Will you see thousands of meteors during the 201 Leonid meteor shower? Doubtful. But you might see a good sprinkling of meteors before dawn November 17 and 18.
Click here for awesome photos from members of the EarthSky community of the November 11, 2019, transit of Mercury. It'll be the last Mercury transit until 2032. A huge thank you to all who submitted to EarthSky Community Photos!
The moon is big and bright nearly all night now. It'll turn full on Tuesday, just as the North Taurid meteor shower reaches a peak. The moon is a problem for meteor-watching, but this owl ... a bigger problem.
Contrary to previous thought, a giant planet in a wild orbit doesn't mean there can't be an Earth-like planet in the same system. What’s more, the view from that Earth-like world as its giant neighbor moves past would be unlike anything we've ever seen.
Voyager 2 left the realm of the sun's influence a year ago today, becoming the 2nd craft ever to do so. This week, the journal Nature Astronomy published 5 new papers describing what Voyager 2 has been seeing on its journey into the unknown.
Scientists recently studied the formation of the huge crystals inside the giant geode of Pulpí, located deep in a Spanish mine. They revealed the natural process that grew the crystals, ripening them over thousands of years and making them literally crystal clear.
Earth's gravity bent the trajectory of asteroid C0PPEV1 - also known as 2019 UN13 - as it swept only 3,852 miles (6,200 km) above Africa. As a result, its farthest point from the sun has now shifted out to the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.
A photo of mist above an Antarctic research station. Sunlight returned to this part of the world in August, after 4 months of continuous night. Now the station is getting ready for an influx of summer visitors.
Physicists have pondered how the cold, uniform matter of the inflationary early universe became the ultrahot, complex mixture of matter, space and time that led to the universe we know. New work simulates a bridge between cosmic inflation and ... everything else.
Deborah Byrd (asteroid 3505 Byrd) helps edit EarthSky.org and is a frequent host of EarthSky videos. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named in her honor in 1990, a Public Service Award from the National Science Board in 2003, and the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 2020. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.