The American Astronomical Society - chief organization for US astronomers - said it is in conversations with SpaceX about the impending launch of 12,000 Starlink satellites. The astronomers worry the satellites will interfere with their work of understanding the universe.
Nearly 100 countries have already signed up to organize national campaigns, to provide the public with an opportunity to vote. The deadline is July 30 to express interest in organizing a national campaign. The IAU will announce results in December.
The search for life on Mars usually involves looking for past or present microbes, invisible to the eye. Scientists at University of Illinois suggest searching instead for a type of rock formation known on Earth to be created by microbes.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a giant storm, the largest known in our solar system. It's been seen through earthly telescopes for more than 300 years. Lately, it's been showing signs of breaking apart. Is this the beginning of the end for the beloved Spot?
New observations by the ALMA telescope in Chile have revealed a never-before-seen disk of cool, interstellar gas wrapped around Sagittarius A*, the giant black hole at the center of our galaxy.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was used to create this large mosaic of stars and dust clouds in the direction of the constellation Cepheus. Here are multiple star clusters - young, middle-aged and older - born from the same dense clumps of gas and dust.
Mars is a desert world, with sand dunes similar to those on Earth. But the processes that create them can be quite different from those on our planet, according to a new study from the University of Arizona.
"Mud ball" meteorites - full of clays, organics and water - are unique among space rocks. And a lot of them fell in April 2019 on a small town in Costa Rica, much to the delight of scientists.
Late last month, the Curiosity rover picked up wonderful images of noctilucent - or "night-shining" - clouds in the Martian sky. Plus - if you're at a high latitude on Earth now - it's time to start looking for these clouds.
Will Elon Musk's plan to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites - aimed at bringing internet access to the world - interfere with astronomy? Astronomer Guy Ottewell ponders this question.