Launched last week, TESS will scan 200,000 close and bright stars, seeking new planets and possibly livable worlds. Here's a roundtable discussion with 2 scientists on the TESS mission.
How do we know earlier industrial civilizations on Earth didn't rise and fall long before humans appeared? That's the question posed in a new scientific thought experiment.
For weeks, people have searched for this post more than any other at EarthSky. No, there won't be a green moon on April 20, 2018. It's a joke, y'all, with its roots (ahem) in cannabis culture. :-)
This week is International Dark Sky Week. Celebrate by watching this impossible, but magical, video of dark, starry skies over light-polluted New York City. It's new from Project Skyglow.
TESS will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Lift-off is planned for no earlier than 6:32 p.m. EDT (10:32 p.m. UTC).
NASA held a public naming contest in 2015, just before New Horizons' sweep past Pluto and Charon. The spacecraft mission team has used many of the Charon feature names since. Now the IAU gives the names the nod.