Asteroid 2020 TF6 will come within 40% of moon’s distance on October 19

Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project captured an image of the asteroid last night.

Orionid meteors 2020 peak the morning of October 21

The Orionid meteor shower will peak around mid-week, with the best morning likely being Wednesday, October 21.

Metal-poor globular cluster forces astronomers to rethink theories

The discovery of the most metal-poor globular cluster recorded to date has forced scientists to rethink how both galaxies and globular clusters form.

Birth of young moon at day’s end, October 17-20

You might or might not see the moon on October 17, 2020. But you'll more easily catch it on October 18, 19 or 20. Look west after sunset!

Pluto’s snowcapped mountains are unlike any on Earth

A new study shows how methane snow accumulates on Pluto's mountain peaks. These snowcaps - first seen by New Horizons in 2015 - look a lot like ones on Earth, but form in a very alien environment.

Year’s closest new moon October 16

October 16 brings us the closest new moon of 2020. Some will call it a supermoon. You won't see this extra-close new moon because it'll travel across the daytime sky with the sun. But you might see its gravitational effect on the tides along ocean shorelines in the days following new moon.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard completed its 7th launch and landing this week

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket successfully launched an uncrewed test flight on October 13, with both its capsule and booster later executing a flawless landing.

Astronomers identify 24 possible superhabitable worlds

Are there worlds out there - orbiting distant stars - even better suited for life than Earth? Might they be older, larger, warmer, wetter and with longer-living stars? Now astronomers have identified 24 possible superhabitable worlds.

Summer Triangle and galactic equator

You can use the Summer Triangle - and the constellation Cygnus the Swan - to locate the edgewise disk of our Milky Way galaxy.

Worsening rifts and fractures spotted at 2 important Antarctic glaciers

Satellite imagery has revealed that 2 of the fastest-changing glaciers in Antarctica - Pine Island and Thwaites - are fracturing and weakening faster than ever, a step towards the glaciers' disintegrating and causing sea levels to rise dramatically.