SUNSET: 
This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 30 – August 7
Saturn is at opposition this week, and Jupiter is soon to follow. Will your scope show the Seeliger effect of Saturn's opposition rings? Venus continues to haunt the low west in twilight. And in the south, Sagittarius starts nudging Scorpius aside.
Dazzling Double Stars for Compromised Skies
For many, smoke from wildfires has transformed summer nights, blotting out stars and familiar deep-sky sights. But through it all double stars keep on shining.
A Pileup of Perpendicular Planets
In some planetary systems, the direction that a star spins and the direction its planets orbit don’t always line up. A new study explores what we can learn from these nonconformists.
Fifty Years Ago in Photos: Apollo 15 Astronauts Explore the Moon
See photos — some familiar and some rarely seen — from the Apollo 15 mission, which launched place 50 years ago today.
How Often Do Chicxulub-level Asteroids Hit Earth?
Asteroids of different sizes crashing on Earth originated from different parts of the main asteroid belt, researchers say; the finding has implications for how often such collisions happen.
Astronomers Detect Potential Moon-forming Disk around an Exoplanet
Astronomers have made the first clear detection of a dusty disk surrounding an exoplanet, which could eventually go on to form moons.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 23 – 31
Saturn and Jupiter shine in the southeast by late evening. The bright Moon passes them on the 24th through 26th. Venus continues to sit patiently, changelessly, low in the west in twilight. Bootes and the Big Dipper mark the western sky after dark; the Summer Triangle emblazons the east.
NASA's Insight Reveals First Look Inside Mars
The Insight mission science team has used about 10 deep marsquakes to take stock of the planet's anatomy.
NASA's Perseverance to Collect First Sample from Mars
Perseverance will soon collect the first of many samples from the Martian surface in a quest to answer whether the planet once hosted life.
Milky Way Magnetar Spits Gamma Rays on Schedule
A Milky Way magnetar surprises astronomers by burping up gamma rays right when their predictions anticipated.
Event Horizon Telescope Reveals Curious Jet Structure from Black Hole
Observations of the nearest radio galaxy, Centaurus A, provide the highest-resolution look at the long jets shooting from the galaxy’s supermassive black hole.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Is Back in Action
After a tense month, the Hubble Space Telescope resumed operations this past weekend.
Lost & Found: Milky Way-size "Orphan Cloud"
Astronomers have found a giant gas cloud, likely stripped from its parent galaxy long ago, in a cluster 330 million light-years away.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 16 – 24
Venus shines in the western twilight as Mars sinks away. Jupiter and Saturn rise in late dusk. And after dark, Scorpius shows off at its very best in the south.
Gravitationally Unstable Disk May Collapse to Form Planets
Astronomers investigate the spiral arms of a young star's disk and find evidence of a disk so massive that it could collapse to form planets.
In Heaven with M7, a Portal Into the Deep
M7 in Scorpius is one of the brightest, most beautiful open clusters in the sky. It's also "home" to a half-dozen other delectable deep-sky sights.
Hubble Trouble: NASA Works to Fix Space Telescope (Updated July 14th)
NASA Engineers are working to reboot the Hubble Space Telescope, after an unexpected anomaly.
Juno’s Ganymede Flyby: Video Update
NASA's Juno flew by Jupiter's Ganymede, the biggest moon in the solar system, on June 7, 2021.
Mars Helicopter Scouts Risky Terrain for Perseverance Rover
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter has proven itself a valuable asset to Perseverance, scouting out terrain that the rover can't cross.
NASA’s Kepler Finds Outcast Earths
Astronomers uncovered four new Earth-mass rogue planet candidates by searching for microlensing events observed with Kepler.
