301–320 of 6,087 results
The center of a globular cluster with hundreds of thousands of stars colored red white and blue

Black Holes

Does This Star Cluster Host a Black Hole in Its Core?

The well-known star cluster Messier 4 might have an elusive, midsize black hole hidden at its center, but the evidence isn’t conclusive yet.

MBR mission

Astronomy in Space with David Dickinson

United Arab Emirates Announces New Mission to the Asteroid Belt

An ambitious new mission from the United Arab Emirates would fly closely and speedily by seven main-belt asteroids.

Venus lines up with Pollux and Castor, June 2, 2023

This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 26 – June 4

Venus starts the week under Pollux and Castor, then lines up with them. Nearby, Mars steps on the Beehive. In the south the Bootes kite flies high.

Disk galaxy that's brighter at its rim

Galaxies

Red Galaxies at Night, Astronomers' Delight: A Look at the “Hubble-Dark” Universe

JWST images of early galaxies have turned up a population of flat, red disks that may have been entirely missed by previous surveys.

Solar System

The Sun Gets Its Close-up: Images from New Solar Telescope

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope shows some stunning detail on the Sun, including sunspots, fibrils, granules, and other solar textures.

Small white dwarf at left pulls gas in a spiral pattern from a larger star at right

Stellar Science

Radio Waves Unveil Supernova Origin

Astronomers have observed an unusual supernova, in which a helium star fed a white dwarf until it exploded.

Supernova 2023ixf in M101

Celestial News & Events

Bright Supernova Blazes in M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy

A supergiant star exploded as a supernova in the prominent galaxy M101 in Ursa Major. It's now bright enough to see in a 4.5-inch telescope!

Supernova Refsdal in widefield image of galaxies

Cosmology

Replay of Star’s Death Sheds Light on Universe’s Expansion

A cosmic lens magnified the light of an exploding star. Now, astronomers are using observations of that supernova to calculate the universe’s current rate of expansion.

Moon passing Venus, Mars, and Gemini at dusk, May 22-24, 2023

Celestial News & Events

This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 19 – 28

As Venus and Mars move toward each other in the western dusk, Venus brightens and Mars shrinks — just like they always do. This week the waxing Moon hops over both.

Galaxies

“Rogue Black Hole” Could Be Something Much Simpler

An unusual streak of stars thought to have formed in the wake of a wandering supermassive black hole might just be a spiral galaxy seen edge-on.

bands of red rocks on a red planet

Space Missions

New Photos from NASA's Perseverance and Juno

NASA spacecraft are constantly sending back images from across the solar system. Here are two that caught our eye.

Jupiter-Moon occultation

Celestial News & Events

See the Moon-Jupiter Trifecta: Conjunction, Occultation, and Double-Shadow Transit

The May 17th dawn pairing of Jupiter and the Moon may be one of the most amazing conjunctions you'll ever see.

The Milky Way soars over the Grand Canyon

People, Places, and Events

The Grand Canyon Star Party

Get ready for the Grand Canyon Star Party on June 10–17, 2023.

End of journey for NJ meteorite

Solar System

Scientists Confirm: Meteorite Crashed Into New Jersey Home

A rock that crashed through the roof of a house in New Jersey proved to be the real thing — a chunk spalled from a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid.

Faint, fuzzy dots among galaxies speckled on a black field

Galaxies

The James Webb Space Telescope May Have Spotted a Baby Galaxy Merger

New JWST images reveal that one of the most distant objects ever observed is actually two baby galaxies on a possible collision course.

Exoplanets

Mini-Neptune Reveals (Some of) Its Secrets

James Webb Space Telescope observations offer a new window inside the atmosphere of the secretive sub-Neptune GJ 1214b.

Orbits of newly discovered moons

Solar System

New Discoveries Double Number of "Irregular" Saturn Moons

The Minor Planet Center is announcing a bevy of new moons for Saturn that will bring its total to 145 (and break Jupiter's record).

Venus and Mars in Gemini, May 15, 2023

This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 12 – 21

Mars and Venus each line up with a pair of stars this week. And with the Milky Way lying all around the horizon, the Coma Berenices Star Cluster floats overhead.

Coronal aurora blast

Explore the Night with Bob King

Lie Back, Look Up, and Find Your Zenith Stars

When you want to relax under the stars there's no better way than on your back looking up at the zenith. We explore what's overhead and discover there's more than one zenith up there.

Deimos, with Mars in the background

Solar System

The Moon Deimos Might Be a Piece of Mars

Surprising new results from the United Arab Emirates' Hope probe call the origin of Mars's smaller moon into question.