Astronomy

Uranus is its closest to Earth all year on the night of November 21st, and you can find it easily in the evening sky using Sky & Telescope’s exclusive star chart.

The post Spot Uranus at Opposition appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The European Space Agency's Ministerial Council – more formally Council at Ministerial level – takes place in Bremen, Germany on 26 and 27 November 2025. 

The distant universe might be littered with supermassive stars between 1000 and 10,000 times the mass of the sun, which could solve a cosmic mystery about the origins of extremely large black holes

The distant universe might be littered with supermassive stars between 1000 and 10,000 times the mass of the sun, which could solve a cosmic mystery about the origins of extremely large black holes

Spinning vortices of water trapped under the Thwaites glacier ice shelf account for 20 per cent of the ice melt. They’re expected to get worse as the world warms

Spinning vortices of water trapped under the Thwaites glacier ice shelf account for 20 per cent of the ice melt. They’re expected to get worse as the world warms

Satellite megaconstellations are quickly becoming the backbone of a number of industries. Cellular communication, GPS, weather monitoring and more are now, at least in part, reliant on the networks of thousands of satellites cruising by in low Earth orbit. But, as these constellations grow into the tens of thousands of individual members, the strain they are putting on the communications and controls systems of their ground stations is becoming untenable. A new paper from Yuhe Mao of the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and their co-authors hopes to alleviate some of that pressure by offloading much of the control scheme and network decision-making logic to satellites themselves.

Around 1000 markings on a slab of rock that was once a seafloor during the Cretaceous period may have been made by sea turtle flippers and swiftly buried by an earthquake

Around 1000 markings on a slab of rock that was once a seafloor during the Cretaceous period may have been made by sea turtle flippers and swiftly buried by an earthquake

Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka

Sometimes the dark dust of interstellar space has an angular elegance.

What does the Milky Way look like in radio waves?

What has happened to Comet Lemmon's tail?

If this is Saturn, where are the rings?

Andromeda and Friends

Now outbound after its perihelion or closest approach to the Sun

Conventional computing devices will play a crucial role in turning quantum computers into tools with real-world application

Conventional computing devices will play a crucial role in turning quantum computers into tools with real-world application

Saturn's rings are now the closest to edge on that they'll get. The famous interstellar comet has become higher and easier for amateur telescopes before dawn.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, November 21 – 30 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.