Sign Up for Our Amazing Newsletter!
A daily update by email. Science news, great photos, sky alerts.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Mercury below Venus on May mornings
Venus is the brightest object in the sky besides the sun and moon. Mercury is just below it throughout May 2017. Best seen from southerly latitudes!
May 16, 2017
What’s the weather like on Proxima b?
The nearest known exoplanet - orbiting the star Proxima Centauri - is only 4.2 light-years away. Does it have liquid water? An atmosphere? Weather? Scientists just announced the first tentative steps to explore those possibilities.
May 15, 2017
Planet circus in May, with explanation
A beautiful spatial view of our solar system from Guy Ottewell, showing the planets’ paths along their orbits in approximately mid-May, 2017, with sightlines to them from the Earth.
May 15, 2017
The oldest signs of life on land yet
Fossils found in Australia - in ancient hot spring deposits - have pushed back the earliest known evidence for land-based microbial life to 3.48 billion years.
May 15, 2017
Circumzenithal arc over Surrey, England
Circumzenithal arcs look like upside-down rainbows, but they're caused by ice crystals, not rain. They're sometimes seen with sundogs, and even full halos around the sun or moon.
May 15, 2017
Eta Aquarid over Mount Bromo
Cool short video of an early morning Eta Aquarid meteor over Mount Bromo in Indonesia, by Justin Ng. Take a few seconds and enjoy!
May 13, 2017
The Big Dipper’s deep sky
Many people recognize the Big Dipper in the northern sky. Here are 10 deep-sky Messier objects - 8 galaxies, a planetary nebula, and a double star - in and around the Big Dipper.
May 13, 2017
Drought is gone from much of US
At the end of April, just 6% of the United States was afflicted by drought. That’s a substantial turnaround from a few years ago.
May 12, 2017
Saturn nearly at its best for 2017
And it's near the moon in Friday night's sky. How to spot this planet and the nearby bright star Antares, in the constellation Scorpius.
May 12, 2017
Watch 200th spacewalk Friday
Watch 2 astronauts perform landmark 200th ISS spacewalk on Friday, May 12. Live coverage begins at 6:30 a.m. EDT (10:30 UTC). Links to viewing here.
May 11, 2017
