Astronomy & Space News

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is illuminated by spotlights on the launch pad.

This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the central region of the gigantic elliptical galaxy NGC 474.

Dr. Kartik Sheth's career spans academia, non-profits, and government.

Quesst is what NASA is calling its mission to enable supersonic air travel over land.

This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image spotlights the giant elliptical galaxy, UGC 10143, at the heart of galaxy cluster, Abell 2147.

NOAA shared the first images of the Western Hemisphere from its Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T), later designated GOES-18.

Nina Wang has more than a decae of experience in financial reporting and analysis, financial statement audits, and internal controls.

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins floats in the space station’s cupola, a direct nadir viewing window from which Earth and celestial objects are visible.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft is seen shortly after it landed with NASA and ESA astronauts on Friday, May 6, 2022.

Dragon

Black holes are hard to find. They have such strong gravity that light can’t escape them, so scientists must rely on clues from their surroundings to find them.

May 2-6, 2022, is Teacher Appreciation Week! At NASA, we know the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education.

Misty Snopkowski is NASA’s program executive for the Commercial Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Development program.

NASA astronaut Victor Glover greets one of his youngest fans, 3-year-old Ezra Garrel.

In this image, World View’s Stratollite high-altitude balloon is inflated on the launch pad in Tucson, Arizona on April 9, 2022.

Researchers have learned how a type of aurora on Mars is formed. The physicists report discrete aurora form through the interaction of the solar wind and the crust at Mars' southern hemisphere.

A unique new instrument, coupled with a powerful telescope and a little help from nature, has given researchers the ability to peer into galactic nurseries at the heart of the young universe.

Seasonal imbalance between the solar energy absorbed and released by the planet Mars could be a cause of the Red Planet's dust storms, according to new research. Understanding how the system works on Mars could help scientists predict how climate change could affect Earth.

The extraterrestrial Hypatia stone found in Egypt could be the first tangible evidence on Earth of a supernova type Ia explosion. These rare supernovas are some of the most energetic events in the universe. If the hypothesis is correct, Hypatia would be a 'forensic' clue of an epic cosmic story started sometime in the early formation of our solar system.

A research team has investigated a meteorite from Mars using neutron and X-ray tomography. The technology, which will probably be used when NASA examines samples from the Red Planet in 2030, showed that the meteorite had limited exposure to water, thus making life at that specific time and place unlikely.

Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the center of most galaxies.

When stars like our Sun use up all their fuel, they shrink to form white dwarfs. Sometimes such dead stars flare back to life in a super hot explosion and produce a fireball of X-ray radiation. A research team has now been able to observe such an explosion of X-ray light for the very first time.

In our sun's neighborhood of the Milky Way Galaxy is a relatively bright star, and in it, astronomers have been able to identify the widest range of elements in a star beyond our solar system yet.

Researchers have devised a potentially easier way of gazing into the abyss. Their imaging technique could allow astronomers to study black holes smaller than M87's, a monster with a mass of 6.5 billion suns, harbored in galaxies more distant than M87, which at 55 million light-years away, is still relatively close to our own Milky Way.

Various technologies, networks and institutions benefit from or require accurate time keeping to synchronize their activities. Current ways of synchronizing time have some drawbacks that a new proposed method seeks to address. The cosmic time synchronizer works by synchronizing devices around cosmic ray events detected by those devices. This could bring accurate timing abilities to remote sensing stations, or even underwater, places that other methods cannot serve. Early tests show promise, but the real challenge may lie in the adoption of this new technique.

Scientists have used computer modeling to show how a hypothesized type of supernova would evolve on the scale of thousands of years, giving researchers a way to look for examples of supernovae of this model, known as 'D6.'

It's not unheard of to find a surviving star at the scene of a titanic supernova explosion, which would be expected to obliterate everything around it, but new research has provided a long-awaited clue to a specific type of stellar death. In some supernova cases, astronomers find no trace of the former star's outermost layer of hydrogen. What happened to the hydrogen? Suspicions that companion stars are responsible -- siphoning away their partners' outer shell before their death -- are supported by the recent identification of a surviving companion star on the scene of supernova 2013ge.

Soil on the moon contains active compounds that can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and fuels, scientists report. They are now exploring whether lunar resources can be used to facilitate human exploration on the moon or beyond.

Astronomers discovered a 'black widow binary' -- a rapidly spinning neutron star circling and slowly consuming a smaller companion star. Named ZTF J1406+1222, the pair has the shortest orbital period yet identified, and is unique in that it appears to host a third star that orbits around the two inner stars every 10,000 years.

A planetary scientist worked with engineers to measure the physical limits for a liquid when salty water is at very high pressure. The results suggest where to look for extraterrestrial life in the ice-covered oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Titan.

Although galaxies appear throughout the sky, they are not spread evenly. They are found in small groups and larger clusters, and can be as close as the dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way or as far away as the best telescopes can detect. There is also a swath of sky where galaxies are few and far between. Pioneer galaxy observer Edwin Hubble called this the Zone of Avoidance. It is so named because the vast amount of stars, dust, and gas of the Milky Way’s plane overwhelm or block th

How can a photon of light carry energy but also be considered massless? Doesn’t Einstein’s E = mc2 make that impossible? Robert Bobo Pullman, Washington Einstein’s famous mass-energy equivalence equation, or E = mc2, is actually a special case of a slightly longer formula known as the energy-momentum relation, which is written out as E2 = p2c2 + m2c4. This equation relates energy (E) to rest mass (m), the speed of light (c), and momentum (p), which is the key to how photo

Dust is a common component of spiral galaxies. Astronomers believe this dust is carbon- or silicate-rich and no larger than 0.25 micron wide. It doesn’t dramatically affect the brightness of galaxies except in cases where they appear nearly edge-on; then, their orientation catches the maximum amount of dust. The Sombrero Galaxy (M104), named for its resemblance to the famous wide-brimmed Mexican hat, is easily the brightest edge-on galaxy with a prominent equatorial dust belt. It is not

One of the most prized telescopic dark nebulae is the Horsehead Nebula in Orion. Its widespread popularity comes from photographic images, not its visual impact at the eyepiece. This magnificent celestial bust of a horse’s head — like a knight chess piece — is one of the most challenging objects of its kind, especially owing to its diminutive size (5') and low-contrast surroundings. Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming discovered the Horsehead Nebula in 1888 while scanning

Earth’s satellite experiences 85 minutes of totality and Mars meets Neptune in the sky from May 13 to 20.

The advancing spring sends Vega high and Capella low. The Coma Berenices cluster glitters shyly way up, big and dim. Glance up anytime to check on changing Beta Lyrae. And now in the dawn, Jupiter aligns with Mars.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 20 – 28 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers are exploring a celestial particle accelerator in the Eel Nebula that surrounds a distant pulsar.

The post Seeing Inside a Cosmic Superaccelerator appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

NASA’s Mars Insight lander witnessed the largest quake detected on another world at just the right time — as the lander begins to run low on power.

The post NASA's Insight Lander Detects Monster 'Marsquake' appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers connect the dots between two strange doppelganger galaxies, uncovering what might be a string of galactic pearls created in a cosmic collision 8 billion years ago.

The post A Cosmic Collision Could Have Made Two Dark Matter–Less Galaxies appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

You’ve heard of sunspots, but how about Sun dots? A recent solar mission has snapped photos of tiny, bright dots on the Sun, and astronomers are contemplating their cause.

The post Spotting Dots on the Sun appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The full Flower Moon ducks inside Earth's shadow in a total lunar eclipse this month. We help you prepare for all the highlights of the special event.

The post Witness a Total Lunar Eclipse on Sunday, May 15–16 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Using a worldwide array of telescopes, the Event Horizon Telescope team has given us our first look at Sagittarius A*.

The post Astronomers Unveil Image of the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The Moon becomes totally eclipsed, Corvus eyes Spica, Draco eyes Vega, and the last star of the rising Summer Triangle clears the horizon.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 13 – 21 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers have spotted the X-ray flash that precedes a nova. The brief flare is the first sign of a white dwarf erupting into a nuclear-fusion fireball.

The post Astronomers Watched a White Dwarf Turn into a Thermonuclear Fireball appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Two Sky & Telescope authors have won prestigious awards recognizing excellence in science journalism.

The post S&T Authors Win Science Journalism Awards appeared first on Sky & Telescope.