Astronomy & Space News

The jellyfish galaxy JW39 hangs serenely in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

"If I can advocate for all the groups that need equity, I'm glad to do it." – Anita Dey, Strategic Partnerships Manager, Outreach and Engagement, NASA Headquarters

Two black-bellied whistling ducks walk through a field of wildflowers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 19, 2023.

The SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft, named Freedom, is seen as it approaches the International Space Station with four Axiom Mission 2 private astronauts aboard on Monday, May 22, 2023.

Scores of baby stars shrouded by dust are revealed in this infrared image of the star-forming region NGC 2174.

The densely packed globular cluster NGC 6325 glistens in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The four astronauts who will fly around the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II visited Washington on Wednesday, May 17, to discuss their upcoming mission with members of Congress and others.

Laguna San Rafael National Park, photographed on May 9, 2023 as the space station orbited 268 miles above Chile.

The waxing gibbous Moon stands out against the stark darkness of space on May 3, 2023.

Maestro Piotr Gajewski conducts the National Philharmonic in the world premiere performance of Henry Dehlinger’s “Cosmic Cycles,” in this photo from Thursday, May 11, 2023, as an enhanced color image of Jupiter is displayed above.

Clouds of smoke billow out over the surrounding area as the uncrewed Skylab 1/Saturn V space vehicle launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 14, 1973.

A team member from the Environmental Management Branch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center works to remove a mangrove seedling deposited by tropical winds on the shoreline of KARS Park at Kennedy in this image from April 12, 2023.

Vance I. Oyama holds a readout from the gas chromatograph in the life detection laboratory at NASA’s Ames Research Center in this picture from April 22, 1965.

Spacewalkers Stephen Bowen and Sultan Alneyadi are pictured in their Extravehicular Mobility Units, or spacesuits, exiting the International Space Station's Quest airlock and beginning a spacewalk.

Popocatépetl, one of Mexico’s most active volcanoes, has been erupting since 2005.

Astronomers are suggesting a new way to expand the search for habitable planets that takes into account a zone not previously considered: the space between the star and what's called soot-line in planet-forming disks.

A study presents the detection of a system of two planets slightly larger than Earth orbiting a cold star in a synchronized dance. Named TOI-2096, the system is located 150 light-years from Earth. This system, located 150 light-years from Earth, is one of the best candidates for a detailed study of their atmosphere with the JWST space telescope.

The latest observations from Low Earth Orbit with the International Space Station provide further evidence of spectral hardening and softening of cosmic ray particles.

Astronomers have come up with what they say is some of their best evidence yet for the presence of a rare class of 'intermediate-sized' black hole that may be lurking in the heart of the closest globular star cluster to Earth, located 6,000 light-years away.

Researchers have observed the X-ray emission of the most luminous quasar seen in the last 9 billion years of cosmic history, known as SMSS J114447.77-430859.3, or J1144 for short. The new perspective sheds light on the inner workings of quasars and how they interact with their environment.

Astronomers reveal the origin of a thermonuclear supernova explosion. Strong emission lines of helium and the first detection of such a supernova in radio waves show that the exploding white dwarf star had a helium-rich companion.

Astronomers have discovered an Earth-size exoplanet, or world beyond our solar system, that may be carpeted with volcanoes. Called LP 791-18 d, the planet could undergo volcanic outbursts as often as Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanically active body in our solar system.

Astronomers have described the first radiation belt observed outside our solar system, using a coordinated array of 39 radio dishes from Hawaii to Germany to obtain high-resolution images. The images of persistent, intense radio emissions from an ultracool dwarf reveal the presence of a cloud of high-energy electrons trapped in the object's powerful magnetic field, forming a double-lobed structure analogous to radio images of Jupiter's radiation belts.

Physicists measured the flux of interplanetary dust around Saturn. The researchers concluded that the planet's rings formed less than 400 million years ago, making them much younger than Saturn itself.

Astronomers have uncovered the largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed. The explosion is more than ten times brighter than any known supernova and three times brighter than the brightest tidal disruption event, where a star falls into a supermassive black hole.

Astronomers have found that supermassive black holes obscured by dust are more likely to grow and release tremendous amounts of energy when they are inside galaxies that are expected to collide with a neighbouring galaxy.

Globular clusters are the most massive and oldest star clusters in the Universe. They can contain up to 1 million of them. The chemical composition of these stars, born at the same time, shows anomalies that are not found in any other population of stars. Explaining this specificity is one of the great challenges of astronomy. After having imagined that supermassive stars could be at the origin, a team believes it has discovered the first chemical trace attesting to their presence in globular proto-clusters, born about 440 million years after the Big Bang.

Astronomers have created a vast infrared atlas of five nearby stellar nurseries by piecing together more than one million images. These large mosaics reveal young stars in the making, embedded in thick clouds of dust. Thanks to these observations, astronomers have a unique tool with which to decipher the complex puzzle of stellar birth.

A team used a first-of-its-kind technique to measure the expansion rate of the Universe, providing insight that could help more accurately determine the Universe's age and help physicists and astronomers better understand the cosmos.

Scientists analyzed over a decade's worth of data about 16 young supermassive stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Supermassive stars typically are formed in pairs, but the new study found that all 16 of the stars were singletons. The findings support a scenario in which the supermassive black hole drives nearby stars to either merge or be disrupted, with one of the pair being ejected from the system.

If a crewed spacecraft could be built to travel at or near the speed of light, how long would it take to achieve that speed without crushing the human occupants?  Lawrence SchwabPhoenix, Arizona Despite what science fiction may suggest, humanity will never be able to travel at the speed of light. That said, we could theoreticallyContinue reading "Ask Astro: How fast could a ship reach light-speed without crushing its human occupants?"

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Following the July 2022 release of the first James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) images —  a haunting deep field of galaxies, its stunning picture of the Carina Nebula, the captivating beauty of Stephan’s Quintet and the Southern Ring Nebula —  a flurry of other space images started widely circulating across social media platforms. That wasContinue reading "Astronomical hoaxes throughout the ages"

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Friday, May 26With the waxing Moon in the west after sunset, let’s concentrate our gaze east, where the cross-shaped constellation Cygnus is rising. About two hours after sunset, the Swan has sufficiently cleared the horizon for observers to seek out one of its many deep-sky treasures: The North America Nebula. Also cataloged as NGC 7000,Continue reading "The Sky This Week from May 26 to June 2: Mars buzzes the Beehive"

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Can isolated black holes account for dark matter? Rick PinsonLong Beach, California Astronomers estimate about 100 million black holes wander the Milky Way. Since black holes emit no light, we rely on indirect methods to infer their presence. The first method is to search for a black hole’s gravitational influence on nearby objects, such asContinue reading "Ask Astro: Could isolated black holes be dark matter?"

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Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, is perched on the mountainous backbone of the Andes, which run through the center of this equatorial nation on the northwest shoulder of South America. Although February is the wet season, but it isn’t raining today so people lounge near a pond in Parque Alameda, with fountains spraying jetsContinue reading "A visit to Ecuador’s astronomical center"

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When a massive star dies, it goes out with a bang, creating a stunningly bright explosion that can temporarily change the look of the night sky. The brightest and closest may be visible with the naked eye, but even those in distant galaxies can be easily spotted with amateur equipment from your backyard. And now,Continue reading "Bright, young supernova now visible in M101"

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For many of us, light pollution has robbed our skies of once readily visible objects. That’s why many residential observers have turned away from nebulae and galaxies to pursue other targets, such as double stars. This month, let’s enjoy a few of my favorite springtime binocular binaries. We begin with a challenging binocular target, IotaContinue reading "Binocular Universe: Double duty"

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Astronomical websites and press releases brim with pictures of swirling gas giants, watery terrestrial worlds, and strange planetary systems with exotic suns. But just how realistic are these artist’s concepts? Do they truly show newly discovered worlds, or are they simply fanciful pictures meant to draw you into reading about the latest addition to theContinue reading "How do we draw alien planets?"

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Hi folks, tune in every week of 2023 for the best in astronomy from Astronomy Editor Dave Eicher, brought to you by Celestron. Dave’s weekly video series will cover all the latest sky events, scientific results, overviews of cosmic mysteries, and more! This week, we’re talking about dark nebulae — objects in the night skyContinue reading "What are dark nebulae? This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher"

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After a three-year hiatus, scientists in the U.S. have just turned on detectors capable of measuring gravitational waves – tiny ripples in space itself that travel through the universe. Unlike light waves, gravitational waves are nearly unimpeded by the galaxies, stars, gas and dust that fill the universe. This means that by measuring gravitational waves,Continue reading "Gravitational wave detector LIGO is back online after three years of upgrades"

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