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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Vikas Chander from New Delhi, India; taken via Obstech The Pencil Nebula (NGC 2736) is part of the Vela supernova remnant’s shock wave, which gives it a thin visual appearance. This deep image, however, reveals the trails of material left in the wake (at left) of the shock wave (center). The imager took 20⅔ hoursContinue reading "Pencil thick"

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In the 1970s, images from the NASA Mariner 9 orbiter revealed water-sculpted surfaces on Mars. This settled the once-controversial question of whether water ever rippled over the Red Planet. Since then, more and more evidence has emerged that water once played a large role on our planetary neighbor. For example, martian meteorites record evidence forContinue reading "Scientists have discovered a 3-billion-year-old beach buried on Mars"

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There are trillions of charged particles – protons and electrons, the basic building blocks of matter – whizzing around above your head at any given time. These high-energy particles, which can travel at close to the speed of light, typically remain thousands of kilometers away from Earth, trapped there by the shape of Earth’s magneticContinue reading "Lightning strikes link weather on Earth and weather in space"

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UPDATE Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying IM-2 successfully lifted off at 7:16 P.M. EST on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Early next month, a robotic lander will arrive at the Moon’s south pole bearing an eclectic suite of payloads to search for subsurface water ice. Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 is targeting a touchdownContinue reading "Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission launches to the Moon"

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UPDATE Wednesday, March 12, 2025: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying SPHEREx successfully launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 11:10 P.M. EDT on March 11. Following deployment, the SPHEREx observatory established a signal with ground controllers and its mission will soon begin. An infrared space telescope is scheduled to launch this week to mapContinue reading "SPHEREx launches to conduct a cosmic census"

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Josh Jones/Kaptas Attila, taken via Deep Sky Chile The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) is the sky’s most impressive emission nebula, bar none, for visual observers. Also pictured in this wide-field image at left is NGC 3324, an open star cluster that appears to lie within a blue lagoon in this Hubble-palette image taken with aContinue reading "Southern showcase"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to go out and try to observe a celestial object that’s quite difficult to see — the Horsehead Nebula. This dark nebula, made of dust and super-cold gas, lies in the constellation Orion the Hunter. You’ll need a dark observing site and a large telescope, something like an 11-inch Celestron.Continue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: See the Horsehead Nebula"

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On Feb. 13, 2023, something extraordinary happened deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea. KM3NeT’s Astroparticle Research with Cosmics in the Abyss (ARCA) telescope, a sprawling underwater array of ultra-sensitive photodetectors, caught sight of the telltale sign of an incredibly rare cosmic messenger: a highly energetic fundamental particle known as a neutrino. With an estimated energy ofContinue reading "Underwater detector spots the most energetic neutrino yet"

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Friday, February 21The Moon passes 0.4° south of the bright red giant Antares in Scorpius this morning at 4 A.M. EST. The pair is visible in the predawn sky.  This evening, let’s look for another bright red giant: Betelgeuse, the famous star that serves as one shoulder of Orion the Hunter. An hour after sunset,Continue reading "The Sky This Week from February 21 to 28: Saturn and Mercury meet"

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Massimo di Fusco, data acquired via Chilescope The globular cluster M68 in Hydra lies at lower left of this image; at upper right is the variable star HD 109799. In 2021, astronomers confirmed the latter to be a member of the γ Doradus class of variable stars, which pulsate with waves driven by gravity, likeContinue reading "A glob and a star"

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UPDATE Feb. 24, 2025: With new observations over the weekend, the odds of 2024 YR4 hitting Earth in 2032 have declined to 0.0039 percent — effectively eliminating concerns about that encounter. 2024 YR4 has now fallen from the riskiest asteroid on NASA’s automated Sentry list of potentially hazardous asteroids to the seventh highest position. InContinue reading "Asteroid 2024 YR4’s odds of hitting Earth in 2032 are now effectively zero"

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When we think of astrophotography, usually big telescopes on robotic mounts that cost thousands of dollars come to mind. But you can capture beautiful astrophotos a different way — with only a camera and a tripod. I created one of my first astrophotos on a work trip, on the side of the highway outside Albuquerque,Continue reading "How to get started with DSLR astrophotography"

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Despite what Star Trek and Star Wars may have taught you, the amount of time required to travel between stars is vast.  Consider Voyager 1. The spacecraft is traveling at 38,000 mph (61,155 km/h). If Voyager 1 were pointed towards our nearest star, Proxima Centauri (which it isn’t), it would take 73,000 years to reachContinue reading "Is human hibernation for long-duration space travel possible?"

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Overall Photons: Elisa Cuccu/Andrea Iorio/Fernando Linsalata/Giampiero Lilli/Roberto Volpini/Gianni Melis/Roberto Testi/Stephane Moinard/José Manuel López Arlandis/Michele Mazzola/Vitali Pelenjow/Leonardo Pelosi/Patrick Bisaillon/Aidan Guerra/Jeff Ratino/George William Hoffman/Vasile Unguru/Vakhtang Khutsishvili/Jonathan Schwab Lying 240 million light-years away, the members of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster shimmer in this deep-field portrait, mingling with delicate foreground wisps of hydrogen and galactic cirrus in the MilkyContinue reading "A galactic veil"

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The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), working under a mandate from President Donald Trump to reduce government spending, has its next target: NASA. The space agency told FLYING on Friday that DOGE personnel are already on-site to conduct a review of its payments. “We are a federal agency; we are going to have DOGE come,” said JanetContinue reading "DOGE personnel conducting spending review at NASA"

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An annual event over recent years, the I Heart Pluto Festival in Flagstaff, Arizona, celebrates the history, heritage, and cutting-edge astronomy at Lowell Observatory. On Feb. 18, 1930, the young astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, considered for decades a planet and “demoted” to dwarf planet status in 2008. Following the discovery, Tombaugh traveled down MarsContinue reading "Lowell Observatory holds I Heart Pluto Festival"

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As a space artist, I have had the thrill of participating in scientific discovery, often being the first artist to imagine what new objects might look like. Space artists usually work to the scientist’s directive, although sometimes they get it first. In the 1920s, Lucian Rudaux showed pinkish skies on Mars decades before Viking revealedContinue reading "The Spike Nebula: How an educated artistic guess was fulfilled"

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Why don’t Saturn’s rings throw a shadow onto the planet’s surface, like its moons do? John GrimleyToronto, Ontario The simple answer is that Saturn’s rings do cast shadows on the planet’s surface! NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017, took the dramatic image of the rings’ shadows on Saturn shown above.  TheContinue reading "Do Saturn’s rings cast shadows? "

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to go out and catch the Moon as it passes by Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius. This pairing will happen in the hours near dawn on the morning of February 21. As both objects rise, note the shape of the constellation — it really does look likeContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Moon meets Antares"

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Modern astronomical observatories send us an enormous amount of data, which is generally examined and shared in the form of images. But what if the myriad forms of information we receive from space could be converted into sounds that inspire, entertain, educate, and enlighten? And what if, more than that, these soundscapes could offer accessContinue reading "Listen to the universe: How sonification turns data into sound"

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In August 2023, Nikon released its first long telephoto zoom lens for its mirrorless Z-mount cameras: the Nikkor Z 180–600mm F/5.6-6.3 VR. This lens was highly anticipated, coming eight years after the company’s extremely popular 200–500mm lens for DSLRs. The lens is mainly targeted towards wildlife and bird photographers. But with its 600mm reach, itContinue reading "Nikon’s Z 180–600mm f/5.6–6.3 VR lens reviewed for astrophotography"

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Marco Meniero from Civitavecchia, Italy Galileo Galilei was born on Feb. 15, 1564 in the city of Pisa, which is also the location of this mural by the Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra. The photographer used a Nikon mirrorless camera and 14–24mm lens to capture this scene; the star trails in this image were imagedContinue reading "In Galileo’s trail"

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Friday, February 14The dwarf planet 1 Ceres is in conjunction with the Sun at 5 P.M. EST today. While this means we can’t see Ceres for now, we can see Venus — which is at its brightest, reaching greatest brilliancy this evening at 6 P.M. EST Earth’s sister planet is now a long-lingering “evening star,”Continue reading "The Sky This Week from February 14 to 21: Venus reaches greatest brilliancy"

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Gianni Tumino from Ragusa, Sicily, Italy Lava snakes its way down the slopes of Mount Etna from a fissure near its summit as the stars rotate above in this shot taken the evening of Feb. 10.

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There are thousands upon thousands of questions related to the topic of astronomy, from the basics of the science to the complexities of the distant cosmos. Here are just 40 such questions that we as astronomers — professional and amateur — hear. I hope their answers help you explain some of these concepts to family,Continue reading "40 cosmic questions and answers"

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Astrophotography is both an art and science, and has long been a source of fascination and fun for amateur astronomers. Yet the steep learning curve of mastering equipment, planning shoots, and processing images can feel overwhelming. Now, a groundbreaking new astrophotography course, powered by AI and available for iPhone, can guide you step by stepContinue reading "Let AI teach you how to take great astrophotos"

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Fluorite triplet TakahashiTokyo, Japan The ​​FCT-65D is a low-dispersion Fluorite Triplet refractor. It has a 400mm focal length and a f/6.2 focal ratio, and a high Strehl ratio of .98. It also comes with a camera-angle adjuster and can be equipped with different Takahashi reducers, as well as dovetail plates and aluminum rings to accompanyContinue reading "Fall in love with new astronomy products this month"

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Abhijit Patil, taken from Bisti, New Mexico These “deviled egg” rock formations — also called the “Alien eggs” — lie under the Milky Way in this panorama taken with an astromodified Nikon Z 6II and 14–24mm zoom lens. The sky is a 4-panel mosaic, each frame taken at a focal length of 24mm and anContinue reading "Starry side up"

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In 2018, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission reached asteroid 101955 Bennu. Two years later, the spacecraft snagged a sample of its surface, which has since been returned to Earth. Now, astronomers are getting to know Bennu like never before — and a new study looks at how it could wreck us.  Bennu is classified as a near-EarthContinue reading "Bennu isn’t likely to hit Earth — but if it did, here’s what would happen"

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What will happen to the solar system when the Milky Way completes the merger with the Andromeda Galaxy? Bryan MitchellMaricopa, Arizona Your excellent question affords us the opportunity to distinguish between near-certain astronomical predictions and those which are far less so.  Astronomers predict that our home galaxy and the nearest major galaxy to it, AndromedaContinue reading "What will happen to the solar system when the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy merge?"

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In this episode, Dave Eicher invites you to go out and spot the elusive zodiacal light. Caused by light reflecting and scattering off dust in the plane of our solar system, one of the best times to see it is in the late winter and early spring. So, head to a reasonably dark site andContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Zodiacal Light"

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More than 3 billion years ago, when the Moon’s volcanic mare (the dark lunar “seas”) were formed, the Moon was rife with tectonic activity and moonquakes that shook its surface. Evidence of these ground-shuddering events can be seen on the Moon’s nearside in the form of long features called wrinkle ridges — created when sheetsContinue reading "How moonquakes could rattle Artemis astronauts"

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I have always enjoyed looking at the sky on a clear night through binoculars. Seeing through individual optics for each eye creates a feeling of being in space. It’s different than looking through a telescope. Aesthetically, I find it much more pleasing. Most binoculars, unfortunately, just don’t collect enough light for real deep-sky viewing. ButContinue reading "Oberwerk’s binoculars is really a pair of 5-inch refractors"

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Shakeel Anwar from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Prominences dance around the limb of the Sun as the International Space Station crosses in front of the disk, imaged here in Hα with a 3.2-inch solar telescope. The imager took two 60-second videos with an astronomical camera — one to capture the transit and another to capture theContinue reading "The Sun and the station"

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Friday, February 7 Mighty Jupiter stands high in the east at sunset, dominating the stars of Taurus the Bull as they begin to appear in the deepening darkness. Once the Sun is safely below the horizon, center your telescope on the gas giant — those in the eastern half of the U.S. will see the planetContinue reading "The Sky This Week from February 7 to 14: The February Full Snow Moon shines"

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I began photographing the Milky Way around 2018, but the hobby took off in earnest for me at the onset of the COVID years as I took myself out to remote dark sites to capture images. For many observers, the Milky Way’s prime attraction is the northern galactic bulge from the Large Sagittarius Star CloudContinue reading "The best objects to view and photograph along the Milky Way"

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Emmanuel Joly from Le Cannet-des-Maures, France Sharpless 2–216 is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth, just 415 light-years away in Perseus. On the sky, it has a diameter three times larger than that of the Full Moon. Of course, the term “planetary nebula” is a misnomer — such objects are actually produced by starsContinue reading "A look ahead"

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Each year, millions of visitors marvel at the geological intricacy and beauty of the vast chasm of the Grand Canyon carved through the Arizona desert by 5 million years of water erosion. It is interesting to contemplate the force of water as over the eons the Colorado River meticulously sliced through layers of Arizona bedrock.Continue reading "The Moon’s epic ‘grand canyons’ were gouged out in 10 minutes by an asteroid strike"

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As Valentine’s Day approaches, I thought I’d share with you a lunar phenomenon created by the interplay of light and shadow on the Moon. It’s a delightful pattern of lunar peaks and ridges that, when illuminated in the correct way, looks like a string of beads forming the shape of a heart. Catch it underContinue reading "See the Moon’s beaded ‘heart’"

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Team ShaRA; data acquired via Chilescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile The galaxy Fornax A (NGC 1316) is famed for its enormous radio lobes, but deep optical imaging reveals dizzying layers of structure generated by a series of mergers that made the galaxy what it is today. Just right of Fornax A is the smaller spiralContinue reading "A galactic megaconglomerate"

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If everything in our solar system formed from the same solar nebula, why do the planets have different compositions? Herbert WichTitusville, Florida To better understand why the planets have variable compositions, we have to first understand the process of how stars form. While the composition of gas and dust in a precursor molecular cloud isContinue reading "Why do the solar system’s planets have different compositions? "

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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 "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: Bright Planets and Stars"

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Strange as it may sound, where the astronauts sat (or “sat” – the crew actually stood) in the Apollo Lunar Module may have profoundly impacted the way the experience of walking on the Moon affected them.  Mission commanders were in what is referred to in aviation as the “left seat” position and lunar module pilotsContinue reading "How did walking on the Moon affect the Apollo astronauts?"

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This past year brought much of the world together through events both anticipated and unexpected. April’s highly awaited total solar eclipse delighted millions with the sight of a lifetime — though dodging clouds got a bit stressful for some. Less than a month later, the Sun unleashed a massive storm that lit the skies withContinue reading "Top 10 space stories of 2024"

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As February begins, Venus appears low in the western evening sky. The brilliant planet stands nearly 15° high an hour after the Sun goes down and dominates the faint background stars of Pisces the Fish. Although the inner world lies a healthy 45° east of the Sun, it doesn’t climb high because the ecliptic —Continue reading "February 2025: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?"

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We’re quickly losing sight of Saturn, but Venus, Jupiter, and Mars dominate the sky. Uranus and Neptune are easy binocular objects. Mars is still at its best, having reached opposition last month. Jupiter has many satellite transits visible in small telescopes. And early in the month, the Moon passes in front of the Pleiades, visibleContinue reading "February 2025: What’s in the sky this month? Venus, Jupiter, and Mars continue to dominate the sky, and the Moon occults the Pleiades"

The post February 2025: What’s in the sky this month? Venus, Jupiter, and Mars continue to dominate the sky, and the Moon occults the Pleiades appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned triumphantly to Earth in 2023 after collecting 4.3 ounces (121.6 grams) of precious grains of dust and rock from the asteroid Bennu in 2020. While that sample return was an incredible feat of engineering, its arrival on Earth was just the beginning of the scientific adventure.  On Jan. 29, NASA heldContinue reading "Scientists find life’s ‘building blocks’ in asteroid Bennu samples"

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Eight billion miles (14 billion kilometers) from Earth, at the solar system’s ragged edge, lies Eris — a planet-sized oddball of a world that emerged unexpectedly from the darkness 20 years ago. Named for the capricious Greek goddess of discord, trouble-stirring Eris would doubtless be pleased that her celestial namesake caused even mild-mannered astronomers toContinue reading "20 years ago, the discovery of Eris spelled doom for planet Pluto"

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Chiradeep Chhaya, imaged from Deep Sky West, New Mexico The dark nebula Barnard 37 in Monoceros is surrounded by a entourage of reflection nebulae in this scene — most prominently IC 447 (at lower left), which is visually connected by a trail of dark dust (LDN 1607) to IC 446. NGC 2245/7 are another pairContinue reading "Lighting up the neighborhood"

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Friday, January 31 After passing through its New phase last week, the Moon is now a thin waxing crescent some 8 percent lit by sunset this evening. You can find it setting in the southwest as soon as the Sun goes down, accompanied by Saturn (magnitude 1.1) and Venus (magnitude –4.7) above it.  Saturn sitsContinue reading "The Sky This Week from January 31 to February 7: Watch the Pleiades disappear"

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STARMUS is thrilled to announce the first round of artists and the program structure for the highly anticipated STARMUS La Palma festival, set to take place from April 25 to 28, 2025. This year’s lineup features an extraordinary array of luminaries, including renowned ethologist Jane Goodall -founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN MessengerContinue reading "Starmus La Palma announces first round of artists lineup and program structure"

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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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