars Before Their Time appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The evening Moon steps eastward over Scorpius as it waxes through first quarter. All four giant planets await your telescope in early to late evening.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, September 10 – 18 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

This week in astronomy news, we learn that some white dwarfs still burn and image X-rays from black holes almost 12 billion light-years away.

The post 60-second Astro News: White Dwarfs Still Burn, Black Holes Merge appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

After a rocky first start, Perseverance hit pay dirt on the second try. The rover collected two samples recording ancient volcanic eruptions and groundwater interaction.

The post Perseverance Successfully Grabs First Mars Samples (Updates) appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

NASA is upgrading its Deep Space Network to keep up with the demands of modern interplanetary communications.

The post NASA's Deep Space Network Upgraded appeared first on Sky & Telescope.