Mission Highlight: New Shepard’s research-packed flight Blue Origin is set to launch its NS-35 New Shepard mission from West Texas on Thursday. The flight is dedicated entirely to science and research, providing several minutes of microgravity for more than 40 payloads. The manifest includes 24 student-led experiments from NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge, covering topics fromContinue reading "Shepard’s science flight leads week of launches"

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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out in the morning while it’s still dark, just before astronomical twilight, look to the east, and try to see the elusive zodiacal light. It will have a triangular shape, like an upside-down cone, and it will extend along the belt of the zodiac,Continue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Zodiacal light"

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Rob Lyons from Vancouver, British Columbia The Milky Way meets the horizon on the shores of Mackenzie Beach (Tinwis) on Vancouver Island, accompanied by a glow of bioluminescent plankton in this shot taken with a Sony a7S III mirrorless camera and 14mm f/1.4 l ens. The sky was twenty 13-second subframes and the foreground isContinue reading "Cosmic shoreline"

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How is the total mass of the universe calculated? Bob GiddingsGreen Bay, Wisconsin Calculating the total mass of the universe is not simple, because most of the mass is invisible. In a pie chart of the contents of the universe, only 5 percent is normal matter, atoms that make up all the planets, stars, andContinue reading "How is the total mass of the universe calculated?"

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After over 7,000 days in space, the Cassini mission ended on Sept. 15, 2017. Since its Oct. 15, 1997 launch, the spacecraft had returned a wealth of new knowledge and images of Saturn and its moons. Thanks to Cassini’s observations, researchers discovered liquid methane lakes on Titan, the potential habitability of Enceladus and the geysersContinue reading "Sept. 15, 2017, Cassini’s Grand Finale"

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Now roughly 14th magnitude, Comet C/2024 E1 Wierzchoś is ripe for spotting with an 8-inch scope. With no Moon in the evening sky, darkness is on your side; and tonight and tomorrow night, the comet lies just 0.5° from 5th-magnitude Iota (ι) Coronae Borealis, the easternmost star in the curved Northern Crown.  Around 9 P.M.Continue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, September 15: Comet Wierzchoś curves through the Northern Crown"

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On Sept. 14, 1915, John Dobson was born in Bejing. His family moved to San Francisco to avoid political turmoil in China in 1927, and Dobson went on to attend the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in chemistry. Then, in 1944, he entered the Ramakrishna Order. During his 23 years as a monk, Dobson’s personalContinue reading "Sept. 14, 1915: The birth of John Dobson"

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Last Quarter Moon occurs at 6:33 A.M. EDT, standing high in the early-morning sky. You can catch it before dawn in northeastern Taurus, located within 1° of the magnitude 1.7 star Beta (β) Tauri, also called Elnath. This star marks the tip of one of Taurus’ two horns, but has an interesting dual identity: ItContinue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, September 14: The Last Quarter Moon meets Elnath"

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A joint NASA-ESA mission, the Ulysses solar probe launched Oct. 6, 1990, from the Space Shuttle Discovery. The mission was tasked with studying the solar wind, mapping the heliosphere, and becoming the first craft to study and chart the solar poles in detail. Equipped with a magnetometer, ion composition gauge, and instruments to measure radioContinue reading "Sept. 13, 1994: Ulysses at the Sun’s south pole"

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Jupiter and Venus lead the Sun into the early-morning sky, rising around 1:30 A.M. and 4:15 A.M. local daylight time, respectively. Jupiter stands some 7.5° to the right of the bright star Pollux in Gemini as they rise. Magnitude 1.2 Pollux marks the head of one twin, while just above it, magnitude 1.6 Castor marksContinue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, September 13: Jupiter and Venus in the morning"

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NASA announced Wednesday that its Perseverance rover discovered what scientists are calling a “potential biosignature” in a rock on Mars last year. This signature, which may have a biological origin but requires further study, represents the most compelling evidence to date for ancient microbial life on Mars, scientists and agency officials said in a pressContinue reading "NASA announces strongest evidence yet for ancient life on Mars"

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Author(s): Sachin Rawat

Experiments with small, floating slabs of ice have revealed melting-induced shape changes that may explain why icebergs sometimes flip over.

[Physics 18, 159] Published Fri Sep 12, 2025

Less than two years after the successful launch of Sputnik 1, the Soviet Union put a spacecraft on the Moon. Launched Sept. 12, 1959, Luna 2 traveled over 30 hours to crash-land on the lunar surface. The impact happened at a speed of about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) per second, and represented the first contactContinue reading "Sept. 12, 1959: Luna 2 launches"

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Author(s): Charles Day

An array of tiny spring-loaded mirrors creates intricate patterns of UV light for trapping and manipulating cold atoms.

[Physics 18, s113] Published Thu Sep 11, 2025

Tianyao Yang, taken from Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, China The Chinese space station Tiangong (or “heavenly palace”) crosses the disk of the Moon during the lunar eclipse of Sept. 7/8. The transit was captured in 22 frames over 0.72 second just before 12:58 a.m. Chinese standard time and was blended with a high dynamic range (HDR)Continue reading "A palace on the Moon"

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Mars passes 2° north of Virgo’s bright alpha star Spica at 4 A.M. EDT. Neither is visible at that time, but you can catch them in the evening sky shortly after sunset. You’ll want to be quick, though — they set before 9 P.M. local daylight time and are already low in the west 40Continue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, September 12: Mars moves past Spica"

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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, September 12Mars passes 2° north of 1st-magnitude Spica in Virgo at 4 A.M. EDT, though neither has risen at this time (they rise in daylight, after sunrise). By evening, the pair is sinking in the west, but quick observers can catch them. AboutContinue reading "The Sky This Week from September 12 to 19: Catch Comet Wierzchoś in Corona Borealis"

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Gianni Tumino, taken from Ragusa, Sicily, Italy The Moon exiting its total eclipse of Sept. 7 is captured in this long-exposure composite, combining over 2,000 two-second exposures taken at with a Canon DSLR and 20mm lens at f/5.6 and ISO 800.

The post Blazing a trail appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

We’ve all identified Pegasus in the sky, right? It’s easy to see the Great Square, notwithstanding that one of the stars belongs to Andromeda. The constellation Pegasus represents the mythological winged horse. But did you know that the sky holds a second horse? On Pegasus’ southwest border sits Equuleus — and, by the way, theContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Find Equuleus"

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Author(s): Salvatore Rappoccio

A deep neural network has proven essential in confirming a key prediction of one of the standard model’s cornerstones.

[Physics 18, 155] Published Wed Sep 10, 2025

Author(s): Chiara M. F. Mingarelli

The clearest black hole merger signal ever measured has allowed researchers to test the Kerr nature of black holes and validate Stephen Hawking’s black hole area theorem.

[Physics 18, 160] Published Wed Sep 10, 2025

Author(s): Marric Stephens

Primordial black holes could be stabilized by a dark, electromagnetic-like interaction, delaying their violent end until the present day.  

[Physics 18, s112] Published Wed Sep 10, 2025

Launched as the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 in 1978, a joint NASA-ESA mission, the ISEE-3 probe studied the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field from the L1 Lagrange point. When its mission was complete in 1981, NASA proposed repurposing the craft by using it to intercept a comet; such reuse would save the money and timeContinue reading "Sept. 11, 1985: The ICE probe encounters Comet Giacobini-Zinner"

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Saturn draws attention tonight as its largest and brightest moon, Titan, slips behind the disk of the planet late this evening in an occultation. You can find Saturn just over 30° high in the southeast tonight, shining at magnitude 0.6 in Pisces. It’s easy to find without optical aid as the brightest point of lightContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, September 11: Titan passes behind Saturn"

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Some amateur astronomers love observing awards. They pursue them with vigor and eagerly await the appearance of the next list of objects. Other amateurs couldn’t care less about them. They would rather not be bothered filling out forms or submitting log entries, however much they may like the objects on the list itself. Personally, IContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Observing Awards"

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Yevgeny Khrunov was born Sept. 10, 1933, in Prudy, Russia. A Soviet Air Force pilot, he was selected as one of the first cosmonauts on Feb. 25, 1960, along with 19 others including Yuri Gagarin, Aleksei Leonov, and Andriyan Nikolayev. Though not part of the Vanguard Six, Khrunov would make history on the Soyuz 4/SoyuzContinue reading "Sept. 10, 1933: The birth of Yevgeny Khrunov"

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Author(s): Ryan Wilkinson

A minuscule diamond containing billions of impurities can be induced to produce enough force to bend a cantilever.

[Physics 18, s109] Published Tue Sep 09, 2025

Anushtup Roy Choudhury, taken from Kolkata, India The total lunar eclipse of Sept. 7 appears deep red in this high dynamic range (HDR) image. The imager used a 6-inch Dobsonian and Sony a7C II mirrorless camera to take a stack of 100 frames, plus an overexposed frame to bring out the details in Earth’s shadow.

The post Blood Moon in HDR appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Venus, currently moving east through the sky, has now passed from Cancer into Leo and rises within the domain of the Lion around 4 A.M. local daylight time, more than two hours before the Sun. Around 5:30 A.M. local daylight time, Venus has reached 15° high in the east and has been followed into theContinue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, September 10: Venus moves into Leo"

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Recently, the results of a 250-day experiment to refine a particular motion of our planet were published in the journal Science Advances. Lead author K. Ulrich Schreiber from the TUM Institute of Engineering for Astronomical and Physical Geodesy in Ottobrunn, Germany, said, “We have made great progress in measuring the Earth. What our ring laser canContinue reading "A more precise measure of Earth’s wobble"

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When Edward Emerson Barnard peered through the 36-inch refractor at Lick Observatory on Sept. 9, 1892, and spotted Amalthea, it marked the first discovery of a moon of Jupiter in 280 years. Galileo had discovered the four largest jovian moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – in 1610. Though this fifth moon was closerContinue reading "Sept. 9, 1892: Edward Emerson Barnard sees Amalthea"

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Josh Jones/Kaptas Attila, taken from Río Hurtado, Chile Cold, dense swirls of dust blot out the colorful emission and reflected light from the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex in this image comprising 70.4 hours of RGB exposure taken with a 6-inch scope. A higher-resolution, scrollable version is available on AstroBin.

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Author(s): Kyle G. Leach

A Bose-Einstein condensate of radioactive atoms could turn into a source of intense, coherent, and directional neutrino beams, according to a theoretical proposal.

[Physics 18, 157] Published Mon Sep 08, 2025

The bright star Fomalhaut stands prominently in the south late tonight, rising around 8:30 P.M. local daylight time. At magnitude 1.2, it outshines all other stars in this region. Fomalhaut is also cataloged as Alpha Piscis Austrini, the luminary of Piscis Austrinus the Southern Fish. It lies at the eastern end of this constellation, beneathContinue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, September 9: Meet Fomalhaut of the Southern Fish"

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An interest in astronomy may strike early in life or later. Regardless of what lit the fire of that interest, you need knowledge to help you understand the universe. Some of the most important sources of information are the many beginner’s guides on astronomy. No matter what form these guides may take, they provide theContinue reading "Top 15 guide books for astronomy beginners"

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Marco Meniero from Civitavecchia, Italy The total lunar eclipse (or “Blood Moon”) of Sept. 7 was visible to most of the world outside of the Americas. Here, it hangs over the Colosseum in Rome in a two-exposure composite taken with a Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera and 70–200mm lens.

The post Blood at the Colosseum appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out during the early morning hours the second week of September. It’s then when you’ll see the Moon pass by the Pleiades star cluster. Also known as M45, this group of stars resembles a tiny dipper. The Pleiades is bright, so you’ll see itContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Moon and the Pleiades"

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Do dwarf galaxies have a large black hole in the center? Duane MorsePhoenix, Arizona Nearly all massive galaxies are known to host central black holes. And dwarf galaxies can indeed also host central black holes, but whether all or only a fraction of them do remains an open question in astronomy.  Until recently, astronomers hadContinue reading "Do dwarf galaxies have a large black hole in the center?"

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On Sept. 8, 2016, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission launched from Cape Canaveral, setting off on its 4.4-billion-mile (2 billion kilometers) journey to asteroid Bennu. About the size of an SUV, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft carries several cameras, an altimeter used to create maps of Bennu, and anContinue reading "Sept. 8, 2016: OSIRIS-REx launches"

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The Moon passes 4° north of Saturn at 4 P.M. EDT. Two hours later, the Moon passes 3° north of Neptune at 6 P.M. EDT.  Both planets rise around 8 P.M. local daylight time in southwestern Pisces. They hang below the Circlet asterism and stand some 30° high in the southeast by 11 P.M. localContinue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, September 8: The Moon passes Saturn and Neptune"

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James Van Allen, who was born in Iowa on Sept. 7, 1914, showed talent and interest in science and math from an early age. A major in physics from Wesleyan College in 1935 was followed by a Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 1939. Before and after World War II – during which he developed antiaircraftContinue reading "Sept. 7, 1914: The birth of James Van Allen"

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Full Moon occurs this morning 2:09 P.M. EDT. September’s Full Moon is also called the Corn Moon.  Often, September’s Full Moon carries a second name: the Harvest Moon. This name is given to the Full Moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox, which is September 22 this year. However, this year October’s Full MoonContinue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, September 7: The Full Corn Moon"

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The fall of 1618 was a standout when it came to notable comets, boasting three visible to the naked eye. In late August, C/1618 Q1 appeared, first spotted in the skies over Hungary. Johannes Kepler observed the comet throughout the month of September, spotting it from Linz, Austria, through a small telescope on Sept. 6.Continue reading "Sept. 6, 1618: The first comet seen through a telescope"

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Author(s): Rachel Berkowitz

Experiments on freezing saltwater have teased apart flow dynamics inside ice pores, offering a possible boost to climate models’ predictive power.

[Physics 18, 156] Published Fri Sep 05, 2025

Uranus stands stationary at 1 A.M. EDT, bringing its prograde (easterly) motion through Taurus the Bull to an end. Now it will begin moving westward, or retrograde, relative to the background stars, although its motion appears quite minuscule from day to day, thanks to its vast distance of some 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers)Continue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, September 6: Uranus stands still"

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Although Aquila ranks 22nd in size among the 88 constellations, it contains no Messier objects or emission nebulae and few bright star clusters. Still, you’ll want to point your telescope 3.8° north-northwest of magnitude 3.4 Delta Aquilae to observe the wonderful planetary nebula NGC 6781. It glows at magnitude 11.4 and has a diameter ofContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Observe NGC 6781"

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Mark Johnston from Scottsdale, Arizona A filament winds its way across the surface of the Sun, with a sunspot at the bottom appearing to form a question mark. The imager captured this Hα shot with a 6-inch scope (with energy rejection filter) and a double-stacked 0.3-angstrom filter and etalon.

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From Oct. 2–5 2025, the International Astronomical Union Office for Astronomy Outreach (IAU OAO) and the International Planetarium Society (IPS), two of the world’s leading organizations dedicated to public engagement with astronomy, will team up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first planetarium. To mark the occasion, the organizations will deliver a 100-hour marathonContinue reading "IAU’s ‘100 Hours of Astronomy’ celebrates 100 years of the planetarium"

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NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory is the agency’s flagship mission for X-ray astronomy. On Sept. 5, 2001, NASA announced that astronomers using Chandra in October of the previous year had witnessed a fast, strong X-ray flare coming from the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. This black hole, named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*)Continue reading "Sept. 5, 2001: The Milky Way has a black hole"

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Author(s): Rachel Berkowitz

Eric Ghysels made a name for himself in financial econometrics and time-series analysis. Now he translates financial models into quantum algorithms.

[Physics 18, 154] Published Thu Sep 04, 2025

Author(s): Charles Day

Two main mechanisms can flip the orientation of antiferromagnetic domains. Researchers have determined when one prevails over the other.

[Physics 18, s111] Published Thu Sep 04, 2025

Author(s): Michael Schirber

Researchers suggest that unambiguous signals of quantum gravity could appear in future tabletop experiments with gravitationally interacting objects.

[Physics 18, s119] Published Thu Sep 04, 2025

Rising before midnight and visible all morning long until dawn, the distant planet Uranus now resides within the domain of Taurus the Bull. Its current location makes it easier than usual to find, just 4.5° south-southeast of the Pleiades (M45). By 4 A.M. local daylight time, the region is some 60° high in the east,Continue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, September 5: Discover distant Uranus"

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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, September 5Look north late this evening to spot the constellation Camelopardalis slowly rising away from the horizon. Located just beneath W-shaped Cassiopeia around 11 P.M. local daylight time, Camelopardalis is home to a famous asterism called Kemble’s Cascade, a line of several starsContinue reading "The Sky This Week from September 5 to 12: A Full Moon and a lunar eclipse"

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Rob Lyons, taken from Vancouver, Canada WR 134 in Cygnus, lies about 6,200 light-years away, surrounded by intricate wisps of ionized gas that it blew off in its exceptionally powerful stellar wind. This image combines 26 hours of 5-minute exposures using dual 8-inch telescopes — one with an Hα/OIII dual-band filter and one-shot color camera,Continue reading "Wind-blown shells"

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A planet’s mantle — the vast layer that lies sandwiched between its crust and core — preserves crucial evidence about planetary origin and evolution. Unlike Earth, where active plate tectonics continually stirs the mantle, Mars is a smaller planet with a single-plate surface. As such, its mantle undergoes far less mixing, meaning it may preserve a record of theContinue reading "Mars’ underground preserves its ancient past"

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Born in Kath, Khwarezm – a region that today would be cover parts of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan – Abu Raihan Muhammad al-Biruni was a man of many scientific talents. His extensive travels throughout the Middle East and modern India and his self-education in Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, and Sanskrit helped him produce respected works inContinue reading "Sept. 4, 973 C.E.: The birth of al-Biruni"

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Author(s): Charles Day

A simulation of unprecedented resolution explains how Earth could possess a magnetic-field-generating dynamo before the planet’s inner core began to solidify.

[Physics 18, 153] Published Wed Sep 03, 2025

Author(s): Rachel Berkowitz

An optical-lattice experiment offers a platform for observing dynamics of particle–antiparticle pair creation in quantum field theories.

[Physics 18, s106] Published Wed Sep 03, 2025

We’re focused on Saturn early this morning to catch a transit of Titan together with its shadow across the ringed world.  The shadow transits first, beginning at 1 A.M. EDT (note this is early on the 4th in the eastern half of the U.S. but late on the 3rd in the Mountain and Pacific timeContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, September 4: Titan transits Saturn"

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During an Aug. 14 appearance on Fox Business, Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy declared that the agency’s mission is “to explore, not to do all of these earth sciences,” signaling a potential shift away from NASA’s decades-long role in Earth observation and climate research. Duffy later softened his stance during an Aug. 18 visit toContinue reading "As NASA pushes for Mars, critics insist the mission starts at home"

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President Donald Trump has announced that the U.S. Space Command will relocate from Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

The post U.S. Space Command relocating to Alabama appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Chris Schur, taken form Happy Jack, Arizona While the Andromeda Galaxy is the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way, the irregular dwarf galaxy NGC 6822 — also known as Barnard’s Galaxy — is our nearest galactic neighbor, lying just outside our galaxy’s gravitational influence at a distance of 1.6 million light-years. It can beContinue reading "Cirrus around Barnard’s Galaxy"

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An international team of astronomers has made the unexpected discovery of a new planet. Detected at an early stage of formation around a young Sun-like star, the planet is estimated to be about 5 million years old and most likely a gas giant of similar to Jupiter. The study, Wide Separation Planets in Time (WISPIT),Continue reading "Astronomers find a planet forming around a young star"

The post Astronomers find a planet forming around a young star appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

Author(s): Michael Schirber

The final results from the Muon g − 2 experiment agree with the latest predictions of the muon’s magnetic properties—letting down hopes that the particle would upset the standard model’s applecart.

[Physics 18, 150] Published Tue Sep 02, 2025

Author(s): Tarik Yefsah

A new technique allows the imaging of an atomic system in which the interatomic spacing is smaller than the optical-resolution limit.

[Physics 18, 152] Published Tue Sep 02, 2025

Author(s): Ryan Wilkinson

A proposed method could help scientists coax simple atomic systems into quantum states that have useful, tailored properties.

[Physics 18, s102] Published Tue Sep 02, 2025

Only a little over a month after Viking 1 landed on Mars, Viking 2 followed suit. Though the two Viking landers touched down in different locations, they used identical spacecraft and had the same mission: to create global maps of Mars, observe weather patterns, investigate the surface, measure temperatures, and search for life. Viking 2Continue reading "Sept. 3, 1976: Viking 2 reaches Mars"

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After 43 years with Astronomy, including 23 years as Editor-in-Chief, David J. Eicher is transitioning to a new role as the magazine’s Editor Emeritus. Eicher is one of the most widely recognized astronomy enthusiasts in the world, and his contributions to the field are immeasurable. His passion for astronomy and science communication has been oneContinue reading "Dave Eicher steps into emeritus role at Astronomy magazine"

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With a waxing Moon lighting the sky for most of the night, we’re focusing on brighter stars this evening. Our target for tonight is a famous asterism that is currently visible all night long. You can catch it already above the horizon in the east an hour after the Sun disappears, then follow its progressContinue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, September 3: The Great Square of Pegasus"

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Vikas Chander, taken from Rio Hurtado, Chile The Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334) and the Lobster Nebula (NGC 6357) lie in Scorpius at distances of 5,500 light-years and 8,000 light-years, respectively. This vista is filled with the red glow of hydrogen and blue hues from oxygen, both ionized by young stars forming within these massiveContinue reading "The Cat’s Paw and the Lobster"

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