The atmospheric glow blankets southern Europe and the northwestern Mediterranean coast, outlined by city lights. At left, the Po Valley urban corridor in Italy shines with the metropolitan areas of Milan and Turin and their surrounding suburbs.
Read MoreMission Highlight: China’s Shenzhou-22 launches as an urgent crew lifeboat The mission highlight this week is the uncrewed launch of Shenzhou-22 by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The launch is now officially confirmed for Tuesday, Nov. 25, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. CMSA reported on Monday that the Long March-2F Y22Continue reading “China to launch emergency lifeboat to Tiangong station”
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Read MoreOn Nov. 23, 1221, Alfonso X was born in Spain, the son of King Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon. By the time he succeeded his father in 1252, Alfonso was already known as a scholar – though he demonstrated his military might as well, putting down several revolts and annexing Murcia. Known as AlfonsoContinue reading “Nov. 23, 1221: The birth of Alfonso the Wise”
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NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft lifts off for its first flight Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, from U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. The aircraft’s first flight marks the start of flight testing for NASA’s Quesst mission, the result of years of design, integration, and ground testing and begins a new chapter in NASA’s aeronautics research legacy.
Read MoreOn November 20, Astronomy magazine hosted a live event featuring nine speakers, all standouts in the world of amateur astronomy. The event was sponsored by Celestron, the world’s leading telescope manufacturer. Hundreds of people from all over the world tuned in as the presenters walked them through the wonderful possibilities offered by amateur astronomy. Hosted by Astronomy’s ContentContinue reading “Astronomy Unlocked videos are now available”
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a galaxy, NGC 2775, that’s hard to categorize.
Read MoreThe James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has a habit of showing familiar objects in a new light. With cameras sensitive to a broad range of infrared wavelengths, it can peer deep into celestial objects, revealing details often hidden to telescopes that view visible light. The aptly named Sombrero Galaxy (M104) provides a stunning example. AtContinue reading “The Sombrero Galaxy tips its hat to JWST”
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Read MoreNASA hosted a livestream Nov. 19 to share newly released images of Comet 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar object to traverse our solar system. The unprecedented observation campaign utilized a dozen different NASA assets to track the visitor, capturing it with a combination of heliophysics, planetary science, and astrophysics instruments. The briefing first addressed intenseContinue reading “NASA shares new images of interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS”
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NGC 1068, a relatively nearby spiral galaxy, appears in this image released on July 23, 2025.
Read MoreObserving the wonders of the night sky begins with selecting the right telescope. Join us on Nov. 20, 2025, at 9:00 am EST for Astronomy Unlocked: How to Choose Your Best Telescope. This virtual event will provide a comprehensive guide detailing everything you need to know about selecting the best equipment for your observing needs.Continue reading “Discover your key to the universe tomorrow at Astronomy Unlocked”
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NASA ER-2 pilot Kirt Stallings waits inside the transport vehicle at Edwards, California, on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, moments before boarding NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center’s ER-2 aircraft for a high-altitude mission supporting the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx). Through the vehicle window, the aircraft can be seen being readied for flight.
Read MoreOpening in theaters and IMAX March 20, 2026, Project Hail Mary is a feature film based on Andy Weir’s best-selling novel of the same name. Weir, who also wrote the smash hit The Martian, has an incredible talent for blending science and fiction, creating thrilling stories based in real science and astronomy. Ryan Gosling starsContinue reading “The new trailer for ‘Project Hail Mary’ just dropped — watch it here”
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Read MoreOn Saturday, Nov. 15, a group of intrepid observers gathered near Animas, New Mexico, to celebrate first light of a new large telescope, a 30-inch f/3.3 instrument nicknamed the “Lockwood Monster.” This wonderful instrument was created and built by Mike Lockwood, the brilliant owner and operator of Lockwood Custom Optics. The sky at Animas isContinue reading “A memorable star party in New Mexico”
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Read MoreOn Nov. 16, 1974, a group gathered at Arecibo Observatory in the rainforest interior of Puerto Rico, there for a reopening celebration after upgrades to the facility. After the requisite speeches, scientists used the radio telescope to send what would be known as the Arecibo message: 1,679 bits of data in 73 lines, each 23Continue reading “Nov. 16, 1974: Arecibo sends a message”
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Read MoreIn 1976, the Soviet Union began development of the Buran orbiter. Concerned that the American space shuttle program might be used for military purposes, the Soviets responded with Buran and its Energia booster rocket, which were capable of carrying antisatellite and antimissile weapons and targeting locations on Earth’s surface. Though the nonmilitary objectives for BuranContinue reading “Nov. 15, 1988: The Buran orbiter launches”
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This image shows two massive galaxy clusters. The vast number of galaxies and foreground stars in the image were captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared light. Glowing, hot X-rays captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory appear in pink. The blue represents the dark matter, which was precisely mapped by researchers with Webb’s detailed imaging.
Read MoreIf your sky is clear during the late hours of Sunday night, November 16 and the early morning hours of Monday the 17th, you might want to head outside for a while to see some shooting stars. The Leonid meteor shower, November’s premier such event, will be at its peak then. Conditions will be goodContinue reading “The Leonid meteor shower peaks Sunday night”
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The 57.7-foot-long Canadarm2 robotic arm extends from a data grapple fixture on the International Space Station’s Harmony module in this July 23, 2025, image.
Read MoreThe Pleiades (M45) is arguably the most famous star cluster in the sky. Known as the Seven Sisters, or Subaru in Japan, its history is woven into human culture, with stories about it potentially stretching back 100,000 years. For most of modern astronomy, we’ve known it as a tight-knit family of a few hundred stars.Continue reading “Astronomers find the ‘Greater Pleiades Complex’”
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Read MoreA coronal mass ejection (CME) is an eruption of gas and plasma from the Sun. Solar physicists record a number of them each year. Fortunately, most head into space in directions away from Earth. When one does encounter our planet, it can cause geomagnetic storms, displays of aurorae, and even disruption or damage to communicationsContinue reading “Astronomers see a massive stellar explosion”
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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 “2025 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases”
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Read MoreWell, Comet Lemmon finally passed its closest approach to the Sun and is now heading back into the outskirts of the solar system. That means it’s fading as it receives less solar energy each day. Of course, the comet could still experience an outburst, which would increase its brightness, but that would only be temporary.Continue reading “Comet Lemmon is still visible”
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Read MoreNobody did more to popularize astronomy than American astronomer Carl Sagan, who was born Nov. 9, 1939, in New York. The landmark 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which he cowrote and narrated, has been viewed by more than half a billion people. He also wrote popular science books, including The Dragons of Eden, Pale Blue Dot, andContinue reading “Nov. 9, 1939: The birth of Carl Sagan”
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Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. November 7: Open cluster M103 shines in the Queen Eighth-magnitude dwarf planet 1 Ceres is passing close to a background star tonight, just 6’ southwest of a slightly fainter 9th-magnitude sun. Both are about ¼° north of an easy-to-spot pair of starsContinue reading “The Sky Today on Saturday, November 8: Ceres make an appulse”
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Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. November 6: Titan treks across Saturn Let’s look to Cassiopeia tonight to observe the open cluster M103. Shining at magnitude 7.4, you can find this group near magnitude 2.7 Delta Cas. Simply center this star in binoculars or a small telescope, thenContinue reading “The Sky Today on Friday, November 7: Open cluster M103 shines in the Queen”
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Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. November 5: November’s Full Beaver Super Moon The Moon crosses into Taurus shortly after 5:30 A.M. EST this morning, November 6. After both have set for those in the contiguous U.S., the Moon will make its way across several stars in theContinue reading “The Sky Today on Thursday, November 6: Titan treks across Saturn”
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Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. November 4: Two shadows and a moon cross Jupiter The morning begins with Europa crossing Jupiter, following in Io’s footsteps late last night. Its transit began just after 2:40 A.M. EST this morning, and will continue through about 5:30 A.M. EST. November’sContinue reading “The Sky Today on Wednesday, November 5: November’s Full Beaver Super Moon”
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Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. November 3: Venus and Spica, side by side Tonight Jupiter sports a three-for-one as Io transits with its shadow in tow and Europa’s shadow sneaks onto the disk in preparation for its own moon to transit. Jupiter rises around 9:30 P.M. localContinue reading “The Sky Today on Tuesday, November 4: Two shadows and a moon cross Jupiter”
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Read MoreBorn Nov. 2, 1885, In Missouri, Harlow Shapley earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1913. From 1914 to 1921, he was posted at Mount Wilson Observatory, where he used the 60-inch telescope to study globular clusters and Cepheid variables. From 1921 to 1952, Shapley was the director of the Harvard College Observatory, helping establishContinue reading “Nov. 2, 1885: Birth of Harlow Shapley”
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Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. November 1: Dip into the Bay of Rainbows Daylight saving time ends today at 2 A.M. So, if you are in an area that observes daylight saving time, your clocks will “fall back” from 1:59 A.M. daylight time to 1 A.M. standardContinue reading “The Sky Today on Sunday, November 2: Neptune nestles between Saturn and the Moon”
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Read MoreMercury switches from the evening to morning sky this month, while the giant planets dominate the night. The moons of Jupiter and Saturn offer many events. Venus stars on early November mornings, but drops lower day by day. Mercury shines at magnitude –0.1 on Nov. 1 and hangs low in the southwest after sunset. ItContinue reading “November 2025: Mercury switches from evening to morning as giant planets dominate the night”
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Read MoreSky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, October 31This Halloween, peer into the Ghost’s Goblet, a young grouping of stars in Cassiopeia the Queen. Formally cataloged as NGC 559 and Caldwell 8, you’ll find this open cluster high in the northeast a few hours after sunset. Look for the WContinue reading “The Sky This Week from October 31 to November 7: Catch celestial ghosts”
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Read MoreScanning the constellation Cepheus the King leads us to one of the sky’s largest emission nebulae — IC 1396. It measures a whopping 2.8° by 2.3°. But this region also contains dark nebulae and a bright star cluster. Plus, there’s a famous colorful star nearby. Get ready to spend lots of time observing this wonderful region. In images of IC 1396, the mostContinue reading “Michael’s Miscellany: A lot to see around IC 1396”
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Read More“Comets are like cats. They both have tails and do what they want,” said comet discoverer David Levy many times. Well, Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is proving his words true. Most comet-watchers thought that Lemmon would reach its brightest October 21 when it was closest to Earth. But it continued to brighten for several days past that date.Continue reading “Comet Lemmon is still a worthy target”
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Read MoreMission Highlight: China’s Shenzhou-21 crew launch This week’s highlight is the upcoming launch of China’s Shenzhou-21 crewed mission to the Tiangong space station. While Xinhua states the launch will occur “at an appropriate time in the near future,” external sources such as Next Spaceflight report the Long March-2F carrier rocket is scheduled to lift offContinue reading “Shenzhou-21 crew headed to Tiangong Station this week”
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Read MoreOn Oct. 26, 2004, the Cassini spacecraft made its first close pass by Saturn’s planet-size moon, Titan (later known as Titan Flyby A). After a seven-year journey — the last four months of which were spent in orbit around Saturn — Cassini plunged within 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) of the world’s surface. It snapped hundredsContinue reading “Oct. 26, 2004: Cassini at Titan”
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Read MoreIn 1669, French-Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini arrived at the still-under-construction Paris Observatory as its new director. He quickly talked Louis XIV’s minister of finance into buying a 34-foot Campani refractor for the observatory, and on Oct. 25, 1671, used that refractor to discover Saturn’s moon Iapetus. The second saturnian moon discovered, after Christaan Huygens’ 1655Continue reading “Oct. 25, 1671: Iapetus is discovered”
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Read MoreAs humanity sets its sights on returning to the Moon and venturing to Mars, protecting the travelers who make the journey is a big challenge. A new guide to the emerging field of “astroimmunology” details one of the most critical threats astronauts face — that spaceflight cripples the human immune system — and offers aContinue reading “How spaceflight impacts the immune system”
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Read MoreIn a recent study, a team of researchers from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Penn State suggested that future missions to Mars search for microbes or their remains in that planet’s ice, rather than in its rocks, clay, or soil. In a lab, the team recreated conditions that exist in the permafrost and iceContinue reading “Can Mars’ ice confirm past life?”
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Read MoreWith available spots left to travel to Egypt and witness the grand spectacle of a total solar eclipse filling up fast, I was happy to learn that Astronomy magazine’s tour provider, Eclipse Traveler, has added another trip. This one, called 2027 Luxor, is a 5-day/4-night adventure beginning July 30 and ending August 3, 2027. August 2, ofContinue reading “Don’t miss the eclipse of our lifetimes”
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Read MoreFrom Galileo’s meticulous sketches of Jupiter’s moons in 1610 to Caroline Herschel’s handwritten notes of comet discoveries, the history of astronomy is built on careful note-taking. Logbooks with descriptions of as-yet-unknown objects, sketches of Saturn’s rings, and hand-drawn plots of the stars led to numerous discoveries. Today, whether you’re a newcomer scanning the sky withContinue reading “Why every stargazer needs a logbook”
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Read MoreFor the first time, astronomers have gotten a detailed look at how a supermassive black hole (SMBH) eats, discovering two large spiral arms of gas that are funneling its meals inward. The finding, made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, has been accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. It offers aContinue reading “Supermassive black hole seen feeding via a pair of spiral arms”
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Read MoreComet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is currently a 5th-magnitude fuzzball low in the northwestern sky. This means that, from a dark site, sharp-eyed observers could glimpse it with their naked eyes. And it’s predicted to get brighter. By how much? Between two and six times as bright as it is now. (We hope. Comets are fickle.) On Sunday night, the comet will be inContinue reading “See Comet Lemmon at its brightest”
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Read MoreOn 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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Read MoreHow 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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Read MoreDuring 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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Read MoreA 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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Read MoreThe 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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Read MoreWhen 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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Read MoreLooking 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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