menu
close
subscribe donate

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

Posted by in Space | Today's Image | 1 week ago

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

Metal-poor globular cluster forces astronomers to rethink theories

Posted by in Space | 1 week ago

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

Pluto’s snowcapped mountains are unlike any on Earth

Posted by in Space | 2 weeks ago

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.
Earth's night sky above a ridgeline, with a huge purple halo around the Andromeda galaxy.

Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are already merging

Posted by and in Astronomy Essentials | Space | 2 weeks ago

Billions of years from now, Earth’s night sky will change as the Andromeda galaxy rushes toward a merger with the Milky Way.

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

Posted by in Human World | Space | 2 weeks ago

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.
Earth-like planet with its star and other stars in background.

Astronomers identify 24 possible superhabitable worlds

Posted by in Space | 2 weeks ago

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.
Illustration of a black hole, with a disk around it and jets emanating from its poles, and with a bright flare escaping it.

Astronomers see a star ‘spaghettified’ by a black hole

Posted by in Space | 2 weeks ago

Astronomers have spotted a rare blast of light from a star being ripped apart by a supermassive black hole. The phenomenon – known as a tidal disruption event – is the closest such flare recorded to date at just over 215 million light-years from Earth.
The James Webb Space Telescope displays its large and striking yellow sunshield with foldable structures surrounding it.

James Webb Space Telescope passes environmental testing

Posted by in Human World | Space | 2 weeks ago

The James Webb Space Telescope – successor to the Hubble – just passed a series of environmental testing trials, designed to simulate the rigors of its anticipated launch in 2021.
A graceful ripple of dust in space.

What is interstellar space?

Posted by in Astronomy Essentials | Space | 3 weeks ago

You might be surprised to learn that interstellar space isn’t just vacuum. It’s full of gases, elements, and dust – very thinly spread, to be sure – but the building blocks of stars and planets.
Contour lines around four bluish-colored patches.

Radar reveals 3 more subsurface polar lakes on Mars

Posted by in Space | 3 weeks ago

Scientists with the European Space Agency say that the Mars Express orbiter has found evidence of three more salty lakes below Mars’ south pole. The discovery comes two years after the first lake was detected in 2018.