Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, March 14The Moon reaches Full phase early this morning at 2:55 A.M. EDT, with a total lunar eclipse underway. Everyone across the U.S. can watch the event, and no special equipment is needed — just your eyes!  Totality begins about half an hourContinue reading "The Sky This Week from March 14 to 21: The start of spring"

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Author(s): Katherine Wright

Researchers have proposed methods to tune the properties of altermagnets, a step toward practical applications for this new form of magnet.

[Physics 18, 58] Published Thu Mar 13, 2025

Author(s): Charles Day

Illuminating a metasurface with a laser can enable the rapid modulation of the polarization of terahertz light transmitted through the metasurface.

[Physics 18, s24] Published Thu Mar 13, 2025

Author(s): Yuval Grossman and Yosef Nir

A symmetry violation has been observed in a particle-decay process that—together with five related decays—could shed light on the matter–antimatter imbalance in the Universe.

[Physics 18, 56] Published Wed Mar 12, 2025

Author(s): Ryan Wilkinson

Time crystals realized in the so-called quasiperiodic regime hold promise for future applications in quantum computing and sensing.

[Physics 18, s28] Published Wed Mar 12, 2025

Jamie Cooper from Northamptonshire, U.K. Craters dot the Moon’s rugged south pole region in this shot taken March 7 with a 16-inch Dobsonian. The central-peak crater just above and left of center is Moretus, and Clavius is the large crater at lower right (with multiple smaller craters inside).

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We’ve always known Mars as the Red Planet — but it turns out, we may have had the reason why wrong. If so, it could revise much of what we know about the history of our smaller neighbor planet. In a study published Feb. 25 in Nature Communications, researchers tied the nature of Mars’ redContinue reading "Could Mars’ red color have formed under wet conditions?"

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A recent paper suggests that if astrobiologists want to make an educated guess about what life on Venus might look like, they should look to a weird microbe called A. ferrooxidans, found here onEarth. Earthly life-forms are the only examples we have of what life looks like, so astrobiologists often study them for clues aboutContinue reading "Strange microbes on Earth might help us understand life on Venus"

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Author(s): Samuel Jarman

JWST observations reveal two distinct types of flares from the Milky Way’s black hole, suggesting that they originate from two different electron-acceleration mechanisms within the supermassive black hole’s accretion disk.

[Physics 18, 55] Published Tue Mar 11, 2025

Author(s): Marric Stephens

Experiments have shown that heavy-ion irradiation of biomolecules in aqueous environments efficiently triggers DNA-destroying cascades.

[Physics 18, s32] Published Tue Mar 11, 2025

Comets develop the spectacular long tails that they are known for by approaching the Sun. When they get too close, their icy volatile materials begin to sublimate away, carrying along clouds of dust. But this activity usually only happens relatively close to the Sun, as comets spend most of their time in the outer solarContinue reading "Astronomers have spotted the most distant comet ever discovered"

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During the night of March 13, most of North and South America will be treated to a total lunar eclipse, an event popularly referred to as a Blood Moon. The event is aptly named — the Moon is cast in a dark red, brown, or orange color during totality, giving it an eerie appearance inContinue reading "How to get the most out of the lunar eclipse"

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Author(s): David Lindley

Theorists proposed an idea they called quantum teleportation—a means of transferring the identity of one particle to another over some distance. 

[Physics 18, 52] Published Mon Mar 10, 2025

Author(s): Davide Donadio and Giulia Galli

Computational spectroscopy reveals a possible signature of strongly hydrogen-bonded wires in water and ice.

[Physics 18, 54] Published Mon Mar 10, 2025

Author(s): Philip Ball

Tech giant Microsoft claimed in a recent press release to have made the first topological qubit–an important milestone in the development of quantum computers. But some experts say the firm’s claim has not been backed up by peer-reviewed research.

[Physics 18, 57] Published Mon Mar 10, 2025

Simon Todd, taken from Haywards Heath, U.K. The Christmas Tree Cluster lies at the center of this image, filled with young, newborn stars and surrounding nebulosity cataloged as NGC 2264. That includes the Cone Nebula, just left of center. The Fox Fur Nebula lies directly below the bright blue star (S Monoceros) at center. ThisContinue reading "Stellar nativity scene"

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If you weigh a certain amount on Earth, how much less or more would you weigh on the Moon? MakaylaArkansas The short answer is that you would weigh roughly one-sixth your Earth weight on the Moon. So if your bathroom scale reads 180 pounds (81.6 kilograms) on Earth, it would read 30 pounds (13.6 kg)Continue reading "How much less would you weigh on the Moon than on Earth?"

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Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is particularly captivating for scientists. This is thanks in large part to its status as the only other planetary body in the solar system known to host an atmosphere about 1.5 times denser than Earth’s and bodies of liquid on its surface. (Unlike Earth, however, where most surface liquid is water,Continue reading "Cryovolcanism on Titan may replenish its thick atmosphere"

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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Dave Eicher invites you to head out on the evening of March 13. That’s when one of the year’s best celestial events — a total eclipse of the Moon — will begin. It will continue into the early morning hours of the 14th, so if you want to see it all, get ready for aContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: A Total Eclipse of the Moon"

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One of the most competitive segments in the amateur telescope marketplace these days spans 3- to 5-inch apochromatic refractors. Once considered telescopes for the well-to-do, these instruments are now affordable to many backyard stargazers. And one of the newest companies to enter this market segment is Starfield Optics from Caledon, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto.Continue reading "We test Starfield Optics’ 115mm Géar Triplet APO"

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Rob Lyons, taken from Vancouver, Canada This wide-field vista spans the constellations Cepheus and Cassiopeia and includes an host of deep-sky objects. From left to right: NGC 7822 (the Question Mark Nebula), LBN 576 (the Garlic Bulb Nebula), NGC 7635 (the Bubble Nebula), Sharpless 2–157 (the Lobster Claw Nebula), and Sharpless 2–155 (the Cave Nebula).Continue reading "Group photo"

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Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission has ended after its lunar lander, Athena, apparently toppled over as it touched down and came to rest on its side yesterday in a shadowed crater, the company announced. In a statement released this morning, the company said its batteries had run out and they did not expect it to reawaken.Continue reading "Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 Moon lander is lying dead in a crater"

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Author(s): Charles Day

A neutron-scattering experiment has confirmed the existence of an unusual phase of ice that forms at high temperature and high pressure.

[Physics 18, 47] Published Fri Mar 07, 2025

Author(s): Elizabeth Fernandez

The discovery of a mini aurora above a light-emitting polymer material reveals an electron-ejection process that might be useful in field-emission displays and material fabrication.

[Physics 18, 51] Published Fri Mar 07, 2025

Author(s): Dan Garisto

In 1964, Bell showed that quantum physics predicts correlations that violate certain inequalities. The work implied that quantum mechanics is not compatible with locality, even if there were “hidden variables” not accounted for in quantum theory.

[Physics 18, 53] Published Fri Mar 07, 2025

Millions of viewers who tuned into Thursday’s broadcast of SpaceX Starship’s eighth test flight experienced a collective déjà vu as the mammoth rocket exploded and rained down flaming hunks of metal in eerily similar fashion to Flight 7. So too did pilots flying over the Caribbean ocean, many of whom were forced to change course to avoid theContinue reading "SpaceX Starship explodes, disrupts air travel a second time"

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All lunar eclipses — whether penumbral, partial, or total — offer us thought-provoking views of Earth’s shadow. Frequently, lunar eclipses offer up peculiar color effects, with the shadowed Moon appearing reddish due to the state of Earth’s atmosphere. But the March 14, 2025, total lunar eclipse all but guarantees additional optical phenomena of a differentContinue reading "Look for these effects during the next lunar eclipse"

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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, March 7Look north after dark tonight to find the curved form of the Little Dipper. The smaller of the two famous dipper-shaped asterisms in the northern sky, the Little Dipper extends from the North Star, Polaris, at the end of its handle. ButContinue reading "The Sky This Week from March 7 to 14: A total lunar eclipse"

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Author(s): Katherine Wright

The quantum properties of superconducting qubits might be improved by coating them with a noble metal such as gold.

[Physics 18, s23] Published Thu Mar 06, 2025

After a successful launch last week aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission landed on the Moon on March 6 shortly after 11:30 a.m. EST. The craft is transmitting back to its control center and able to collect some level of solar power. However, its landing orientation and the status of otherContinue reading "IM-2 lands on the Moon but its status is uncertain"

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Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 22. That’s when the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) will be out in force to show you the wonders of the heavens at the annual Tucson Astronomy Festival. The event will be held at Brandi Fenton Memorial Park, Ramada 1, 3482 E. River Road, Tucson. Things will get startedContinue reading "Get ready to attend the Tucson Astronomy Festival"

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When Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander makes moonfall around 12:30 p.m. EST Thursday, spectators on Earth will be able to watch it happen. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab is partnering with Comcast to stream the landing at the moon’s south pole, share never-before-seen 3D lunar images, and provide live updates of the 20-day missionContinue reading "How to watch Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 Moon landing"

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In November 2022, a Chinese Long March 5B rocket reentered the atmosphere with no ability to control where it fell. As a precaution, France, Spain, and Monaco closed some of their airspace along the booster’s possible path. As it happened, the rocket reentered over the Pacific Ocean, not Europe. But the airspace closures still resultedContinue reading "Rocket debris poses risks to aircraft operations"

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Abhijit Patil, taken from Mendocino County, California The unusual rock formations that give Bowling Ball Beach its name are usually submerged and visible only at low tide. The imager used an astromodified Nikon mirrorless camera and 16mm lens to create a five-shot vertical panorama. The sky panel makes use of UV/IR-cut filter and star trackerContinue reading "Celestial spheres"

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Author(s): Eyal Kroupp and Tal Queller

Temporal measurements in conditions similar to those in the Sun rebut a leading hypothesis for why models and experiments disagree on how much light iron absorbs.

[Physics 18, 44] Published Wed Mar 05, 2025

Author(s): Katherine Wright

When men and women physics undergraduates receive the same amount of recognition from their peers for being good at physics, men report significantly higher perceptions of peer recognition than women.

[Physics 18, 50] Published Wed Mar 05, 2025

Author(s): Rachel Berkowitz

An all-dielectric version of a metamaterials-based cavity allows the cavity to operate over a previously inaccessible wavelength range—which could benefit lasers and other resonant devices.

[Physics 18, s36] Published Wed Mar 05, 2025

Another great celestial event is coming. And this one’s really easy to observe because you can see it with just your eyes. Not only that, but anyone in the U.S. under a clear sky will be able to watch it. On Thursday, March 13 (and continuing into the 14th), the Moon will pass through theContinue reading "Don’t miss tonight’s total lunar eclipse"

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During the Cold War, the U.S. and USSR raced to be first to send robotic and human explorers to the Moon, traversing lunar terrain and returning samples to Earth. These exploits and their scientific returns were crucial to unlocking the history of the Moon — and by extension, the history of our solar system. ButContinue reading "The new golden age of Moon exploration"

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Author(s): Michael Schirber

The $S_8$ tension—a disagreement between cosmic-clumpiness measurements—is not going away, according to a new analysis of galaxy lensing data.

[Physics 18, 49] Published Tue Mar 04, 2025

Author(s): Ryan Wilkinson

Experiments identify temperature ranges where exotic materials known as spin ices are in equilibrium or out of equilibrium.

[Physics 18, s29] Published Tue Mar 04, 2025

The Northeast Astronomy Forum and Space Expo (NEAF) is celebrating 34 years in Suffern, New York, just 40 minutes outside of New York City. This two-day event, taking place April 5 and 6 at Rockland Community College, features 120 telescope and equipment vendors, talks from industry experts, and opportunities to do your own solar viewing.Continue reading "The NEAF Expo is back again for its 34th year"

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What are Lagrangian points? Dean TreadwayJesup, Georgia The Lagrangian equilibrium stability points, or L points, are the five places where the combined gravitational forces of two bodies produce regions of gravitational balance. These are little pockets where other bodies can, in theory, remain orbiting in place without expending much energy. Three of these L points, L1, L2 andContinue reading "What are Lagrangian points?"

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Author(s): Barry C. Sanders

A new high-performance quantum processor boasts 105 superconducting qubits and rivals Google’s acclaimed Willow processor.

[Physics 18, 45] Published Mon Mar 03, 2025

Author(s): David Lindley

Aharonov and Bohm proposed a scenario in which quantum particles experience electromagnetic effects even though there is no field in their immediate vicinity.

[Physics 18, 48] Published Mon Mar 03, 2025

Greg Meyer from Phoenix, Arizona Messier objects M97 (bottom right) and M108 (top left) are similar in apparent brightness and size. But while M97 (also known as the Owl Nebula) is a planetary nebula lying just 2,600 light-years away, M108 is a galaxy 30 million light-years away. This Hα/OIII/RGB image represents 27 hours of exposureContinue reading "Depth perception"

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To the Moon University of Chicago PressChicago, IL Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter compiles 44 hand-drawn cartographic charts created by illustrator-cartographers from the U.S. Geological Survey. This 256-page hardback contains 500 color images, as well as commentary on Earth’s natural satellite from experts and scholars, combining scientific observations andContinue reading "Lucky new astronomy product finds this month"

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New research, published today in Nature Astronomy, found that water may have formed in the first 200 million years of the universe’s lifetime. The life-giving molecule may have been created so quickly by the deaths of the universe’s first stars. The study also found that rocky planets could be built in the water-rich environment leftContinue reading "The first stars may have flooded the early universe with water"

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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Dave Eicher invites you to head out during the early evening hours of March 5. That evening, the Moon will pass quite close to the Pleiades star cluster. Also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, this group of stars is easy to see with your naked eyes. Still, binoculars mightContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Moon meets the Pleiades"

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In October 1995, after decades of serious effort, astronomers announced the first discovery of a planet orbiting a Sun-like star. Until then, the few planets known to exist beyond the solar system accompanied pulsars, the collapsed remnants of burnt-out stars, and had revealed themselves through glitches in the precise timing of the pulsars’ radio emission.Continue reading "Explore 30 years of exoplanet discoveries"

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Two planets stand out in March’s evening sky, but let’s start our tour with a pair of lesser lights that hug the western horizon. Although Venus lies a respectable 30° from the Sun at the beginning of the month, it appears low in the sky. On the 1st, you can find the planet 5° highContinue reading "March 2025: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?"

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A total eclipse of the Moon is the highlight of this month, visible across North and South America. Venus remains very bright and transitions from evening to morning late in the month. Mercury joins Venus for a few evenings, offering the best opportunity to see both planets in twilight. Mars and Jupiter dominate the lateContinue reading "March 2025: What’s in the sky this month? A total lunar eclipse, Venus remains bright, and Mars and Jupiter continue to dominate"

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Author(s): Philip Ball

A new imaging technique can show the wave-like behavior of unconfined quantum particles.

[Physics 18, 46] Published Fri Feb 28, 2025

Author(s): Marric Stephens

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider have measured the spin parity of a charm-quark-hosting particle, offering a new test of theoretical models.

[Physics 18, s16] Published Fri Feb 28, 2025

If I’m being honest, the title of this story should be “When is T Coronae Borealis going to explode again?” T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) is classified as a recurrent nova — a star that blows its top over and over. Such objects are rare; fewer than a dozen have been identified in our galaxy.Continue reading "When is T Coronae Borealis going to explode?"

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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, February 28Venus is a prominent fixture in the evening sky, still hanging on at magnitude –4.8 and setting nearly three hours after the Sun. It’s currently located in central Pisces, far outshining any stars in the region.  Because Venus is an inferior planetContinue reading "The Sky This Week from February 28 to March 7: The Moon joins the planets"

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UPDATE Wednesday, March 12, 2025: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying PUNCH successfully launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 11:10 P.M. EDT on March 11. By early on March 12, the four satellites of the PUNCH constellation had been deployed and ground controllers confirmed acquisition of signal with them. On March 2, a SpaceXContinue reading "NASA’s PUNCH is set to study how the Sun influences the space around us"

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