Three ultramassive galaxies found by the James Webb Space Telescope have astronomers reconsidering how galaxies grew so quickly in the first billion years after the Big Bang.

© NASA/CSA/ESA, M. Xiao & P. A. Oesch (University of Geneva), G. Brammer (Niels Bohr Institute), Dawn JWST Archive

NASA is planning to assign SpaceX and Blue Origin 'demonstration missions' for their Artemis Program lunar landers, with eyes to put a habitat on the moon by 2033.

© SpaceX/Blue Origin

There is a surprising link between what goes on near the black hole and the shape of the entire galaxy that surrounds it.

© ESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimetre); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray)

These Black Friday VIVE VR headset deals will save you virtually hundreds of deals on top models from HTC.

© Future/Walmart

NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Sen cameras captured stunning views of SpaceX's Starship megarocket launch from the International Space Station.

© NASA / Don Pettit

The James Webb Space Telescope has identified the first-ever "Einstein zig-zag," a distant quasar lensed six times by two precisely aligned galaxies that could help tackle a cosmological crisis.

© Dux et al . 2024

Blue Origin's next space tourism mission is launching Nov. 22, with 'Space Gal' Emily Calandrelli. Watch live on Space.com.

© Blue Origin

The SubOrbital Express-4 mission, which will launch from northern Sweden between Nov. 22 and Dec. 3, will help scientists take the next step in various realms of research.

© ESA/ESRANGE/Lars Thulin

Author(s): Charles Day

A new analysis of B-meson decays strongly hints that they harbor physics beyond the standard model.

[Physics 17, s142] Published Thu Nov 21, 2024

Author(s): Ryan Wilkinson

By manipulating and detecting nuclear spins in a tiny floating diamond, scientists have reported a record-long spin coherence time for a levitated system.

[Physics 17, s143] Published Thu Nov 21, 2024

'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 5 episode 6 introduces new arrival Ensign Olly — a junior officer with a history of leaving trails of destruction in her wake.

© Paramount+

NASA is seeking the public's help creating emergency response plans for future missions to the moon.

© NASA

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"

The post How Comet ATLAS fizzled out appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Astronomers have captured the first zoomed-in image of a star beyond the Milky Way. The historic image reveals a dying behemoth star wrapped in a death shroud of gas about to explode.

© ESO/K. Ohnaka et al.

SpaceX's Starship megarocket performed well on its sixth test flight, which occurred on Tuesday (Nov. 19). So, what's next for the giant reusable vehicle?

© SpaceX

SpaceX launched 24 more of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this morning (Nov. 21).

© SpaceX

با استفاده از مطالعه‌ی جمعیت ستاره‌ای^۱ کهکشان‌ها می‌توان آن‌ها را به دو دسته‌ی کلی ستاره‌زا^۲ و غیرستاره‌زا یا خاموش^۳ طبقه‌بندی کرد. دسته‌ی اول شامل کهکشان‌هایی است که جوان و در حال ستاره‌زایی هستند و دسته‌ی دوم کهکشان‌هایی را شامل می‌شود که ستاره‌زایی در آن‌ها متوقف شده است و جمعیت ستاره‌ای پیرتری دارند. یکی از اهداف اصلی تلسکوپ فضایی جیمز وب^۴، پاسخ به یکی از چالش‌برانگیزترین سوالات در مطالعه‌ی ساختار و تحول کهکشان‌ها است: چگونگی شکل‌گیری سریع جرم کهکشان‌ها در یک بازه‌ی زمانی بسیار کوتاه، پایان یافتن ستاره‌زایی آن‌ها و قرار گرفتن آن‌ها در دسته‌ی خاموش یا غیرستاره‌زا.

بر اساس تئوری‌های موجود در زمینه‌ی تحول کهکشان‌ها پیش‌بینی می‌شود که برای مصرف تمام گاز مورد نیاز برای ستاره‌زایی به زمانی از مرتبه‌ی میلیارد سال نیاز است (هر چند عواملی مانند بادهای‌ ستاره‌ای^۵، بازخورد هسته‌ی فعال کهکشانی^۶، ادغام‌^۷ و برهم‌کنش با دیگر کهکشان‌ها می‌توانند این فرآیند را تسریع کنند). در نتیجه انتظار می‌رود با نگاه کردن به فواصل دورتر (نگاه به گذشته در زمان) شاهد تعداد کم‌تری از کهکشان‌های خاموش باشیم.

نویسندگان این مقاله با استفاده از داده‌های به دست آمده از طیف‌سنج فروسرخ نزدیک تلسکوپ فضایی جیمز وب (NIRSpec) حضور یک کهکشان خاموش به نام GS-9209 با جرم ستاره‌ای نزدیک به ۳۸ میلیون برابر جرم خورشید در انتقال به سرخ‌ ۴/۶۵۸، تنها ۱/۲۵ میلیارد سال بعد از انفجار بزرگ^۸ را گزارش می‌کنند. بر اساس مطالعات انجام شده توسط این گروه به نظر می‌رسد تمام جرم ستاره‌ای این کهکشان تنها در یک بازه‌ی زمانی ۲۰۰ میلیون ساله، قبل از به پایان رسیدن فعالیت ستاره‌زایی در انتقال به سرخ ۶/۵ معادل با زمانی که عمر کیهان تنها ۸۰۰ میلیون سال بوده‌است، تشکیل شده باشد.

در این مقاله، نویسندگان خطوط جذبی طیف کهکشان GS-9209 را مطالعه کرده‌اند. بررسی خطوط جذبی طیف‌ کهکشان‌ها، یکی از روش‌های مطالعه‌ی تاریخچه‌ی خاموشی کهکشان‌های ستاره‌زا است. تصویر۱ طیف کهکشان GS-9209 را که توسط تلسکوپ فضایی جیمز وب رصد شده‌است، نشان می‌دهد. این طیف در بازه‌ی طول موجی۵/۱ -۱/۷میکرومتر قرار دارد که شامل تعداد زیادی خطوط جذبی بالمر^۹ (خط جذبی حاصل از گذار الکترون از تراز۲ به ترازهای بالاتر) است. طیف به دست آمده از این کهکشان خاموش با حضور این خطوط جذبی بالمر شباهت بسیار زیادی به طیف ستارگان نوع A داشته که با استفاده از آن‌ها می‌توان تحولات ستاره‌زایی را در طول زمانی از مرتبه‌ی حدود ۱۰۰ میلیون سال بررسی کرد. به بیان ساده‌تر، این ستارگان اطلاعات مربوط به تغییرات ستاره‌زایی در طی ۱۰۰ میلیون سال اخیر را در بر دارند. حضور این جمعیت ستاره‌ای یادآور کهکشان‌های پساستاره‌زا^۱۰ در انتقال به سرخ‌های پایین‌تر و نشان‌دهنده‌ی پایان ستاره‌زایی در یک بازه‌ی کوتاه، در حدود طول عمر ستارگان نوع A بر روی رشته‌ی اصلی است. نویسندگان این مقاله برای تعیین عمق هر کدام از این خطوط جذبی پهنای-هم‌عرض^۱۱ این خطوط را گزارش می‌کنند (پهنای-هم‌عرض معیاری است که شدت یک خط جذبی را توصیف می‌کند). مطالعه‌ی پهنای-هم‌عرض خطوط مشاهده شده‌ی جذبی سری بالمر و پهن‌شدگی نسبی خط نشری نیتروژن-۲ نسبت به خط نشری پهن شده‌‌ی هیدروژن-آلفا (حاصل از گذار الکترون برانگیخته از تراز ۳ به ۲) به ترتیب نمایان‌گر غالب بودن جمعیت‌ ستاره‌ای در پیوستار و حضور هسته‌ی فعال کهکشانی است.

 

The Curiosity shows sulfur stones, with no explanation of how they occurred on the Martian surface.

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A final trailer for Prime Video's "Secret Level" animated anthology

© Prime Video

Take the high ground with this stunning, and very expensive, replica lightsaber.

© Ian Stokes

Liftoff occurred at 7:22 a.m. EST. (1222 GMT).

© Roscosmos TV / NASA TV

Scientists may have cracked one of the biggest mysteries in space science, determining that supermassive black holes bent the laws of physics to grow to their huge sizes.

© Emanuela Tortosa

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"

The post SpaceX Starship Flight 6: No booster catch, but still pushing the envelope appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

"The Wizard of Oz" and space exploration are two topics that by all rights should have nothing in common. But as it turns out, if you follow the Yellow Brick Road long enough you reach the moon.

© Warner Bros./Sony/Apple TV+/collectSPACE.com

Hurry, stocks are low! 25% off this versatile Sony camera that is also perfect for astrophotography, there's not a lot we don't love about this early Black Friday deal.

© Kimberley Lane

Pluto and other large bodies in the Kuiper Belt are surprisingly rich in rock rather than ice. It may be because the early solar system consisted of much more carbon than previously thought, a new study suggests.

© StockGood via Getty Images

Could Mars have once hosted life? NASA's Perseverance rover has uncovered a tantalizing clue, but scientists remain divided on what it truly means for the search for extraterrestrial life.

© NASA

A Russian cargo ship docked to the International Space Station fired its thrusters on Tuesday (Nov. 19) to ensure that the orbiting complex dodged a piece of space debris.

© NASA

The strength of dark energy in our universe is not optimized for forming stars, which means other universes might have a greater likelihood of producing life.

© Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

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"

The post This young, shrouded super-Neptune could help teach us how such planets form appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

NASA's TESS exoplanet-hunting spacecraft found the youngest transiting world yet, and the exoplanet's star has a wonky planetary disk.

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt, K. Miller (Caltech/IPAC)

Author(s): Carlos Mejuto-Zaera

A new framework that embeds electrons in a surrounding bath captures nonlocal correlation effects that are relevant to metals, semiconductors, and correlated insulators.

[Physics 17, 164] Published Wed Nov 20, 2024

Author(s): Ryan Wilkinson

Contrary to conventional wisdom, a lattice of engineered nanoparticles called meta-atoms can have a chiral optical response even when each meta-atom is not chiral.

[Physics 17, s135] Published Wed Nov 20, 2024

The Solar Orbiter spacecraft has sent home the highest resolution views of the sun's surface to date, providing fresh views of our well-studied star.

© ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/PHI Team

Giant filaments crisscross the universe, connecting galaxy clusters like superhighways between cities. But due to their complex shapes, they are stubbornly difficult to measure.

© ESA/ Springel et al., Virgo Consortium

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"

The post The past, present, and future of Boeing in space appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

If you're looking for a Christmas gift for the Trekkie in your life, it's time to live comfortably and prosper with the Oddballs Star Trek range

© Future/Oddballs

The moon and Mars will share a close approach tonight (Nov. 20) during a conjunction as the two visit the Cancer constellation, the Crab.

© Chris Vaughan/Starry Night

An artificial banana floated in the microgravity environment of outer space. No longer needing its attached tethers, it just hung there in the bay of its spacecraft's otherwise empty cargo hold.

© SpaceX/collectSPACE.com

This super easy-to-use motorized telescope is currently available with a 20% saving off the regular price.

© Future

The first year of data from the 5,000 robotic eyes of DESI shows Einstein's theory of general relativity is the right recipe for gravity despite the challenges of dark energy and dark matter.

© DESI Collaboration/KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek/R. Proctor

President-elect Donald Trump made the trip to South Texas today (Nov. 19) to watch the sixth test flight of SpaceX's giant Starship rocket.

© Brandon Bell/Getty Images

In new testimony, the head of the Pentagon's UFO office told the US senate that it "has not discovered any verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology."

© AARO/DOD

SpaceX launched its Starship megarocket for the sixth time ever today (Nov. 19) but did not try to catch the vehicle's Super Heavy first stage back at the pad.

© SpaceX

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.

The post The billowing cosmos appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

India's Chandrayaan 2 moon orbiter maneuvered in September to avoid a close approach with Korea's Danuri spacecraft, ISRO said.

© ISRO

SabersPro's streamlined take on Luke Skywalker's second lightsaber – built with the duellist in mind.

© Future

Earth's mightiest heroes are assembling again in 2026. Here's what we know about Avengers: Doomsday so far.

© Marvel Studios

The annual Geminid meteor shower returns to the night sky on Nov. 19 ahead of its peak in mid-December. Here's what you need to know.

© Alan Dyer/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Images

President-Elect Donald Trump confirmed he will attend SpaceX Starship's 6th flight test on Nov. 19. It comes as SpaceX founder Elon Musk takes a greater role in the forthcoming Trump administration.

© Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty Images

"Starlinksatellites look like a miniature version of the monolith from '2001: A Space Odyssey.' "

© NASA/Don Pettit

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"

The post Scientists discover significant ‘missing matter’ in the gas between galaxy clusters appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Rocket Lab is targeting mid-2025 for the debut of its partially reusable Neutron rocket, with commercial launches to start in 2026.

© Rocket Lab

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"

The post Lowell Observatory celebrates a monumental renewal appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Author(s): Charles Day

Low-frequency radio observations could allow researchers to distinguish among several dark matter models, thanks to dark matter’s influence on the early Universe.

[Physics 17, s132] Published Tue Nov 19, 2024

The long-duration photographs capture Earth in motion.

© NASA/Don Pettit

Five new portraits of galaxies located between 4 million to 30 million light-years from Earth could help astronomers unlock the secrets of cosmic evolution.

© INAF/VST-SMASH/C. Tortora et al. (2024)

To explain why dark matter particles haven't come up in any direct detection experiments, physicists have wondered if it may be a kind of particle known as an axion.

© NASA/Caltech-IPAC/Robert Hurt

SpaceX is launching Starship on its 6th test flight, with another Super Heavy booster catch back at the rocket's Starbase, Texas launch tower. Watch the action live on Space.com.

© Space.com / Josh Dinner

An exclusive interview with British director David Carson for "Star Trek Generations'" 30th anniversary.

© Paramount

Blue Origin is targeting Friday (Nov. 28) for its NS-28 tourism mission, which will take "Space Gal" Emily Calandrelli and five other people to suborbital space.

© Blue Origin

Walmart's Sony camera Black Friday deal price beats Adorama, Amazon and Best Buy by hundreds of dollars.

© Getty Images

ABL Space Systems, founded in 2017, will pivot from orbital launch sector to U.S. missile defense programs.

© ABL Space Systems

The Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office will testify before the U.S. Senate on Tuesday (Nov. 19) about its latest report starting at 4:30 p.m. ET (2130 GMT).

© AARO/Wikimedia Commons

Author(s): Michael Schirber

The experimental confirmation of supersolid vortices opens the prospect of making and studying laboratory analogues of rotating neutron stars.

[Physics 17, 166] Published Mon Nov 18, 2024

We've rounded up the top space gifts from Amazon this Black Friday. Happy shopping!

© Getty Images

New video ahead of SpaceX next Starship launch shows footage of a rendering versus reality of the Super Heavy booster performing its landing burn before being caught by the launch tower's "chopstick" arms.

© SpaceX

SpaceX has fueled up Starship and completed preflight checkouts ahead of the sixth test launch of the giant rocket, which is scheduled for Nov. 19.

© SpaceX

The latest aurora predictions for tonight help you make sure you're in the right place at the right time to see the northern lights.

© <a href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/photographer?photographer=Westend61" rel="nofollow">Westend61 via </a>Getty Images

Author(s): Benjamin Rotenberg

The identification of a new type of symmetry in statistical mechanics could help scientists derive and interpret fundamental relationships in this branch of physics.

[Physics 17, 163] Published Mon Nov 18, 2024

Even JWST can’t separate these tiny planets from their host stars – as they orbit their stars too closely. But there is a way to “see” the planet’s atmosphere from this entangled light.

© Robert Lea (created with Canva)

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?"

The post How big is Earth’s orbit around the Sun? appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Episode 1 of HBO's new "Dune" prequel miniseries, "Dune: Prophecy" introduces the secret history of the powerful Bene Gesserit sisterhood.

© HBO

The Hubble Space Telescope may have captured our Milky Way galaxy being a bit of a bully.

© NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

India plans to build a moon-orbiting space station by 2040 to support crewed missions to the lunar surface.

© NASA

A recap of the events unfolding in Apple TV+'s "Silo" Season 2 Episode 1.

© Apple TV+

The goal of the Parker Solar Probe mission is to investigate the mysteries of the sun's corona, its outer atmosphere. What has it learned so far?

© Applied Physics Lab and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

SpaceX is set to launch the GSAT-N2 satellite today (Nov. 18), the company's first-ever mission for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

© SpaceX via X

SpaceX is targeting Tuesday (Nov. 19) for the launch of its sixth Starship flight test, during a 30-minute launch window that opens at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT).

© SpaceX

SpaceX launched 20 more of its Starlink internet satellites from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base early Monday morning (Nov. 18).

© SpaceX via X

SpaceX launched a satellite for the Australian telecom company Optus on Sunday evening (Nov. 17) from Florida's Space Coast.

© SpaceX via X

The only way to see the curve of the Earth is to fly more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) above its surface.

© Future

Five varieties of heirloom seeds from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma were flown to the International Space Station last year and will be compared to Earth-bound seeds when planted this coming spring.

© NASA/Loral O’Hara

"At a time like this, we need to find more stories from the days when Americans outsmarted the bad guys and planted our flag on the moon."

© Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The final supermoon of 2024, the Beaver Moon of November, thrilled skywatchers around the world as it ushered in the weekend with a stunning night sky sight.

© Islam Dogru/Anadolu via Getty Images

How the universe got its large magnetic fields has remained one of the stickiest outstanding problems in astrophysics. Now, researchers have proposed a novel solution: a giant "dust battery" operating when the first stars appeared.

© Newton Henry Black/Wikimedia Commons

On Episode 137 of This Week In Space, Rod and Tariq talk with Jason Steffen, a member of the science team for the Kepler Space Telescope mission.

© TWiT

The dictionary defines "spacewoman" as simply "a woman astronaut." In the case of its latest usage, though, the term carries more meaning. "Spacewoman" is a new film about Eileen Collins.

© Spacewoman Film

The student-run USC Rocket Propulsion Lab's Aftershock II vehicle soared to an altitude of 470,400 feet last month, higher than any amateur rocket had ever gone before.

© USCRPL

SpaceX has stacked its Starship megarocket ahead of the vehicle's sixth test flight, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday (Nov. 19).

© SpaceX via X

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"

The post SpaceX Starship Flight 6: What to watch for appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

SpaceX is gearing up to launch its next Starship test flight, a mission that will attempt a second catch of the world's largest rocket on Nov. 19. Here's when to watch Starship Flight 6.

© SpaceX via X

Blue Origin has announced the six crewmembers for NS-28, its next suborbital space tourism mission. Among them are 'Space Gal' Emily Calandrelli and two repeat customers.

© Blue Origin

Europe's Hera asteroid probe will use the Red Planet for a gravity assist on its way to scope out the space rock crash site of NASA's DART impactor.

© ESA-Science Office

"We think the water came from the melting of nearby sub-surface ice called permafrost, and that the permafrost melting was caused by magmatic activity that still occurs periodically on Mars to the present day."

© Purdue Brand Studio

Crew-8 commander Matthew Dominick says NASA is carefully making decisions for astronaut safety while the ISS deals with a leak, and spacesuit issues, related to aging hardware.

© NASA

The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office is leading DOD’s efforts with others to document, analyze, and when possible, resolve UAP reports using a rigorous scientific framework and a data-driven approach.

© AARO/Wikimedia Commons

Scientists are trying to figure out how minerals connected to exoplanetary water would look to the James Webb Space Telescope.

© NASA

Excellent quality optics for less than $100 and a free accessory thrown in to boot with this early Black Friday binocular deal.

© Jason Parnell-Brookes

What can be expected of a second Trump administration on space policy? In short, a mixture of continuity and change.

© Space.com / Josh Dinner

China's Chang'e 8 mission to test resource technologies at the moon's south pole is taking shape — and may even include a humanoid form.

© CNSA/CLEP

Apple TV+'s "Silo" Season 2 launches on Nov. 15 and we've got everything you need to catch up with Season 1.

© Apple TV+

AST SpaceMobile, a startup with plans for a direct-to-cellphone satellite service constellation, has chosen Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket to launch some of its next-gen satellites.

© Blue Origin

The annual Leonid meteor shower peaks on Nov. 17, 2024, but a bright moon just two days past full will make viewing this year's Leonids difficult.

© Chris Vaughan/Starry Night

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"

The post JWST just found a black hole starving its host galaxy to death appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Don't miss the Beaver Moon! The last supermoon of the year.

© Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Mark your diaries for the 2026/27 aurora season could be a big one!

© Juan Maria Coy Vergara via Getty Images

Dirk Schulze-Makuch is a scientist who thinks NASA's Viking landers could have inadvertently destroyed the life they were searching for. In this Q&A, we ask why.

© NASA/JPL

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"

The post Draconic fratricide appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

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"

The post The Sky This Week from November 15 to 22: 2024’s last Super Moon occults the Pleiades appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

SpaceX has rolled the Super Heavy first stage of its Starship megarocket out to the launch pad to prep for the vehicle's sixth test flight, which is scheduled for Monday (Nov. 18).

© SpaceX via X

NASA's VortEx experiment launched sounding rockets that created clouds, which will help scientists better understand how energy flows between layers of the atmosphere.

© Ivar Sandland

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"

The post How some black holes maintain long-distance relationships appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is creating a new committee to review and update its "Part 450" launch and reentry licensing rule.

© SpaceX

Samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu have revealed clues about a primordial magnetic field that helped asteroids, planets and moons grow in our solar system.

© JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST

A Long March 7 rocket is set to launch the Tianzhou 8 cargo spacecraft toward China's Tiangong space station on Friday morning (Nov. 15).

© CCTV

Cameras and NOAA weather satellites captured the moment when a meteor exploded into a brilliant fireball over the western U.S. and parts of western Canada.

© AMS/Matthew Craig

The Canon EOS R5 could be the perfect Christmas present as this early Black Friday camera deal has nearly $1500 off the MSRP, its lowest-ever price.

© Canon

Ten years after launching a patchwork of stars from her place in space, Karen Nyberg is calling for quilters to create the moon. The "Lunar Quilt Block Challenge" is now accepting quilt squares.

© NASA

The crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos visits a "cursed" Starbase in 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 5 episode 5.

© Paramount+

Primordial black holes may be exploding throughout the universe. If we can catch them in the act, it could pave the way to new physics, a study suggests.

© Geralt via Pixabay

Author(s): Ryan Wilkinson

The observation of a previously unseen photon delay in the production of quantum light has implications for the development of quantum technologies.

[Physics 17, s130] Published Thu Nov 14, 2024

Grab one of the coolest droids from the Phantom Menace for your Lego Star Wars collection, now at its lowest price this year.

© Future/Amazon

Today, an altitude chamber. Next year, the moon.

© Lockheed Martin/David Wellendorf

Blue Origin showed off its New Glenn rocket after its two stages were mated in the company's Florida facility. The new rocket could take off on its maiden flight as soon as November.

© Blue Origin via X

When stars explode as supernovas, they can cause serious cosmic carnage. Is Earth in any danger from any nearby stars?

© Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

SpaceX launched 24 of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida early this morning (Nov. 14), just five hours after another Starlink liftoff.

© SpaceX via X

Both Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are in good health on the ISS, NASA confirms, despite tabloid rumors suggesting otherwise.

© NASA

Former Virgin Galactic CEO and NASA Chief of Staff George Whitesides won his race to represent California's 27th district in the U.S. Congress.

© David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images

SpaceX launched 20 more of its Starlink internet satellites from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday (Nov. 14).

© SpaceX via X

If you're starting your Christmas shopping early and want an alternative to Amazon, these are the top Black Friday space gifts at Walmart.

© Future

The latest congressional UFO hearing featured testimony from former military personnel who told representatives that excessive government secrecy hides the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos.

© Getty Images/ANDREY DENISYUK

Disney+ and Hulu released a new teaser trailer for all the best shows coming for 2025 including two new 'Star Wars' shows and a new 'Alien' series.

© Disney+

The sun may have swirling polar vortices similar to those on Earth, but powered by a very different source, according to a new study.

© NASA/SDO

SpaceX just rolled the upper stage of its sixth Starship megarocket out to the pad to gear up for its test flight, which is scheduled for Nov. 18.

© SpaceX

The Full Beaver Moon of November 2024 will be the final of four consecutive supermoons this year, appearing slightly larger in the night sky on Friday (Nov. 15).

© Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The cryovolcanic "centaur" comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann has erupted four times in less than 48 hours, becoming unusually bright in the process. It is the most powerful outburst from the city-size oddball in more than three years.

© Alexandra Barymova / Lomonosov Moscow State University Marine Research Center

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"

The post New Starlink satellites could be 32 times brighter in radio waves than before appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Author(s): Agnese Curatolo

A new frequency-based analysis of recordings from neurons in the brain may give insight into brain pathologies such as Parkinson’s disease.

[Physics 17, s145] Published Wed Nov 13, 2024

New evidence found in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado supports the notion that Snowball Earth was indeed a global phenomenon.

© NASA

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured two tangled galaxies, whose interactions have caused knots to form in the constellation Coma Berenice, or the "queen's hair."

© ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz)

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? "

The post Could black holes create dark energy?  appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Crew-8 commander Matthew Dominick says NASA is carefully making decisions for astronaut safety while the ISS deals with a leak, and spacesuit issues, related to aging hardware.

© NASA

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.

The post Under the Tuscan suns appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to 'dismantle government bureaucracy.'

© NASA/Bill Ingalls

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's chief center for planetary exploration, is conducting its second round of layoffs in 2024, reducing its workforce by another 5%.

© NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA astronaut Suni Williams says her weight is stable aboard the International Space Station, rebutting tabloid claims that her orbital stay has made her emaciated.

© NASA

Data from China's Zhurong rover has revealed what appears to be an ancient shoreline streaking through Mars' northern hemisphere.

© China News Service

A new analysis of Voyager 2 data reveals a fresh theory about Uranus's unique magnetosphere.

© NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Is this ode to the Dark Lord of the Sith most impressive or does it choke on its own aspirations?

© Future

Potentially dangerous comets could be spotted many years in advance by following the meteoroid trails they leave near Earth, new research shows.

© Maciej Frolow via Getty Images

A new trailer for Marvel Animation's animated anthology "What If…?" Season 3 has landed

© Disney+

The public can now step into the future of lunar exploration at Space Center Houston by entering an early mockup for Northrop Grumman's Gateway astronaut accommodations around the moon.

© collectSPACE.com

Disney+ announced an official premiere date for "Andor" Season 2, which will return to the streaming service on April 22, 2025.

© Disney+

A new study suggests galaxies in the early universe appear much larger and brighter than expected, precisely as predicted by modified Newtonian dynamics, or MOND.

© NASA

CAS Space successfully launched 15 satellites into Earth orbit, including one for its first foreign client, the Sultanate of Oman.

© VCG/VCG via Getty Images

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?"

The post What is dark energy? appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

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 "

The post ESO captures Dark Wolf Nebula stalking across the Milky Way  appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

China has unveiled the design of a reusable winged shuttle to take cargo to and from the country's Tiangong space station.

© CCTV+

Author(s): Marric Stephens

Researchers have characterized the naturally occurring background radiation hitting a typical quantum circuit—a result that might help with the engineering of devices that are less vulnerable to radiation-induced decoherence.

[Physics 17, s140] Published Tue Nov 12, 2024

Salute the animated sci-fi classic's 25th anniversary with the first-ever visual history of the animated sci-fi series in "The Art of Futurama" from series creator Matt Groening.

© Amazon/Abrams ComicArts

The cryovolcanic "centaur" comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann has erupted four times in less than 48 hours, becoming unusually bright in the process. It is the most powerful outburst from the city-size oddball in more than three years.

© NASA/Spitzer Space Telescope 

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"

The post New astronomy products to be thankful for appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Black hole light echoes are an extreme form of gravitational lensing.

© ESO/M. Kornmesser

Black Friday is almost upon us, and here are the biggest savings we've found on Lego deals so far.

© Space.com/Lego

Scientists found molecules containing nitriles in space — the discovery could shed light on the origins of life as we know it.

© ESA/Herschel/SPIRE

Congress will hold its second hearing in two years aimed at gathering testimony about alleged UFO retrieval programs and the U.S. government's attempt to hide them.

© Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty Images

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.

The post Dust on dust appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

If you're anti-Amazon, we've rounded up the top space gifts from Best Buy you can find this Black Friday.

© Future

Former President Donald J. Trump's return to the White House next January will likely bring big changes to NASA's Artemis program and a renewed sense of urgency to a crewed landing on the moon.

© Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

In all, 12 Americans landed on the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972. Now, both the US and China are preparing to send humans back there this decade.

© 3dScultor/iStock via Getty Images

A brilliant fireball that lit up the skies over four U.S. states this weekend is reported to be from the fiery reentry of a SpaceX Starlink satellite.

© AMS/Jim Saueressig II of Burlington Kansas

NASA's Juno spacecraft has sent back stunning photos of Jupiter, including colorful, chaotic storms swirling through the planet’s atmosphere.

© NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Jackie Branc © CC BY

A 60-year-old tribute to America's first human spaceflight program is standing up to the test of time, but what about the contents of its time capsule not to be opened until 2464?

© Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum

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"

The post The Leonid meteor shower: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

While we wait for the next Mass Effect game, ex-BioWare devs have teamed up with other AAA talent to create new space RPG Exodus.

© Wizards of the Coast

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?"

The post What is the universe expanding into? appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Jupiter has no solid ground, like the grass or dirt you tread here on Earth. But how can that be? If Jupiter doesn’t have a surface, what does it have?

© NASA

Astrophysicists have reconstructed the movement of stars within globular clusters to understand their evolution and origin.

© ESA/Hubble - ESO - SDSS

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the KoreaSat-6A telecom satellite today. It was be the 23rd flight for the rocket's first stage, tying a company record.

© SpaceX via X

Researchers have discovered the first evidence that the brightest accretion disks around supermassive black holes "wobble" as their monstrous occupants drag them around.

© Robert Lea (created with Canva)

SpaceX plans to launch 24 of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Space Coast on Monday (Nov. 11).

© SpaceX

After more than a decade of waiting for a big-screen project that never materialized, Mass Effect is headed to Prime Video.

© EA/BioWare

Is shaping Star Wars’ next live-action era after the tired Marvel Cinematic Universe the right path forward?

© Disney

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will enable scientists to detect the faint light from planets beyond our solar system.

© NASA/Sydney Rohde

On Episode 136 of This Week In Space, Rod and Tariq talk with journalist and author Eric Berger about the rise of SpaceX and Elon Musk's future in US politics and the market.

© TWiT

Fast radio bursts — powerful and poorly understood cosmic eruptions — tend to occur in massive galaxies that host long-dead stars known as magnetars, a new study suggests.

© NRAO Outreach/T. Jarrett (IPAC/Caltech); B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF

China has opened up the first round of applications for researchers who wish to use some of the Chang'e 6 lunar far side samples for research.

© CNSA

Gilmour Space has received Australia's first orbital launch license for the test flight of its Eris rocket

© Gilmour Space Technologies

The Arecibo Observatory collapsed in 2020, and a new report suggests a zinc decay was to blame for its death.

© Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images

NASA is not yet providing details about what caused a SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut to be hospitalized late last month, citing medical privacy concerns.

© NASA

Boom Supersonic's XB-1 aircraft set a new speed record during its latest test flight on Nov. 5, marking a major milestone toward flying at supersonic speeds.

© Boom Supersonic

On top of the previously announced standalone big-screen projects, a new trilogy of Star Wars movies is now in active development at Lucasfilm.

© Lucasfilm/Disney

A small asteroid burned up in Earth's atmosphere off the coast of California just hours after being discovered and before impact monitoring systems had registered its trajectory.

© ESA NEO Toolkit

China aims to develop its own reusable megarocket over the coming decade, and it will look a lot like SpaceX's Starship vehicle.

© SpaceX

SpaceX's Dragon performed an orbital boost maneuver for the ISS; a first for the spacecraft, and a small step toward the space station's ultimate doom.

© NASA/Don Pettit

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"

The post How carbon dioxide glaciers gave Mars liquid water appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Axiom Space of Houston is considering using launch vehicles from India and Europe to help build its commercial space station mission in low-Earth orbit.

© Axiom Space

University students tested 3D-printed rovers designed to emulate Europe's Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover that is slated to launch to the Martian surface by 2028.

© ESA-SJM Photography

The Celestron NexStar 8SE is on offer for $300 off ahead of Black Friday, which is cheaper than when it was on offer over Prime Day.

© Fututre/Amazon

Huge shells of frozen carbon dioxide at Mars' south polar cap resulted in subsurface meltwater, which fed a huge system of rivers, lakes and even a sea, a new study suggests.

© Peter Buhler/PSI

Author(s): Michael Schirber

A theoretical model shows that exchange of information plays a key role in the molecular machines found in biological cells.

[Physics 17, 162] Published Fri Nov 08, 2024

The latest entry in the xenomorph franchise chestbursts its way onto Hulu on Nov. 21 when 'Alien: Romulus' finally gets its streaming premiere.

© 20th Century Studios

Beaverlab claims that this inexpensive AI-powered telescope will let you capture the cosmos in stunning 4K — we put it to the test.

© Future

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"

The post How to see a Saturn ring mirage appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

A 3D map of our cosmic neighborhood has revealed hot and cold regions as well as an "escape tunnel" from our local bubble.

© Michael Yeung / MPE

Saturn gets close to the moon tonight, and some skywatchers in Florida, Central America and South America will see the ringed planet briefly disappear behind our lunar companion.

© Chris Vaughan/Starry Night

The Moai statues of Easter Island have some of the best views of the night sky on Earth.

© Josh Dury

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"

The post SpaceX: Starship Flight 6 coming later this month appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

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"

The post The Sky This Week from November 8 to 15: Catch the Leonids early appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Russia launched 53 small satellites into orbit on Monday (Nov. 4), including two for Iran. The 51 Russian payloads were a single-launch record for the country.

© Roscosmos

Earth observation technology is set to play a larger role in how agencies respond to natural disasters and weather events.

© Pléiades NEO © Airbus DS, provided under Copernicus by the European Union and ESA

Rafael made landfall in Cuba Wednesday (Nov. 6), and NOAA's GOES satellites have been monitoring the storm every step of the way.

© NOAA/CIRA

Author(s): Matteo Rini

Two dark matter searches report that their detectors have likely recorded neutrinos coming from the Sun—spotting the “neutrino fog” that could imperil future dark matter searches.

[Physics 17, 161] Published Thu Nov 07, 2024

A new species of tardigrades with thousands of genes that become more active when exposed to radiation could help in devising better protection for astronauts on long missions.

© STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images

Intuitive Machines' lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) is not your grandfather's moon buggy. The company's Moon RACER, or Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover, just made its public debut.

© collectSPACE.com

When the 'God of chaos' asteroid Apophis makes an ultraclose flyby of Earth in 2029, our planet's gravity may trigger tremors and landslides that totally change the asteroid's surface.

© ESA - P.Carril

NASA astronaut Suni Williams is in good health aboard the ISS, despite some speculation in the media to the contrary, agency officials stress.

© NASA

The USS Cerritos' avian psychologist gets a taste of his homeworld.

© Paramount+

With its purposeful design, does the Hawke Endurance live up to its good looks?

© Matt Morris

NASA's building a quiet fan to help future astronauts have some peace and quiet.

© NASA

NASA's revolutionary X-59 jet is steadily progressing toward its first flight test after completing a set of engine run tests at the storied Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in California.

© NASA/Carla Thomas

Scientists are tracking the evolution of comet Hale-Bopp, one of the brightest comets ever seen.

© NASA

Author(s): Charles Day

Crystals that have both a particular structure and a particular combination of electronic orbitals can be simultaneously ferromagnetic and ferroelectric.

[Physics 17, s131] Published Thu Nov 07, 2024

Saturday Night Live released a heart-wrenching skit about Beppo the astronaut monkey.

© Saturday Night Live

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"

The post Five ‘shy,’ lesser-known deep-sky gems to observe appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

The data from the reboost, scheduled for Nov. 8, will help inform design for a larger Dragon to deorbit the ISS.

© NASA

Venus' wrinkled, deformed "tesserae" terrain may be ancient impact features the size of continents, a new study suggests.

© NASA/JPL

SpaceX plans to launch 20 Starlink internet satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, from California early Saturday morning (Nov. 9).

© SpaceX via X

A X2.3 solar flare Wednesday morning (Nov. 6), leading to shortwave radio blackouts for parts of the southern hemisphere.

© NASA/SDO/Helioviewer

The hungriest known black hole in the early universe has been found, thanks to teamwork between NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory.

© NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/M. Zamani

President-elect Donald Trump had high words of praise for Elon Musk and SpaceX during his election night victory speech, mentioning twice that he did not know what Starlink satellites were.

© Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty Images

SpaceX's Starship megarocket will fly for the sixth time ever on Nov. 18, on a test flight that will include another dramatic booster catch.

© SpaceX

The United States military test-launched an unarmed nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Nov. 5, 2024.

© U.S. Space Force photo by Airman 1st Class Olga Houtsma

SpaceX plans to launch another batch of its Starlink internet satellites on Thursday afternoon (Nov. 7) from Florida's Space Coast.

© SpaceX

A Centaur III propellant tank and its rocket engine stand on display at Los Angeles Air Force Base as a testament to its service to both the United States' military and civilian space missions.

© United Launch Alliance

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"

The post Learn the difference between common astronomical terms appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

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"

The post A meteoric volley appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

A preview of Paramount's new "Interstellar" 10th anniversary limited edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray set.

© Paramount

Author(s): Michael Schirber

By repeatedly applying coats of a hardening polymer to a surface, researchers have created rubbery stalactite-like formations that could be useful in soft robotics.

[Physics 17, s138] Published Wed Nov 06, 2024

Despite the rapid growth in the number of space travellers, underrepresented population groups are still left behind, particularly those with disabilities. So how can space agencies and “space tourism” companies make spaceflight more inclusive for disabled astronauts?

© ESA/Novespace

The moon is getting smaller in the window.

© ESA/JAXA

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"

The post We’re entering the era of private space stations appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

We're about to learn more about the solar wind, thanks to NASA's Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX), which just arrived at the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft.

© CODEX Team/NASA

Using NASA's Chandra spacecraft, astronomers have found "danger zones" for worlds where planet-birthing disks are blasted with high-energy radiation from massive young stars and rapidly disintegrate.

© X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Drake et al, IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Spitzer; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

A celestial light show illuminates a distant spiral galaxy, where a hidden supernova briefly outshines its stellar neighbors in a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

© ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Fox, L. Jenkins, S. Van Dyk, A. Filippenko, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, D. de Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)

A fresh analysis of decades-old X-ray black hole jet data has revealed bright, lumpy features with mysterious speed changes.

© Used under a CC-BY 4.0 license from D. Bogensberger et al. Astrophys. J. (2024) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad73a1

LignoSat could help change the way we build satellites.

© STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images

The 6mm hole was discovered accidentally in footage from an onboard camera.

© NanoAvionics

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 "

The post Starmus La Palma: The Island of Stars lineup revealed  appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

An old galaxy reveals clusters of young stars that have formed in an unusually synchronized fashion, challenging the idea that star formation declines as galaxies age.

© ESO/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/A. Prieto et al./Fornax Deep Survey

NASA's Parker Solar Probe swoops in for its seventh and final swing past Venus ahead of its history-making encounter with the sun on Christmas Eve.

© NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

Author(s): Susan Curtis

A theoretical analysis suggests that a novel “twisting “microscope could offer new insights into the exotic electronic behavior of layered 2D materials.

[Physics 17, 160] Published Tue Nov 05, 2024

A new design competition, dubbed Project Hyperion, is calling for submissions for the design of a crewed interstellar generation ship.

© 3000ad/Getty Images

A review of Netflix's new "The Man Who Loved UFOs," a film exploring a 1986 flying saucer hoax that captured the attention of a nation.

© Netflix

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?"

The post Could a methane crust be keeping Titan warm? appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

NASA astronauts can vote from space, but why can't they endorse political candidates? As it turns out, U.S. federal law specifically prohibits them from doing so.

© NASA

While you can get good discounts during both shopping events, we take a look at which is better between Black Friday and the Christmas sales.

© Getty Images

Author(s): Nikhil Karthik

A low-energy signature of physics beyond the standard model fails to appear in proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

[Physics 17, s137] Published Tue Nov 05, 2024

Matthew McConaughey narrates four new cinematic teaser trailers for out-of-this-world alien creatures in upcoming sci-fi role playing game "Exodus."

© Archetype

"This is incredibly exciting, as up to now we have not had a tool for detecting plastics in coastal environments from space."

© RMIT University/Maxar Technologies

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"

The post This famous black hole system is actually a triple appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

The neutron star 4U 1820-30 is one of the fastest spinning bodies in the universe, spinning at 716 times a second and erupting like an atomic bomb, NASA's NICER telescope has found.

© Robert Lea (created with Canva)

A joint Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) project to learn more about the dusty disk around the bright star Vega has found a surprising lack of planets.

© NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, S. Wolff (University of Arizona), K. Su (University of Arizona), A. Gáspár (University of Arizona)

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"

The post Explore the science of rainbows appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

China's Einstein Probe, an X-ray telescope in Earth orbit, has already made several discoveries during its initial commissioning phase.

© Chinese Academy of Sciences

You can save $300 on this early Black Friday VR headset deal as the HTC VIVE Pro 2 headset, the best high-resolution model out there, is on offer.

© Future/Walmart

AstroForce has received a commercial license for operating and communicating with a mission headed to a near-Earth asteroid, the first to be granted for beyond Earth orbit.

© AstroForge

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"

The post Universe, Discovered: Hera launches to asteroid crash scene appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Dragon completed its docking at 10:04 a.m. EST.

© NASA

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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India plans to launch astronauts to Earth orbit no sooner than 2026, roughly a year past the previously known timeline, following a series of uncrewed flight tests slated to begin in December.

© ISRO

In a rare show of openness about the X-37B, Boeing Space released a video detailing how the space plane's aerobraking maneuvers help change the spacecraft's orbit.

© Boeing Space

There are four Americans currently living in space, and each has had the opportunity to add their voice to the more than 160 million other Americans able to participate in the 2024 Presidential election.

© NASA

Microgravity makes water do weird and wonderful things. NASA astronaut Don Pettit took advantage of that fact to create a colorful ball that resembles Jupiter.

© NASA/JPL-Caltech

Jupiter has dozens of moons. Four of them in particular are of interest to planetary scientists.

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

What was Kylo Ren up to between "The Last Jedi" and "The Rise of Skywalker?" Marvel's new comic book series has the answers.

© Marvel Comics

Don't miss the Taurid meteor shower peak with colorful fireballs and shooting stars this week

© Chris Vaughan/Starry Night

Author(s): W. Michael Snow

By exploiting polarized-gas collisions, researchers have conducted a sensitive search for exotic spin-dependent interactions, placing new constraints on a dark matter candidate called the axion.

[Physics 17, 157] Published Mon Nov 04, 2024

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"

The post Here are the nine sites where Artemis 3 might land on the Moon appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

With both Alien and Predator back in action, here's what we can learn from their first big-screen crossover two decades ago.

© 20th Century Studios

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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Mars' global magnetic field may have hung around for 200 million years longer than scientists had thought, possibly giving life a longer window to take hold on the Red Planet.

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS

SpaceX scrubbed a planned launch of 23 Starlink satellites on Sunday (Nov. 3) due to a helium issue in the first stage of the company's Falcon 9 rocket.

© SpaceX via X

Liftoff is scheduled for 9:29 p.m. ET today (Nov. 4).

© SpaceX

Monday evening (Nov. 4), the night before Election Day, will bring a lovely celestial display involving the two brightest objects in the nighttime sky: the moon and Venus.

© Chris Vaughan/Starry Night

Over 100 astronomers from leading U.S. universities have signed an open letter calling for an assessment of potential impacts of satellite megaconstellations on Earth's environment.

© SpaceX

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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Rocket Lab plans to launch a mission for a "confidential commercial customer" early Tuesday morning (Nov. 5), and you can watch the action live.

© Rocket Lab

Japan launched the Kirameki 3 military communications satellite Monday morning (Nov. 4), on the fourth-ever flight of the country's H3 rocket.

© JAXA

Space.com has an exclusive three-page preview of IDW's new "Star Trek: Lower Decks #1" comic.

© IDW

Disney is returning to the Grid with "Tron: Ares" in 2025, but the threat may be in the real world this time around.

© Disney

Duff Goldman, the host of the Food Network show "Ace of Cakes," has for a third year brought a space-themed cake to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

© Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex