Kfir Simon, taken from Tivoli Farm, Namibia RCW 85 is a faint emission nebula in the southern constellation of Centaurus. The designation “RCW” comes from a catalog of Hα emission regions published in 1960 by a trio of researchers working in Australia under the astronomer Bart Bok: Alexander Rodgers, Colin Campbell, and John Whiteoak. ThisContinue reading "A southern target"

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Chile is home to SOME of the world’s best skies — and some of the world’s most advanced instruments to observe them. From the radio telescope array charting complex chemistry in Titan’s atmosphere to the telescopes that pinpointed the neutron star merger last year, Chilean observatories play a starring role in today’s groundbreaking discoveries. ManyContinue reading "The Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program: Sharing the skies above Chile"

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After our Sun becomes a white dwarf and cools completely, what will be left? Richard LivitskiSeal Beach, California Our Sun will become a white dwarf in about 7 billion years. At that point, it will no longer produce energy through nuclear fusion, having exhausted its fuel (hydrogen and helium). Just like the embers of anContinue reading "After our Sun becomes a white dwarf and cools completely, what will be left?"

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Josh Dury, taken from the Mendip Hills in Somerset, U.K. The International Space Station sails through the sky in this long exposure, its arc in this long exposure intersecting the ongoing “planet parade” along the ecliptic, including (left to right) Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. To view the photographer’s annotated version highlighting the planets, clickContinue reading "Parade crasher"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to go out and spot the many planets currently in our night sky. You’ll see four of the five planets visible without optical aid. Venus and Saturn are in the west; Jupiter lies overhead; and Mars is in the east. Opportunities to see so many easy-to-spot planets don’tContinue reading "A Parade of Planets: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher"

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The U.S.’s return to the Moon with NASA’s Artemis program will not be a mere stroll in the park. Instead it will be a perilous journey to a lunar location representing one of the most extreme environments in the solar system. For the Artemis program astronauts, walking on the Moon will require new ways ofContinue reading "Astronauts on NASA’s Artemis mission to the Moon will need better boots — here’s why"

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A proposed massive hydrogen-fuel production project in Chile has astronomers galvanized in concern and opposition. One astronomer calls the possible Chilean facility a “nightmare” for the Paranal Observatory’s dark skies. One study has found that Paranal, located in Chile’s Atacama Desert, has the darkest skies of any major astronomical research site. That would change ifContinue reading "Green hydrogen project threatens pristine Paranal skies in Chile"

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Chris Cook from Long Beach, California The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope stands beneath a dark, moonless sky at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The photographer took 90 one-minute exposures with a Canon DSLR at f/2.8 and ISO 2500.

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NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stepped down on Monday, Jan. 20, after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, and the departing space agency chief had some words of advice for his replacement. In a letter addressed to the next NASA administrator — who, if Trump’s nomination is confirmed, will be Shift4 CEO and SpaceX ally Jared Isaacman — NelsonContinue reading "NASA administrator steps down, urges continuity under new leadership"

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Last week at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland, astronomers presented some of their most recent and exciting finds from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). One such discovery was the identification of the most distant so-called core-collapse supernova ever confirmed. These explosions mark the end of life for massiveContinue reading "Astronomers find the most distant supernova yet"

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Friday, January 24The Moon passes 0.3° south of the bright red giant star Antares at 7 P.M. EST. However, the pair isn’t visible this evening, as they’ll rise in the early-morning sky, so we’ll feature them tomorrow.  Tonight, we’ll focus instead on Mars. The Red Planet recently reached opposition and is still visible essentially allContinue reading "The Sky This Week from January 24 to 31: The Moon mingles with Antares"

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A nearby star that may host a planet or two could provide a clue about whether planets orbiting the smallest stars can survive the bullying of their suns.  In a press conference last week at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Scott Wolk of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory presented his findings on WolfContinue reading "Could planets orbiting red dwarfs host life?"

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Deeper look Imm Astrophotography SeriesOnalaska, TX The 750 Best Deep Sky Objects (Reachable From the Northern Hemisphere) by amateur astronomer Gary Imm is a precise visual guide to deep-sky objects, complete with rankings and images for every target. This 88-page reference gives readers a detailed list of where the targets are in the Northern HemisphereContinue reading "Cozy up with new astronomy products this month"

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Huang Dandan, taken from Yulong Latso, Gangzi, Sichuan Province, China The Milky Way, zodiacal light, and airglow are all visible in this all-sky mosaic, capturing the glow of phenomena on planetary, solar system, and galactic scales. The photographer used an astromodified Sony mirrorless camera and 11mm fisheye lens to capture this mosaic, taking 20-second exposuresContinue reading "All aglow"

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On Jan. 2, the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced the discovery of an unusual asteroid, designated 2018 CN41. First identified and submitted by a citizen scientist, the object’s orbit was notable: It came less than 150,000 miles (240,000 km) from Earth, closer than the orbit of theContinue reading "Astronomers just deleted an asteroid because it turned out to be Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to go out and watch a close pairing of two naked-eye planets: Venus and Saturn. The two will be in the southwestern evening sky, and will be closest during the week of January 19. Each night, brilliant Venus and much less bright (but still easy to see) Saturn will be a bit more than 3Continue reading "Venus meets Saturn: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher"

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Do the periods of comets decrease because they lose mass every time they get near the Sun? Robert BaileyConover, Wisconsin Great question! Assuming you’re referring specifically to the orbital period — in other words, how long comets take to make one revolution around the Sun, or a cometary “year” — according to basic physics, the periodContinue reading "Does a comet’s period change because it loses mass every time it nears the Sun?"

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Chris Schur, taken from Payson, Arizona Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) lies above a mountain ridge in this shot taken before sunrise on Jan. 11, with particulate matter from forest fires giving the sky a reddish hue. The imager used a 3.2-inch refractor and a one-shot color camera to take a 0.1-second exposure.

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The jets of a supermassive black hole are one of the cosmos’ greatest spectacles — and also one of its greatest mysteries. These beams of ionized matter burst forth from the cores of galaxies at speeds approaching that of light. How those black holes harness and focus that energy remains hotly contested. In recent years,Continue reading "Unusual spiral quasar seen dancing with a companion"

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Losing the Block 2 Starship on its debut flight was not the optimal outcome. But SpaceX still managed to make significant progress on Flight 7. In October, SpaceX made history by snaring the Super Heavy booster from the sky using a pair of metal chopstick arms attached to a tower on the launch pad, which the companyContinue reading "SpaceX Starship Flight 7 explodes midair, but Super Heavy booster catch successful"

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If there is a leader in the aerospace industry, SpaceX is it. The company’s Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon spacecrafts are the current go-to vehicles to deliver astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. NASA contracts awarded to SpaceX through 2030 alone are worth nearly US$5 billion and include research and development for theContinue reading "The Starbase rocket testing facility is permanently changing the landscape of southern Texas"

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Chirag Upreti, taken from the Bronx, New York City Mars is seen just before dipping behind the Moon during its occultation Jan. 13. The photographer used a Sony mirrorless camera and 600mm lens with a x2 teleconverter.

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Star-forming galaxies, including ours, are rich in elements — and secrets. Stars come to life fastest in the early histories of such galaxies, but this process doesn’t last at such a high rate forever. The star-formation rate (SFR) eventually slows.  Thanks to a recent study published Dec. 27, 2024, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, weContinue reading "Galactic ‘conveyor belt’ circulates elements like carbon in and out of galaxies"

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Friday, January 17Although Jupiter and Mars have been dominating the eastern sky, there’s more here to view than just planets. Already 50° high an hour after sunset, the bright, magnitude 0.1 star Capella stands high above Mars and to Jupiter’s upper left. This is the alpha star of the constellation Auriga, which sits directly aboveContinue reading "The Sky This Week from January 17 to 24: A conjunction of Venus and Saturn"

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Like the Sun shining through the clouds in the early morning, a bright star within the star-forming nebula N79 appears to burst forth through a web of cooler gas and dust in this image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite of our Milky WayContinue reading "A young star-forming region shines bright for JWST "

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Just past 2 a.m. Eastern time on Jan. 16, 2025, a new rocket blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. By reaching orbit, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch has marked a milestone for a commercial space company that has big ambitions. As a space policy expert, I see New Glenn’sContinue reading "Blue Origin has successfully launched its New Glenn rocket to orbit"

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On Tuesday, at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, astronomers revisited some recent mysteries. Dale Kocevski, from Colby College in Maine, spoke during a press conference about the Little Red Dots (LRDs) found in data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These are the same as the “universe-breaking” galaxies first reported roughlyContinue reading "The early universe’s ‘Little Red Dots’ are still a big mystery"

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Many know the Great Orion Nebula (M42) in Orion’s Sword as a bright diffuse nebula — a glowing cloud of cosmic gas illuminated by the Trapezium star cluster. But the Orion Nebula also has a dark side, formed by its lanes and clouds of dust. They frequently avoid scrutiny, as the surrounding brightness tends toContinue reading "Observe the dark side of the famous Orion Nebula"

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In 2018, a distant black hole threw a fit. The 1.4-million-solar-mass black hole at the center of the galaxy 1ES 1927+654 some 270 million light-years away suddenly began spewing radiation, flaring in optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray light.  Then, astronomers watched as the so-called X-ray corona of high-energy particles close in to the black hole vanishedContinue reading "Supermassive black hole births jets, hosts orbiting white dwarf, all while astronomers watch"

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In what appears to be a jab at NASA, Rocket Lab this week unveiled its own plan to return rock and dust samples the space agency has been collecting from Mars’ Jezero Crater since 2021. NASA earlier this week said it needs more time to determine the path forward for its Mars Sample Return program, punting aContinue reading "Rocket Lab takes jab at NASA with release of Mars sample return plan"

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Could a telescope be vibrated with the right frequency to counter the atmospheric twinkle of stars? Robert ByerlyWindsor, California Yes, it can! This is one facet of adaptive optics, which astronomical observatories can use to compensate for distortions in astronomical images caused by our atmosphere. Let’s set the stage first: Stars twinkle because on Earth,Continue reading "How does adaptive optics work?"

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At public stargazes and evenings with friends at the telescope, we love to set our eyes on the wonders of Saturn and Jupiter at every opportunity. Year-round, whenever they’re above the horizon, they never cease to amaze. Mars, on the other hand, is easy to underappreciate because it appears small for much of the year,Continue reading "See mighty Mars at opposition"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to go out and watch the Full Moon pass in front of the Red Planet. Astronomers call such an event an occultation. Pretty much anyone in the continental U.S. with a clear sky will be able to see this rare happening. The next time residents of the U.S.Continue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Moon covers Mars"

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On Jan. 15, Mars will reach a point in its orbit that astronomers call opposition. That evening, Mars will lie opposite the Sun from our perspective. It will rise at sunset, reach its highest point at midnight, and set at sunrise.  No matter when you go out, Mars will be somewhere in the sky. AndContinue reading "Mars at opposition: See the Red Planet all night long"

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Osama Fathi, taken from the Black Desert, Egypt Jupiter and the Geminid meteors highlight this winter skyscape above a mudbrick dovecote in Egypt’s Black Desert. The shot was taken Dec. 8, 2024 with an astromodified Nikon mirrorless camera and lens at 24mm. The imager took a 6-minute sky exposure, a 30-second foreground exposure, and aContinue reading "A Geminid spectacular"

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Bob Fera/Steve Mandel, taken from ObsTech El Sauce Observatory, Chile NGC 1512 is a barred spiral galaxy with a unique double ring roughly 33 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Horologium. Ultraviolet space telescope views reveal the full extent of the spiral arms, and how distorted they are by the galaxy’s gravitational tango withContinue reading "More than a spiral"

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On Jan. 13, the Full Moon will pass in front of Mars during an event astronomers call an occultation. And pretty much anyone in the U.S. with binoculars and a clear sky that night will be able to see it. Every Full Moon rises at sunset because it lies in the opposite direction of theContinue reading "Watch the Full Moon cover Mars on Monday"

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the historic Mount Wilson Observatory in California appear to be unscathed by the Eaton fire burning through Pasadena and Altadena — for now. However, over 150 JPL employees have lost their homes, said the center’s director Laurie Leshin in a post on X on Friday morning. “Significant devastation inContinue reading "Jet Propulsion Lab and Mount Wilson Observatory closed amid Eaton fire"

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BepiColombo, the current spacecraft studying Mercury, is a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Launched October 20, 2018, it’s actually two satellites in one, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, and it will reach its destination in November 2026. To reach its final position, however,Continue reading "BepiColombo nabs its best views yet of Mercury"

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On a cold January morning in 1848, James Marshall was busy building a lumber mill in northern California. to process timber destined for the nearby towns of Sacramento and San Francisco. But within the mill’s outflow, Marshall caught a glimpse of some sparkling pebbles. After close inspection, Marshall realized he had found gold in “themContinue reading "The Moon’s water is sparking a new ‘gold rush’"

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Gianni Tumino, taken from Ragusa, Sicily, Italy Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) isn’t easy to spot — those in the Southern Hemisphere have the best opportunities for visual observations. But it is still within reach for Northern Hemisphere photographers, as evidenced by this pre-dawn shot taken Jan. 9 from Sicily. The imager used a Canon mirrorlessContinue reading "A southern comet"

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Friday, January 10The waxing gibbous Moon passes 5° north of Jupiter in Taurus at 6 P.M. EST. This evening, our satellite appears to Jupiter’s upper left in the sky, forming the apex of a triangle with the magnitude 1.7 star Elnath to Luna’s lower left. Jupiter is still extremely bright and easy to find, shiningContinue reading "The Sky This Week from January 10 to 17: Mars reaches opposition"

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Astronomy can often give us clues to the past that are otherwise lost to history. In one case, an Italian astronomer has proposed that a dramatic total solar eclipse triggered a religious crisis in ancient Egypt and led the last pharaoh of the 4th dynasty to abandon the pyramid-building of his ancestors. Related: The greatestContinue reading "A total solar eclipse may have ended Egypt’s 4th dynasty"

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Cassiopeia (pronounced kass ee oh pee’ uh) the Queen is one of the first constellations amateur astronomers come to recognize. That’s because its five brightest stars form an asterism that looks like a large letter W. Cassiopeia is observable in the autumn and winter throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It lies opposite the Sun in earlyContinue reading "Explore the constellation Cassiopeia"

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On Dec. 26, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe went where no mission has gone before and came within 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the Sun’s surface, flying through the solar corona — the Sun’s upper atmosphere. The pass broke its previous record of traveling within 8.1 million miles (13 million km) of the surfaceContinue reading "The Parker Solar Probe just made its closest ever approach to the Sun"

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In the world of science and entertainment, there’s nothing like Starmus. Founded by astronomer Garik Israelian and his close friend astronomer and guitarist Brian May, founding member of Queen, the festival periodically presents a celebration of what we know about the cosmos like no other event.  On April 1–2, 2025, Starmus — the word comingContinue reading "Starmus comes to America"

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NASA has set a goal to return rock and soil samples from the surface of Mars in the 2030s. The mission would represent the first time scientific samples from another planet have been returned to Earth. But the space agency said it needs another year to determine how to do it. NASA Administrator Bill NelsonContinue reading "NASA decision on Mars Sample Return reboot slides to 2026"

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Vikas Chander from New Dehli, India Barnard’s Loop, the Pleiades (M45), and the California Nebula (NGC 1499) are just some of the deep-sky objects aglow with ionized hydrogen in the sky over an abandoned washing plant at a diamond mine in the Sperrgebiet (“forbidden territory”) of southwestern Namibia. Th photographer used an astromodified Sony mirrorlessContinue reading "Diamonds in the sky"

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Near the Moon’s eastern limb lies Mare Crisium — the Sea of Crises — a low basalt plain embayed by rugged mountains. Carved by a colossal impact some 3.9 billion years ago, the 460-mile-wide (740 kilometers) mare appears largely flat and featureless. But lingering whispers of a volcanic past are everywhere, from its ubiquitous darknessContinue reading "Blue Ghost Mission 1 will send the first U.S. lander to Mare Crisium"

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New research suggests that Pluto may have acquired its most massive moon, Charon, through an ancient grazing impact, which the science team refers to as a “kiss and capture”.  The study uses computer models to suggest a possible new method by which large bodies in the Kuiper Belt could come into orbit of one another.Continue reading "Pluto may have ‘kissed’ Charon to capture it"

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Earth spins as it orbits the Sun, and the solar system is orbiting the galactic center. So, if I go outside and look up, in what direction are we heading? Dale PetersonOak View, California When you gaze up at the constellation Hercules, you are looking out the front window of the spacecraft called Earth. Our planetContinue reading "Where is the solar system heading?"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to observe the open star cluster M35, which lies at the feet of the constellation Gemini the Twins. It’s easy to spot even through binoculars, and it makes a great sight through a telescope. Also, you’ll spot another open cluster nearby, NGC 2158, which is smaller and fainter,Continue reading "Open cluster M35: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher"

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Growing up, I was taught that there were nine planets in the solar system. That all changed in 2006, when the International Astronomical Union voted to demote Pluto’s status to that of dwarf planet. But now, there is a chance that within the next year or two, the solar system could once again be gracedContinue reading "Does Planet Nine exist?"

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Michael Telesco, taken from Peña Trevinca, Spain This previously unnoticed reflection nebula in Perseus was found by Michael Telesco. Inspired by discoveries of objects by astrophotographers like Julian Shapiro and Bray Falls, he says he did some “extensive survey deep-diving” and found a bright mid-infrared region that had been identified by the Infrared Astronomical SatelliteContinue reading "A dancing horse"

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New results from China’s Chang’e 5 mission suggest that the Moon possessed a magnetic field well into its midlife, much longer than previously documented. In work published Jan. 1 in Science Advances, researchers report rocks recovered from the sample-return mission that are weakly magnetized — and just 2 billion years old. While not conclusive, the resultsContinue reading "The middle-aged Moon had a magnetic field"

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You and I are living through a revolution in amateur astronomy. Not long ago, I would have advised beginners to stay away from astroimaging, because getting good results is both expensive and time consuming. Not anymore. Today, I tell them that state-of-the-art smart telescopes are available at comparatively reasonable prices that let tech-savvy neophytes getContinue reading "Could the Seestar S50 be your first imaging telescope?"

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Leaders of NASA sit in an awkward position. While they are the head of a widely recognized organization, they’re often not the most famous individual in the agency. More people probably know the names of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the astronauts currently “stranded” on the International Space Station, than Bill Nelson, the current NASAContinue reading "The awkward job of the NASA administrator"

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Friday, January 3Asteroid 14 Irene reaches opposition at 2 A.M. EST within northwestern Gemini the Twins. The magnitude 9.6 main-belt world is visible roughly all night, from sunset until sunrise, located roughly halfway between the stars Tau (τ) and Epsilon (ε) Geminorum. Irene was the 14th asteroid discovered in the main belt, spotted by JohnContinue reading "The Sky This Week from January 3 to 10: Earth’s closest approach to the Sun"

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For millions of years following the Big Bang, after the universe’s roiling soup of particles had cooled, the cosmos was a dark and boring place. There were no stars to make light. No familiar swirls of galaxies. Certainly no planets. And the entire universe was shrouded in neutral hydrogen gas. Then, perhaps 100 million yearsContinue reading "When everything in the universe changed"

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Sixty-five years ago, the USSR shocked the world by sending the first robotic emissary from Earth to the Moon. The September 1959 impact of Luna 2 on northeastern Mare Imbrium was a stunning achievement, reaching the Moon less than two years after the launch of Sputnik 1 ushered in the Space Age. The event helpedContinue reading "How Artemis will land humans on the Moon"

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Summer nights mean late sunsets and lingering twilight, hardly a recipe for great night-sky observing. But this January exceeds expectations with fine views of four bright planets. Venus punches through the deepening twilight first. The brilliant planet brightens from magnitude –4.4 to magnitude –4.7 during January, far surpassing any other planet or star. Venus reachesContinue reading "January 2025: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?"

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All the major planets are on view this month. Venus has a fine evening conjunction with Saturn and Jupiter is high in Taurus. Uranus and Neptune are binocular targets, while Mars reaches opposition. Early morning reveals Mercury. Additionally, on the 9th the Moon crosses the Pleiades (M45), and on the 13th it hides Mars inContinue reading "January 2025: What’s in the sky this month? The Moon occults Mars and the Pleiades, plus Mars reaches opposition"

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In 2024, space exploration dazzled the world. NASA’s Europa Clipper began its journey to study Jupiter’s moon Europa. SpaceX’s Starship achieved its first successful landing, a critical milestone for future deep space missions. China made headlines with the Chang’e 6 mission, which successfully returned samples from the far side of the Moon. Meanwhile, the InternationalContinue reading "Coming in 2025: From new commercial Moon landers to asteroid investigations, expect a slate of exciting space missions"

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As part of its extensive slate of observations, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently took a closer look at Pluto’s moon Charon, where it helped scientists to make a surprising discovery.  Charon, the largest and most well-studied of Pluto’s five moons, was first visited in 2015 as part of the groundbreaking New Horizons mission,Continue reading "JWST reveals surprising surface chemistry is occurring on Pluto’s moon Charon"

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Gravitational lensing (an effect that causes distant objects to be magnified or stretched by the gravity of a large object along their line of sight) is one of astronomers’ most useful observing tools. In work published earlier this month, a group of astronomers and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) used this technique to theirContinue reading "Newfound galaxy gives glimpse into the Milky Way’s past"

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Andrea Arbizzi, taken from Modena, Italy The constellation Auriga the Charioteer is home to a close trio of iconic nebulae (from left to right): IC 417 (the Spider Nebula), IC 410 (home of the “Tadpoles”), and IC 405 (the Flaming Star Nebula). The imager used a 3.5-inch scope to obtain 29⅓ hours of exposure, theContinue reading "A trio in Auriga"

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The water that makes up the oceans acted as a key ingredient for the development of life on Earth. However, scientists still do not know where the water here on Earth came from in the first place. One leading idea is that space rocks such as comets and asteroids delivered water to the Earth throughContinue reading "‘Dark comets’ could reveal how Earth got its oceans"

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Emmanuel Delgadillo from Jalisco, Mexico The Angel Nebula (NGC 2170) lies in Monoceros and features hydrogen gas glowing red, as well as reflected blue light from young, hot stars. The imager took nearly 7 hours of exposure with a one-shot color camera on a 6-inch scope.

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Friday, December 27By 8 P.M. local time, Gemini is well above the eastern horizon, rising to the left of the widely recognizable constellation Orion. The Twins’ two standout stars are Castor and Pollux in the northeastern reaches of the constellation, but tonight, look toward the opposite end of this star pattern: southwestern Gemini, near Orion’sContinue reading "The Sky This Week from December 27 to January 3: The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks"

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Although these frosty fields look like a picturesque winter wonderland blanketed in snow, this ice is actually composed of frozen carbon dioxide over the southern Australe Scopuli region of Mars. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express spotted this scene using its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) during its 23,324th orbit of the Red Planet.Continue reading "Mars Express captures the beauty of a martian frostscape"

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How do spacecraft avoid collisions when passing through the asteroid belt? Val-David SmithsonPleasant Grove, Utah Let’s begin by reviewing some astronomical “history”: Han Solo and his rebel cohorts Leia Organa, Chewbacca, and C-3PO are nestled uncomfortably together in the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit while their ship is pursued by a battalion of Imperial fighters. Unable toContinue reading "How do spacecraft avoid collisions in the asteroid belt?"

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Over the past 200 years, astronomers have cataloged over a million asteroids in the solar system’s main belt, down to the size of around a kilometer in diameter. But smaller asteroids were elusive — until recently, when a team of scientists utilized data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to spot some tiny asteroidsContinue reading "Smallest main-belt asteroids ever detected found hiding in JWST data"

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Find meteorites, scale models, flown-in-space artifacts, and more at The Space Store.

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SpaceX has the FAA’s green light to launch more test missions of its colossal Starship spacecraft, the largest and most powerful rocket to ever fly. The aviation regulator last week issued SpaceX a modified Part 450 launch license, allowing the firm to conduct multiple missions of Starship and the Super Heavy booster under the configurationContinue reading "FAA approves SpaceX for more Starship test missions"

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John Quach 2024 was a banner year for aurora chasers, as the Sun reached solar maximum. This shot of the aurorae dancing above Mount Stuart in the Central Cascades of Washington was taken on Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. local time. The photographer used a Canon DSLR and 11mm f/2.8 lens to take a singleContinue reading "All lit up"

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While black holes are perplexing at any size, some of the most mysterious are hypothetical primordial black holes, those that sprung into existence in the first second after the Big Bang and some of which are featherweights on the black hole scale.  Because black holes collapse matter down to nothing, a black hole with theContinue reading "Want to find a black hole? Pick up a rock"

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The recent furor over drones, planes, helicopters, aliens, or whatever centered on aerial sightings in New Jersey is causing a flap. Given the huge number of sightings and the tenor of alarm from many, the Federal Aviation Administration has issued 22 temporary flight restrictions along the approach paths to Newark International Airport and a fewContinue reading "You’re almost certainly not being visited by aliens"

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Plenty of worlds in our solar system have oceans — and not all of them are made of water. Io, Jupiter’s innermost moon, was purported to have one made of basalt and bits of sulfur just under its surface, powering its volcanic eruptions. But according to a study published in Nature last week, a globalContinue reading "Io’s magma ocean may not exist after all"

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Anushtup Roychoudhury from Kolkata, India The crowded core of the Milky Way (at top) and the colorful Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex (at right) hang over the Drang-Drung Glacier in India’s Ladakh region. The imager captured the sky with a Sony mirrorless camera and a 50mm lens, taking 2-minute subframes at f/3.5 and ISO 2500 forContinue reading "Cosmic confluence"

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Friday, December 20Now that the evening sky is Moon-free, it’s time to aim for fainter targets, including 12th-magnitude Comet 333P/LINEAR. Located in far northern Cygnus, close to where that constellation’s border meets those of Cepheus and Draco, LINEAR sits some 8.4° northeast of magnitude 3.8 Kappa (κ) Cygni tonight. The comet is roughly halfway alongContinue reading "The Sky This Week from December 20 to 27: Welcome the winter solstice"

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Meet HD 65907, an imposter. It’s a star that appears far too young for its age. Astronomers have finally cracked the case of this mysterious object, which has not led a normal life. Instead, the star appears to be the result of the merger of two much older stars. Astronomers have a name for starsContinue reading "‘Blue straggler’ likely born from a collision of stars"

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Chris Schur from Payson, Arizona A magnificent arcade of coronal loops appeared on the Sun’s limb Sept. 1, 2024, captured here with a 3.2-inch refractor, CMOS camera, and a Calcium-K filter. These arcing features are caused by glowing plasma trapped in the Sun’s magnetic field. While often seen in Hα, they are less frequently visibleContinue reading "Calcium arcade"

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Earth and the Moon are forever locked in a gravitational embrace that has played a critical role in determining the fate of both worlds. Although they have grown more distant since their formative years, new research published today in Nature shows just how powerful their attraction was in their youth: According to the study, Earth’sContinue reading "Earth’s gravity gave the Moon an early facelift"

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Winter does not officially arrive until the solstice. The 2024 winter solstice — the precise moment when the Sun appears farthest south in the sky — is at 4:21 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Saturday, Dec. 21, in the Northern Hemisphere, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. Throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the day ofContinue reading "Why the winter solstice is the longest night every year, and when it happens in 2024"

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Veiled in gas and clouds, the Milky Way’s center does not easily give up secrets. The initial detection of its supermassive black hole (SMBH) decades ago posed as many riddles as it solved, including the puzzling absence of binary stars around it. The hot, massive stars that populate the region are almost always found asContinue reading "Binary star system finally discovered near Milky Way center"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to observe the nearly full Moon as it passes Mars on the evening of December 17. Both objects closely follow the Sun’s apparent path through the stars, called the ecliptic. This time, however, they’ll be quite close, only about 1 degree apart. That distance is twice the diameterContinue reading "The Moon passes Mars: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher"

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Thirteen years before any other woman joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics – or the NACA, NASA’s predecessor – in a technical role, a young lab assistant named Pearl Young was making waves in the agency. Her legacy as an outspoken and persistent advocate for herself and her team would pave the way for women inContinue reading "Pearl Young, the first woman to work in a technical role at NASA, overcame barriers and ‘raised hell’"

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Massimo Tamajo from Syracuse, Sicily, Italy A Last Quarter Moon lies above an erupting Mount Etna in this shot taken in the early morning of July 28, 2024. The imager used a Nikon Z 6II camera and 150mm lens at f/8 to take a 2-second exposure at ISO 2000.

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What became of the discarded lunar modules from the Apollo missions? James JarvisSan Francisco, California All but one of the Apollo program’s used lunar modules either crashed into the Moon’s surface or burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. Apollo 10’s lunar module, Snoopy, is still out there, drifting aimlessly around the solar system, waiting for someContinue reading "What happened to the jettisoned Apollo lunar modules? "

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Citing environmental concerns, 120 astronomers and researchers implored the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in an Oct. 24 letter to halt launches of internet satellites like SpaceX’s Starlink. The letter, which was organized by the Public Interest Research Group, also urged FCC Space Bureau Chief Julie Kearney to investigate the potential negative environmental and health impactsContinue reading "Astronomers urge FCC to research impacts of space junk"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to observe the nearly full Moon as it passes Mars on the evening of December 17. Both objects closely follow the Sun’s apparent path through the stars, called the ecliptic. This time, however, they’ll be quite close, only about 1 degree apart. That distance is twice the diameterContinue reading "The Moon passes Mars: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher"

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Although it’s visible all year round from mid- and high-northern latitudes, now is a great time of the year for newcomers to stargazing to look for and find the famous star pattern known as the Big Dipper or the Plough. Many people grow up believing the Big Dipper is a constellation, but it’s not. It’sContinue reading "Explore the Big Dipper this winter"

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Beginning in late November during the waning phases of the Moon, and then again in late December, you can investigate the possibility of a curious optical phenomenon. It involves a bright planet passing by a large and diffuse star cluster visible with the naked eye. On the evening of June 13, 2023, I went outContinue reading "The Red Planet lights up a famous star cluster this month"

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Abhijit Patil, taken from Alabama Hills, California The jewels of the northern Milky Way stand out above this rock formation — from the Pleiades (M45) and the California Nebula (NGC 1499) on the right up to the Heart and Soul Nebulae (IC 1805 and IC 1848). At top center lies the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), ourContinue reading "The winter Milky Way"

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Off the coast of Baja California in December 2022, sun sparkled over the rippling sea as waves sloshed around the USS Portland dock ship. Navy officials on the deck scrutinized the sky in search of a sign. The glow appeared suddenly. A tiny spot at first, it gradually grew to a round circle falling atContinue reading "OPINION: An aerospace expert on NASA’s Orion crew capsule heat shield issues during Artemis I"

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To find advanced civilizations, you don’t need to go hunting for megastructures or hypothetical space probes. You could find civilizations just a few centuries ahead of us by looking for a key element: hydrogen.  While hydrogen is everywhere, not all of it is of the same type. Several hydrogen isotopes exist, and deuterium is oneContinue reading "Could deuterium be the key to finding aliens? "

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At its current solar maximum, our Sun has been pretty busy of late, flinging parts of itself at Earth and raising concerns about effects on satellites and power grids while also gracing us with incredible aurorae. Solar and space-weather scientists have been busy too. They’ve just released a mammoth, nearly 800-page report to set prioritiesContinue reading "What’s in the National Academies’ Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics?"

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Friday, December 13The bright gibbous Moon passes 4° north of Uranus at 5 A.M. EST. At that time, the Moon sits in Aries the Ram, while Uranus is just over the border in far western Taurus the Bull. The two set together around 5 A.M. local time.  You might have better luck spotting the iceContinue reading "The Sky This Week from December 13 to 20: 2024’s last Full Moon"

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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FAA oversee investigations of aircraft accidents in U.S. airspace. But what happens when a crash occurs hundreds of millions of miles away in outer space? Engineers with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California and uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) manufacturer Aerovironment, a prominent aerospace and defense contractor, areContinue reading "NASA conducts first otherworldly aircraft accident investigation"

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Solar flares are bright flashes of light from the Sun that release large amounts of electromagnetic radiation. And while normal flares can release as much as 1025 joules of energy, so-called superflares, observed on other stars, are up to 10,000 times more powerful. Even normal solar flares and the charged particles that often accompany themContinue reading "Sun-like stars experience superflares roughly once per century"

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The constellation Taurus the Bull is an easy one to find in the Northern Hemisphere’s fall and winter skies. It stands opposite the Sun at the beginning of December. The head of the figure is a large V of stars, and standing out among them is the ruddy 1st-magnitude star Aldebaran (Alpha [α] Tauri) markingContinue reading "The best deep-sky targets in Taurus"

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Emanuele La Barbera, taken from Piano Battaglia, Sicily, Italy The Pleiades (M45) star cluster is one of the most famous naked-eye objects in the sky, but only deep photographic exposures reveal the complexity of the fine strands of dust surrounding the stars. This imager took 28 hours of exposure with a 3.4-inch scope with aContinue reading "Hair of the Pleiades"

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We have only one example of biology forming in the universe – life on Earth. But what if life can form in other ways? How do you look for alien life when you don’t know what alien life might look like? These questions are preoccupying astrobiologists, who are scientists who look for life beyond Earth. Astrobiologists haveContinue reading "How we might look for life in the universe — even if we can’t recognize it"

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PRESS RELEASEFor immediate release Contact:Erik Spangenberg(203)-550-3196erik@firecrown.com CHATTANOOGA, TN — The Space Store, an e-commerce retailer specializing in space-themed merchandise, has opened its first physical retail space in downtown Chattanooga. The Space Store got its start in 1996, as one of the first e-commerce businesses on the internet. For the past 28 years, The Space StoreContinue reading "The largest space merch retailer in the world opens its first brick-and-mortar retail store in downtown Chattanooga"

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A longtime amateur astronomer shares his favorite apps for enjoying time under the starry skies.

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It’s back: Astronomy magazine’s free downloadable Sky Guide, your preview of everything happening in the sky next year.  Mars opens 2025 by reaching opposition the night of Jan. 15/16, when it shines brighter and appears larger through a telescope than at any time since December 2022. You’ll find it in Gemini, near the heads ofContinue reading "A look ahead to the sky next year: Sky Guide 2025"

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Is it possible to view Pluto from a backyard telescope? Ethan SpykerWadsworth, Ohio If I’m being honest, Pluto is difficult for an amateur astronomer to see. A standard 8-inch telescope just won’t do the trick. That’s because Pluto hasn’t been brighter than 14th magnitude since the fall of 2004. It reached perihelion (its closest approach toContinue reading "Can you view Pluto in a backyard telescope?"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to observe the Geminid meteor shower, which will peak during the early morning hours of December 14. The best time to view them is after midnight, but you may see some in the evening hours as well. Get comfortable and look straight overhead for fast moving (and quicklyContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: the Geminid meteor shower"

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In 1874, James Nasmyth and James Carpenter published a remarkable book: The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite. Lavishly illustrated with spectacular images of lunar features based on their own observations and exquisite plaster models, it served as a platform for the authors to advance their views on the nature andContinue reading "The Moon as it never was"

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Santiago Ramos Avila, taken from Moratalla, Spain The dust clouds in this field near the border of Libra and Ophiuchus take on the appearance of an eagle, with a bright star (HD 142269) as its eye. The brighter emission in this field is associated with LBN 10, and the darker clouds — especially around theContinue reading "A dusty eagle"

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The NASA project NEOWISE, which has given astronomers a detailed view of near-Earth objects – some of which could strike the Earth – ended its mission and burned on re-entering the atmosphere after over a decade. On a clear night, the sky is full of bright objects – from stars, large planets and galaxies toContinue reading "A look back at NEOWISE, the NASA mission that cataloged objects around Earth for over a decade"

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Although it completed its mission in July, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) still has interesting archival data covering the solar system thanks to the team at the Infrared Processing & Analysis Center (IPAC) at Caltech. After the spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere in November, IPAC completed a final data release ofContinue reading "NASA releases new infrared images from retired NEOWISE mission"

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For the second time this year, NASA has pushed back its timeline to land the first Americans on the Moon since the Apollo era. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Thursday revealed that due to an issue with the heat shield on NASA’s Orion capsule discovered during the 2022 Artemis 1 test mission, the Artemis 3Continue reading "NASA pushes first Moon landing since Apollo era to 2027"

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Friday, December 6Asteroid 15 Eunomia is making its way through central Auriga this month, passing numerous deep-sky objects along the way.  By 9 P.M. local time this evening, the asteroid is nearly 50° high in the eastern sky. It’s skimming close to 5th-magnitude Phi (φ) Aurigae, just 1° east of the star tonight. Now magnitudeContinue reading "The Sky This Week from December 6 to 13: Jupiter reaches opposition"

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President-elect Donald Trump has picked private astronaut and billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman as the administrator of NASA. Trump confirmed the nomination on Wednesday in a post on X. “Jared will drive NASA’s mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in Space science, technology, and exploration,” Trump wrote in the post. “OverContinue reading "Trump chooses first private spacewalker Jared Isaacman as NASA head"

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In a study published today in Science, researchers say they have solved a climate enigma — the inexplicable surge in global temperature in 2023, rising faster than climate models predicted. By analyzing satellite data and weather records, a team of climatologists in Germany have found that the culprit is likely fewer clouds at low altitudesContinue reading "Low-level clouds play surprise role in global warming"

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After years of effort, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced they managed to capture the first closeup image of a star beyond our galaxy. This remarkable achievement offers more than just stunning visuals — it provides a rare glimpse into the final moments of a star that will inevitably explode as a spectacularContinue reading "This distant star is about to die — and astronomers caught it in close-up"

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I’m in love. I don’t often begin a review by saying that a product has wooed me, but the Celestron Origin Home Observatory has done just that.Not that I’m surprised. Since it first introduced the venerable C8 Schmidt-Cassegrain in 1970, Celestron has established itself as a leading manufacturer of cutting-edge telescopes and accessories for amateurContinue reading "REVIEW: The Celestron Origin is the smartscope powerhouse we’ve been waiting for"

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UPDATE: Proba-3 launched successfully Thursday morning at 5:34 A.M. EST (10:34 GMT). You can watch a replay of the launch here. In a fabulous feat of formation flying, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Proba-3 mission, now set to launch Thursday morning, will fly two spacecraft 490 feet (150 meters, or one and a half footballContinue reading "Proba-3 launches, ready to eclipse the Sun"

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You don’t want to miss Jupiter this month. The giant planet reaches opposition and peak visibility December 7 against the stunning backdrop of Taurus the Bull. Shining at magnitude –2.8, Jupiter dominates the northeastern sky once darkness falls. Although the gas giant lies well north of the celestial equator — less than optimal for usContinue reading "December 2024: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?"

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Most people associate the discovery that faraway galaxies are receding from us — and thus, that the universe is expanding — with Edwin Hubble, thanks to his landmark 1929 paper. It was one of the most fundamental discoveries in the history of science. But Hubble did not discover the expansion. In the 1910s, a LowellContinue reading "Is it time to rename the Hubble constant?"

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Vega, located in the constellation Lyra, is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky. It is known to be surrounded a disk of particle debris that’s almost 100 billion miles (160 billion kilometers) in diameter. The star and its orbiting disk have been photographed countless times by several observatories and satellites, although it was onlyContinue reading "What is Vega’s smooth-surface secret?"

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Hao Liu, taken in Nanjing, China The name Tsuchinshan was on world’s lips this year when Comet C/2023 A3 — otherwise known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS — burst into naked-eye view. The name refers to Tuschinshan Observatory (or Purple Mountain Observatory), whose facility in Xuyi was the first to discover the comet. In this image, theContinue reading "Tsuchinshan, take a bow"

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Why do we not see effects of dark matter in our solar system and other nearby star systems? Curran RodeAmmannsville, Texas Dark matter refers to material that does not absorb, reflect, or emit any electromagnetic radiation. Astronomers have ascertained the existence of dark matter through the gravitational influence it exerts over visible matter. In fact,Continue reading "Does dark matter affect our solar system?"

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The story of the inner early Solar System goes something like this: Billions of years ago, there were three rocky worlds with oceans of liquid water. Perhaps all three could have been primed for life. But as Mars lost its atmosphere and Venus’ atmosphere experienced a runaway greenhouse effect, only Earth could support life byContinue reading "Venus may never have had oceans"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to observe the Moon passing by Saturn on the evening of December 7. Both objects at the time will be in the constellation Aquarius the Water-bearer. The Moon will be 43 percent illuminated, or nearly at its First Quarter phase. The Ringed Planet will lie 4 degrees toContinue reading "The Moon passes Saturn: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher"

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It may be cold this month, but now is a great time to get outside and explore Jupiter’s beauty and might. The fifth planet will not only reach opposition on Dec. 7, it will also be at perigee (closest to Earth) on Dec. 6, putting on its biggest and brightest show of the year. KnownContinue reading "Watch Jupiter’s moons in action this month"

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Universal manual Penguin Random HouseNew York, NY The beauty and science of space combine in the book Smithsonian Atlas of Space. This 400-page hardback, created by NASA’s Chief Historian Roger D. Launius, features illustrations, maps, and images detailing humanity’s understanding of the universe from ancient times to modern day. It also includes profiles of someContinue reading "Festive astronomy products for everyone on your list"

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Jupiter reaches its best apparition in a decade for northern observers and offers a wealth of detail. Joining in late evening is brilliant Mars, now a month from opposition. Saturn is visible in the early evening, along with Venus soon after sunset. Uranus and Neptune remain visible with binoculars, and Mercury makes a fine morningContinue reading "December 2024: What’s in the sky this month? Jupiter reaches its best Northern Hemisphere opposition in a decade"

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Behyar Bakhshandeh from Carlsbad, California Resembling an outstretched hand, the Helping Hand in Cassiopeia consists of the dark nebulae LDN 1355/7/8, which overlie a region of reflection nebulosity cataloged as LBN 643. This imager took 9 hours of exposure on a 4.2-inch scope in LRGB filters.

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If you have a telescope, or access to one, now’s the time to point it at Jupiter. The largest planet in our solar system reaches opposition December 7. That means it’s directly opposite the Sun from our viewpoint here on Earth. It rises at sunset, sets at sunrise, and is visible all night.  During theContinue reading "Jupiter reaches opposition this weekend: How to see it"

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Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a favorite city of mine. Not only is it an incredibly beautiful place, with Moccasin Bend in the Tennessee River tucked near the downtown area, but breathtaking views of the whole region await from the towering plateaus of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, arranged neatly around the city’s perimeter. Moreover, for aContinue reading "Firecrown opens revolutionary Space Store in Chattanooga"

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Friday, November 29Pegasus the Winged Horse might be the most well-known horse-themed star pattern in the sky, but he is not alone. Once you find Pegasus, slowly sinking in the west this evening after sunset, next locate Enif, the star that typically is drawn marking Pegasus’ nose or mouth. Just below (west of) this starContinue reading "The Sky This Week from November 29 to December 6: The Moon meets Venus"

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Through the ages, humans have tried to preserve their knowledge and treasures in various repositories, and some of those storehouses have been massive in scale. The library of Ashurbanipal, assembled 700 years before the life of Jesus of Nazareth, is the oldest known collection of human knowledge. Ashurbanipal located his collection of 30,000 cuneiform tabletsContinue reading "How the Moon can save Earth"

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Team ShaRA; data acquired via Chilescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile The latest collaborative processing effort from Team ShaRA targets the Small Magellanic Cloud, working with 13.7 hours of data captured with a cooled CCD camera and 200mm f/2 Nikon lens operated by the Chilescope service. Numerous star-forming emission nebulae are visible, as are details inContinue reading "No small task"

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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station may be far from family and friends this Thanksgiving, but will still enjoy a festive meal. The SpaceX CRS-31 supply mission that docked Nov. 5 carried some 2,119 pounds (961 kilograms) of crew supplies. Among those supplies are holiday treats for the eight astronauts currently manning the station, whichContinue reading "How astronauts celebrate Thanksgiving in space"

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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows off its infrared capabilities once again in new imaging of the well-known Sombrero Galaxy, otherwise known as Messier 104. By resolving the thickly textured dust clouds in the outer disk and toning down the brilliant central star glow, JWST shows a whole new side of the famous galaxy.Continue reading "The Sombrero Galaxy doffs its cap to the power of JWST"

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NASA has picked SpaceX and Blue Origin to deliver a lunar rover and habitat to the moon within the next decade. The space agency last week announced it will assign two lunar cargo demonstration missions—one to each partner—under the companies’ contracts to build human landing systems (HLS) for the Artemis moon mission program. SpaceX and Blue Origin are working under multibillion-dollar dealsContinue reading "NASA picks SpaceX, Blue Origin to fly lunar rover and habitat to the Moon"

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For decades, astronomers have puzzled over how the supermassive black holes residing in the center of galaxies form. Now, researchers may have found the biggest clue yet to how these monstrous objects — weighing millions of solar masses — came to exist.  An international team used the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) high sensitivity toContinue reading "This black hole is gulping material 40 times faster than the theoretical limit"

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Michael Sussman/Warren Keller The Fish Head Nebula (IC 1795) lies at the corner of the Heart Nebula (Sharpless 2–190) in Cassiopeia, forming a large stellar nursery laced with dark dust lanes. The imagers collected 27.6 hours of data in SHO filters with a 5-inch scope.

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In 1986 and 1989, Voyager 2 made the final two stops on its grand tour of the outer solar system when it swept by Uranus and Neptune, respectively. Now, nearly 40 years later, the archive of data the craft collected is still returning unexpected results.  In a paper published today in PNAS, astronomer Burkhard MilitzerContinue reading "Uranus and Neptune have weird magnetic fields — this might be why"

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China’s lunar exploration program continues to rack up impressive scientific results. Their methodical progression of lunar orbiters, landers, and sample return missions display a consistent national effort to explore and understand the Moon in the 21st century. Unlike the early American and Russian lunar probes at the dawn of the Space Age that often endedContinue reading "Chang’e 6 shakes up our knowledge of the Moon’s farside"

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With the Moon’s terminator moving almost 10 mph (16 km/h) across its equator, how long would it take for an observer using binoculars to notice a change in lunar features? Gary GarcharSan Jose, California The lunar terminator, the sunset/sunrise line that sweeps across the Moon’s surface as the Moon orbits Earth, travels at a rateContinue reading "How long would it take for an observer using binoculars to notice the Moon’s terminator moving?"

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In the 1960s, celebrated radio astronomer Frank Drake proposed his eponymous equation, which attempted to wrangle with the probability of finding extraterrestrial life — at least, the kind that we could identify through radio broadcasts — somewhere out there in the universe. One of the key parameters of that formulation is the rate of starContinue reading "Dark energy sheds light on life in the cosmos"

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David Gluchowski, taken from Brooklyn, New York The Lion Nebula (Sharpless 2–132) is a faint emission nebula lit by young hot stars; their winds and radiation are expanding outward, forming shock waves that comprise many of the lion’s features. This shot also accentuates the play of light and shadow around the lion’s “head”. The imagerContinue reading "The Lion’s markings"

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Scientists seeking the secrets of the universe would like to make a model that shows how all of nature’s forces and particles fit together. It would be nice to do it with Legos. But perhaps a better bet would be connecting everything with strings. Not literal strings, of course — but tiny loops or snippetsContinue reading "String theory is not dead yet"

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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is well-known for discovering young, bright galaxies in the very early universe. How such regions, bursting with stars, formed so quickly and survived is enticing researchers to rethink cosmic evolution.    A recent study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters uses JWST data to probeContinue reading "JWST spots more light than expected in the early universe"

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Friday, November 22Last Quarter Moon occurs at 8:28 P.M. EST, leaving most of the evening dark for deep-sky observing.  About two hours after sunset, you’ll find the Great Square of Pegasus high in the southeastern sky. The Winged Horse is home to a fabulous globular cluster, M15, which just barely hits naked-eye magnitude at 6.2.Continue reading "The Sky This Week from November 22 to 29: Venus lingers long after sunset"

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In 1986, Voyager 2 flew by the ice giant Uranus. It was humanity’s first close-up view of the outer planet, and it remains the closest any spacecraft has ever come. On this trip, the spacecraft found 10 previously undiscovered moons, two rings, and a truly bizarre magnetic field that has baffled scientists ever since. MostContinue reading "Uranus may not have a weird magnetic field after all"

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When comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) was first discovered in late September, it was almost immediately identified as a member of the Kreutz family of Sun-grazing comets. But it was highly unusual for a Kreutz comet — virtually all of these are only discovered in their last hours or days of existence, as they plunge towardContinue reading "How Comet ATLAS fizzled out"

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While it did not recreate the historic Super Heavy booster catch it pulled off last time, SpaceX continued to push the envelope during the sixth test flight of its Starship spacecraft. The largest and most powerful rocket ever built lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase launchpad in Texas on Tuesday evening, Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines creating aContinue reading "SpaceX Starship Flight 6: No booster catch, but still pushing the envelope"

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Not so far from Earth, an infant planet is just getting its start at life. And by peeking beneath the thick cocoon of material surrounding it, astronomers could be getting a rare chance to watch a world for which our solar system has no equivalent settle into its early life. The planet closely orbits theContinue reading "This young, shrouded super-Neptune could help teach us how such planets form"

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In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing may shed its space business to focus on commercial aircraft and defense systems. This could be due in part to this summer’s test flight of its Starliner crew transport to the International Space Station (ISS), which adversely reshaped public opinion of the beleaguered aerospace titan. ButContinue reading "The past, present, and future of Boeing in space"

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Jeff Schilling from Houston, Texas The dark nebulae LDN 935/6 contrast with billowing clouds of bright emission from the North America Nebula (NGC 7000). For this close-up study of light and dark in motion, the imager took 13¼ hours of exposure in Hubble-palette filters.

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The game is afoot! Astronomers may have found some of the universe’s missing matter, thanks to one team’s cosmic detective work. The case has been open for more than 20 years. In the 1990s and early 2000s, scientists sleuthed out the universe’s contents using observations from the cosmic microwave background radiation and Big Bang models.Continue reading "Scientists discover significant ‘missing matter’ in the gas between galaxy clusters"

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On Saturday, Nov. 16, in Flagstaff, Arizona, the astronomy world changed a bit.  Lowell Observatory has long been a beacon of history in the cosmic universe. Here, Boston Brahmin Percival Lowell founded an institution to study the heavens from the far west in 1894. Here he famously studied Mars, an early obsession, believing it toContinue reading "Lowell Observatory celebrates a monumental renewal"

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How big is the ellipse that our planet travels in a year around the Sun? J.J. MüdespacherMexico City, Mexico Earth’s orbit around the Sun is not circular, but an ellipse that is slightly elongated with an eccentricity of 0.017. (An eccentricity of 0 is a circle, while the dwarf planet Pluto has a relatively highContinue reading "How big is Earth’s orbit around the Sun?"

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SpaceX is targeting the sixth test flight of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster — which comprise the largest and most powerful rocket system ever built — as early as Monday. Both the rocket and booster were moved to the launch mount this week for stacking. The mission, which like previous Starship flights willContinue reading "SpaceX Starship Flight 6: What to watch for"

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Astronomer Francesco D’Eugenio wasn’t looking for a murdered galaxy.  His team set out to measure the motions of stars in a distant galaxy and to understand why they appeared so old. Similar massive galaxies in the early universe were typically bustling with new star formation, and D’Eugenio, a scientist at the Kavli Institute for CosmologyContinue reading "JWST just found a black hole starving its host galaxy to death"

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Kfir Simon, taken from Tivoli Farm, Namibia At a distance of 3,900 light-years in Norma the Square lies NGC 6164/5, also known as the Dragon’s Egg. Astronomers think the binary star at its center, HD 148937, was originally a triple system. The billowing outer shell was caused by stellar winds early in the system’s life;Continue reading "Draconic fratricide"

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Friday, November 15We’re starting out the week strong with the Moon on center stage. November’s Full Moon, also called the Beaver Moon, occurs at 4:29 P.M. EST. But there’s more to this Full Moon — it’s a Super Moon, which occurs when the Moon reaches Full near its closest point to Earth, called perigee. ItContinue reading "The Sky This Week from November 15 to 22: 2024’s last Super Moon occults the Pleiades"

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The European Space Agency’s Gaia emission has revealed two unexpected black holes orbiting stars like our own Sun. One minor problem: we’re not exactly sure how black holes like this should form. But a team of researchers might have an answer.  Astronomers can’t directly observe black holes. That’s because by definition they do not emitContinue reading "How some black holes maintain long-distance relationships"

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Researchers using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in Europe have discovered the second generation of Starlink satellites emit higher levels of radio waves that could pose a serious risk to radio astronomy. This issue of radio-wave emission is in addition to the sunlight that Starlink and other satellites reflect, which can be visibleContinue reading "New Starlink satellites could be 32 times brighter in radio waves than before"

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Black holes are the universe’s shadowy figures, with many millions of them roaming unseen in our galaxy alone. These cosmic heavyweights famously destroy anything that wanders too close, tearing stars and other objects to shreds with their immense gravitational pull.  But that may not be the end of the story for those doomed objects. AContinue reading "Could black holes create dark energy? "

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Marco Meniero taken from Poggio Pinzuti, Italy The stars pirouette around Polaris above the hills of Tuscany near Pisa in this two-panel panorama taken with a Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera and a 70mm zoom lens. The imager captured 170 exposures of 15 seconds at f/4.5 and ISO 250.

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In a 1998 research breakthrough, Saul Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues in the Supernova Cosmology Project found the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating. Perlmutter and his team made the discovery by observing distant type Ia supernovae, whose brightnesses are well known, at different distances. His team made observationsContinue reading "What is dark energy?"

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Inside the bright but unassumingly named nebula Gum 55 lies a dark nebula — a rift of dust grains that absorb visible light — creating a swatch of darkness against the glow of bright gas. Fittingly named for its shape, the Dark Wolf Nebula is no mere puppy — it spans an area some fourContinue reading "ESO captures Dark Wolf Nebula stalking across the Milky Way "

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Star struck Wisconsin Historical Society PressMadison, WI In Chasing the Stars, authors Kelly Tyrell and James Lattis discuss the astronomical achievements of Washburn Observatory at the University of Wisconsin. The book’s 256 pages feature many images and details the early days of stargazing in the region, as well as Washburn’s many modern discoveries in theContinue reading "New astronomy products to be thankful for"

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Lynn Hilborn from Grafton, Ontario The origin of the reflection nebula van den Bergh 9 in Cassiopeia is the Cepheid variable star SU Cas; its blue light is reflected by surrounding dust, which are themselves partially shrouded by thicker dust clouds. This image represents 5 hours of exposure on an 8-inch scope in RGB filters.

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to observe the what happens when our planet, during its journey around the Sun, runs into a stream of particles in its orbit. Such an event is called a meteor shower, and because the streaks of light from these meteors seem to all come from a point in theContinue reading "The Leonid meteor shower: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher"

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What is the universe expanding into? Euan TobinEdinburgh, Scotland This excellent question forces us to confront a region beyond the bounds of our intuition, so please bear with me. When you inflate a balloon, the balloon’s membrane moves outward, closer to the boundaries of whatever room encloses it. You can easily visualize this expansion becauseContinue reading "What is the universe expanding into?"

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Mars is tantalizingly similar to Earth in many ways, but especially in its surface features, which often resemble Earth deserts to an eerie degree. Both Earth and Mars share features such as valleys; canyons; fanlike washes of sand and rock; and long, winding gravel ridges called eskers. All are formed by flowing water, marking theContinue reading "How carbon dioxide glaciers gave Mars liquid water"

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Roughly every 15 years, Earth passes through the plane of Saturn’s rings, causing them to nearly disappear from view — not to mention generating a variety of other interesting phenomena. The next such edge-on appearance will be in March 2025, though Saturn will unfortunately be too close to the Sun (only 9.5° away) for usContinue reading "How to see a Saturn ring mirage"

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The sixth test flight of Starship — the largest and most powerful rocket to ever fly — will launch no earlier than 5 p.m. EST on Monday, November 18, SpaceX said Wednesday. The previous test flight of Starship, which SpaceX also refers to simply as “Ship,” and the Super Heavy booster resulted in the unprecedented catchContinue reading "SpaceX: Starship Flight 6 coming later this month"

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Friday, November 8Although the constellation Perseus is perhaps best known for housing the famous Double Cluster, it’s also home to another open star cluster: M34, one of the Hero’s two Messier objects.  M34 is some 180 million years old and sits 1,400 light-years from Earth. The cluster contains about 100 stars and takes up roughlyContinue reading "The Sky This Week from November 8 to 15: Catch the Leonids early"

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Many constellations are well-known for having one very special deep-sky object within their borders, something so famous that when you read or hear that constellation’s name, you instantly think of it, like an astronomical word association game. Orion? The Orion Nebula! Andromeda? The Andromeda Galaxy, of course! Lyra? Easy — the Ring Nebula. And Perseus?Continue reading "Five ‘shy,’ lesser-known deep-sky gems to observe"

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Astronomy is a science and a hobby that loves long words, acronyms, and abbreviations. At times, listening to someone talking about an event happening in the sky or an object faraway in space can feel like watching one of those episodes of Star Trek where the characters spend 10 minutes just speaking in “technobabble,” soContinue reading "Learn the difference between common astronomical terms"

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Xiaofeng Qu, taken at Xiaochaidan Lake, Qinghai Province, China The Perseid meteors streak across the sky from its radiant in the constellation Perseus appearing in this perspective to be lobbed across the sky. This panorama of 17 stitched 60-second frames was taken with a Nikon DSLR at 14mm lens at f/1.8. Sky frames were capturedContinue reading "A meteoric volley"

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The era of the International Space Station (ISS) is coming to a close. In the near future, NASA plans to bring down the station in a controlled deorbit. The end of the ISS will leave a large gap in human spaceflight, although the Chinese Tiangong space station is currently active. Still, to make a spaceContinue reading "We’re entering the era of private space stations"

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Today, at the World Travel Market in London, STARMUS and The Canary Islands proudly unveiled the line-up for the highly anticipated STARMUS La Palma festival. The announcement was made during a special presentation led by STARMUS co-founder and Director, Prof. Garik Israelian, featuring the President of the Cabildo de La Palma, Sergio Rodríguez. Under theContinue reading "Starmus La Palma: The Island of Stars lineup revealed "

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The second-largest moon in our solar system may have a secret ingredient that explains many of its mysteries — and maybe ups the chances for life there. In research published Sept. 30 in The Planetary Science Journal, a University of Hawaii-led team modeled the potential for methane clathrate (a kind of methane-infused water ice) inContinue reading "Could a methane crust be keeping Titan warm?"

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Despite their destructive forces, black holes are often seen in with a companion, such as a star, neutron star, white dwarf, or even another black hole. However, a study published Oct. 23 in Nature has found that the black hole binary system V404 Cygni, which contains a black hole and a small star, has anContinue reading "This famous black hole system is actually a triple"

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Rainbows don’t actually exist. You can’t find the end of a rainbow (or its attendant pot of gold). It’s not possible to walk across a rainbow as the Norse gods did on the Bifrost, the bridge for fallen warriors to reach Valhalla, or to travel over one like Dorothy to Oz. Rather, rainbows and otherContinue reading "Explore the science of rainbows"

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Stellar Stories Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS now a faint naked-eye object Moving across the constellation Ophiuchus in the evening sky, Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS continues to fade as it moves farther away from Earth and the Sun. The comet now glows at 6th magnitude, keeping it as a faint naked-eye object under a very dark sky. ButContinue reading "Universe, Discovered: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS still a naked eye object — barely"

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Stellar Stories Hera spacecraft launched The European Space Agency’s Hxera spacecraft launched on October 7, initiating an exciting exploration of an unusual asteroid. The solar system contains many thousands of small asteroid bodies, but the target here — 65803 Didymos, is a binary object spanning some 850 meters (about half a mile). The accompanying imageContinue reading "Universe, Discovered: Hera launches to asteroid crash scene"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to observe the Moon as it closely passes the Ringed Planet on the evening of November 10. Our natural satellite will be just past its First Quarter phase, while Saturn will glow nicely at magnitude 0.8. If you have a telescope and point it at Saturn, you’ll seeContinue reading "The Moon meets Saturn: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher"

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It has been 52 years since Apollo 17 lifted off from the Taurus-Littrow Valley on the Moon.  All the Apollo landing sites, starting with Tranquility Base on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility, have been immortalized in print and film and are well known to space aficionados worldwide. But soon, another name will join the exclusiveContinue reading "Here are the nine sites where Artemis 3 might land on the Moon"

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Many astrophotos feature exposures of 12 hours or more. Since nighttime darkness is only about this long, this implies multiple exposures on different nights. How does one set things up to get the exact same location, and avoid parallax error due to Earth’s rotation and orbit? Jose G. RieraSt. Augustine, Florida You are correct, manyContinue reading "How are long-exposure astrophotos made? "

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Overall Photons: Andrea Iorio, Elisa Cuccu, Fernando Linsalata, Javier Caldera, Paul Montague, Carlos Uriarte Castillo, Darius Kopriva, Drew Evans, Bruno Rota Sargi, Blake Behrends, Manuel Alejandro Chavarría Silva, Phillip Hoppes, Jan Beranek, Roberto Volpini, Pier Mattia Basciano, Marco Finatti, Jeff Ratino, Vakhtang Khutsishvili, and Patrice Soom NGC 7293 — better known as the Helix NebulaContinue reading "Eye of the universe"

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By the dawn of the 20th century, not much had changed in the 400 years since Galileo’s discovery of the four jovian moons and his confirmation of Copernicus’ Sun-centered solar system.  Through the early 1900s, astronomers disagreed on whether the universe was home to a multitude of galaxies, so-called “island universes,” or contained entirely withinContinue reading "How Edwin Hubble won the Great Debate"

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Scientists breathed a collective sigh of relief last week when NASA announced that the Chandra X-ray Observatory had been spared the chopping block — at least for another year. It was an abrupt about-face from plans announced in March to decommission the space-based telescope by this December.  Much of the credit for the 11th-hour stayContinue reading "Chandra X-ray telescope, facing chopping block, gets reprieve from NASA"