Astronomy & Space News

Located in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin), around 50 million light-years from Earth, the galaxy NGC 4535 is truly a stunning sight to behold.

NASA has once again joined forces with the community in the continuing effort to fight COVID-19.

The core stage for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket is seen in the B-2 Test Stand during a scheduled 8-minute duration hot fire test, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, look on.

Inside star cluster NGC 602, a star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud, bright, blue, newly formed stars are blowing a cavity in this nebula.

Astronomers have no evidence that a distant black hole estimated to weigh between 3 billion and 100 billion times the mass of the Sun is anywhere to be found.

The HUNCH - High school students United with NASA to Create Hardware - Program empowers and inspire students to launch their careers through the participation in the design and fabrication of real world products for NASA.

In this black and white infrared image, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission.

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus space freighter departs the International Space Station moments after being released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

The lights of the city of Boston seemingly spread from a central point in this image taken by the crew of the International Space Station.

Slated to launch in October 2021, NASA's Lucy mission will be the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids.

What is pareidolia? It is the psychological phenomenon where we see recognizable shapes in clouds, rock formations, or otherwise unrelated objects or data.

NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins tends to radish plants growing for the Plant Habitat-02 experiment.

Chaos at the Heart of the Orion Nebula

Retrofuturistic NASA Space Art

Astronomers have detected the first Jupiter-like planet without clouds or haze in its observable atmosphere.

Scientists have just shown that the influence of Saturn's satellites can explain the tilt of the rotation axis of the gas giant. Their work also predicts that the tilt will increase even further over the next few billion years.

Far below the gaseous atmospheric shroud on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, lies Kraken Mare, a sea of liquid methane. Astronomers have estimated that sea to be at least 1,000-feet deep near its center - enough room for a potential robotic submarine to explore.

Scientists show evidence that nitrogen acquired during Earth's formation came from both the inner and outer regions of the protoplanetary disk. The study has implications for signs of potential habitability of exoplanets.

A search for axions from nearby star Betelgeuse has come up empty, significantly narrowing the search for hypothetical dark matter particle.

Scientists have combined NASA data and cutting-edge image processing to gain new insight into the solar structures that create the Sun's flow of high-speed solar wind. This first look at relatively small features, dubbed 'plumelets,' could help scientists understand how and why disturbances form in the solar wind.

Images of two iconic planetary nebulae taken by the Hubble Space Telescope are revealing new information about how they develop their dramatic features.

Two giant radio galaxies have been discovered with South Africa's powerful MeerKAT telescope. These galaxies are thought to be amongst the largest single objects in the Universe.

Scientists develop theoretical models to predict the presence of clathrate hydrates outside Earth, shedding light on the evolution of other atmospheres.

Astronomers discover that the core mass of exoplanet WASP-107b is much lower than previously thought possible for a gas-giant planet.

Theoretical physicists suggest that never-before-observed particles called axions may be the source of unexplained, high-energy X-ray emissions surrounding a group of neutron stars.

Astronomers are winding back the clock on the expanding remains of a nearby, exploded star. By using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, they retraced the speedy shrapnel from the blast to calculate a more accurate estimate of the location and time of the stellar detonation.

When three galaxies collide, what happens to the huge black holes at the centers of each? A new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other telescopes reveals new information about how many black holes are furiously growing after these galactic smash ups.

Astronomers have curated the most complete list of nearby brown dwarfs to date thanks to discoveries made by thousands of volunteers participating in the Backyard Worlds citizen science project. The list and 3D map of 525 brown dwarfs -- including 38 reported for the first time -- incorporate observations from a host of astronomical instruments including several NOIRLab facilities. The results confirm that the Sun's neighborhood appears surprisingly diverse relative to other parts of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Astronomers using images from Kitt Peak National Observatory and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory have created the largest ever map of the sky, comprising over a billion galaxies. The ninth and final data release from the ambitious DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys sets the stage for a ground-breaking 5-year survey with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which aims to provide new insights into the nature of dark energy.

January 22 to 29 brings us asteroids, star clusters, and a bright Full Moon.

Pulsar observations hint at omnipresent rumbles in space-time caused by the largest black holes in the universe — though their confirmation requires further analysis.

There are comets, galaxies, and planets on view from January 15 to 22.

SpaceX has placed more than 1,000 Starlinks in orbit, and other companies are following suit. Here's the latest on what's being done to protect astronomy.

The post Beyond Starlink: The Satellite Saga Continues appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Measurements of Starlink's "VisorSat" show SpaceX has succeeded in making a less reflective satellite. But it's still visible from dark-sky areas.

The post Starlink Satellites Are Fainter Now — But Still Visible appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Right after dark, face east and look very high. The bright star there is Capella, the Goat Star. To the right of it, by a couple of finger-widths at arm's length, is a small, narrow triangle of 3rd- and 4th-magnitude stars known as "the Kids." Though they're not exactly eye-grabbing, they form a never-forgotten asterism with Capella.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, January 22 – 30 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft helped deliver samples from the Moon to Earth. Now it’s heading for an extended mission to observe the Sun.

The post China's Chang'e 5 Probe Heads Sunward appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

If you own an 8-inch or larger telescope you might see more than a dozen new and returning comets this year, including one potential naked-eye candidate.

The post Comet Watch 2021 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

NASA has granted two key planetary missions extensions, so InSight and Juno will continue to return data from Mars and Jupiter, respectively, for years to come.

The post NASA Extends Juno, InSight Missions appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

In the news this week: Globular clusters have the detailed scoop on our galaxy's past, and a "heartbeat" black hole binary in the Milky Way has gone mysteriously dim.

The post Astronomy News: Galactic One-Two Punch, Black Hole Heartbeat Falters appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Whether you're here for eye candy or a more cosmic perspective, these astronomy pictures released this week will do the trick.

The post This Week in Astronomy Pictures: A Magnetic Whirlpool, Windblown Jets & More appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The existence of a quasar when the universe was only 670 million years old is helping astronomers understand how black holes are born.

The post What the Most Distant Quasar Tells Us About Black Hole Birth appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Bright Capella high overhead, and equally bright Rigel in Orion's foot, have almost the same right ascension. This means they cross your sky’s meridian at almost exactly the same time. So whenever Capella passes the zenith, Rigel marks true south, and vice versa. That happens around 9 or 10 p.m. now.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, January 15 – 23 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.