Astronomy

If this is Saturn, where are the rings?

Andromeda and Friends

Florida Northern Lights

Few cosmic vistas can excite the imagination like

What are those colorful rings around the Moon?

Jupiter looks a bit different in ultraviolet light.

What has happened to Comet Lemmon's tail?

A major settlement in Central Asia called Semiyarka dating back to 1600 BC had houses, a big central building and even an industrial zone for producing copper and bronze

With the arrival of the comet 3I/Atlas (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System), the world is getting a crash course in comets, their behavior, and of course their tails. Today we’re going to talk about comets and their tails, why they exist, how they grow, why they can be different colors and how they can be sometimes point AT the Sun.

Comets are one of the most animated and ephemeral targets for astronomy. From night to night they can change in shape and color, and every nuance tells us something. In this episode, we decode blue tails, green cores, forward-facing plumes, and other weird and awesome details observed with these icy visitors. 

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NASA ER-2 pilot Kirt Stallings waits inside the transport vehicle at Edwards, California, on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, moments before boarding NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center’s ER-2 aircraft for a high-altitude mission supporting the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx). Through the vehicle window, the aircraft can be seen being readied for flight.

A 12,000-year-old clay sculpture found in Israel depicts a goose on the back of a woman, and archaeologists suggest it may be a depiction of an animistic mythological scene

A 12,000-year-old clay sculpture found in Israel depicts a goose on the back of a woman, and archaeologists suggest it may be a depiction of an animistic mythological scene

Neanderthals were thought to have structures inside their noses that helped them deal with the cold, but analysis of an exceptionally preserved specimen contradicts that

Neanderthals were thought to have structures inside their noses that helped them deal with the cold, but analysis of an exceptionally preserved specimen contradicts that

Astronomers have found more than 6,000 exoplanets in the Milky Way. They've even begun to characterize the atmospheres of some of them. But the Milky Way has consumed many of its dwarf satellites. How have exoplanets fared in these remnants? How are they different? To answer those questions, astronomers have to find some of these planets, and a new survey is poised to do just that.

A thin crescent moon and dark skies could give watchers a clear view of this astronomical event

Some ants kill the queens of another species and take over their colonies, but we now know at least one species gets workers to do the dirty work for them through a kind of chemical subterfuge

Some ants kill the queens of another species and take over their colonies, but we now know at least one species gets workers to do the dirty work for them through a kind of chemical subterfuge

The discovery that fat is a communicative organ with a role in everything from bone health to mood is forcing a rethink of how we view our bodies