Astronomy

Four of the astronauts who will be conducting spacewalks train at the Kennedy Space Center.

Behind the Scenes of the Last Mission to Repair the Hubble Space Telescope

Photographer Michael Soluri shares an intimate look at the team that saved the iconic observatory

There Might Really Be a Planet X, Lurking Beyond Pluto

The far reaches of our own solar system could contain worlds undiscovered.

Why Astronomers Are Fighting Back Against Robotic Lawnmowers

It’s a feud fueled by radio frequencies

The blobs, colored to show motion, are G2 as it approaches and passes the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy

Escape From the Black Hole’s Abyss!

An object called G2—previously believed to be a gas cloud—narrowly slipped from the clutches of a supermassive black hole

The observatory atop Mauna Kea

Hawaiians Are Protesting Construction of the World’s Largest Telescope

Native Hawai'ian activists say the volcano-top project is damaging sacred lands

Every Year Spring Gets 30 Seconds Shorter

But the good news is that summer will be that much longer thanks to some peculiarities in how the Earth moves

The zodiacal light.

Catch a Glimpse of the Zodiacal Light Show This Month

For some in the northern hemisphere, a celestial treat sometimes referred to as “false dusk” is lighting up the night

Our familiar, and only true, Moon -- the only photos of the 'second moon' are of a distant, blurry object

Bet You Didn't Know About the Earth's 'Second Moon'

Even astronomers didn't realize it was following the Earth until 1997

An artist’s interpretation of the star quartet — as a young star and three gas condensations on the left and as star siblings on the right.

Stars Have Womb Siblings

Four baby stars, still gestating in their parental gas cloud, move together - for now at least

The variable stars flickering to the golden ratio are RR Lyrae — a class of pulsars first found in the constellation Lyra (bisected by the Milky Way here)

Pulsing Stars Flicker in a Pattern Close to the Golden Ratio

The famed ratio, which shows up in art, architecture and nature, can also be found in space

An artist's illustration of Kepler-444 and its five planets

These Five Earth-sized Planets Are Super Old

Kepler-444 is 11.2 billion years old and its five planets could tell us about planet formation in the early universe

The scales on Fragment C divide the year by days and signs of the zodiac.

Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism, the First Computer

Hidden inscriptions offer new clues to the origins of a mysterious astronomical mechanism

Scientists used to hypothesize that equipment from Australia's Parkes Observatory, shown here, was responsible for fast radio burst readings.

Astronomers Catch a Mysterious Burst of Energy in Action

It's the first time scientists have observed the strange radio pulse as it happened

Two New Studies Posit At Least Two New Planets Out Beyond Pluto

We may not be done learning about our own solar system

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

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