NASA astronaut Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen take off on a T-38 training flight from Ellington Field on Feb. 11, 2026, as a waning crescent Moon hovers above.
Read MoreIn the northwest section of Ursa Major the Great Bear sits the magnificent spiral galaxy M81 (NGC 3031). At magnitude 6.9, this ranks as one of the sky’s brightest galaxies. You’ll find it 2° east-southeast of the magnitude 4.5 star 24 Ursae Majoris. German astronomer and celestial cartographer Johann Elert Bode discovered this object, and nearbyContinue reading “Michael’s Miscellany: Observe Bode’s Galaxy”
The post Michael’s Miscellany: Observe Bode’s Galaxy appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
This image of lysozyme crystals grown aboard the International Space Station was taken after the crystals returned to Earth in April 2024. Lysozyme is a protein found in bodily fluids like tears, saliva, and milk. It is used as a control compound to demonstrate well-formed crystals.
Read MoreAmateur astronomers, take note: A wonderful celestial event known as a total lunar eclipse will occur in the skies above North America during the morning hours of Monday, March 3. Lunar eclipses happen when the Sun, Earth, and the Moon align, in that order. When this alignment is precise, Earth’s shadow falls upon the Moon, obscuring itContinue reading “How to observe the March 3 total lunar eclipse”
The post How to observe the March 3 total lunar eclipse appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
Fishing boats illuminate the Arabian Sea along India’s west coast with green lights designed to attract squid, shrimp, sardines, and mackerel in this nighttime photograph from the International Space Station, orbiting 259 miles above Earth. At lower right, the city lights of Hyderabad—renowned for its historic diamond and pearl trade—stretch westward toward the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, home to over 26 million people and the heart of Bollywood.
Read MoreFrom 1905 until his death in 1916, Percival Lowell searched for a ninth planet, which he called Planet X. Lowell had predicted the planet based on irregularities in the orbit of Uranus. In 1929, Lowell Observatory Director V.M. Slipher hired self-taught astronomer Clyde Tombaugh to resume Lowell’s search for the planet. Tombaugh captured long-exposure photosContinue reading “Feb 18, 1930: Discovery of Pluto”
The post Feb 18, 1930: Discovery of Pluto appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
Northern Japan, especially the island of Hokkaido, is home to some of the snowiest cities in the world. Sapporo, the island’s largest city and host of an annual snow festival, typically sees more than 140 days of snowfall, with nearly 6 meters (20 feet) accumulating on average each year.
Read MoreThe phenomenon of a Full Moon arises when our planet, Earth, is precisely sandwiched between the Sun and the Moon. This alignment ensures the entire side of the Moon that faces us gleams under sunlight. Thanks to the Moon’s orbit around Earth, the angle of sunlight hitting the lunar surface and being reflected back toContinue reading “2026 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases”
The post 2026 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. February 15: Saturn and Neptune stand close Now roughly 7th magnitude, Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś) is readily visible in the Northern Hemisphere once more. With New Moon less than a day away, it’s the perfect time to check in on this cometaryContinue reading “The Sky Today on Monday, February 16: Catch Comet Wierzchoś in twilight”
The post The Sky Today on Monday, February 16: Catch Comet Wierzchoś in twilight appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. February 14: A Valentine’s Heart (Nebula) This evening, Saturn passes 0.9° south of Neptune at 11 P.M. EST. The two planets stand together in Pisces, located in the west after sunset. An hour after the Sun goes down, the pair is stillContinue reading “The Sky Today on Sunday, February 15: Saturn and Neptune stand close”
The post The Sky Today on Sunday, February 15: Saturn and Neptune stand close appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev onboard, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission is the twelfth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Meir, Hathaway, Adenot, and Fedyaev launched at 5:15 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin a mission aboard the orbital outpost.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. February 13: Catch the zodiacal light This Valentine’s Day, the sky is serving up the perfect target: the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) in Cassiopeia the Queen. Best seen in the early evening after dark, there’s no Moon in the sky to interfereContinue reading “The Sky Today on Saturday, February 14: A Valentine’s Heart (Nebula)”
The post The Sky Today on Saturday, February 14: A Valentine’s Heart (Nebula) appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals the clearest view yet of the Egg Nebula. This structure of gas and dust was created by a dying, Sun-like star. These newest observations were taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. February 12: Asteroid Nysa approaches a star This dark, moonless Friday the 13th evening is the perfect time to head out after dark and try to catch a glimpse of the zodiacal light. This ethereal, cone-shaped glow is actually the reflected lightContinue reading “The Sky Today on Friday, February 13: Catch the zodiacal light”
The post The Sky Today on Friday, February 13: Catch the zodiacal light appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. February 11: Ganymede’s shadow, Io cross Jupiter Asteroid 44 Nysa may be just past opposition, but it’s still placed perfectly for evening viewing in Cancer the Crab. Wait until a few hours after sunset, when Cancer is high in the eastern sky,Continue reading “The Sky Today on Thursday, February 12: Asteroid Nysa approaches a star”
The post The Sky Today on Thursday, February 12: Asteroid Nysa approaches a star appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
From left, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 crew members – Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot – pose next to their mission insignia inside the Astronaut Crew Quarters in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026.
Read More
A pair of CubeSats designed by college students from around the world is deployed into Earth orbit from a small satellite orbital deployer on the outside of the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module. Students from Mexico, Italy, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan designed the shoe-boxed sized satellites for a series of Earth observations and technology demonstrations.
Read MoreBlue Origin announced on Jan. 30, 2026, that it will pause New Shepard flights for at least two years. The company, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is instead redirecting resources to lunar spaceflight. New Shepard is a reusable spaceflight system designed for vertical landings. It has completed 38 flights and carried 98 people aboveContinue reading “Blue Origin pauses New Shepard, shoots for the Moon”
The post Blue Origin pauses New Shepard, shoots for the Moon appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
The New York metropolitan area was showing the effects of a prolonged cold spell in late January 2026. During a stretch of frigid weather, ice choked the Hudson River along Manhattan’s western shore.
Read MoreSpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday told “those unaware” — which would seem to be anyone outside the company, its investors, and perhaps Musk’s inner circle — that SpaceX has “already shifted focus” away from colonizing Mars in favor of building a “self-growing city” on the Moon. The Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that SpaceX told investors itContinue reading “Musk in about-face says SpaceX ‘shifted focus’ from Mars to Moon”
The post Musk in about-face says SpaceX ‘shifted focus’ from Mars to Moon appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read MoreOn Feb. 8, 1969, a massive meteorite rained a couple of tons of stones on the Mexican town of Allende, not far from the Texas border. The fireball scattered thousands of stones over a huge area. Over 2 tons were recovered, giving researchers — already primed by the impending Apollo missions — an abundance ofContinue reading “Feb. 8, 1969: The Allende meteorite falls”
The post Feb. 8, 1969: The Allende meteorite falls appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
A full moon is seen shining over NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher in the early hours of February 1, 2026.
Read MoreLurking in the southwestern corner of Aquarius the Water-bearer, globular cluster M72 doesn’t stand out. At magnitude 9.4, it ranks among the dimmest globulars Charles Messier included in his celebrated catalog. But M72 also lies farther away than most Messier clusters. Its 100,000 stars shine across 55,000 light-years of intragalactic space. M72 appears to beContinue reading “Hubble images globular cluster M72”
The post Hubble images globular cluster M72 appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare — seen as the bright flash toward the upper middle — on Feb. 4, 2026. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in blue and red.
Read MoreA newly discovered comet has astronomers excited, with the potential to be a spectacular sight in early April. C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was spotted by a team of four amateur astronomers with a remotely operated telescope in the Atacama desert on January 13. It quickly became apparent the newly discovered object was a member of a group calledContinue reading “A new comet was just discovered. Will it be visible in broad daylight?”
The post A new comet was just discovered. Will it be visible in broad daylight? appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read MoreAll living creatures are affected by the cycles of celestial objects. Humans have always been locked into the rhythms of sunrise and sunset, the phases of the Moon, and the seasons. We left some of this behind by lighting the night and becoming urbanized. But astronomical clocks captured those rhythms by displaying the movements ofContinue reading “Tour Europe’s great celestial clocks”
The post Tour Europe’s great celestial clocks appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away, features concentric rings of dust and gas that appear to swirl around its bright nucleus.
Read More
The Varda Space Industries W-5 capsule returned to Earth in Koonibba in South Australia on Jan. 29, 2026, with the protection of a heat shield made of C-PICA, a cutting-edge material licensed from NASA and manufactured by Varda. The capsule’s successful return marks the first time a capsule protected entirely by Varda-made C-PICA has come back to Earth.
Read MoreThe Chilean energy company AES Andes has announced plans to cancel its massive INNA project, a green energy plant that was poised to ruin some of the planet’s darkest skies and observations at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory. Dark skies have become something of a rarity these days, with recent studies suggesting theContinue reading “Energy company cancels controversial project near world’s darkest skies”
The post Energy company cancels controversial project near world’s darkest skies appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read MoreThe FAA has warned pilots to be prepared to “exercise extreme caution” when flying below the trajectory of commercial spacecraft — some of which have the potential for “catastrophic failures resulting in debris fields.” That is the language used in a recent Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO), dated Jan. 8, that is intended to provide guidance toContinue reading “FAA warns ‘catastrophic’ spaceflight mishaps pose threat to aircraft”
The post FAA warns ‘catastrophic’ spaceflight mishaps pose threat to aircraft appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
NASA’s Orion spacecraft sits atop the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket at the launch pad after rollout on Jan. 17, 2026.
Read MoreMission Highlight: Artemis 2 NASA is targeting no earlier than Sunday, Feb. 8, for the launch of the historic Artemis 2 mission. The ten-day journey will be the first time astronauts have visited the moon since 1972’s Apollo 17. The four-person crew — consisting of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CanadianContinue reading “NASA preparing to launch Artemis 2 as early as Sunday”
The post NASA preparing to launch Artemis 2 as early as Sunday appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read MoreEdward Charles Pickering graduated summa cum laude from Lawrence Scientific School at the age of 19, beginning a position as a physics professor at MIT a year later. During his 10 years there, he created the first physics laboratory in America for student use. But it was his appointment as director of the Harvard CollegeContinue reading “Feb. 1, 1877: Pickering starts at Harvard College Observatory”
The post Feb. 1, 1877: Pickering starts at Harvard College Observatory appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read MoreOn Jan. 31, 1783, William Herschel was creating a catalog of double stars when he spotted 40 Eridani B. This dim white object was part of a triple-star system, and was the first white dwarf ever spotted. On Jan. 31, 1862, telescope-maker Alvan Graham Clark sighted the second: Sirius B. Its existence had been predictedContinue reading “Jan. 31, 1783 and 1862: Pioneering white dwarf discoveries”
The post Jan. 31, 1783 and 1862: Pioneering white dwarf discoveries appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
Deep Space Station 15 (DSS-15), one of the 112-foot (34-meter) antennas at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, looks skyward, with the stars of the Milky Way overhead, in September 2025.
Read MoreSixty-six million years ago, Earth was a tropical greenhouse. Today, it’s an ice-capped world. And an international team of experts led by the University of Southampton think they know why. Their new study shows that Earth’s massive drop in temperature after the dinosaurs went extinct could have been caused by a large drop in calcium levels in the ocean. The study showed that the dramatic calcium shiftContinue reading “Why did Earth’s greenhouse age end?”
The post Why did Earth’s greenhouse age end? appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a portion of the Helix Nebula highlights comet-like knots, fierce stellar winds, and layers of gas shed off by a dying star interacting with its surrounding environment. Webb’s image also shows the stark transition between the hottest gas to the coolest gas as the shell expands out from the central white dwarf.
Read MoreEditor’s note: This story was originally published on April 6, 2023, and was updated on Jan. 29, 2026, to reflect the latest developments in the Artemis program. With the success of NASA’s uncrewed Artemis 1 lunar-orbital mission in late 2022, and with preparations underway for a crewed Moon landing during Artemis 3 in 2027, theContinue reading “When will Artemis 2 launch and what will the mission do?”
The post When will Artemis 2 launch and what will the mission do? appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
This stellar landscape is reminiscent of a winter vista in a view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (red, green, and blue). Chandra data (red, green and blue) punctuate the scene with bursts of colored lights representing high-energy activity from the active stars.
Read MoreMassive stars have an outsized influence on their environment and the galaxies they call home. These behemoths have the highest surface temperatures of any normal stars, so they emit copious amounts of ultraviolet radiation that ionizes their surroundings. They also possess fierce stellar winds that help shape their gaseous environs. But these monster suns alsoContinue reading “New JWST imagery dives into the center of the Milky Way”
The post New JWST imagery dives into the center of the Milky Way appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s 2024 NIRCam image shows protostar EC 53 circled. Researchers using new data from Webb’s MIRI proved that crystalline silicates form in the hottest part of the disk of gas and dust surrounding the star — and may be shot to the system’s edges.
Read MoreThe first piloted Apollo flight – called Apollo 204, though it would later be known as Apollo 1 – was intended for tests in Earth orbit, part of the eventual path to later Apollo missions going to the Moon. The mission was crewed by Gus Grissom, America’s second man in space; Ed White, the country’sContinue reading “Jan. 27, 1967: The Apollo 1 fire”
The post Jan. 27, 1967: The Apollo 1 fire appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
A seemingly serene landscape of gas and dust is hopping with star formation behind the scenes.
Read MoreFor the first time, scientists believe they have captured direct evidence of the mechanisms that trigger a solar flare. These massive explosions, generated by the Sun, release staggering amounts of electromagnetic radiation and often fling stellar material into space as coronal mass ejections. While researchers have long understood that flares occur when energy is rapidlyContinue reading “Solar Orbiter captures magnetic avalanche in action”
The post Solar Orbiter captures magnetic avalanche in action appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read MoreThe September 2025 issue featured “A guide to beginner’s guides,” a reminiscence and description of some the books for astronomy beginners that Contributing Editor Raymond Shubinski recommends or considers influential. Our readers responded with a flood of emails adding their own suggestions to his list. Is your favorite mentioned here? What books are we stillContinue reading “Our readers’ favorite beginner astronomy books”
The post Our readers’ favorite beginner astronomy books appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
The Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial is seen during a wreath laying ceremony that was part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Wreaths were laid in memory of those men and women who lost their lives in the quest for space exploration. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
Read MoreOver eight years after its launch, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Uranus on Jan. 24, 1986. The encounter and data-gathering was complicated by Uranus’ 98-degree axial tilt and the low light levels, but the spacecraft was able to pass by at about 50,600 miles (over 81,400 kilometers) above the cloud tops. Many uniqueContinue reading “Jan. 24, 1986: Voyager 2 flies by Uranus”
The post Jan. 24, 1986: Voyager 2 flies by Uranus appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
A green and red aurora streams across Earth’s horizon above the city lights of Europe in this Jan. 19, 2026, photograph, which looks north across Italy toward Germany. The International Space Station was orbiting 262 miles above the Mediterranean Sea at approximately 10:02 p.m. local time when the image was captured.
Read MoreWhen Pioneer 10 flew by Jupiter on Dec. 3, 1973, its margin of survival was closer to the knife-edge than it seemed. It absorbed a thousand times the lethal dose of radiation for a human, suffering darkened optics and fried transistor circuits. Other unwanted side effects included the generation of false commands, which caused theContinue reading “Jan. 23, 2003: Pioneer 10’s last words”
The post Jan. 23, 2003: Pioneer 10’s last words appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
Read More
NASA’s massive Crawler-Transporter, upgraded for the Artemis program, carried the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft on the Mobile Launcher from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for the Artemis II mission.
Read More