Globular Clusters Await: Hello, Messier 3!
Globular cluster season is here. Time to get out your charts, binoculars, and telescopes and enjoy these wondrous objects.
Comet SWAN's Final Song
Despite early expectations Comet SWAN appears to be fizzling, providing yet another opportunity to appreciate what makes these objects so unique.
Astronomers Witness the Birth of Planets
Two new sets of observations show astronomers what planet formation looks like.
NASA Renames WFIRST: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
NASA is renaming its next flagship space observatory to honor pioneering NASA astronomer and "Mother of Hubble," Nancy Grace Roman.
See Spring's Finest Spiral Galaxies
Spring skies offer some of the best sights of spiral galaxies. Point your scope at some of these magnificent cosmic whirlpools.
Rotating Disk in Early Universe Explains Galaxy Formation
The discovery of a stably rotating disk galaxy in the early universe is the best indicator yet for how galaxies like the Milky Way formed.
Astronomers Investigate Stellar Interiors
Astronomers have untangled the constantly changing brightness of variable stars known as Delta Scuti stars, yielding estimates for their ages.
See the Phases of Venus
If you have a set of binoculars or a telescope, watch for Venus’s thinning crescent over the next couple weeks.
Medieval "Dark Eclipse" Helps Date Ice Cores — and Time Volcanic Eruptions
Scientists have used a famous "dark eclipse" of the Moon to help date ice cores collected in Greenland and the Antarctic.
Black Hole Duo Flares Right on Time
Astronomers have forecast a flare from a supermassive black hole duo 3.5 billion light-years away.
This May, Find the Star Pattern That Spans All Seasons
Widen your view to see the All-Season Triangle asterism, whose stars span the year.
Supernovae Light Up in M61 and NGC 3643
Two new supernovae for amateur telescopes are keeping things lively this month.
Milky Way Magnetar Makes Fast Radio Burst
Fast radio bursts are mysterious — and powerful — flashes of radio waves. Now, we've found one of these flashes coming from a magnetar in our own galaxy.
Details of SpaceX's Starlink "VisorSat" Revealed
SpaceX has revealed new details on its plans to darken the Starlink satellites.
Ryugu May Have Skirted Close to the Sun
Observations by the Japanese Hayabusa 2 spacecraft show subtle color differences, indicating something has reddened the asteroid’s surface.
Weak Martian Magnetic Field May Have Let Air Out
Mars's magnetic field weakened and disappeared billions of years ago. Now, scientists have found that the weak field might have been worse than none at all.
Comet SWAN Expected to Put on a Splendid Show
Comet SWAN will grace northern skies in the days to come.
Closest Black Hole to Earth? Maybe
An international team of astronomers says that they’ve discovered the closest black hole to Earth — an invisible object dancing with two large, bright stars 1,000 light-years away.
What Kinds of Black Hole Partners Merge?
New research on black hole mergers reveals that the black hole pairs tend to have similar masses — suggesting that they start out as massive stellar pairs.
Could There Be Life Under a Hydrogen Sky?
Scientists have discovered that life could survive within a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. The finding is not necessarily a surprise but could have implications for the search for life.
