This next week, before dawn, watch as the red planet Mars sweeps by the Zubenelgenubi, the constellation Libra's alpha star.

Astronomers have discovered a black hole with 40 billion solar masses in the heart of the Abell 85 cluster of galaxies.

ESA released the 1st of a series of global maps aimed at quantifying change in carbon stored as biomass across the world’s forests and shrublands.

The fascinating object 2I/Borisov has been steadily brightening as it nears its encounter with our sun. It'll pass closest to the sun on December 8, 2019, then flee again toward interstellar space.

Hubble image of spiral galaxy NGC 5468.

Remember comet 46P/Wirtanen? It was a bright comet about this time last year. Around the time it swept near the Earth and sun, the comet entered the field of view NASA’s TESS planet-hunter. And boom! It underwent an outburst, caught by TESS.

White dwarf stars are typically more or less Earth-sized. The planet orbiting white dwarf WDJ0914+1914 appears to be at least twice as big as its star! High intensity radiation from its star is causing this planet to evaporate. Will the same thing happen in our solar system someday?

Parker Solar Probe - now in its 4th orbit around the sun - can endure heat and radiation like no previous mission. This week, 4 new studies in Nature reveal new insights about the sun's mysterious corona and solar wind.

Why should we care about the new findings - released this week - from NASA's Parker Solar Probe? This new NASA video explains how the solar wind - a stream of charged particles from the sun - affects earthly astronauts and technologies.

Venus and Jupiter had a spectacular conjunction last month. Soon, Saturn and Venus will meet in the west after sunset. Guy Ottewell offers insights and charts to prepare you for this encounter between worlds.