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Merging galaxies behaving strangely
When large and small galaxies merge, the large galaxy's central black hole typically gorges on gas and dust. But in a merging galaxy system called Was 49, the small galaxy has the feeding black hole.
April 1, 2017
No kidding! April Fools’ Comet
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacombini-Kresák will be closer to Earth on April 1 than it's been since its discovery. You need a telescope to see it, but there's an online viewing Friday night.
March 31, 2017
Watch Thursday’s spacewalk
Two ISS astronauts will be outside the space station beginning about 8 a.m. EDT (12:00 UTC) on March 30. The spacewalk is expected to last about 6.5 hours. Links to live viewing here.
March 30, 2017
Watch SpaceX rocket launch Thursday
The launch window for the reused - "flight proven" - Falcon 9 rocket opens at 18:27 EDT (22:27 UTC) on March 30. There's a two-and-a-half-hour launch window. Links to the live launch here.
March 30, 2017
Watch a full rotation of the moon
Wonderful video from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a NASA spacecraft in a polar orbit around the moon since 2009. The moon as you've never seen it!
March 28, 2017
Another Planet 9 search! You can help
This one will use images of the sky visible from Earth's Southern Hemisphere. You can help from anyplace on the globe. The search is for a 9th major planet in our system, nicknamed Planet 9.
March 27, 2017
Super halos around very young galaxies
Astronomers directly observed a pair of Milky-Way-like galaxies, seen when the universe was 8% of its current age. They were excited to find the young galaxies surrounded by huge halos.
March 26, 2017
New map of space dust in 3-D
Sure, we're all collections of space dust. But astronomers also want to study it in order to understand how space dust in our Milky Way obscures starlight from afar.
March 25, 2017
Does Mars sometimes have rings?
It's possible that Mars' closer moon - Phobos - might alternate between becoming a planetary ring and clumping together to form a moon.
March 23, 2017
Star’s death spiral into black hole
What happens when a star with about our sun's mass spirals into a black hole? With the distant event known as ASASSN-14li, astronomers have figured out some details.
March 22, 2017
