telescope

A photo of Saturn taken by the Hubble Telescope last October. Small dark marks called ring spokes are visible on the planet's left side, just inside the widest black band of space between rings.

What Are These Mysterious Dark 'Spokes' on Saturn's Rings?

A Hubble image highlights the seasonal features, which scientists think could be caused by interactions between the planet's magnetic field and solar wind

Data from the Hubble Space Telescope produced this new image of the galaxy UGC 8091.

See the 'Sparkling Snow Globe' Galaxy Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope

The new, holiday-inspired image features UGC 8091, an "irregular" dwarf galaxy in the constellation Virgo

The supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared light. The image shows the expanding material from the blast colliding with gas released by the star before the explosion.

James Webb Telescope Captures Image of Supernova That 'Absolutely Shattered' a Star

The new image gives astronomers a near-infrared look at the stellar explosion called Cassiopeia A, located around 11,000 light years away from Earth

The consellation Orion and other stars in the sky in Alberta, Canada, in 2019.

An Asteroid Will Eclipse a Red Star in the Constellation Orion Monday Night

In the U.S., the rare event will only be visible from southern Florida, but it will be livestreamed from Italy for viewers everywhere

Half a century on, Kohoutek may be due a little more respect. Though it disappointed the media and the public, it proved to be a bonanza for serious scientists.

The 'Comet of the Century' Failed to Impress, but It Wasn't Such a Disaster After All

Highly anticipated before its arrival in late 1973, Kohoutek became an interplanetary punchline. But astronomers may have gotten the last laugh

An artist's rendition of the detection of the cosmic ray by the Telescope Array experiment. When high-energy cosmic rays reach Earth's atmosphere, they collide with and break apart atomic nuclei, creating a shower of particles that is picked up by detectors on the ground.

Scientists Mystified by Rare, High-Energy Cosmic Ray, the Most Powerful Since 1991

Researchers have been unable to locate an obvious source for the particle—it seems to have traveled from an empty spot in space

Euclid's image of the Perseus Cluster, a group of galaxies 240 million light-years from Earth. The view includes about 1,000 galaxies in the cluster, with more than 100,000 additional ones in the background.

See the First Dazzling Images From the Euclid Space Telescope

The European Space Agency's observatory will map one-third of the sky over six years in a mission to understand the universe's dark matter and dark energy

The four telescopes of the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Researchers used them to search for the source of the fast radio burst.

Astronomers Find Powerful 'Fast Radio Burst' That Traveled for Eight Billion Years

The strong blast of radio waves is the oldest known, and it could tell scientists more about the mysterious matter that lies between galaxies

An artist's rendering of the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission. The satellite will measure X-rays to deepen science's understanding of the universe. 

Japan Launches X-Ray Satellite and Lunar Lander to Space

The satellite will study large bodies in the cosmos, while the lander will attempt to land at a precise location on the moon's surface

Gemini South on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile (left) and Gemini North on the summit of Maunakea in Hawai’i (right).

Hackers Target Telescopes, Forcing Them to Pause Operations

Two major telescopes in Hawaii and Chile and a handful of smaller observatories have been offline for weeks following an apparent cyberattack

In its second installment, “AeroEspacial” tells the story of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which housed the world’s largest radio telescope for over 50 years.

An In-Depth Look at Latino History Among the Stars and Skies

This summer, a podcast series from the National Air and Space Museum discusses Operation Pedro Pan, Latino Futurism and “Star Wars”

A group poses in front of Michigan State University's first observatory, circa 1888.

Students Unearth Forgotten 142-Year-Old Observatory Buried on Michigan State's Campus

Archaeology students have been working at the site since workers happened upon it in May

A test image taken by Euclid's infrared light instrument showing distant stars and galaxies.

See the First Stunning Test Images From the Euclid Space Telescope

Meant to study the “dark universe,” Europe's space observatory will eventually peer ten billion years into the past and map more than one-third of the sky

Euclid will travel almost a million miles from Earth to image distant galaxies.

What to Know About Euclid, Europe's Space Telescope Launched to Study the 'Dark Universe'

The telescope will image more than one billion galaxies and peer ten billion years into the past

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, one of the radio telescopes used to detect the pulses from pulsars in the new research. The telescope started to fall apart in 2020 and was decommisioned.

Gravitational Waves Create a Constant 'Hum' Across the Universe

Breakthrough research suggests the continuous ripples in spacetime could be caused by pairs of supermassive black holes, spiraling toward collisions

The Green Bank Telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia was one of three observatories to receive the transmission created by artist Daniela de Paulis.

Could You Decode a Message From Aliens?

An artist is challenging researchers and amateurs alike to practice parsing an extraterrestrial communication

An artistic rendering of the newly discovered LP 791-18 d exoplanet

Newly Discovered Exoplanet May Be Covered in Volcanoes

Astronomers found an Earth-sized world that could have liquid water on its surface and may be able to support life

Illustration of a black hole pulling in surrounding gas.

Astronomers Identify the Largest-Ever Cosmic Explosion

The burst is ten times brighter than any known exploding star and has lasted for more than three years

An artist's impression of a doomed planet skimming the surface of its star.

In a First, Scientists Witness a Dying Star Swallowing a Planet

Astronomers believe the doomed world was a gas giant about the size of Jupiter

The first image to show the shadow of black hole M87 as well as its jet

First-of-Its-Kind Image Captures a Black Hole's Shooting Jet

The finding could help reveal how black holes launch such high-energy ejections

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