Astronomy & Space News

The star cluster Pismis 24 lies within the much larger emission nebula called NGC 6357, located about 8,000 light-years from Earth. The gas below the stars glows through ionization caused by intense ultraviolet radiation from the massive young stars within the cluster.

At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a bobcat wades through one of the waterways near Launch Pad 39B.

Astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Diaz works with a grapple fixture during a June 2002 spacewalk – the first spacewalk of the STS-111 mission.

Amid a patchwork of fields, towns, and winding rivers and roads in central Brazil stands a monolithic oval-shaped plateau. This conspicuous feature, the Serra de Caldas (also known as the Caldas Novas dome and Caldas Ridge), is perched about 300 meters (1,000 feet) above the surrounding landscape in the state of Goiás.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero Galaxy with its NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), which shows dust from the galaxy’s outer ring blocking stellar light from stars within the galaxy. In the central region of the galaxy, the roughly 2,000 globular clusters, or collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity, glow in the near-infrared. The Sombrero Galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. From Earth, we see this galaxy nearly “edge-on,” or from the side.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a cloudscape in the Large Magellanic Cloud., a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot of the Gemini IV four-day Earth-orbital mission, floats in the zero gravity of space outside the Gemini IV spacecraft.

Scientists have discovered a star behaving like no other seen before, giving fresh clues about the origin of a new class of mysterious objects.

President Donald Trump steps onstage to speak following the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley aboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Sixteen of 19 astronaut candidates named on May 29, 1980, and two European trainees as payload specialists pose for photographers in the briefing room in the public affairs facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the remote galaxy HerS 020941.1+001557, which appears as a red arc that partially encircles a foreground elliptical galaxy.

The waning gibbous moon sets behind a flag at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans just after sunrise on Wednesday, March 19, 2025.

A flower is seen in the foreground with a Soyuz rocket on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 7, 2025. Expedition 73 crewmembers including NASA astronaut Jonny Kim launched aboard their Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft on April 8.

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is seen during its “aluminum bird” systems testing at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. The test verified how the aircraft’s hardware and software work together, responding to pilot inputs and handling injected system failures.

On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This panoramic camera mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th Martian day, or sol.

This is my open letter to all aurora chasers. After returning home from a successful trip to the 2024 Okie-Tex Star Party in early October, I received alerts from SpaceWeather.com indicating increased activity on the Sun. Predictions called for a severe geomagnetic storm, with a chance of auroral activity as far south as Alabama. IContinue reading "How I learned to love the Northern Lights"

The post How I learned to love the Northern Lights appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Every 11 years, activity on the Sun peaks. More sunspots, prominences, flares, and other phenomena are seen on our star’s face, plus, there’s an uptick in visible aurorae here on Earth. This time period is called the solar cycle, and we’re in the middle of the peak of the current one, solar cycle 25. TheseContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Take a Look at the Sun"

The post Michael’s Miscellany: Take a Look at the Sun 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 "2025 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases"

The post 2025 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Pioneer 10 holds the titles for many “firsts”: It was NASA’s first mission to the outer planets, the first spacecraft to fly beyond Mars, the first to traverse the asteroid belt, and the first to fly past Jupiter. It was also the first spacecraft placed on a trajectory to escape the solar system into interstellarContinue reading "June 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 leaves solar system"

The post June 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 leaves solar system appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, June 13Mercury is making its way through Gemini, passing close to the star Mebsuta (Epsilon [ε] Geminorum) this evening. Visible for more than an hour after sunset, the magnitude –0.8 planet shines brightly in the west. Through binoculars or a telescope, you’ll beContinue reading "The Sky This Week from June 13 to 20: The Red Planet visits Regulus"

The post The Sky This Week from June 13 to 20: The Red Planet visits Regulus appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Mercury now shines at magnitude –0.8 in the evening sky, lingering above the horizon some 80 minutes after the Sun disappears. Tonight, the solar system’s smallest planet stands just 20′ from the 3rd-magnitude star Mebsuta (Epsilon [ε] Geminorum), near the middle of the constellation Gemini.  You can catch the pairing with binoculars or a smallContinue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, June 13: Mercury meets Mebsuta"

The post The Sky Today on Friday, June 13: Mercury meets Mebsuta appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Sometimes even scientists get lucky. Yale University astronomer Imad Pasha was scanning some ground-based images when he stumbled across a galaxy boasting several rings. Because the object’s name, LEDA 1313424, doesn’t roll off the tongue, his team nicknamed it the Bullseye. This Hubble image reveals why it’s an apt moniker: The galaxy boasts nine rings,Continue reading "Hubble spots a cosmic bullseye"

The post Hubble spots a cosmic bullseye appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Francisco Javier Pérez Olvera, taken from Mixquiahuala, Hidalgo, Mexico This wide-field view captures a broad swath of the star-forming Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, spanning the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) to the Orion Nebula (M42). The imager used a 54mm f/4.5 astrograph and dual-band Hα/OIII filter with a one-shot color camera to take 16 hours 40Continue reading "From the Flame to Orion"

The post From the Flame to Orion appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

On June 12, 2021, Nova Herculis 2021 (V1674 Herculis) erupted, and was discovered by amateur astronomer Seiji Ueda of Japan. The white dwarf quickly became visible to the naked eye, surging to 10,000 times brighter than it originally had been. Its speed was unprecedented: V1674 Herculis faded from that peak brightness in just over oneContinue reading "June 12, 2021: Seiji Ueda discovers Nova Herculis 2021"

The post June 12, 2021: Seiji Ueda discovers Nova Herculis 2021 appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Saturn’s two-faced moon Iapetus reaches its greatest western elongation today. At western elongation, the moon’s lighter hemisphere is turned toward Earth, making it brightest and easiest to view through a telescope.  First, locate Saturn above the eastern horizon around 4 A.M. local daylight time, roughly 90 minutes before sunrise. At this time, the planet shouldContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, June 12: Iapetus at its best"

The post The Sky Today on Thursday, June 12: Iapetus at its best appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

The two Great Globular Clusters in Hercules now await you high overhead. Yes there are two. Both are telescopic trophies, and even binoculars can reveal them as little fuzzdots.

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

New observatories in space and on the ground are providing us with our best views yet of the Sun — providing insight into puzzles that have remained unsolved for decades.

The post Never-Before-Seen Views of the Sun appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

As wildfire season expands, observers across much of the country try to make do.

The post Wildfires Imperil Our Night Skies appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

European nations and universities have pledged more than $850 million for international scientists.

The post Amid U.S. Science Funding Cuts, Europe Seeks Top American Talent  appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers have found X-rays coming from a strange object that releases regular bursts of radio waves, shedding new light on what that object might be. 

The post Mystery Object in the Milky Way appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The yellow Honey Moon this week passes orange Antares. The Kite of Boötes turns upright. And is Capella circumpolar for you?

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 6 – 15 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A second try for a successful Moon landing for the iSpace company in Japan, with its Resilience lander, ended in silence.

The post Japanese Resilience Lander Crashes on the Moon appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A new analysis of Hubble and Gaia data suggests that our galaxy might survive an upcoming encounter with the Andromeda Galaxy unscathed.

The post Milky Way’s Chances of Hitting Andromeda Galaxy May Be 50/50 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The U.S. Mint has issued a quarter-dollar coin celebrating the life and work of the co-discoverer of dark matter in galaxies.

The post New U.S. Coin Honors Astronomer Vera Rubin appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Sky & Telescope Contributing Editor Govert Schilling wins 2025 David N. Schramm award for articles written about high-energy astrophysics.

The post S&T's Govert Schilling Wins High-Energy Astrophysics Writing Award appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Surveying nearby galaxies in the process of merging with other galaxies, astronomers have identified massive, dense star factories, unlike any found in the Milky Way. The findings provide a rare glimpse into processes shaping galaxies in the very early universe and possibly the Milky Way a few billion years from now.

NASA s CODEX experiment aboard the International Space Station is revealing the Sun like never before. Using advanced filters and a specialized coronagraph, CODEX has captured images showing that the solar wind streams of charged particles from the Sun is not a smooth, uniform flow but rather a turbulent, gusty outpouring of hot plasma. These groundbreaking observations will allow scientists to measure the speed and temperature of the solar wind with unprecedented detail, providing critical insights for space weather forecasting and understanding how solar activity impacts Earth and space technology.

Scientists have discovered a giant planet orbiting a tiny red dwarf star, something they believed wasn t even possible. The planet, TOI-6894b, is about the size of Saturn but orbits a star just a fifth the mass of our Sun. This challenges long-standing ideas about how big planets form, especially around small stars. Current theories can't fully explain how such a planet could have taken shape. Even more fascinating, this cold planet may have a rare kind of atmosphere rich in methane or even ammonia something we've never seen in an exoplanet before.

Astronomers have pulled off an unprecedented feat: detecting ultra-faint light from the Big Bang using ground-based telescopes. This polarized light scattered by the universe's very first stars over 13 billion years ago offers a new lens into the Cosmic Dawn. Overcoming extreme technical challenges, the CLASS team matched their data with satellite readings to isolate this ancient signal. These insights could reshape our understanding of the universe s early evolution, and what it reveals about mysterious components like dark matter and neutrinos.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have captured breathtakingly detailed images of two giant exoplanets orbiting a distant sun-like star. These observations revealed sand-like silicate clouds in one planet s atmosphere and an unexpected disk around another that may be forming moons something previously seen only in much younger systems. These snapshots offer a rare chance to witness planet formation in real time, giving clues about how worlds like Jupiter and even our own solar system came to be.

A violent solar eruption on May 31 launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) hurtling toward Earth, triggering a rare G4-level geomagnetic storm alert. Captured in real-time by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory instruments, this cosmic blast has the potential to disrupt satellites, communications, and military systems.

A team of international astronomers has uncovered what may be a gas giant planet forming around a distant young star. Using the powerful Very Large Telescope in Chile, they captured dazzling near-infrared images of a spiral-armed disk, matching theoretical predictions of how young planets shape their environment. With structures extending beyond the scale of our solar system and evidence of planet-driven disturbances, the system could provide vital clues to how planetary systems, including our own, emerge.

Planets may begin forming much earlier than scientists once believed during the final stages of a star s birth, not afterward. This bold new model, backed by simulations from researchers at SwRI, could solve a long-standing mystery: why so many exoplanet systems have tight clusters of similarly sized planets orbiting close to their stars. These compact systems seem to emerge naturally if planets start forming amid the swirling chaos of gas and dust still feeding the star.

An international team of scientists has unveiled the largest and most detailed map of the universe ever created using the James Webb Space Telescope, revealing nearly 800,000 galaxies stretching back to almost the beginning of time. The COSMOS-Web project not only challenges long-held beliefs about galaxy formation in the early universe but also unexpectedly revealed 10 times more galaxies than anticipated along with supermassive black holes Hubble couldn t see.

Astronomers have revealed new research showing that millions of new solar system objects are likely to be detected by a brand-new facility, which is expected to come online later this year.

Supermassive black holes might naturally replicate the colossal energies of man-made particle colliders possibly even revealing dark matter offering a cosmic shortcut to discoveries that would otherwise take decades and billions to pursue.

Scientists have identified a new source of energetic particles near the Sun. These definitive observations were made by instruments aboard NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which detected the powerful phenomena as the spacecraft dipped in and out of the solar corona.

Tracing the origin of an ultra-hot exoplanet: The chemical composition of WASP-121b suggests that it formed in a cool zone of its natal disc, comparable to the region of gas and ice giants in our Solar System. Methane indicates unexpected atmospheric dynamics: Despite extreme heat, methane was detected on the nightside -- a finding that can be explained by strong vertical atmospheric circulation. First detection of silicon monoxide in a planetary atmosphere: Measurements of this refractory gas allow quantifying the rocky material the planet had accumulated.

A series of studies sheds light on the origins and characteristics of intermediate-mass black holes.

A team of international astronomers have discovered a new cosmic object emitting both radio waves and x-rays.