You’re allowed to play with your food when you’re on the International Space Station! To celebrate a delivery of fresh food, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway (bottom left), Jessica Meir (middle left), and Chris Williams (bottom right), and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot (top right) pose for a group photo.
Read MoreFollowing the roaring success of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission, the space agency is devising plans for a final test flight before attempting to land the first humans on the Moon in decades, as soon as 2028. Whereas Artemis 2 sent four astronauts slingshotting around the Moon and back — and farther from Earth than any human hasContinue reading “NASA shares new details on Artemis 3 pre-lunar landing mission”
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“Rise,” the Artemis II zero gravity indicator, is seen sitting on the dais as the Artemis II astronauts speak with congressional staff, Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Washington.
Read MoreHumanity has spent eons looking up at the stars and wondering whether we’re alone, or if there are others like us out there in the vast unknown. Our curiosity has only increased as we have become a technological civilization capable of scanning the heavens for potential signs or signals from other civilizations, called technosignatures. ButContinue reading “Should we keep looking for ET?”
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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently took a self-portrait against a sweeping backdrop of ancient Martian terrain at a location the science team calls “Lac de Charmes.”
Read MoreJohn Vermette, taken from Starfront Observatory, Texas Lying 1,000 light-years away, NGC 1333 is the most active star-forming region in the Perseus molecular complex, producing newborn stars that carve cavities in the surrounding dust. The imager collected 8 hours of exposure with a one-shot color camera and a 4-inch f/5 refractor.
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NASA astronaut Jessica Meir poses with an Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit during an official portrait session at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Read MoreWinter hibernation is officially over. Spring has arrived. Warmer nights make this a great time to pull out your binoculars and enjoy everything the season offers. So, here are 10 great targets to get you started tonight. And because springtime for Northern Hemisphere amateur astronomers means it’s also galaxy season, half the objects I’ve chosenContinue reading “10 great spring binocular sights”
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Read MoreBorn May 10, 1900, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was also the first person to discover that stars are primarily made up of hydrogen and helium — a finding that took years to be acknowledged by the scientific community. Born in Wendover, England, Payne-Gaposchkin was an active student. She attended Cambridge University with an interest in science butContinue reading “May 10, 1900: The birth of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin”
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America’s first human spaceflight begins as the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) space vehicle, with astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. aboard, launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 5, 1961.
Read MoreOn May 9, 2003, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched Hayabusa, its mission to asteroid 25143 Itokawa. The journey was a demonstration of new technology engineered for returning samples from asteroids: ion engines, autonomous navigation, an asteroid sampler, and a reentry capsule. After a gravity assist from Earth, Hayabusa arrived at Itokawa in SeptemberContinue reading “May 9, 2003: Hayabusa launches”
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This celestial image captured from a window on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station highlights the Milky Way rising above Earth’s atmospheric glow.
Read MoreWe already knew interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS came from somewhere far beyond our solar system. Now scientists have more information on how alien that somewhere really is — a corner of the universe colder than, less irradiated than, and chemically distinct from the conditions that shaped our home. A study published April 23 in Nature AstronomyContinue reading “3I/ATLAS came from a strange, cold world”
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Read MoreVaonis Vespera II — X Edition VaonisMontpellier, France The Vespera II — X Edition is a version of Vaonis’ f/5 imaging system that has a limited run of 150 units; it features a clear shell that shows off its internal components. It uses a Sony IMX 585, an 8.3-megapixel color sensor. Its field of viewContinue reading “May we present this month’s new astronomy products”
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A newly discovered object may be a key to unlocking the true nature of a mysterious class of sources that astronomers have found in the early universe in recent years.
Read MoreDutch astronomer Willem de Sitter, born May 6, 1872, studied mathematics and physics at the University of Groningen, developing an interest in astronomy there and furthering it with work at Cape Observatory in South Africa. In 1908, he was appointed professor of astronomy at Leiden University, becoming the director of the Leiden Observatory in 1919.Continue reading “May 6, 1872: The birth of Willem de Sitter”
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This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the glittering spiral galaxy NGC 3137, located 53 million light-years away in the constellation Antlia (the Air Pump).
Read MoreIn 1961, amidst the tensions of the Space Race, NASA made an unpopular choice: Concerned with booster issues during a January test flight with a chimpanzee, the agency chose to run additional tests without human astronauts. Project Mercury, the American push for space success in the face of strong competition from the Soviets, had beenContinue reading “May 5, 1961: The first American in space”
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Read MoreWhat would Earth be like if there were no Moon? Peter Allen RhodesNorth Bellmore, New York Without the Moon, Earth’s geology, biology, and climate — as well as human philosophy — would be different in many significant ways. If Earth had no Moon, the postulated origin of the Moon through a collision between the proto-EarthContinue reading “What would Earth be like if there were no Moon?”
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Read MoreIn 1948, a clay tablet was unearthed in the ruins of the ancient city of Ugarit, in modern Syria. On the tablet was inscribed an account of a solar eclipse, describing the Sun going down in the sixth hour of the day; today, it is among the oldest known records of an eclipse. For manyContinue reading “May 3, 1375 B.C.E.: The Ugarit eclipse”
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Read MoreFrequently described as “the last man who knew everything,” 17th-century Jesuit Athanasius Kircher was a true polymath. Born May 2, 1601, in Germany, Kircher relocated to Italy and the Roman College by the 1630s, fleeing the Thirty Years’ War. There he began a lifetime of research and publication in an impressively wide array of fields:Continue reading “May 2, 1601: The birth of Athanasius Kircher”
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Nasdaq Chair and Chief Executive Officer Adena T. Friedman, left, and NASA’s Artemis II crew ring the closing bell of the Nasdaq market session, Thursday, April 30, 2026.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. April 30: Venus poses with a pair of stars Saturn, rising early in the morning, has now become a bit easier to spot in the predawn sky. About 45 minutes before sunrise on May 1, it has reached an altitude of nearlyContinue reading “The Sky Today on Friday, May 1: Catch Saturn before sunrise”
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NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for the Artemis III mission moves into the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. April 29: Jupiter nudges up to Wasat Venus ends the month of April near a pair of 4th-magnitude stars in Taurus the Bull: Kappa (κ) and Upsilon (υ) Tauri. The bright planet now lies to the upper right of 1st-magnitude Aldebaran, theContinue reading “The Sky Today on Thursday, April 30: Venus poses with a pair of stars”
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The barred spiral galaxy IC 486 glows with a soft, ethereal light in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. April 28: Ganymede passes through Jupiter’s shadow This evening, you can spot the planet Jupiter just a Full Moon’s width from the magnitude 3.5 star Wasat, also cataloged as Delta (δ) Geminorum. As the sky grows dark this evening after sunset GeminiContinue reading “The Sky Today on Wednesday, April 29: Jupiter nudges up to Wasat”
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Expedition 74 flight engineers Chris Williams of NASA and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency work together in the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. April 27: Comet Tempel 2 and NGC 6712 Jupiter’s large moon Ganymede begins passing behind the planet in an occultation late on the 27th. It then travels through the gas giant’s long, dark shadow to finally pop back into view early onContinue reading “The Sky Today on Tuesday, April 28: Ganymede passes through Jupiter’s shadow”
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The X-59’s tail and jet engine feature a new marking — a Freedom 250 logo celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026.
Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. April 26: A look at enigmatic Gamma Cas Comet 10P/Tempel, also called Tempel 2, is continuing to brighten in the early-morning sky. Rising around midnight and visible until the sky streaks with dawn, two hours before sunrise on April 27 you’ll findContinue reading “The Sky Today on Monday, April 27: Comet Tempel 2 and NGC 6712”
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This image that NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured of the Crab Nebula, paired with its past observations and those of other telescopes, allows astronomers to study how the supernova remnant is expanding and evolving over time.
Read MoreBorn April 25, 1710, to farmers in Scotland, James Ferguson only had three months of formal education. Despite working as a shepherd, he taught himself mechanics and astronomy, using his evenings to map the skies with beads and string. He went on to become a repairer of clocks, and applied those mechanical skills to hisContinue reading “April 25, 1710: The birth of James Ferguson”
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NASA celebrates Hubble’s 36th anniversary with a new image of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region it first captured in 1997. The telescope leveraged almost its full operational lifetime to show us changes in the nebula on human time scales with an improved camera.
Read MoreLong before humanity could venture into space, astronomers dreamed of a telescope above Earth’s obscuring atmosphere. In 1962, this dream took a step toward reality when a National Academy of Sciences study group recommended the development of a space telescope. NASA launched two Orbiting Astronomical Observatories in 1968 and 1972. Both produced a wealth ofContinue reading “April 24, 1990: Hubble launches”
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Read MoreSky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, April 24Venus passes 0.8° due north of Uranus at 1 A.M. EDT. After their close conjunction yesterday, the two remain within 1.5° of each other in the evening sky tonight, offering a second chance to spot them in a single field of viewContinue reading “The Sky This Week from April 17 to 24: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks”
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Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our Sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
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This image, released in celebration of Earth Day, shows the terminator – the line between night and day – on Earth. The Artemis II astronauts captured this view on April 2, 2026, during their journey to the Moon.
Read MoreThough often recognized as a philosopher, Immanuel Kant (born April 22, 1724) made several contributions to early theories of cosmic organization. Surveying the band of stars that appear across our sky – the Milky Way – Kant concluded that our galaxy must be a wide, rotating disk. He published this conclusion in A Universal NaturalContinue reading “April 22, 1724: The birth of Immanuel Kant”
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Read MoreSome people may think that the words astronomer and party-animal don’t go together. Nonetheless, for many astronomy enthusiasts, star parties are the social highlight of the observing season. Star parties are informal gatherings of amateur astronomers that let them share the night sky and their telescopes with the public and other observers. They can rangeContinue reading “How to prepare for a star party”
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NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft flies over the Mojave Desert in California on April 14, 2026.
Read MoreNASA’s Lucy spacecraft visited the asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025, coming within 600 miles (920 kilometers) of the object located in the inner region of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid was named after the paleontologist Donald Johanson, who in 1974 co-discovered the first identified example of previously unknown typeContinue reading “April 20, 2025: Visiting Asteroid Donaldjohanson”
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Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. April 18: Venus moves into Taurus The Moon passes 5° north of Venus at 5 A.M. EDT, then passes 5° north of Uranus at 2 P.M. EDT. By this evening, our satellite is more than 2.5 days old and some 10 percentContinue reading “The Sky Today on Sunday, April 19: The Moon passes above the Pleiades”
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Read MoreLooking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. April 17: Perfect setup for the zodiacal light This evening offers a lovely view as bright Venus moves into Taurus and is joined in the western sky by a delicate crescent Moon. Both hang beneath the sparkling star cluster M45, better knownContinue reading “The Sky Today on Saturday, April 18: Venus moves into Taurus”
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An observation made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveals vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. The chemical signature of water ice is shown as bright blue structures, while polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are in orange.
Read MoreIf you look at a photo of a face-on spiral galaxy, you’ll notice spiral arms filled with glowing gas clouds, sparkling star clusters, and opaque dust lanes curving gently away from the galaxy’s core. An image of an edge-on spiral gives a completely different picture. The gas, dust, and stars now occupy a thin diskContinue reading “JWST uncovers the Lobster Nebula’s firestorm of starbirth”
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A portion of the Moon’s far side is seen along the terminator—the boundary between lunar day and night—where low-angle sunlight casts long shadows across the surface.
Read MoreAs odd couples go, it’s tough to beat the stellar pair at the heart of R Aquarii. This symbiotic binary system comprises a cool red giant and a sizzling white dwarf locked in a 44-year elliptical orbit. The enormous star pulsates in a roughly 390-day period, driving changes in temperature and brightness. It has onlyContinue reading “R Aquarii’s strange, twisted relationship”
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NASA’s Artemis II crew shared brief remarks with friends, family, and colleagues after they landed at Ellington Airport near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday, April 11, 2026, after a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth.
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