Astronomy & Space News

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev onboard, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission is the twelfth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Meir, Hathaway, Adenot, and Fedyaev launched at 5:15 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin a mission aboard the orbital outpost.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals the clearest view yet of the Egg Nebula. This structure of gas and dust was created by a dying, Sun-like star. These newest observations were taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.

From left, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 crew members – Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot – pose next to their mission insignia inside the Astronaut Crew Quarters in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026.

A pair of CubeSats designed by college students from around the world is deployed into Earth orbit from a small satellite orbital deployer on the outside of the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. Students from Mexico, Italy, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan designed the shoe-boxed sized satellites for a series of Earth observations and technology demonstrations.

The New York metropolitan area was showing the effects of a prolonged cold spell in late January 2026. During a stretch of frigid weather, ice choked the Hudson River along Manhattan’s western shore.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare — seen as the bright flash toward the upper middle — on Feb. 4, 2026. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in blue and red.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away, features concentric rings of dust and gas that appear to swirl around its bright nucleus.

The Varda Space Industries W-5 capsule returned to Earth in Koonibba in South Australia on Jan. 29, 2026, with the protection of a heat shield made of C-PICA, a cutting-edge material licensed from NASA and manufactured by Varda. The capsule’s successful return marks the first time a capsule protected entirely by Varda-made C-PICA has come back to Earth.

A full moon is seen shining over NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher in the early hours of February 1, 2026.

NASA's Orion spacecraft sits atop the agency's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket at the launch pad after rollout on Jan. 17, 2026.

Deep Space Station 15 (DSS-15), one of the 112-foot (34-meter) antennas at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, looks skyward, with the stars of the Milky Way overhead, in September 2025.

A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a portion of the Helix Nebula highlights comet-like knots, fierce stellar winds, and layers of gas shed off by a dying star interacting with its surrounding environment. Webb’s image also shows the stark transition between the hottest gas to the coolest gas as the shell expands out from the central white dwarf.

This stellar landscape is reminiscent of a winter vista in a view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (red, green, and blue). Chandra data (red, green and blue) punctuate the scene with bursts of colored lights representing high-energy activity from the active stars.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s 2024 NIRCam image shows protostar EC 53 circled. Researchers using new data from Webb’s MIRI proved that crystalline silicates form in the hottest part of the disk of gas and dust surrounding the star — and may be shot to the system’s edges.

A seemingly serene landscape of gas and dust is hopping with star formation behind the scenes.

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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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out during the early evening hours of February 19 to see three planets and the crescent Moon low in the western sky. Venus will be the brightest, followed by Mercury, and finally Saturn. Start looking before twilight ends. Binoculars will help. Good luck! YouContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: Planets in the Evening Sky"

The post This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: Planets in the Evening Sky appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

On Feb. 16, 1948, Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper was using the telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas to photograph the four moons of Uranus: Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, and Ariel. An unknown bright spot stood out when Kuiper developed the images; further observations over the following days demonstrated that the spot was not a star,Continue reading "Feb 16, 1948: Kuiper spots Miranda"

The post Feb 16, 1948: Kuiper spots Miranda appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  February 15: Saturn and Neptune stand close Now roughly 7th magnitude, Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś) is readily visible in the Northern Hemisphere once more. With New Moon less than a day away, it’s the perfect time to check in on this cometaryContinue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, February 16: Catch Comet Wierzchoś in twilight"

The post The Sky Today on Monday, February 16: Catch Comet Wierzchoś in twilight appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Italian mathematician Galileo Galilei was born in Feb. 15, 1564, in Pisa. Often summarized as the father of modern science, certainly a polymath and a brilliant thinker who operated on a high intellectual level, Galileo had innovative thoughts about nearly everything he contemplated. And one thing he often contemplated was optics. He envisioned lenses thatContinue reading "Feb. 15, 1564: The birth of Galileo"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  February 14: A Valentine’s Heart (Nebula) This evening, Saturn passes 0.9° south of Neptune at 11 P.M. EST. The two planets stand together in Pisces, located in the west after sunset. An hour after the Sun goes down, the pair is stillContinue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, February 15: Saturn and Neptune stand close"

The post The Sky Today on Sunday, February 15: Saturn and Neptune stand close appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

On Feb. 14, 1980, the Solar Maximum Mission (or SolarMax) launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and slipped into orbit around the Earth. With goals of better understanding solar flares, the solar constant, and solar atmosphere, the spacecraft carried instruments to image and observe the Sun in X-ray, gamma ray, and ultraviolet.  Only months into itsContinue reading "Feb. 14, 1980: SolarMax launches"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  February 13: Catch the zodiacal light This Valentine’s Day, the sky is serving up the perfect target: the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) in Cassiopeia the Queen. Best seen in the early evening after dark, there’s no Moon in the sky to interfereContinue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, February 14: A Valentine’s Heart (Nebula)"

The post The Sky Today on Saturday, February 14: A Valentine’s Heart (Nebula) appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

In a study published on Feb. 2 in Communications: Earth & Environment, an international team of researchers reveals how, in 2023, an atypical storm during Mars’ northern summer lifted water into the planet’s upper atmosphere, allowing hydrogen to escape. This discovery, a first of its kind, has big implications for understanding the evolution of Mars’Continue reading "Rocket storms are stripping Mars of its water"

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Top 10 space stories of 2025 Amid federal funding uncertainty, commercial spaceflight saw highs and lows, a comet from another star surprised us, and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory began its 10-year survey. By Alison Klesman, Brooks Mendenhall, and Mark Zastrow Scroll to explore Our picture of the cosmos is ever-changing, transformed by new discoveries.Continue reading "Top 10 space stories of 2025"

The post Top 10 space stories of 2025 appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

After a recent explosive outburst, Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann is bright enough to see in a medium-sized telescope.

The post "Ice Volcano" Eruption Makes Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann Shine appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Three planets await you in the western twilight, though low Venus is a toughie. The crescent Moon passes them and, for the lucky, occults Mercury. Dog and Hare accompany Orion. And can you find Kemble's Cascade?

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

On February 18th, the willowy crescent has a close shave with Mercury, so close that it occults the planet from some U.S. cities.

The post Watch the Young Moon Greet Mercury at Sunset appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers might have spotted a star in the Andromeda Galaxy collapsing directly into a black hole, without the accompanying fanfare of a supernova.

The post Astronomers Discover Second Failed Supernova Candidate appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers might have found a moon half the mass of Jupiter orbiting in a nearby system, based on the wobbles of its host world.

The post Astronomers Find Hints of an Exomoon appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The 4-billion-year-old Moon rocks brought back from the farside of the Moon challenge ideas about what it was like in the early solar system.

The post Oldest Moon Rocks Found on the Lunar Farside appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers have discovered three still-growing galaxy clusters in the early universe that point to a faster track of evolution than expected.

The post Infant Galaxy Clusters Grew Faster Than Expected appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The Winter Hexagon encompasses the brightest winter stars. Near Orion, the Big Dog prances and the Hare crouches. And the moonless dark this week opens telescopic deep-sky depths.

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

A distant Kreutz comet heading our way may grow a glorious tail in April.

The post New Kreutz Comet C/2026 A1 May Dazzle appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The proposed installation — less than 10 miles from Paranal Observatory — sparked international concern. Now it’s canceled.

The post Chilean Observatories Saved from Industrial Megaproject appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

New data from major dark-energy observatories suggest the universe may not expand forever after all. A Cornell physicist calculates that the cosmos is heading toward a dramatic reversal: after reaching its maximum size in about 11 billion years, it could begin collapsing, ultimately ending in a “big crunch” roughly 20 billion years from now.

Astronomers have uncovered a distant planetary system that flips a long-standing rule of planet formation on its head. Around the small red dwarf star LHS 1903, scientists expected to find rocky planets close in and gas giants farther out — the same pattern seen in our own Solar System and hundreds of others. And at first, that’s exactly what they saw. But new observations revealed a surprise: the outermost planet appears to be rocky, not gaseous.

A massive star 2.5 million light-years away simply vanished — and astronomers now know why. Instead of exploding in a supernova, it quietly collapsed into a black hole, shedding its outer layers in a slow-motion cosmic fade-out. The leftover debris continues to glow in infrared light, offering a long-lasting signal of the black hole’s birth. The finding reshapes our understanding of how some of the universe’s biggest stars meet their end.

A dazzling new Hubble image peels back the layers of the mysterious Egg Nebula, a rare and fleeting phase in a Sun-like star’s death just 1,000 light-years away. Hidden inside a dense cocoon of dust, the dying star blasts twin beams of light through a polar opening, carving glowing lobes and delicate ripples into the surrounding cloud. These striking, symmetrical arcs hint that unseen companion stars may be shaping the spectacle from within.

Dust from asteroid Bennu is revealing a surprising origin story for life’s building blocks. New research suggests some amino acids formed in frozen ice exposed to radiation, not warm liquid water as scientists long believed. Isotopic clues show Bennu’s chemistry differs sharply from well-studied meteorites, pointing to multiple pathways for creating life’s ingredients.

Scientists have uncovered evidence of a massive underground lava tube hidden beneath the surface of Venus, revealing a new layer of the planet’s volcanic history. By reexamining radar data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, researchers identified what appears to be a huge empty conduit near the volcanic region Nyx Mons. The structure could be nearly a kilometer wide and extend for dozens of kilometers below the surface.

A newly identified planet candidate, HD 137010 b, looks strikingly Earth-like in size and orbit — but it may be colder than Mars due to its dimmer star. If it has a thick enough atmosphere, though, this icy world could still surprise us.

Scientists studying a rock sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover have uncovered something tantalizing: the largest organic molecules ever detected on Mars. The compounds — decane, undecane, and dodecane — may be fragments of fatty acids, which on Earth are most often linked to life. While non-living processes like meteorite impacts can also create such molecules, researchers found those sources couldn’t fully explain the amounts detected.

Deep inside a nearby galaxy cloaked in thick clouds of gas and dust, astronomers have uncovered a surprising treasure trove of organic molecules using the James Webb Space Telescope. Peering through the cosmic veil in infrared light, researchers detected an extraordinary mix of carbon-rich compounds — including benzene, methane, and even the highly reactive methyl radical, never before seen outside the Milky Way.

For millions of years, a frozen wanderer drifted between the stars before slipping into our solar system as 3I/ATLAS—only the third known interstellar comet ever spotted. When scientists turned NASA’s Swift Observatory toward it, they caught the first-ever hint of water from such an object, detected through a faint ultraviolet glow of hydroxyl gas. Even more surprising, the comet was blasting out water at a rate of about 40 kilograms per second while still far from the Sun—much farther than where most comets “switch on.”

A distant star system with four super-sized gas giants has revealed a surprise. Thanks to JWST’s powerful vision, astronomers detected sulfur in their atmospheres — a chemical clue that they formed like Jupiter, by slowly building solid cores. That’s unexpected because these planets are far bigger and orbit much farther from their star than models once allowed.

Baker’s yeast isn’t just useful in the kitchen — it may also be built for space. Researchers found that yeast cells can survive intense shock waves and toxic chemicals similar to those on Mars. The cells protect themselves by forming special stress-response structures that help them endure extreme conditions. This resilience could make yeast a powerful model for astrobiology and future space missions.

A colossal ancient impact may have reshaped the Moon far more deeply than scientists once realized. By analyzing rare lunar rocks brought back by China’s Chang’e-6 mission from the Moon’s largest crater, researchers found unusual chemical fingerprints pointing to extreme heat and material loss caused by a giant impact. The collision likely stripped away volatile elements, reshaped volcanic activity, and left a lasting chemical signature deep below the surface.

Voyager 2’s flyby of Uranus in 1986 recorded radiation levels so extreme they baffled scientists for nearly 40 years. New research suggests the spacecraft caught Uranus during a rare solar wind event that flooded the planet’s radiation belts with extra energy. Similar storms have been seen near Earth, where they dramatically boost radiation levels. The discovery reshapes how scientists think about Uranus—and why it deserves another visit.

Astronomers propose that an ultra-dense clump of exotic dark matter could be masquerading as the powerful object thought to anchor our galaxy, explaining both the blistering speeds of stars near the center and the slower, graceful rotation of material far beyond. This dark matter structure would have a compact core that pulls on nearby stars like a black hole, surrounded by a broad halo shaping the galaxy’s outer motion.