On Oct. 18, 1977, Charles Kowal was at the 1.2-meter Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory in California – reportedly his favorite equipment at the facility to observe with – when he unwittingly discovered an entirely new class of objects. Kowal was conducting a survey for slow-moving objects beyond the Main Belt, taking two plates ofContinue reading "Oct. 18, 1977: The enigma of Chiron"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  October 17: Catch open cluster M34 Jupiter stands high in the sky early this morning, ripe for viewing as two of its four Galilean moons chase their shadows across the cloud tops.  By 6 A.M. EDT, the gas giant stands nearly 60°Continue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, October 18: Io, Europa, and their shadows cross Jupiter"

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How can a celestial object be bright and faint at the same time? The answer hinges on its surface brightness. In the case of spiral galaxy NGC 6946, its overall brightness, magnitude 9.6, is high for a galaxy. Unfortunately, that light spreads over an area 1/20 of 1° across. For comparison, that area is one-quarter ofContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Observe the Fireworks Galaxy"

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Born Oct. 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, and raised in Chicago, Mae Jemison showed a passion and talent for science from early in her childhood. After graduating high school by the age of 16, Jemison attended Stanford University and earned a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.A. in African American studies. She went onContinue reading "Oct. 17, 1956: Birth of Mae Jemison"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  October 16: The Moon rises with Regulus Rising higher as the evening progresses is the constellation Perseus, perhaps most famous for its so-called Demon Star, the variable star Algol. But the Hero hosts many other treasures, including M34, a bright open clusterContinue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, October 17: Catch open cluster M34"

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Jeffrey Horne/Drew Evans The Cygnus Rift is a dark, broad lane of dust often captured in images of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) and the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070), occupying the gulf between the two and forming their outlines. But this inky, swirling complex takes center stage in this image comprising nearly 365 hoursContinue reading "Negative space"

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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, October 17The Summer Triangle is now sinking in the west late in the evening as the winter constellations prepare to take over the sky. Look west around 10 P.M. local daylight time and you can still see the three bright stars of theContinue reading "The Sky This Week from October 17 to 24: The Orionids peak"

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During the past week, you had to get up before morning twilight to spot Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon). And you still can. But thanks to its position in the north, now you also can see it in the evening sky. The comet is currently passing in front of the stars of the constellation Canes VenaticiContinue reading "Now’s the time to see Comet Lemmon"

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A joint project of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) program provides continuous monitoring of weather both on Earth and in space. The GOES satellites map lightning activity, measure and image atmospheric conditions, and track solar activity and space weather. This constant flow of data isContinue reading "Oct. 16, 1975: The first GOES satellite launches"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  October 15: Check out Comet Lemmon The waning Moon has moved into Leo and stands close to Regulus, the Lion’s bright heart, in the early-morning sky today. An hour before sunrise, they are 40° high in the east, with the crescent Moon justContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, October 16: The Moon rises with Regulus"

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Rod Pommier from Portland, Oregon Spiral galaxy M94 earns the nickname of the Cat’s Eye Galaxy for its hypnotic visual appearance — the disk surrounding its core is highlighted by a bright blue ring of star formation, called a starburst ring. Outside the disk lies what appears to be a faint outer ring that isContinue reading "A galactic eye"

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In April, I wrote a story inviting readers to join me in Egypt for the 2027 total solar eclipse. Well, that adventure is completely sold out. But if you still want to go, Astronomy magazine’s tour provider, Eclipse Traveler, has created another excursion you can sign up for. Called “2027 Pharaoh’s Shadow,” this six-night tour begins withContinue reading "Don’t miss the eclipse of our lifetime"

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Monday announced that it will lay off about 550 employees, or about 11 percent of its workforce. According to JPL director Dave Gallagher, the move has nothing to do with the ongoing government shutdown, which the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has pledged to use as anContinue reading "NASA’s JPL lays off 550 employees"

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Since its arrival this summer, scientists have been racing to understand as much as possible about 3I/ATLAS, the third recorded visitor from outside our solar system. A breakthrough study published on Sept. 30 has scientists exclaiming, “OH!”: the first detection of hydroxyl gas (OH) from an interstellar object. The finding provides a crucial touchstone forContinue reading "Comet 3I/ATLAS shows signs of water"

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The Moon may seem like a lifeless, unchanging world, but new research reveals it’s more geologically active than previously understood. A team of Chinese scientists has identified 41 new landslides on the lunar surface that formed since 2009, concluding they were most likely triggered by seismic activity. This discovery has significant implications for our understandingContinue reading "Moonquakes are the primary trigger for lunar landslides, study finds"

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At 4:43 A.M. on Oct. 15, 1997, the staccato crackle of the Titan IVB/Centaur’s two side-mounted solid rocket boosters shattered the predawn gloom. Pushing Cassini-Huygens off the pad with a thrust of 3.4 million pounds (1.5 million kilograms), their bright glare turned night into day (and set off numerous car alarms) above a sleeping Florida.Continue reading "Oct. 15, 1997: Cassini-Huygens launches"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  October 14: Look south for Pluto and M75 Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is currently making a splash across the sky, recently observed at magnitude 5.7 and visible in the predawn sky about an hour and a half before the Sun rises.  ThisContinue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, October 15: Check out Comet Lemmon"

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Andrew Stone The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281) in Cassiopeia glows at around magnitude 7, but that brightness is spread across an area slightly larger than the Full Moon. This image comprises around 28 hours of exposure in Hα/OIII and SII/OIII dual-band filters, taken with a 5.5-inch scope at f/4.3 and processed in the Hubble palette.

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SpaceX’s Starship rocket successfully completed its 11th test flight on Monday, capping a tumultuous year for the hulking vehicle as the company looks to push the envelope with a more powerful configuration. Monday’s test continued Starship’s return to form, marking its second consecutive reentry and splashdown following a string of in-flight and test stand mishaps. It was Starship’s finalContinue reading "Starship’s 11th Test Flight marks new era for SpaceX rocket"

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One of the big questions about Mars is how wet was it in the past, and why is it so dry today? A new study published online September 2, 2025, in the journal Geology, examined a number of martian craters. Scientists were looking for past ice deposits, which act like archives where the planet’s geological history can be studied. TheyContinue reading "Mars’ ice has been disappearing"

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When Glamorous Glennis, an experimental Bell X-1 aircraft built to mimic the shape of a .50 caliber bullet, shot to 700 mph (1,127 km/h) with Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager inside, it paved the way for Americans to one day travel to space. On Oct. 14, 1947, the X-1 was launched from the bomb bayContinue reading "Oct. 14, 1947: Flying faster than sound"

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📷: 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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The autumnal equinox occurs at 2:19 P.M. EDT. On this date, the Sun appears directly above the equator and the Northern and Southern hemispheres receive the same amount of sunlight. The autumnal equinox also officially brings the Northern Hemisphere summer to an end and begins astronomical autumn, while bringing the end of winter in theContinue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, September 22: Astronomical autumn begins"

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On Sept. 21, 1974, the Mariner 10 spacecraft made its second flyby of Mercury, passing by the surface at a distance of just under 30,000 miles (48,000 kilometers). Launched Nov. 3, 1973, Mariner 10 was the first spacecraft sent to Mercury, as well as the first mission designed to visit two planets.  (It also visitedContinue reading "Sept. 21, 1974: Mariner 10 flies by Mercury"

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Saturn reaches opposition at 2 A.M. EDT, visible all night and offering stunning views of its rings and moons. The ringed planet now rises around sunset and is highest around local midnight, when it stands around 45° high in the south. But you can easily observe beginning around an hour or two after sunset andContinue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, September 21: Saturn at opposition"

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On Sept. 20, 2016, Victor Buso was testing a new camera in his rooftop observatory. Buso, an amateur astronomer from Rosario, Argentina, shot a series of images of spiral galaxy NGC 613, which is about 70 million to 80 million light-years away in Sculptor. Checking to see how the new camera had worked, Buso reviewedContinue reading "Sept. 20, 2016: Spotting a supernova shock breakout"

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Shortly after September 20 begins in the Eastern time zone, Saturn’s moon Titan transits the ringed world alongside its shadow — the second-to-last shadow transit we will see for more than a decade. The event starts around 12:30 A.M. EDT on September 20 — note this is early Saturday for those on Eastern time, butContinue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, September 20: Titan and its shadow transit"

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The months-long drama over NASA’s fiscal year 2026 budget has entered a critical new phase, with a looming government shutdown forcing a high-stakes confrontation over the agency’s future. The central conflict pits the White House’s proposed 24 percent cut to NASA against bipartisan congressional efforts to maintain funding. Now, with competing stopgap funding measures onContinue reading "Bipartisan reps urge House leaders to add NASA funding protection to stopgap bill"

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If your observing site has a limiting magnitude of 6 or better, you have an opportunity to see an elusive sight known as the gegenschein. Simply look toward whatever constellation of the zodiac is opposite the Sun, once that constellation has risen past about 25° altitude. Astronomers call this location the antisolar point. And although an altitude ofContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: The gegenschein"

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On Sept. 19, 1959, the paper “Searching for Interstellar Communications” was published. Printed in the respected scientific journal Nature and written by Cornell University physicists Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison, the work established a scientific framework and legitimacy for a field that previously lacked credibility. Cocconi and Morrison examined methodologies for humans’ search for extraterrestrialContinue reading "Sept. 19, 1959: A SETI kickstart"

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The Moon passes 0.8° north of Venus and 1.3° north of magnitude 1.4 Regulus at 8 A.M. EDT, all with Venus less than 0.5° from Regulus as well. The trio rises together around 4:30 A.M. local daylight time. Along the U.S. East Coast, the three are nearly in a vertical line as they rise, withContinue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, September 19: Regulus, Venus, and the Moon line up"

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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, September 19The Moon passes 0.8° north of Venus and 1.3° north of the magnitude 1.4 star Regulus at 8 A.M. EDT, while Venus passes 0.5° north of Regulus at 9 A.M. EDT. You can catch the trio together in the eastern sky aboutContinue reading "The Sky This Week from September 19 to 26: Saturn and Neptune reach opposition"

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Gerald Rhemann, taken from Farm Tivoli, Namibia Comet C/2025 R2 SWAN was discovered Sept. 11 by by Ukrainian amateur astronomer Vladimir Bezugly in imagery taken by NASA’s SOHO spacecraft. Best positioned for observers in the Southern Hemisphere, the comet is currently hovering at around magnitude 7, just shy of naked-eye visibility. This astrophotographer captured theContinue reading "A southern SWAN"

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Researchers believe a fragmented comet that is thought to have exploded above Earth almost 13,000 years ago may have had a role in the disappearance of mammoths, mastodons, and most other megafauna (large animals) at that time, and in the vanishing of the Clovis culture from the archaeological record in North America. UC Santa BarbaraContinue reading "Did a comet wipe out an ancient civilization?"

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Following its successful collection of material from the asteroid 162173 Ryugu in 2019, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft swung by Earth to drop off its precious cargo in December 2020. But even as scientists continue to poke, prod, and zap grains of Ryugu to unlock their secrets, Hayabusa2 has been redirected to rendezvousContinue reading "1998 KY26: Hayabusa2’s 2031 target is the same size as its spacecraft visitor"

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9mm Nagler Type 7 eyepiec Tele Vue OpticsChester, New York The 9mm Nagler Type 7 eyepiece offers a mix of sharpness and correction for deep-sky objects. This new eyepiece presents an 82° apparent field of view. It is designed with comfort in mind for eyeglass wearers, with 19mm of eye relief. The eyepiece fits withContinue reading "Our favorite new products this fall"

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On Sept. 18, 1965, amateur astronomer Kaoru Ikeya and professional astronomer Tsutomu Seki each independently discovered what became the greatest comet of the century, Ikeya-Seki. When researchers calculated its orbit, they found it was a sungrazer — a comet that passes extremely close to the Sun. Small sungrazers usually evaporate or are torn apart byContinue reading "Sept. 18, 1965: Discovery of Comet Ikeya-Seki"

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Visit Saturn with your telescope this morning to spot the elusive moon Iapetus at superior conjunction, located due south of the ringed planet.  Saturn is highest in the sky around 1 A.M. local daylight time, when it is roughly 50° high in the south. However, it remains visible through morning twilight, slowly sinking toward theContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, September 18: Iapetus at superior conjunction"

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Every spring, most Americans dutifully adjust their clocks forward to daylight saving time, and every fall, back to standard time. The biannual time shift is not only inconvenient, it’s also known to be bad for our health. The collective loss of an hour of sleep on the second Sunday in March has been linked toContinue reading "Would Americans be healthier without daylight saving time?"

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Imagine you’re going down a long waterslide. You’ve been traveling through it enjoying every moment despite occasional bumps on the way. You know the end will eventually come, but you don’t know when, where, and how it might feel. Long-term projects imaging celestial objects feel the same way: It’s a long path down a knownContinue reading "Simple long-term imaging projects"

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New research based on data from NASA’s Dawn mission suggests the dwarf planet Ceres may have once possessed a deep, long-lasting energy source capable of sustaining habitable conditions in its ancient past. The findings, published on Aug. 20 in the journal Science Advances, add a crucial third piece to the puzzle of Ceres’s potential habitability.Continue reading "NASA study finds Ceres may have once been habitable"

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With 274 confirmed moons as of March of 2025, Saturn is the solar system planet with the most natural satellites. By 1789, though, only five had been spotted: Titan by Christiaan Huygens in 1655, and Iapetus, Rhea, Dione, and Tethys by Jean-Dominique Cassini between 1671 and 1684. William Herschel would add two more to thatContinue reading "Sept. 17, 1789: William Herschel discovers Mimas"

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José Zarcos Palma, taken from Achada do Gamo, Portugal The International Space Station and the Chinese space station Tiangong glide across the sky in this stacked image covering roughly 24 minutes on the evening of July 24, 2025. The ISS appears as the lower arc; Tiangong appeared higher in the sky just 13 minutes later.Continue reading "Space station twins"

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NGC 457, also known as the Owl Cluster, is visible all evening, presenting an excellent target for binoculars and telescopes alike.  Look northeast after dark to find the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia. With the letter oriented the right way up as it rises, the first dip (on the left) is marked by magnitude 2.7 Delta (δ)Continue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, September 17: The Owl Cluster flies by"

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French researchers simulating weightlessness on a modified jet have found that manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is ineffective in space. This conclusion could reshape emergency medical protocols for upcoming missions to the Moon and Mars. Their experiment, designed to simulate the weightlessness of space, revealed a critical flaw in emergency medical procedures for astronauts: standard methodsContinue reading "Automated devices outperform manual CPR in space, study finds"

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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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“Who ya gonna believe — me or your own eyes?” This famous challenge appears in a scene from the 1933 film Duck Soup. Chico Marx’s character, in a delightfully ridiculous act of espionage, has dressed himself identically to Groucho, in a nightcap and long nightshirt. A formidable dowager played by Margaret Dumont has just seenContinue reading "Why you can’t trust your eyes"

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On June 16, 1888, Alexander Friedmann was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. An keen student from a young age, Friedmann studied mathematics and meteorology at St. Petersburg State University and the Aerological Observatory in Pavlovsk. After air force service in World War I, Friedmann taught at several institutions and traveled to discuss his research. InContinue reading "Sept. 16, 1925: Death of Alexander Friedmann"

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The Moon passes 5° north of Jupiter at 7 A.M. EDT. Early risers can enjoy the pairing before sunrise, standing some 50° high in the east an hour before the Sun crests the horizon. Now in its waning crescent phase, the Moon is less than 30 percent lit and not quite so glaring, allowing youContinue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, September 16: Jupiter’s moons line up"

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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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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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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.

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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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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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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.

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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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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.

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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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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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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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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.

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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"

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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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I’m a planetary scientist who was born the year of Sputnik’s launch. Over the course of my 40-year career, I’ve witnessed not one but at least five separate revolutions that fundamentally transformed this field of study.  Before I tell you about these pivotal moments, let’s look at two examples of even earlier revolutions that setContinue reading "5 modern revolutions in planetary science"

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On Sept. 1, 1859, amateur astronomer Richard Carrington observed a massive eruption of bright light from the Sun’s surface. It was the first recorded observation of a solar flare. Within only 17.5 hours, a coronal mass ejection (CME) – an expulsion of plasma and magnetic waves that often accompanies flares and prominences – reached Earth,Continue reading "Sept. 2, 1859: The Carrington Event peaks"

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Mercury passes 1.2° north of Regulus at 6 A.M. EDT; the pair is visible in the east just before sunrise, but it might be a challenging observation. You’ll want to get to a location above the surrounding terrain if possible, with an eastern horizon free of tall trees or buildings.  Rising around 5:30 A.M. localContinue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, September 2: Mercury meets Regulus"

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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out during the early morning hours the first week of September. It’s then when you’ll see the brilliant planet Venus pass by the Beehive Cluster, which lies in the constellation Cancer the Crab. Venus will be easy to spot but if twilight has started,Continue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: Venus and the Beehive"

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Humanity is obsessed with astronomical record keeping. The Babylonians compiled their first listing of the stars in the 12th century b.c.e. Around 1000 b.c.e., they followed it with an expanded catalog that includes familiar constellations and star clusters, as well as motions of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets. The Mayans inscribed into stoneContinue reading "An introduction to common astronomical catalogs"

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Cepheid variables are some of the most well-known variable stars in the sky, responsible for helping astronomers accurately measure cosmic distances and famously clueing Edwin Hubble in to the fact that the Andromeda Galaxy was far beyond the Milky Way. So, tonight let’s begin September by finding the Cepheid variable that started it all: DeltaContinue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, September 1: Observe Delta Cephei"

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On Sept. 1, 1804, German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding peered through a 5-centimeter refracting telescope at a private observatory near Bremen, and discovered a celestial body he named Juno. Harding was part of the so-called Celestial Police. This group of astronomers had dedicated themselves to the search for the “missing planet” that the Titius-Bode lawContinue reading "Sept. 1, 1804: Karl Harding spots 3 Juno"

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September’s sky is rich with opportunities. Titan’s shadow continues to transit Saturn. The ringed planet reaches opposition along with Neptune, with both worlds in the same region of the sky. Mars is descending toward solar conjunction. Uranus is a fine binocular target, while Jupiter dominates the early morning. Venus starts the month near M44, thenContinue reading "September 2025: What’s in the sky this month? Saturn and Neptune reach opposition, as Jupiter and Venus greet the dawn"

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The evening sky boasts two naked-eye planets. Start your night’s viewing with ruddy Mars, which lies in the west as darkness falls. It treks eastward against the backdrop of Virgo, passing 2° north of the Maiden’s brightest star, 1st-magnitude Spica, on Sept. 12. The Red Planet shines at magnitude 1.6, slightly fainter than the blue-whiteContinue reading "September 2025: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?"

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On Aug. 31, 1913, Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell was born in England. When he was 15, a school trip to hear a lecture on electricity prompted a keen interest in science and math, and Lovell would go on to study physics at Bristol University. He graduated with honors in 1934 and finished his Ph.D. onlyContinue reading "Aug. 31, 1913: Birth of Bernard Lovell"

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Bright Venus hangs near the lovely Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer this morning. Both rise more than two hours before the Sun and reach nearly 20° high in the east an hour before sunrise. Venus shines at magnitude –3.9, a blazing beacon just 1.4° southwest (to the upper right) of the Beehive.  At magnitude 3.1,Continue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, August 31: Venus hangs with the Beehive"

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The third member of NASA’s space shuttle program, Discovery had a fraught journey to its launch. First, a test in June of 1984 found a flaw in the thermal shield; then a launch scheduled for later the same month was delayed due to a computer failure. Attempt No. 2 was halted only four seconds beforeContinue reading "Aug. 30, 1984: Space Shuttle Discovery launches"

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Saturn’s moon Iapetus reaches greatest western elongation today, now located 9.5’ west of the ringed planet. Iapetus has two vastly different hemispheres, one light and one dark. As the moon orbits Saturn, it slowly rotates so that one and then the other side faces us, with its brightness varying vastly depending on which region isContinue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, August 30: Iapetus reaches western elongation"

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On Saturday, September 20, an ambitious project will be announced and celebrated in Animas, New Mexico, which lies near the Arizona border. And you’re invited. Dubbed “Lunar Base Alpha,” it will replicate the lunar landscape and feature rovers conducting science experiments and habitats that you’ll be able to stay in. The initial project will coverContinue reading "Experience the Moon on Earth"

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The first light from the explosion that was the death of a massive star in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud reached Earth on Feb. 23, 1987. Supernova 1987A’s proximity gave astronomers unprecedented access into the final stages of stellar life, and in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope began taking high-res images of the former star.Continue reading "Aug. 29, 1990: Hubble sees Supernova 1987A clearly"

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Rodney Pommier, taken from Portland, Oregon Roughly 40 million years ago near the core of the spiral galaxy NGC 7331, a white dwarf star ended its life in a thermonuclear explosion. The light from that explosion was detected July 14 by the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer project. This astroimager acquired the shot on the leftContinue reading "Spot the supernova"

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This evening Titan stands east of Saturn and Iapetus is far to the west, the latter approaching its greatest western elongation tomorrow. You can find the ringed planet already 15° high in the east at 10 P.M. local daylight time, continuing to rise until around 2:30 A.M., when it reaches the highest point in itsContinue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, August 29: Saturn’s moons line up"

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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, August 29The waxing Moon lies in southern Libra tonight. Our satellite is quickly approaching Scorpius, where it will meet the Scorpion’s brightest star in just a few days.  High in the southeast in the few hours after sunset is the small constellation SagittaContinue reading "The Sky This Week from August 29 to September 5: Saturn’s time to shine"

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Patrick A. Cosgrove from Honeoye Falls, New York Sharpless 2–124 is a faint emission nebula located around 15,000 light-years away in Cygnus. This image reveals intricate filaments of dust crossing the bright central region, reminiscent of the Trifid Nebula (M20). The imager took 14.2 hours of SHO and LRGB data with a 2.8-inch f/5.6 astrograph.

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iAFS2 automatic focuser  iOptronWoburn, MA The iAFS2 automatic focuser is designed to stay focused even after it is adjusted. It allows the user to control its movement three ways: by connecting to a computer, with affixed adjuster buttons, or with a manual focus wheel. The focuser also features a built-in temperature sensor and two USBContinue reading "Make summer last with these new astronomy products"

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A team of scientists claims a computational tool for studying black hole collisions could be our best bet for answering mysterious questions about the universe’s origins. In a new paper in Living Reviews in Relativity, they argue for applying a technique called numerical relativity to peer into the moment before the Big Bang.  At itsContinue reading "Scientists seek to discover what came before the Big Bang"

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The Northern Hemisphere’s summer is — by far — the best time to view our galaxy’s rich star fields. And it’s during summer that the spectacular Wild Duck Cluster flies through the Milky Way. German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovered the Wild Duck Cluster in 1681. Messier made it his 11th catalog entry May 30, 1764,Continue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Observe the Wild Duck Cluster"

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Engineers at NASA successfully tested key hardware for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in a crucial two-day sequence on Aug. 7 and 8, according to an Aug. 26 press release from the agency. In simulated space-like conditions, the team confirmed that the telescope’s four solar panels and a unique, visor-like sunshade will unfold asContinue reading "Watch as the Roman Space Telescope unfurls its solar panels and visor in successful test"

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The space probe Galileo was launched in 1989 with the goal of studying Jupiter and its moons. On its way to the gas giant, it became the first spacecraft to do a flyby of an asteroid as it zoomed past 951 Gaspra on Oct. 29, 1991. Then, on Aug. 28, 1993, Galileo made its secondContinue reading "Aug. 28, 1993: An asteroid harbors a surprise"

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Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś) is passing less than 0.5° from magnitude 5.4 Lambda (λ) Coronae Borealis in the western sky this evening. The comet is quite faint at 15th magnitude, so you’ll want a dark observing site and a large scope to net it. Fortunately, you have the luxury of waiting until the sky isContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, August 28: Comet Wierzchoś passes Lambda Coronae Borealis"

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In the late 20th century, when we still captured celestial images on film, the few days around New Moon were the only times we could image deep-sky objects. The grainy, low-sensitivity films we used back then demanded the darkest skies possible for quality portraits. When First Quarter arrived, it was time to say goodbye toContinue reading "Tips for imaging during a Full Moon"

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SpaceX’s more than 400-foot-tall Starship rocket returned to form Tuesday, deploying its first payload and completing critical heat shield tests following a string of in-flight and preflight failures. The spacecraft experienced different issues on each of its previous three test flights, with explosions in January and March disrupting air travel. In June, a Starship exploded on the test stand asContinue reading "SpaceX Starship Flight 10 viewed as roaring success"

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New research suggests a giant impact may not have been responsible for the formation of Jupiter’s core. Most planetary scientists thought that a colossal collision with an early planet containing half of Jupiter’s core material could have mixed up the central region of the gas giant enough to explain its interior today. But a newContinue reading "A new theory explains how Jupiter’s core formed"

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When the Sun, Earth, and Mars all align so that from an earthly perspective, Mars is opposite the Sun, Mars is said to be at opposition. Mars oppositions happen about every other year, and at opposition – or rather, within a few days of it – Mars is also at its closest approach to EarthContinue reading "Aug. 27, 2003: Mars zooms in"

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José J. Chambó, taken from Farm Hakos, Namibia Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) glides by the star 9 Herculis in this Aug. 21 image, glowing with a greenish coma about 2′ wide and a 20″ tail. Captured at roughly magnitude 12.5, this icy visitor was 0.33 astronomical units (the average Earth-Sun distance) from the Sun. TheContinue reading "A comet in Hercules"

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The Moon moves 1.2° south of Spica during the daylight hours, sitting due south of Virgo’s luminary at 11 A.M. EDT. By this evening, a new line has formed in the sky, with Spica now between Mars and the Moon, which sits to the star’s left. An hour after sunset, Spica is still some 7°Continue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, August 27: The Moon moves past Spica"

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Astronomers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have discovered a huge expanding bubble of gas and dust surrounding a red supergiant star. It’s the largest structure of its kind ever seen in the Milky Way. The bubble was blown into space around 4000 years ago. The question scientists are asking is, “Why did the starContinue reading "A supergiant star’s expanding mystery"

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Born on Aug. 26, 1918, in West Virginia, Katherine Goble Johnson showed exceptional aptitude for mathematics from an early age. She skipped several grades, graduating high school by 14 and college by 18. Johnson was enrolled in West Virginia University in 1939 as one of the first three Black students to integrate the state’s graduateContinue reading "Aug. 26, 1918: The birth of Katherine Johnson"

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Asteroid 6 Hebe reaches opposition this morning at 10 A.M. EDT. Shining at magnitude 7.5, Hebe is located in Aquarius and rises shortly after sunset, remaining visible all night. You should be able to spot in binoculars or any small telescope. The best time to observe it is late in the evening and overnight intoContinue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, August 26: Asteroid Hebe reaches opposition"

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Mission highlight: A weekend of scrubs for Starship and New Shepard SpaceX was forced to scrub the highly anticipated tenth flight test of its Super Heavy Starship vehicle on Sunday, August 24, due to an undisclosed ground system issue. The call came just 30 minutes before liftoff from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas. TheContinue reading "SpaceX’s tenth Starship flight test now targeting Monday, August 25, after scrub"

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Owain Scullion New Zealand’s Arrowsmith Range, on the nation’s South Island, is the setting for this Milky Way panorama. The photographer used an astromodifed Fujifilm mirrorless camera to take two panoramas: the ground with a 23mm lens at f/2 and the sky with a 27mm f/1.4 lens and Hα and star glow filters. Subframes wereContinue reading "Home on the range"

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In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Dave Eicher invites you to head out on the evening of August 26 and observe the pairing of a thin crescent Moon with Mars. A good strategy is to start looking around half an hour after sunset through binoculars. You’ll easily spot the Moon. Look just to the right of itContinue reading "This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher: The Moon meets Mars"

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What is the circle that Earth’s axis traces out in its 26,000-year precession cycle? What bright stars are close to it? Tim BoyleNishinomiya, Japan As Earth orbits the Sun, it also spins about its axis in just less than 24 hours. Our planet exhibits other motions as well — the most dramatic of them isContinue reading "As Earth’s axis precesses over 26,000 years, what bright stars become the North Star?"

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NASA’s Great Observatories were intended to peer at the universe in different wavelengths: the Hubble Space Telescope in visible light, the Compton Gamma Ray in gamma rays, the Chandra X-ray Observatory in X-rays, and the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared. The last of the four to be launched, Spitzer was carried into space on Aug.Continue reading "Aug. 25, 2003: The Spitzer Space Telescope launches"

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Observers who are quick to step outside after sunset can catch a delicate crescent Moon sinking in the west, now just 8 percent lit as sunrise begins to creep over the lunar nearside.  Magnitude 1.6 Mars sits 7° to the upper left (east) of the Moon, slowly becoming visible as the sky darkens. You canContinue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, August 25: The Moon reappears in Virgo"

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After much discussion and debate, an International Astronomical Union (IAU) vote on Aug. 24, 2006, reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. “Throw away the placemats. Grab a magic marker for the classroom charts. Take a pair of scissors to the solar system mobile,” crowed the New York Times coverage. While sentiment from the general publicContinue reading "Aug. 24, 2006: Pluto is demoted"

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Mars is just less than 3° south of the gorgeous double star Porrima (Gamma Virginis) this evening. At magnitude 1.6, Mars is about a full magnitude brighter than Porrima (magnitude 2.7); the star will appear to the planet’s upper right in the western sky an hour after sunset, when they are roughly 7° high. ToContinue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, August 24: Virgo’s double star, Porrima"

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On Aug. 8 and Aug. 23, 1991, scientists from CalTech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory turned the 70-meter dish antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex on Mercury. The goal was to produce a radar map of the portions of Mercury not photographed by Mariner 10 during its 1974-75 flybys. But to the researchers’Continue reading "Aug. 23, 1991: Water on Mercury"

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New Moon occurs at 2:07 A.M. EDT. This particular New Moon has been garnering headlines as a Black Moon — specifically, a seasonal Black Moon. This is a non-scientific name that can be attributed to the third of four New Moons to occur in an astronomical season — e.g., between the summer solstice and theContinue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, August 23: The Black Moon"

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Everything we see around us, from the ground beneath our feet to the most remote galaxies, is made of matter. For scientists, that has long posed a problem: According to physicists’ best current theories, matter and its counterpart, antimatter, ought to have been created in equal amounts at the time of the Big Bang. ButContinue reading "How a mysterious particle could explain the universe’s missing antimatter"

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American astronomer Edwin Hubble (after whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named) coined the term “Local Group” for the galaxies he had identified as moving through space with the Milky Way. The term appeared in his 1936 book, The Realm of the Nebulae. He identified 11 definite members with a possible 12th. Today, astronomers have shownContinue reading "Michael’s Miscellany: Meet the Local Group"

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On Aug. 20, 1977, Voyager 2 launched from Cape Canaveral and began its epic journey to the outer planets – and beyond. Twelve years later, the spacecraft photographed Neptune as it approached the ice giant. Two days after that, on Aug. 22, 1989, NASA announced that Neptune had a ring system; the images had revealedContinue reading "Aug. 22, 1989: Voyager 2 reveals Neptune"

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Andrea Arbizza, taken from Modena, Italy The Omega Nebula (M17) in Sagittarius is also known as the Swan Nebula for its appearance in visual observations. But this deep image was taken with nearly 41 hours of exposure in Hα/OIII and SII/OIII dual-band filters with a 4-inch scope at f/4.8, revealing intricate detail in this star-formingContinue reading "Swan deep-dive"

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With no Moon in the evening sky, it’s time to check in with Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś), now in Hercules and visible for several hours after sunset. By 9:30 P.M. local daylight time, Wierzchoś is still 60° high in the west. You’ll find it about 9.5° west of magnitude 3.5 Eta (η) Herculis, one ofContinue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, August 22: Comet Wierzchoś passes planetary nebula NGC 6058"

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Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, August 22Reaching its highest point in the sky around 11 P.M. local daylight time tonight is the Swan Nebula (M17). This gorgeous deep-sky object is a fan favorite of amateur astronomers thanks to its brightness, which makes it easy to find and observeContinue reading "The Sky This Week from August 22 to 29: A Black Moon"

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A new study suggests a novel approach in the long-running scientific endeavor to find intelligent life beyond Earth. Instead of casting a wide, speculative net across the cosmos, researchers from Penn State and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory propose a more targeted strategy: listen for alien civilizations in the same way they might be listening forContinue reading "To find alien life, try eavesdropping on their conversations with spacecraft, astronomers suggest"

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An international team of scientists, led by Northwestern University astrophysicists, has detected a never-before-seen type of exploding star, or supernova, that is rich with silicon, sulfur, and argon. Astronomers long have theorized that massive stars (10 to 100 times heavier than our Sun) have a layered structure. The outermost layers are made of the lightestContinue reading "The first supernova of its kind"

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On Aug. 21, 1914, a total solar eclipse over Europe on the eve of World War I drew much attention. Albert Einstein had been waiting for an eclipse to verify his theory of relativity – specifically the light-bending effects of gravity – and enlisted help from Erwin Findlay-Freundlich of Berlin Observatory. Findlay-Freundlich was to leadContinue reading "Aug. 21, 1914: Total solar eclipse tensions"

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Venus passes 7° south of Pollux at 5 A.M. EDT and the crescent Moon is now close to Mercury, preparing to pass 4° north of the solar system’s smallest planet at noon EDT. Let’s start in Gemini, which rises first and sits higher in the eastern sky before sunrise. An hour before the Sun crestsContinue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, August 21: Venus treks past Pollux"

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SpaceX’s powerful Starship rocket is nearing a return to action following an explosion on the company’s test stand in Texas and anomalies during three consecutive test flights. The FAA on Friday closed its mishap investigation into Starship Flight 9, during which the rocket reached orbit for the first time in 2025 but failed to hit its test objectives. That opens the doorContinue reading "SpaceX dissects Starship issues ahead of Flight 10"

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