📷: Ogetay Kayali from Houghton, Michigan Three objects fill this frame in the constellation Cepheus. At far right is the Shark Nebula (LDN 1235), at center left is the Wolf’s Cave Nebula (LDN 1217), and in the upper left corner is … well, what looks like a piece of toast to this imager, who proposedContinue reading "I propose a Toast"
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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. October 13: The Moon reaches Last Quarter The Moon rises together with Jupiter around midnight on October 13 and are visible into the early-morning hours of October 14. The Moon lies just to the lower left of bright Jupiter; the planet isContinue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, October 14: Look south for Pluto and M75"
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On Oct. 13, 1773, Charles Messier spotted the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) for the first time. Writing of it a few months later, he described the object as a “very faint nebula without any stars”; it would become the 51st entry in his famous catalog of non-comets. In 1781, Messier’s friend and fellow astronomer Pierre MechainContinue reading "Oct. 13, 1773: The discovery of the Whirlpool Galaxy"
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Mission highlight: SpaceX Starship Test Flight 11 This week’s highlighted mission is the eleventh integrated flight test of SpaceX’s Starship. Liftoff from Starbase in Texas is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 13, with the launch window opening at 7:15 p.m. EDT. A livestream will begin here about 30 minutes before liftoff. The upcoming flight will buildContinue reading "How to watch today’s Starship Test Flight 11 launch"
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Nearly 300 space advocates from across the United States converged on Capitol Hill on Oct. 6 for a “Save NASA Science” Day of Action, pressing lawmakers to protect the agency’s budget. The event, organized by The Planetary Society and a coalition of 20 science and education organizations, took place against the backdrop of a federalContinue reading "Advocates rally to “Save NASA Science” amidst government shutdown"
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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out in the early morning hours of October 14 to view the Moon close to Jupiter, which lies in the constellation Gemini the Twins. Although the Moon won’t be at its brightest, it still spreads a lot of light into the sky. But JupiterContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Moon meets Jupiter"
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Is the New Moon ever visible? If so, can it be seen without a telescope? Esther BockMilwaukee, Wisconsin The New Moon is typically invisible to the naked eye. It occurs when the Moon is positioned between Earth and the Sun, with its illuminated side facing away from us. As a result, the side we seeContinue reading "Is the New Moon ever visible?"
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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. October 12: The Saturn Nebula shines Last Quarter Moon occurs this afternoon at 2:13 P.M. EDT. A few hours later, the Moon passes 4° north of Jupiter at 6 P.M. EDT. The pair rises around midnight and are visible into the early-morningContinue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, October 13: The Moon reaches Last Quarter"
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Wang Zhipu, taken from Fuzhou, China The evening of Nov. 8 2022 offered skywatchers in parts of Asia and North America a rare chance to see a totally eclipsed Moon occult Uranus. Under normal circumstances, Uranus (at around magnitude 5.7) would be lost in the Moon’s glare, but the dimmed Moon during totality allowed bothContinue reading "Uranus plays lunar peekaboo"
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Voshkod 1 kicked off the second series of manned Soviet spaceflights, following the Vostok missions that had been the first to put humans in space. When the craft launched on Oct. 12, 1964, for its flight of just over 24 hours, it was the seventh crewed spaceflight for the Soviet Union — but the firstContinue reading "Oct. 12, 1964: Voshkod 1 sends the first crew to space"
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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. October 11: Io and Europa cross Jupiter Now that spooky season is upon us, let’s chase some cosmic ghosts. Tonight we’re seeking the Saturn Nebula (NGC 7009), a planetary nebula that, as its name implies, looks like a ghostly version of theContinue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, October 12: The Saturn Nebula shines"
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Author(s): Charles Day
Quantum effects prevent trapped atoms from thermalizing, despite being repeatedly jiggled through laser excitation.
[Physics 18, 168] Published Fri Oct 10, 2025
Twenty-one months after the deaths of the Apollo 1 crew in a fire during a test on the launchpad, the three men who had originally served as their backup crew — Walter Schirra Jr., Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham — flew on Apollo 7. The first manned American spaceflight since the accident, their mission wasContinue reading "Oct. 11, 1968: Apollo 7 launches"
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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. October 10: Spot Ceres in Cetus Last week, Io and Europa took a trip together across Jupiter, transiting the planet with their shadows. The moons’ resonant orbits mean similar events often repeat, and this morning is your chance to catch another one. Continue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, October 11: Io and Europa cross Jupiter"
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Greg Meyer from Phoenix, Arizona Stars swirl around Polaris to the north and arc across the sky to the south in this 360° star-trail panorama taken at the Okie-Tex Star Party. The photographer used an Insta360 X4 action cam, taking 30-second exposures at ISO 800; the final stacked image was blended with another shot ofContinue reading "Okie-Tex starry night"
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Over the course of human history, perhaps no single object in the night sky has drawn more attention than the Andromeda Galaxy, which the 10th-century Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi dubbed a “nebulous smear.” For centuries, the fuzzy object nestled in the night sky between her mythological parents, Cepheus and Cassiopeia, and winged Pegasus heldContinue reading "Unveiling the Andromeda Galaxy’s true nature"
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Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere is a great time to hunt galaxies. You’ll find objects ranging from the marvelous Andromeda Galaxy (M31) to Stephan’s Quintet (NGCs 7317, 7318A, 7318B, 7319, and 7320) to NGC 1. But except for a few, like M31, most galaxies are faint and lack detail unless your telescope is large. So,Continue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Glorious Albireo"
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Author(s): Marric Stephens
Simulations have shown that the 2D sheets in twisted bilayers such as graphene can slide past one another even at small twists and under extreme compression.
[Physics 18, s128] Published Thu Oct 09, 2025
On Oct. 10, 1846, William Lassell peered through his 20-foot reflector in Liverpool, England. Lassell was a self-funded amateur astronomer who had made a fortune as a brewer, and he’d built his own scope – apparently doing quite a good job of it, since through it, Lassell spotted Triton orbiting Neptune. Neptune itself had beenContinue reading "Oct. 10, 1846: The discovery of Triton"
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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. 1 Ceres is passing close to the 5th-magnitude star Phi2 (φ2) Ceti this evening. Viewing will be best about two hours after sunset, after the sky has grown dark but shortly before the Moon rises. At that time, Ceres will be about 15°Continue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, October 10: Spot Ceres in Cetus"
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📷: David Gluchowski from Brooklyn, New York The Harvest Moon rises behind the Empire State Building on the evening of Oct. 6. This sequence was taken with a Canon mirrorless camera and 150–600mm zoom lens.
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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, October 10The Moon passes 5° north of Uranus at 5 A.M. EDT. The pair is visible in the southwest in the hours leading up to sunrise, although you’ll need binoculars to view the distant ice giant, as it glows a faint magnitude 5.6.Continue reading "The Sky This Week from October 10 to 17: The Moon meets Jupiter"
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Author(s): Sumanta Chakraborty
A neutron star’s viscosity determines how the star interacts with gravitational waves, a behavior that could be useful to the study of neutron-star interiors.
[Physics 18, 169] Published Wed Oct 08, 2025
Author(s): Michael Schirber
New experiments show that adding polymers to a fluid can reduce energy dissipation by suppressing small eddies.
[Physics 18, s130] Published Wed Oct 08, 2025
Ask most astronomers, and they’ll tell you that dark matter and dark energy make up more than 95 percent of the universe and that they are the explanations for many of the large-scale phenomena we observe. But a new study published Sept. 12 in the journal “Galaxies” offers a different scenario: that what we see is the weakeningContinue reading "Are dark matter and dark energy only an illusion?"
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Karl Schwarzschild was born Oct. 9, 1873 – just one day after his famous collaborator Ejnar Hertzsprung – and grew up in a Jewish family in Germany. Schwarzschild was considered a child prodigy, publishing a paper on celestial mechanics by age 16. He studied astronomy at the University of Strasbourg, then went on to receiveContinue reading "Oct. 9, 1873: The birth of Karl Schwarzschild"
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Todd Bossaller from Marshall, Missouri A disconnection event is when the ion tail of a comet appears to briefly become detached from its nucleus due to turbulence in the solar wind. Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) experienced one such event on the morning of Oc. 9, captured here with a 4-inch scope at f/5 and 30Continue reading "Lemmon’s tail disconnects"
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The Moon crosses in front of several stars in the Pleiades star cluster of Taurus this evening, creating a series of occultations that many in North America will be able to catch. Note, however, that the Moon’s waning gibbous phase means the stars will vanish behind the bright leading edge of the Moon, which makesContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, October 9: The Moon crosses the Pleiades"
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Prime Japanese Viewing Location (TBD) Centered around the September 2, 2035, Total Solar Eclipse This tour is currently under development. Eclipse Traveler is designing an exclusive journey to place you in an optimal viewing location for this incredible celestial event. The full itinerary, pricing, and booking details are coming soon. For the most up-to-date information,Continue reading "2035 Japan Total Solar Eclipse"
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Aboard a Cruise off the Coast of Australia (TBD) Centered around the July 22, 2028, Total Solar Eclipse This tour is currently under development. Eclipse Traveler is designing an exclusive cruise journey to place you in an optimal viewing location for this incredible celestial event. The full itinerary, pricing, and booking details are coming soon.Continue reading "2028 Australia Total Solar Eclipse Cruise"
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Prime Chilean Viewing Location (TBD) Centered around the July 11, 2029, Partial Solar Eclipse This tour is currently under development. Eclipse Traveler is designing an exclusive journey to place you in an optimal viewing location for this incredible celestial event. The full itinerary, pricing, and booking details are coming soon. For the most up-to-date information,Continue reading "2029 Chile Partial Solar Eclipse"
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Prime South African Viewing Location (TBD) Centered around the November 25, 2030, Total Solar Eclipse This tour is currently under development. Eclipse Traveler is designing an exclusive journey to place you in an optimal viewing location for this incredible celestial event. The full itinerary, pricing, and booking details are coming soon. For the most up-to-dateContinue reading "2030 South Africa Total Solar Eclipse"
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Prime Australian Viewing Location (TBD)Centered around the November 25, 2030, Total Solar Eclipse This tour is currently under development. Eclipse Traveler is designing an exclusive journey to place you in an optimal viewing location for this incredible celestial event. The full itinerary, pricing, and booking details are coming soon. For the most up-to-date information, clickContinue reading "2030 Australia Total Solar Eclipse"
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For two decades, images from European spacecraft have captured bits of unremarkable digital noise as they photograph Mars. Now, scientists have turned that noise into a breakthrough, cataloging 1,039 martian dust devils to create the first global map of the Red Planet’s surface winds. The new study, published Oct. 8 in Science Advances, details howContinue reading "A thousand martian dust devils help chart the Red Planet’s winds"
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Author(s): Michael Schirber
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes the discovery of macroscopic quantum tunneling in electrical circuits.
[Physics 18, 170] Published Tue Oct 07, 2025
Author(s): Tianhan Liu
Experiments clarify the degree to which a graphene coating can reduce the strength of van der Waals interactions with a surface.
[Physics 18, s127] Published Tue Oct 07, 2025
The smart telescope revolution continues to grow, with ZWO as one of the leading innovators. Last year, the company introduced the least expensive “smarty” yet: the Seestar S30. The S30 is a compact, all-in-one astroimaging system. Like its larger sibling, the popular Seestar S50 (which I reviewed in the January 2025 issue), the S30 includes pretty much everythingContinue reading "Astronomy tests ZWO’s Seestar S30"
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On Oct. 8, 1873, Ejnar Hertzsprung was born near Copenhagen, Denmark. His father had studied astronomy and worked in finance, and Hertzsprung himself showed interest in astronomy and math, but pursued a degree in chemical engineering. After graduating from the Polytechnical Institute in Copenhagen, he worked as a chemist in St. Petersburg, Russia, and wentContinue reading "Oct. 8, 1873: The birth of Ejnar Hertzsprung"
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Let’s visit Venus in the early-morning sky; the bright planet rises around 5 A.M. local daylight time and stands nearly 10° high in the east an hour later. Blazing at magnitude –3.9, it’s unmissable in far eastern Leo; it will cross into western Virgo by tomorrow morning. Venus is stunning through binoculars or any telescope;Continue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, October 8: Venus’ last day in Leo"
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Alessandro Carrozzi Several sunspot groups — active regions AR 4136, 4139, 4143, and 4146 — all approach the solar limb in this Hydrogen-alpha image taken July 19, 2025 with a 6-inch f/25 refractor.
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Cairns – Great Barrier Reef – Daintree Rainforest – Uluru – Melbourne – Great Ocean Road July 25 – August 1, 2028 Continue your journey down under with an 8-day extension that showcases Australia’s diverse landscapes, beginning just after the Sydney eclipse tour. Fly to the tropical north to Cairns, the gateway to two UNESCOContinue reading "2028 Highlights of Australia Post-Eclipse Tour"
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Sydney – Blue Mountains – Hunter ValleyJuly 19 – July 25, 2028 Discover the best of Sydney and its breathtaking surroundings on this 7-day tour, perfectly timed for the total solar eclipse on July 22, 2028. Your journey begins with a deep dive into Australia’s most famous city, exploring iconic sites including the Sydney OperaContinue reading "2028 Sydney 7-Day Total Solar Eclipse Adventure"
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Auckland – Rotorua – Queenstown – Milford Sound – Sydney – Blue Mountains – Hunter ValleyJuly 13 – July 25, 2028 Embark on an unforgettable 13-day journey through the natural wonders of New Zealand and the iconic landmarks of Australia, centered around the total solar eclipse of July 22, 2028. The adventure begins in Auckland,Continue reading "2028 New Zealand & Australia 13-Day Total Solar Eclipse Tour"
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Cairo – Nile Cruise – LuxorJuly 27 – August 2, 2027 Embark on a 7-day journey through the heart of ancient Egypt, combining iconic historical sites with the breathtaking spectacle of the August 2 total solar eclipse. Your tour begins in Cairo, where you will explore the new Grand Egyptian Museum, home to Tutankhamun’s completeContinue reading "2027 Pharaoh’s Shadow 6-Night Total Solar Eclipse Tour"
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Luxor – Karnak Temple – Dendera Temple and Abydos (Optional)July 30 – August 3, 2027 Experience the awe of ancient history and the spectacle of a rare celestial event on this 5-day journey to Luxor, centered around the August 2 total solar eclipse. With an incredible totality of 6 minutes and 22 seconds, this tourContinue reading "2027 Luxor 4-Night Eclipse Discovery Tour"
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If you get up before twilight begins to paint the eastern sky, you might be able to spot Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon). It’s currently in the constellation Ursa Major the Great Bear near the 3rd-magnitude star Tania Australis, also known as Mu Ursae Majoris. The comet rises around 1:30 a.m. local time, but you’ll wantContinue reading "How to see Comet Lemmon"
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On Oct. 4, 1959, exactly two years after the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union scored another win when Luna 3 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and set off for the Moon. It was the third spacecraft in the Luna program, Luna 1 having overshot the Moon after a rocket-burn error, and LunaContinue reading "Oct. 7, 1959: The first photos of the Moon’s farside are taken."
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Author(s): Matteo Viel
The new map of the Universe’s expansion history released by the DESI Collaboration offers hints at a breakdown of the standard model of cosmology.
[Physics 18, 130] Published Mon Oct 06, 2025
Step outside tonight in the early evening, when Sagittarius lies above the southwestern horizon. Globular cluster M22 shines brightly at magnitude 5.1, readily observable with binoculars or any size telescope. It’s far from the Full Moon, increasing your chances of a good view tonight. You can find this ancient ball of stars some 2.5° northeastContinue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, October 7: View the ancient stars of M22"
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Cédric de Decker/Louis Leroux-Géré/Vincent Martin/Thibault Rouillée Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) is still just outside the edge of naked-eye visibility, according to reports, but it is showing fine, rapidly changing detail in images. These astroimagers caught Lemmon as it was passing the Little Pinwheel Galaxy (NGC 3184) on Oct. 5 with 45 minutes of LRGB exposureContinue reading "Comet Lemmon and the Little Pinwheel"
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From a distance, Biosphere 2 emerges from the cacti and creosote of the Sonoran desert like a gleaming oasis, a colony of glass and bright white structures. Despite being just outside Tucson, Arizona, it looks almost like a colony on another planet. When one of the facility’s 100,000 annual visitors steps inside, they see a whole worldContinue reading "Biosphere 2’s latest mission: Learning how life first emerged on Earth – and how to make barren worlds habitable"
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Mission highlight: Blue Origin to launch 15th human flight This week’s highlighted mission is a crewed suborbital flight from Blue Origin. The company is planning to launch the NS-36 mission aboard its New Shepard rocket. Liftoff is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 8, at 9:00 a.m. EDT from Launch Site One in West Texas. A liveContinue reading "Blue Origin’s NS-36 to carry six passengers to space"
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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out late in the evening of October 9 and find the Moon. This won’t be a problem because it will be bright. Then scan the area around the Moon to find the Pleiades star cluster, also known as M45. If you can’t find itContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Moon and the Pleiades"
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What would a bucket full of deep space contain? Richard LivitskiSeal Beach, California One would think that this excellent question would be easy to answer: A bucket full of “deep space” would contain essentially nothing — and, well, there you are! Outer space is, after all, the closest approximation we have to a vacuum. However,Continue reading "What would a bucket full of deep space contain?"
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On Oct. 6, 2010, only five days after launching, the Chang-e 2 spacecraft arrived at the Moon and initiated a rocket burn, slipping into its lunar orbit. Part of China’s Lunar Exploration Program, Chang’e 2 carried an improved camera for 3D mapping, laser altimeter, X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers, microwave radiometer, high-energy particle detector, and solarContinue reading "Oct. 6, 2010: Chang-e 2 arrives at the Moon"
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Full Moon occurs late tonight at 11:48 P.M. EDT. October’s Full Moon is traditionally called the Hunter’s Moon. But this October’s Full Moon also has two other names: It is both a Super Moon and the 2025 Harvest Moon. A Super Moon occurs when the Full phase coincides with the Moon reaching (or close to)Continue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, October 6: The Full Harvest Super Moon shines"
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On Oct. 4, 1923, Edwin Hubble took a photographic plate of the Andromeda Nebula (as it was known then) using the 100-inch Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson. The next night, Oct. 5th, he took another plate and found that a star that seemed to belong to the nebula had changed in brightness. At first, he thought thisContinue reading "Oct. 5th, 1923: Hubble discovers galaxies beyond the Milky Way"
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The nearly Full Moon passes 4° north of Saturn at 11 P.M. EDT and sits close to the ringed planet all night. Despite our satellite’s proximity, you’ll want your telescope trained on Saturn this evening to catch the last in the current series of Titan shadow transits — there won’t be another until 2040! AroundContinue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, October 5: Titan’s last shadow transit"
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On Oct. 4th, 1957, at 10:29 PM Moscow time, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1 into space on a repurposed R-7 rocket. The world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik was about 22 inches (58 centimeters) in diameter and weighed 184 pounds (84 kilograms). Although there were no scientific instruments aboard, the transmitter it carried sentContinue reading "Oct. 4th, 1957: Sputnik launches"
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Author(s): Michael Schirber
Turning a biologically important molecular motor at a constant rate saves energy, according to experiments.
[Physics 18, 167] Published Fri Oct 03, 2025
Jupiter’s Galilean moons often transit the planet’s disk one at a time — tonight, however, Io and Europa cross the disk together. The two moons even appear to partially overlap as their transits begin early this morning at 4:04 a.m. EDT, with smaller Europa passing in front of larger Io. You’ll spot bright Jupiter highContinue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, October 4: Io and Europa overlap"
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What does the next generation of martian exploration look like? The answer, quite literally, is blowing in the wind. The Tumbleweed Mars rover, a spherical robot designed to roll across the martian surface, driven by the martian wind, has passed crucial technical tests, validating its potential for low-cost, large-scale exploration. The concept, developed by TeamContinue reading "The wind-driven future of Mars exploration"
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Originally scheduled for October 11, a big observational event in southwestern New Mexico has been changed to Saturday, November 15. The original October date now faces a high chance of rainstorms in the area. This event will take place near Animas, New Mexico, under an incredibly dark sky. Not only will the new 30-inch scopeContinue reading "New Mexico Stargaze rescheduled due to weather"
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When we target objects in the constellation Cygnus the Swan, one of the first that observers go to is the North America Nebula (NGC 6000), and then they head right next door to the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070). But there’s another, equally fascinating nebulous region that covers even more area in the Swan: the VeilContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Observe the Veil Nebula"
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Author(s): David Ehrenstein
An atomically smooth surface that oscillates vertically can host drops that either bounce or hover in place, depending on the oscillation frequency.
[Physics 18, 166] Published Thu Oct 02, 2025
In 1848, James Marshall was building a lumber mill in northern California for his employer, John Sutter. One January morning, Marshall spotted sparkling pebbles within the mill’s outflow; Sutter and Marshall soon realized they had found gold in “them thar hills.” The chance discovery sparked the California Gold Rush, with treasure-seeking scouts streaming to theContinue reading "Why NASA is targeting the Moon’s south pole for Artemis"
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A 12-ton rocket loaded with a 1-ton warhead, the V-2’s successful launch would prove to be exceptionally significant to both the military and to space exploration. On Oct. 3, 1942, the V-2 was fired from Peenemunde, Germany – its fourth test, and the first to succeed. The rocket rose to an altitude of 60 milesContinue reading "Oct. 3, 1942: The V-2 successfully launches"
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Ryan Génier from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Emission nebula Sharpless 2–119 in Cygnus is also known as the Clamshell Nebula. Its ring-like appearance is thanks to the shell of ionized gas — called a Strömgren sphere — surrounding an association of hot, massive stars. (The Rosette Nebula consists of a similar set of features.) This imagerContinue reading "A clam in Cygnus"
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Let’s peer into Cetus the Whale to spot 1 Ceres this evening, one day past opposition and glowing at magnitude 7.6, within the reach of binoculars or any small scope. Ceres is carving a slow path north of Diphda, Cetus’ magnitude 2.0 beta star. Around 10 P.M. local daylight time, Diphda is roughly 20° highContinue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, October 3: Ceres shines in Cetus"
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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, October 3There’s a new potential supernova candidate in a spiral galaxy located in Ursa Major, visible overnight for U.S. observers. If you’ve got an imaging scope or an astrophotography setup on a larger optical instrument, you may want to give it a try.Continue reading "The Sky This Week from October 3 to 10: Titan’s last shadow transit"
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Before you set your telescope up next time, read through the four following items. I hope one or more of them will help you get more from your session. Finding the Sun You’ve placed your solar filter on the front of your telescope and want to point it at the Sun, but you’re not certainContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: More observing tips"
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Author(s): Marric Stephens
Researchers have shown experimentally that ultraintense lasers can drive high-amplitude surface plasma waves without the need for intricate structures.
[Physics 18, s125] Published Wed Oct 01, 2025
An ancient solar eclipse changed the course of a military conflict when it cast a shadow on a battle over Corinth between the Spartans, commanded by Cleombrotus, and the invading Persians, led by Xerxes I. Herodotus wrote that, “while [Cleombrotus] was offering sacrifice to know if he should march out against the Persians, the SunContinue reading "Oct. 2, 480 B.C.E.: A eclipse causes a retreat"
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Tonight we’re aiming at the Moon to catch sunrise as it finally starts to reach the northwestern portions of the nearside. Use the accompanying chart and a telescope to locate a pair of craters near the terminator: J. Herschel and Philolaus. The former is larger, spanning 96 miles (154 km). You can also tell itContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, October 2: The Moon’s northwestern craters see sunrise"
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Chris Schur, taken form Payson, Arizona Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) is moving quickly through northern skies, currently in the constellation Leo Minor and visible to the east in the predawn hours, around 20 degrees to the right of the Big Dipper asterism. Astroimager Chris Schur caught the comet Sept. 30 displaying a dust fan andContinue reading "Comet Lemmon brightens"
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I’ll never forget the first elementary school trip I took to my local planetarium. Looking back on it today, it feels like a distinctly analog experience. As the lights dimmed and went out, the deep darkness drew gasps from my classmates, followed by cheers as the stars appeared. At the end of the show, asContinue reading "Celebrate 100 years of planetariums this week with the IAU"
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At 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1, when the federal government shut down due to a lack of appropriations from Congress, NASA began pausing its operations. While the agency has protocols for dealing with a government shutdown that it has turned to before, the current political context introduces new factors, including the potential for permanent staffContinue reading "How the government shutdown affects NASA"
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I wanted to share the above image with you to demonstrate how prevalent satellite trails are becoming in astroimages. I received it from John Chumack, a longtime contributor to Astronomy magazine. He actually labeled the image, “Insane Satellite Traffic.” And he’s not wrong. He was in his observatory taking 60-second exposures of Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon. HeContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Satellite trails"
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Author(s): Rachel Berkowitz
A new experiment on static electricity casts doubt on previous ones.
[Physics 18, s122] Published Tue Sep 30, 2025
Author(s): Michael Schirber
Cosmological simulations show that a left–right asymmetry in the early Universe could leave a mark in the distribution of galaxy rotations.
[Physics 18, s126] Published Tue Sep 30, 2025
Author(s): David Ehrenstein
The most troublesome contaminant in dark-matter searches that use xenon can be removed using a centuries-old concept.
[Physics 18, s131] Published Tue Sep 30, 2025
A new analysis of archival data from the Cassini spacecraft has confirmed that the icy jets shooting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus contain organic molecules — the key building blocks of life. This microscopic ice, sampled directly from a crack in the moon’s surface, strengthens the case that Enceladus’s hidden ocean is potentially habitable. Scientists haveContinue reading "Organic molecules in Saturn’s rings originated from liquid water, scientists confirm"
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For Astronomy magazine’s 15th annual compilation of Star Products, we’ve once again explored the vast astronomical marketplace to handpick the finest, most innovative, and most practical gear for amateur astronomers everywhere. This carefully selected collection features 35 exceptional products, arranged in alphabetical order by manufacturer for easy reference. Whether you’re passionate about visual observing orContinue reading "Astronomy’s 15th annual star products"
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On Oct. 1, 1847, Maria Mitchell was positioned on the roof of the Pacific National Bank on Main Street in her hometown of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Sweeping the sky with her family’s 2-inch reflector, she spotted a small object that did not appear on any of her charts. Though not able to be seen with theContinue reading "Oct. 1, 1847: Miss Mitchell’s Comet"
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October’s longer nights bring two transits of Titan across Saturn, while Io and Europa tango together across Jupiter three times. Mercury and Mars make a brief evening appearance, and Venus dominates the morning sky. Plus, the fine Orionid meteor shower occurs during the dark of the Moon. Mercury and Mars meet in the evening sky,Continue reading "October 2025: What’s in the sky this month? Mercury and Mars meet, Titan transits Saturn, and the Orionid meteor shower dazzles"
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Saturn takes center stage once darkness falls in October. Although the ringed world reached opposition and peak visibility in late September, the view this month is almost as good. The magnitude 0.7 planet lies in the northeastern corner of Aquarius the Water-bearer and appears far brighter than any nearby star. This area climbs highest inContinue reading "October 2025: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?"
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Rising around midnight and nearly 50° high in the south two hours before sunrise is Orion the Hunter, one of autumn’s premier constellations. As the season progresses, Orion will rise earlier and earlier each night until it is visible during the evening. For now, the best time to observe this famous star pattern is inContinue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, October 1: Visit the Orion Nebula"
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Valerie Hwang from Deming, New Mexico The twilight launch of SpaceX’s Starlink Group 11-20 batch of satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California resulted in a plume visible up to 600 miles (1,000 km) away, captured here from New Mexico with an iPhone 15 Pro. The distinct profile of the exhaust — often calledContinue reading "Starlink’s space jellyfish"
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NASA has awarded a contract to execute a high-stakes orbital maneuver, racing against time and atmospheric drag to prevent a critical science asset from tumbling back to Earth. The target of this unprecedented rescue attempt is the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a telescope that has spent two decades studying the universe’s most powerful explosions, knownContinue reading "NASA partners with Katalyst to reboost $500 million Swift Observatory"
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Amid a looming government shutdown, NASA’s future hinges on whether Congress can pass a stopgap funding measure with protective language for the agency. On Wednesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) moved to permanently axe federal employees — breaking from the precedent of issuing temporary furloughs — in the event of aContinue reading "What’s at stake for NASA if government shuts down"
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A possible threat to life on Earth has been identified by researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil: asteroids that share Venus’s orbit but which currently can’t be detected. These objects haven’t been observed, but researchers want to expand the search for them. They say that some could strike Earth within a few thousand years. “Our study showsContinue reading "Could asteroids near Venus pose a threat to Earth?"
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On Sept. 30, 1880, in a pioneering moment for astrophotography, amateur astronomer Henry Draper and his wife, Anna, captured the first image of the Orion Nebula. Though a medical doctor by trade, Henry was a key contributor to the development of stellar photography and spectroscopy. He and Anna obtained the first photo of a star’sContinue reading "Sept. 30, 1880: Henry and Anna Draper photograph M42"
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Author(s): Jacquelyn Noronha-Hostler
Experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider give the first hints of a critical point in the hot quark–gluon “soup” that is thought to have pervaded the infant Universe.
[Physics 18, 164] Published Mon Sep 29, 2025
Saturn’s moon Iapetus is now some 8’ east of the planet; although it is nearing 12th magnitude as it approaches its fainter eastern elongation in the first week of October, observers with larger scopes may find it easier to see farther from the “noise” of the several moons that cluster closer to the ringed planet. Continue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, September 30: Saturn’s moons line up"
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Imran Badr from San Jose, California The supernova remnant SNR G65.3+5.7 in Cygnus is comparable in size to its well-known neighbor, the Veil Nebula — but is much fainter. The object’s brightest component is cataloged as Sharpless 2–91. This four-panel mosaic of the full remnant comprises 169⅓ hours of Hα/OIII/RGB data with a 2.4-inch astrographContinue reading "The fainter Veil"
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A star like the Sun lives modestly for billions of years, converting the nuclear fuel in its core into energy that ultimately escapes as light and heat. But the most spectacular phase of a Sun-like star’s existence lasts only tens of thousands of years and coincides with its death. The star puffs off its outer layersContinue reading "JWST peers into the Crystal Ball Nebula to unveil a stellar finale"
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Mission highlight: Rocket Lab boosts US hypersonic research This week’s highlighted mission is a suborbital flight for a classified U.S. government customer. Rocket Lab is scheduled to launch the Justin mission aboard a variant of its Electron rocket, called Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE). Liftoff is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 30, at 7:45 p.m.Continue reading "Rocket Lab’s Justin mission headlines slow week of launches"
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The early years of our solar system were a period of unimaginable chaos and violence, a gravitational free-for-all where colliding planetary embryos competed for survival. In this tumultuous environment, countless collisions shaped the worlds we know today, but one has remained an enduring cosmic mystery: Mercury. A new study suggests Mercury may have formed fromContinue reading "Was Mercury formed by a cosmic hit-and-run?"
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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out in the evening and point a telescope at everyone’s favorite planet: Saturn. The ringed world just passed opposition – the point in its orbit when it lies opposite the Sun from our perspective. Opposition, which only occurs for worlds farther from the Sun than Earth,Continue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: Saturn at Opposition"
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On Nov. 24, 2021, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) launched. The spacecraft was on its way to Dimorphos, part of a binary system with the asteroid Didymos. Nearly a year later, on Sept. 26, 2022, DART crashed into Dimorphos at about 14,000 mph (22,000 km/h). The crash was intentional: The DART mission goal wasContinue reading "Sept. 29, 2022: Seeing the DART impact"
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First Quarter Moon occurs at 7:54 P.M. EDT, offering North American observers a chance to spot the so-called Maginus sunrise ray. Now in Sagittarius, the Moon remains above the horizon until close to midnight, offering several hours to watch the ray’s progress unfold. The 100-mile-wide (160 km) Maginus Crater, located in the lunar south, isContinue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, September 29: Follow the Maginus sunrise ray"
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At 10:58 AM on Sept. 28, 1969, residents of the small farming community of Murchison, Victoria, in Australia, heard a series of loud booms. The noise was accompanied by a strong smell and a streak of smoke in the sky. A carbonaceous chondite meteorite, the Murchison Meteorite broke up as it entered the atmosphere, andContinue reading "Sept. 28, 1969: The Murchison Meteorite explodes over Australia"
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Look to Scorpius this evening, where the asteroid 4 Vesta floats near the globular cluster M80 close to the Scorpion’s claws. Viewing is best looking southwest starting around 30–60 minutes after sunset and lasting another hour or so, ending as the region sinks toward the horizon and the asteroid’s faint light becomes difficult to seeContinue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, September 28: Vesta passes M80"
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Born Sept. 27, 1918, and educated at Bradfield College and Oxford University in the U.K., Martin Ryle would go on to be the first astronomer royal (1972-1982) with a background in radio astronomy. During World War II, Ryle worked in radio systems and countermeasures for the RAF. He was strongly antiwar, though, and had noContinue reading "Sept. 27, 1918: The birth of Martin Ryle"
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Author(s): Normand Mousseau
To aid society’s transition to clean energy, physicists need to engage with economics and sociology.
[Physics 18, 158] Published Fri Sep 26, 2025
The Moon passes 0.6° south of Scorpius’ alpha star, Antares, at 2 P.M. EDT and sits just to the left of the red giant in the southwest an hour after sunset. You’ll have another hour after that of clear viewing, before the pair starts sinking low on the horizon. The waxing Moon is lit fromContinue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, September 27: The Moon meets Antares"
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Vikas Chander, taken from Río Hurtado, Chile This complex of dust snaking through the southern constellation Apus the Bird of Paradise is catalogued as Mandel-Wilson 9 and more commonly called the South Celestial Serpent. It’s an example of galactic cirrus or an integrated flux nebula, lit dimly not by a single star or cluster but theContinue reading "The southern serpent"
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Tiny pieces of glass found scattered across Australia have revealed evidence of a previously unknown giant asteroid impact. This discovery centers on a new type of tektite, a natural glass formed when a space rock slams into Earth, melting surface material and scattering debris. The new tektites, which the authors have named “ananguites,” were foundContinue reading "Ancient Australian tektites reveal new evidence of a giant asteroid impact"
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On some clear, moonless night this fall, head out and locate the constellation Vulpecula the Fox. It’s not the easiest star pattern to identify, but two much more apparent constellations will help you get into the right area. Vulpecula lies south of Cygnus and north of Aquila. And while you might be thinking, ah, he’sContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Observe the Coathanger"
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Resembling a lumpy chunk of coral floating through space, Hyperion is one of the weirdest moons not just of Saturn, but in the whole solar system. Its shape is irregular, its rotation is chaotic, and it looks oddly spongelike. On Sept. 26, 2005, Cassini completed its first flyby of this bizarre moon, giving NASA bothContinue reading "Sept. 26, 2005: Cassini visits Saturn’s weirdest moon"
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A seemingly small, unassuming constellation is rising in the east after sunset: Triangulum. One of the smallest constellations (ranking 78th out of 88), this simple star pattern is nonetheless relatively easy to locate. As its name implies, its outline consists of three stars: Alpha (α), Beta (β), and Gamma (γ) Trianguli. Beta is actually theContinue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, September 26: Triangulum’s spiral galaxy, M33"
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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, September 26The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, at 5:46 A.M. EDT. At that time, our satellite will stand 251,996 miles (405,548 km) away. With the Moon sinking low in the hours before dawn, mornings late this monthContinue reading "The Sky This Week from September 26 to October 3: Catch the soft glow of the zodiacal light"
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Author(s): Ryan Wilkinson
A certain superconducting device can entangle separate microwave signals, enabling reliable quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping.
[Physics 18, s120] Published Thu Sep 25, 2025
Mark Johnston from Scottsdale, Arizona This vortex of plasma above the Sun is caused by the twisting of our star’s magnetic field, along which hot glowing plasma forms. The imager captured this with a 6-inch scope and Hα etalon filter.
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Planetary scientists studying Mars have discovered that its polar vortex has temperatures much lower than predicted. A polar vortex is a low-pressure system of air that rotates around a planet’s poles. Earth has such areas around both of its poles. They’re weaker during each hemisphere’s summer and stronger in winter. As on Earth, Mars’s polar vortexContinue reading "Planetary scientists find a seasonal ozone layer on Mars"
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Author(s): Rachel Berkowitz
Shearing a dusty plasma with a laser shows how vibrational modes lead to weak points in an amorphous active system.
[Physics 18, s121] Published Wed Sep 24, 2025
On Sept. 25, 1644, Ole Roemer was born in Aarhus, Denmark. Beginning in 1662, he studied at the University of Copenhagen with physicist Erasmus Bartholin, who tasked him with editing the manuscripts of Tycho Brahe; then, after a 1672 move to Paris, he spent eight years at the Paris Observatory and tutored the crown princeContinue reading "Sept. 25, 1644: The birth of Ole Roemer"
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Asteroid 2 Pallas is stationary at 7 A.M. EDT in the constellation Aquila. At 10th magnitude, this space rock is a bit of a challenge, but should be visible through amateur scopes. Aquila itself is hard to miss — its brightest star, magnitude 0.8 Altair, anchors one point of the huge Summer Triangle asterism andContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, September 25: Pallas stands still"
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For decades, scientists have grappled with a profound question known as the Fermi Paradox: if the galaxy is teeming with the potential for extraterrestrial life, why is the cosmos so quiet? A new study offers a potential answer, suggesting the specific geological and atmospheric conditions needed for a technological civilization to arise are so rareContinue reading "The search for alien life may depend on plate tectonics"
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NASA announced Friday, Sept. 19, it is reviving its canceled water-hunting rover and has awarded Blue Origin a contract to deliver it to the Moon’s South Pole in late 2027, a critical step in the agency’s plan to establish a long-term human presence on the lunar surface. The golf-cart-sized vehicle, known as the Volatiles InvestigatingContinue reading "NASA revives VIPER moon rover, taps Blue Origin for lunar landing"
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Author(s): Ryan Wilkinson
Scientists have shown that entanglement plays no role in a form of collective light emission called Dicke superradiance, settling a long-standing debate.
[Physics 18, s118] Published Tue Sep 23, 2025
I was fortunate to have known American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto. In fact, when I lived in El Paso, Texas, in the 1990s, I frequently visited him at his home, which was not far away in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Sometimes, I’d stay after sunset and observe with him using his homemadeContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Historical observing"
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Most of us do not live in a dark-sky area, or even close to one. Often an imaging session involves loading a ton of equipment into a vehicle and driving for several hours to a less light-polluted site. We arrive at the destination, unload the equipment, and set it all up — only to discoverContinue reading "How to get started with remote imaging"
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On Sept. 24, 1970, Luna 16 blazed a new trail in lunar sample collection – one traversed by robots. Although the Apollo astronauts had collected lunar samples on their missions, Luna 16 was the first instance of samples being gathered and returned to Earth fully robotically, with no astronauts (or cosmonauts) involved. After blasting offContinue reading "Sept. 24, 1970: Luna 16 brings back regolith"
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The Moon passes 4° south of Mars in Virgo at 11 A.M. EDT. The pair is briefly visible — along with Virgo’s brightest star, Spica — for a short time after sunset this evening. You’ll need to be fast, though, as they are sinking quickly toward the horizon. About half an hour after sunset, 1st-magnitudeContinue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, September 24: View the Moon, Mars, and Spica"
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A.J. Smadi from Washington State Due to Saturn’s large axial tilt, its moons transit the planet infrequently — only during ring plane crossings, which occur twice during the planet’s 29.5-year orbit. The evening of Sept. 20/21 was the last chance to see the entire shadow of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, cross the planet’s disk untilContinue reading "Titan’s shadow transit"
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A study of Saturn’s atmospheric structure using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed complex and mysterious features unseen before on any planet. The results were presented last week by Tom Stallard of Northumbria University, at the EPSC-DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki and was published in Geophysical Research Letters. “This opportunity to useContinue reading "JWST discovers new features in Saturn’s atmosphere"
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There is little I love more than gazing at a glittering globular cluster through a big, juicy Dob. The larger the mirror, the better! Each cluster looks a little different, and resolving individual stars is always a treat. Despite how easy they are to see, they are mysterious objects — and some of the oldestContinue reading "Tour the sky’s best globular clusters"
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Author(s): Mário G. Silveirinha
A material whose dielectric properties vary in time could produce exotic light-emission phenomena in a nearby atom, theorists predict.
[Physics 18, 161] Published Mon Sep 22, 2025
Author(s): Mark Buchanan
The polymer glass is easily processed and is also resistant both to small deformations and to cracking.
[Physics 18, 162] Published Mon Sep 22, 2025
Tomás Andonie, taken from Sierras de Bellavista, Chile The Milky Way crosses the Chilean sky in this 15-panel panorama taken with a Nikon DSLR and 18–55mm lens; each panel represents a 25-second exposure at f/3.5 and ISO 3200. The photographer also took additional tracked exposures of deep-sky objects including the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex andContinue reading "High overhead"
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For decades following the discovery of Uranus in 1781, astronomers were puzzled by the irregularities in the planet’s orbit. Newton’s laws could not explain the perturbations observed, suggesting another planet was out there, affecting Uranus’ path. Two astronomers, Urbain Le Verrier in Paris and John Couch Adams in Cambridge, England, independently computed its likely location,Continue reading "Sept. 23, 1846: Johann Galle discovers Neptune"
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The solar system’s most distant planet, Neptune, is at opposition this morning at 9 A.M. EDT. Like Saturn, it is visible all night, passing highest in the hours around local midnight. The easiest way to locate Neptune is to find Saturn, the brightest point of light in the southeastern sky around 10 or 11 P.M.Continue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, September 23: Neptune at opposition"
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Mission highlight: NASA’s IMAP solar observatory NASA is scheduled to launch its Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Tuesday at 7:32 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft will travel to the L1 Lagrange point — a point ofContinue reading "NASA’s IMAP solar observatory mission leads week of launches"
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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out in the evening and point a telescope at one of the sky’s finest planetary nebulae. This one’s number 27 on Charles Messier’s famous list, but it’s usually called the Dumbbell Nebula because of it characteristic shape. Use a star chart to locate theContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Dumbbell Nebula"
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Luigi La Bella from Melilli, Sicily, Italy The Medulla Nebula (LBN 576) is a supernova remnant 11,000 light-years distant in Cassiopeia; its appearance has also earned it the nickname of the Garlic Head Nebula. The imager took 18.5 hours of exposure with a 5-inch scope at f/5.8 with a one-shot color camera and Hα/OIII dual-bandContinue reading "A kitchen staple in the cosmos"
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Is there ever a time that the Moon does not set or rise, just like the Sun does from certain locations on Earth? Can it happen during any phase of the Moon? Mark NarwaOttawa, Ontario Yes, there are places on Earth where the Moon does not appear above the horizon. There are also places where theContinue reading "Is there ever a time that the Moon does not set or rise?"
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Although he was primarily known as a chemist, Michael Farraday’s research into electricity and magnetism underpin much of our understanding of the universe and modern physics. Born Sept. 22, 1791, into a lower-class British family, Farraday was completely self-educated. After an apprenticeship to a bookbinder allowed him to spend seven years reading about science, FarradayContinue reading "Sept. 22, 1791: The birth of Michael Farraday"
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