261–280 of 6,729 results
Botswana 2025 tour group

People, Places, and Events

Southern Splendors on Safari

Sky & Telescope Associate Editor Sean Walker and Contributing Editor Stephen James O’Meara accompanied nine adventurers on a stargazing safari for an immersive experience in the African bush in Botswana.

Waxing Moon crossing Scorpius and Sagittarius, Aug. 2-6, 2025

Celestial News & Events

This Week's Sky at a Glance, August 1 – 10

The waxing gibbous Moon of August haunts the low south. Venus and Jupiter are drawing toward a spectacular conjunction in early dawn.

Venus and Jupiter on 12Aug2025

Night Sky Sights

August Podcast: Planets Dance at Dawn

Find out “what’s up” in the August sky. We’ll track down four planets before dawn; have some fun with New Moons; peek at some Perseids; and gaze at the center of our galaxy. So load up on the bug juice, and come along on this month’s Sky Tour.

Astronomy and Society

Satellite Constellations Are Too Bright for Astronomy

The International Astronomical Union has recommended brightness limits for satellites, but companies aren't abiding by them.

Comet 3I/ATLAS orbit

Solar System

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS: What We Know Now

Observations have revealed the comet’s fuzzy coma, hinted at a weird tail, and suggested an ancient history. Plus, some missions might keep observing the interstellar comet when it ducks behind the Sun.

VERITAS

Science and Space Policy

Congress’s NASA and NSF Budgets Counter Trump, Fund Science

The House and Senate bill drafts keep NASA near current funding levels, but the Trump administration is prematurely readying the agency for heavy cuts

Inset image shows putative companion star as blue fuzz next to bright orange Betelgeuse. The inset points to Betelgeuse in a wider-scale image

Stellar Science

Betelgeuse's Companion Has Been Found — Or Has It?

A new image from the Gemini Observatory might show a stellar companion to Betelgeuse, but the discovery is tentative.

Moon passing Mars low in the west at dusk, July 27-29, 2025

Celestial News & Events

This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 25 – August 3

The newly waxing Moon passes Mars low in the west, then Spica and Antares while growing more robust. At dawn, Jupiter heads toward Venus.

TRACERS

Space Missions

NASA Launches TRACERS Mission to Study Space Weather

NASA’s TRACERS spacecraft will look at the snap of magnetic field lines at the boundary between the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field.

ALMA image of a baby star, its fierce jets, and a newborn disk of dust and gas that's beginning to form planets

Exoplanets

Webb Space Telescope Spies Baby Planetary System

Astronomers have found a baby system that’s just beginning to build planets — and it can tell us about how and where planet formation starts.

Watching the Southern Delta Aquariids

Celestial News & Events

Thumbs Up for the Delta Aquariid Meteor Shower

Meteor-watchers will be busy this month and next. Not only are the Southern Delta Aquariids peaking soon, but they get a boost from additional minor showers.

TESS and transiting planets

Exoplanets

Some Planets Are Bigger Than We Thought

More than 200 planets in the TESS catalogs may be bigger than originally estimated — putting initially Earth-size planets into the super-Earth category.

Waning crescent Moon passing Venus at dawn, July 21-22, 2025

Celestial News & Events

This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 18 – 27

The waning crescent Moon joins Venus and Jupiter at dawn. In the dark of night, the Guardians of the Pole are no such things, except they are. And thereby hangs a tale. . .

Black Holes

A Candidate Direct-Collapse Black Hole in the Infinity Galaxy

Researchers have discovered a rare ring-galaxy duo that appears to harbor a supermassive black hole formed through direct collapse

big black hole merger

Black Holes

New Black Hole Merger Breaks Record

Gravitational-wave astronomers have detected the collision of two beefy black holes, which created the most massive merger-made black hole found thus far.

Rasalhague (Alpha Ophiuchi) turns the Summer Triangle into a cut diamond.

Celestial News & Events

This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 11 – 19

In early dawn on Saturday the 12th, Taurus uses Venus to open his very rare, strikingly brilliant second eye. In the following days the eye slips out of place.

FRB heartbeat

Stellar Science

Exotic Fast Radio Burst Goes Up in Smoke

Finding out where on the sky these mysterious radio flashes come from is hard. The team behind the discovery of one odd signal has now retracted their claim.

satellite orbits (artist's illustration)

Science and Space Policy

Proposed NOAA Budget Kills Program That Was Designed to Prevent Satellite Collisions

Trump’s first administration helped establish the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS). His second administration wants to dismantle it.

The image is a detailed and colourful visualisation of the cosmic web, which shows the large-scale structure of the Universe. The left side of the image is filled with blue and purple colours and is a bit wispier/darker. The right side has bright orange and yellow colours and is much bolder/brighter. In the centre, there is a bright green-blue area where these two sides meet, forming a complex network of filaments that connect various clusters of galaxies. The text ‘ILLUSTRIS’ appears in small font at the bottom right corner.

Cosmology

Astronomers Map the Cosmic Web

A 23 million light-year-long gaseous filament and 39 bursts of radio waves are helping astronomers chart the universe's largest-scale structures.

Eos molecular gas cloud illustration

Astronomy & Observing News

Giant Gas Cloud Discovered 300 Light-Years from Earth

Astronomers have just spotted for the first time a huge cloud of cold hydrogen gas just 300 light-years from Earth.