Get ready for the ’20s!

"Anybody besides me notice that the past two decades have been nameless?"

New names for 112 exoplanets and their stars

Hundreds of thousands of people from 112 countries helped select names for distant exoplanets and their stars. So, for example, the exoplanet formerly known as HAT-P-36b - about 1,000 light-years away - now also carries the name Bran, from an Irish legend.

Bringing community astronomy to rural Africa

Ideas discussed at last month’s International Astronomical Union symposium in Tokyo include projects using smartphones and low-cost battery-powered equipment.

December brings 2019’s 2nd Friday the 13th

Friday - December 13 - comes exactly 13 weeks after the year's first Friday the 13th in September. Zoinks! By the way, a fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia.

Amazon fires quickening glacier melting in Andes

The burning rainforest releases black carbon into the atmosphere, which, according to a growing number of scientific studies, directly contributes to the melting of glaciers.

Chennai engineer helped find India’s Vikram lander, which crashed on the moon

In September, India hoped to become the 4th nation to soft land on the moon successfully with its Chandrayaan 2 mission. Moments before touchdown, the mission's Vikram lander crashed. Now the lander has been found again.

A better way to convert dog years to human years

Researchers collected DNA samples from 104 Labrador retrievers over a 16-year period. They compared changes in their DNA samples against DNA previously collected from humans. The result? A better sense of what a "dog year" really means.

Cranberries are our lifeform of the week

Cranberries are blueberries' bitter cousin. Here are some fun facts about this floating fruit, which people in the U.S. love to include in their Thanksgiving dinners.

ESA studies human hibernation for space travel

In movies and books, fictional astronauts enter ‘suspended animation’ to cross the vastness of space. Recently ESA investigated how real-life crew hibernation would impact a space mission to Mars.

Awesome nightscape photos from New Mexico’s Very Large Array

Observatories are great places to view and photograph the night sky. Tips from an astrophotographer's trip to the Very Large Array in New Mexico - to help you plan your next astrophotography adventure - plus awesome photos.