Deep-sky objects shine and the giant planets show off their satellites as the bright light from the Moon disappears from our ...

The September 2025 issue featured “A guide to beginner’s guides,” a reminiscence and description of some the books for astronomy beginners that Contributing Editor Raymond Shubinski recommends or ...

The Fighting Dragons of Ara, also called the Rim Nebula and cataloged as NGC 6188, comprises dark, star-forming clouds and bright young suns.

Seismometers — equipment designed to pinpoint earthquakes — are now being used to track the thousands of pieces of human-made objects abandoned in Earth’s orbit. Some of those items pose a risk to ...

Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is just over 100 years old, and so far it has predicted the interaction between celestial objects and the space-time field very well. There are a few ...

How far can sound travel through space, since it’s so empty? Is there an echo in space? – Jasmine, age 14, Everson, Washington In space, no one can hear you scream. You may have heard this saying.

On Jan. 20, 1930, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin was born in New Jersey. After graduating from West Point and serving as a fighter pilot in the Korean War, Aldrin completed his Ph.D. at MIT in 1963. When he was ...

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned triumphantly to Earth in 2023 after collecting 4.3 ounces (121.6 grams) of precious grains of dust and rock from the asteroid Bennu in 2020. While that sample return ...

The object that would become known as both the Great January Comet of 1910 and the Daylight Comet was first seen Jan. 12 in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s unclear who precisely discovered it, but some ...

When the Huygens probe dropped into Titan’s atmosphere on Jan. 14, 2005, no one knew what to expect. For landings on Mars or the Moon, mission scientists plotted out landing sites with meticulous care ...

Today we’re visiting a classic: the first object on Messier’s list, the Crab Nebula (M1). Located in Taurus, this well-known supernova remnant is perfectly placed for viewing in the January evening ...

Voyager 1 has now traveled more than 16 billion miles (26 billion kilometers), drifting past Jupiter and Saturn on a long haul out of the solar system. And its incredible success helped pave the way ...