Space debris depiction

Space Missions

Experts Call for Urgent Action on Space Debris

A European conference on the status of space debris had experts calling for immediate action to not just prevent but actively clean up the problem.

Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN)

Celestial News & Events

New Comet SWAN Now Visible in Small Scopes

A new comet discovered in spacecraft images is bright enough to make you get out of bed before dawn.

An iceberg reflects in serene bay waters in contrasting swooping and straight lines

People, Places, and Events

Sky & Telescope Goes to Greenland

Despite inopportune clouds, Sky & Telescope's first tour to Greenland offered unforgettable adventures with enormous icebergs, sled dogs, and more.

Pictures of nearside and farside of the Moon, with green points dotting the left half of the nearside image, as well as a bit of the right side of the farside image.

Solar System

Near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4 Might Aim for the Moon

The asteroid that will now definitely not hit Earth has the highest odds ever for a predicted lunar impact — but a miss is still more likely.

In the centre is an elliptical galaxy, seen as an oval-shaped glow around a small bright core. Around this is wrapped a broad band of light, appearing like a spiral galaxy stretched and warped into a ring, with bright blue lines drawn through it where the spiral arms have been stretched into circles. A few distant objects are visible around the ring on a black background.

Astronomy & Observing News

Astronomy in Pictures: From Cosmic Lenses to Dust Devils on Mars

Some cosmic perspective is a perfect cure for the Monday blues!

First-quarter Moon passing Mars, Pollux and Castor, April 4-5, 2025

Celestial News & Events

This Week's Sky at a Glance, April 4 – 12

The first-quarter Moon joins the Mars-Pollux-Castor trio, which are on their way to lining up straight. When the Moon turns full, it will meet Spica.

Orbit of asteroid 2024 YR4 with respect to the solar system

Astronomy and Society

Webb Telescope Has Weighed in on Impact Odds for Asteroid 2024 YR4 (Updated)

So far, searches for archival images that could confirm or rule out the asteroid's impact have come up dry, but Webb observations in May could help pin down the orbit.

V7993 Sgr nova finder map

Celestial News & Events

New Nova in the "Teapot," Algol Blinks, and Uranus Occults a Star

A new nova for early risers plus three fun observing projects for the week ahead.

Fram2 launch

Astronomy in Space with David Dickinson

SpaceX Launches Historic Polar Mission

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lit up the skies over the Florida Space Coast Monday night, with the last mission of March 2025. Aboard were four crew members with a unique goal: to reach a polar orbit around the Earth.

Leo-Cancer-Gemini-Hydra

Night Sky Sights

April Podcast: Celestial Carnivores

This month we’ll watch bright planets come and go, track down some celestial carnivores, and enjoy a splash of mid-spring meteors. So grab your curiosity, and come along on this month’s Sky Tour episode.

Illustration of protoplanetary disk around a star

Exoplanets

Tiny Disks Shed Light on Super-Earth Origins

A team of astronomers has obtained high-resolution images of all known protoplanetary disks in the Lupus star-forming region.

This week, Venus rises in the east a little earlier in each morning's dawn.

Celestial News & Events

This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 28 – April 6

While waiting for sunrise on eclipse morning, can you catch Venus rising as a tiny, thin crescent? Go out earlier while the sky is still dark, and you get a preview of July evenings with Scorpius on the meridian.

Sunrise eclipse inferior mirage

Celestial News & Events

Sunrise Solar Eclipse on March 29th for Eastern North America

The March 29th partial solar eclipse offers unique opportunities for photography and viewing alike.

JADES-GS-z13-1 in the GOODS-S field (NIRCam image, annotated)

Cosmology

Cosmic Fog Lifted Earlier Than Expected

New observations show that the universe's first light penetrated the fog of the cosmic dark ages just 330 million years after the Big Bang.

Dwarf nova ilustration

Celestial News & Events

T Coronae Borealis Isn't the Only Star Ready to Blow — Meet U Gem

As we wait on recurrent nova T CrB, dwarf nova U Geminorum is teeing up for its next 8-magnitude outburst.

Two fan-shape areas on black background. Within the fans, cosmic web distribution of galaxies can be seen

Cosmology

New Data Hint at Changing Dark Energy — and a Different Cosmic Fate

New data hint that dark energy is weakening over time. If true, it means that our most trusted cosmological models may be wrong.

A multi-colored cloud serves as the backdrop for stars with the characteristic eight spikes for JWST images. Three faint stars are circled and labeled 1, 2, and 3.

Stellar Science

Flame Nebula Images Show Star Formation Turnover for the First Time

For the first time, researchers have identified a turnover in the initial mass function of a star cluster.

A partial solar eclipse at sunrise in Delaware, 2021

Celestial News & Events

This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 21 – 30

If you're in the US northeast or eastern Canada, start planning for the sunrise partial eclipse on March 29th! In the night sky the stern of the ship Argo is at its highest, abutting the stern of Canis Major.

Cosmology

Pulsars Yield Dark Matter Density in Our Galactic Neighborhood

A new technique to measure the motions of pulsars for the first time enables more precise estimates of local dark matter density.

A collage of nine by five squares containing galaxies of many different shapes and viewed in different orientations. For example, the first column shows five edge-on galaxies, which appear thin like a pencil. The galaxies in the second column have a more fuzzy, diffuse appearance. The middle columns showcase face-on spiral galaxies with many different shapes and densities of stars. The last two columns include interacting galaxies or galaxies with an unusual spiral arm or tidal tail.

Cosmology

Euclid Observatory Opens Cosmic Treasure Trove

Euclid's first data release allows scientists to sharpen the tools they’ll need to unravel the nature of dark matter and dark energy.