Astronomy

A composite image made in Payson, Arizona, on December 28 shows Comet Lovejoy as it seemed to pass a globular cluster of stars called Messier 79.

How to See This Green Comet With the Naked Eye

The "New Year's Comet" is taking astronomers by storm with an unexpected showing, and it should only get brighter through early January

Mercury Was Once Bigger, Then It Shrank

As the planet cooled, it contracted and shut off the surface lava flows about 3.8 billion years ago

Both the Hubble Space Telescope (blue) and the ALMA Observatory contribute to this image of the Boomerang Nebula

This Dying Star Is the Coldest Place We’ve Found in the Universe

The Boomerang Nebula is just one degree above absolute zero

It’s Possible to See Exoplanets Without Schmancy Equipment

A cheap DSLR and some light computer processing can unveil far off exoplanets

An artist's impression of the triple-star system of GG Tau-A, which might have the right conditions for planet formation

This Newly Forming Planet Will Have Three Suns

A triple-star system has two disks of gas and dust that could form planets

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen by Rosetta last month

Rosetta’s Comet Smells Really, Really Bad

If you could breathe in space, you wouldn't want to breathe this air

From Lightning on Jupiter to Apollo 13's Call for Help, Hear Some of NASA's Greatest Recordings

An audio archive captures some iconic moments of space history

An artist's impression shows exocomets orbiting the star Beta Pictoris

A Swarm of Comets Around an Alien Star Hints at Our Solar System's Youth

The comets fall in two groups — one older and one younger — and have to contend with the orbit of a gas giant

jerk.

The Milky Way is Stealing Other Galaxies’ Gases

Little dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way are missing their hydrogen

The 2014 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award Winners

These 10 innovators in science, history, society and the arts are a testament to the imagination and hard work that define the nation's spirit

How One Physicist’s Pursuit of the Cosmos Took Off in Antarctica

Francis Halzen’s amazing experiment heralds the beginning of a new era in astronomy

This Weekend, Astronomers Get Their Best Ever Look at an Oort Cloud Object

Looking at the Oort cloud is like looking back in time—a superpower hampered by the fact that the Oort cloud is very, very, very, very far away

An artist's conception depicts WASP-43b's orbit around its star.

Exoplanet Has Winds That Blow at the Speed of Sound

WASP-43b wouldn't be a great place to live

One of the 4,700-year-old impact craters at Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve in Australia.

To Find Meteorites, Listen to the Legends of Australian Aborigines

Oral traditions may have preserved records of impacts over thousands of years and could lead to fresh scientific discoveries

Northern lights ignite the sky.

On the Hunt for the World's Most Spectacular Sky Show

Photojournalist Randall Hyman journeys north to Tromsø, Norway, in search of the northern lights

None

This Is How the Milky Way Will End

A computer simulation shows how the Milky Way will collide with Andromeda

Saturn Is Making (And Destroying) Mini-Moons All The Time

Saturn's F ring is a little moon factory

None

Turns Out We Live in the Laniakea Galactic Supercluster

Add another line to your celestial address: Astronomers just found out we live in the Laniakea Galactic Supercluster

None

The Surprisingly Complicated Reason Why Stars Look Like They Have Points

Stars are star-shaped because of imperfection in our eyes

A Perseid streaks across the sky over the archaeological site Stobi in modern-day Macedonia

The Perseids Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

Watch the remains of comet Swift-Tuttle burn up in the atmosphere

Page 32 of 47