These earthly godfathers of Heaven's lights, that give a name to every fixed star, have no more profit of their shining nights than those that walk and know not what they are.

— William Shakespeare

Astronomy

Starlight Deprivation Syndrome

Sky & Telescope Magazine - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 1:00pm

Feeling sluggish and crabby? Got cloudy skies? You might be suffering from SDS.

The post Starlight Deprivation Syndrome appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Categories: Astronomy

The chemical genius of Katharine Burr Blodgett

Scientific American.com - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 1:00pm

The story of a woman whose discoveries in materials science quietly shape our everyday world but whose legacy was long eclipsed by the famous scientist she worked with at the General Electric Company

Categories: Astronomy

The Milky Way's Center is a Difficult Target, But It Can't Deter the Roman Telescope

Universe Today - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 11:59am

The Milky Way's Galactic Center and Bulge are shrouded in thick dust and tightly-packed with stars. It's a tough region to observe, but the Nancy Gracy Roman Space Telescope is built for the task. Its Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey will find more than 100,000 exoplanets, along with stars, black holes, neutron stars, and even rogue planets.

Categories: Astronomy

Svalbard’s polar bears are showing remarkable resilience to climate change

Scientific American.com - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 11:05am

These polar bears appear to be maintaining their physical health despite the loss of sea ice—their preferred hunting grounds

Categories: Astronomy

Polar bears are getting fatter in the fastest-warming place on Earth

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 11:00am
Shrinking sea ice has made life harder for polar bears in many parts of the Arctic, but the population in Svalbard seems to be thriving
Categories: Astronomy

Polar bears are getting fatter in the fastest-warming place on Earth

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 11:00am
Shrinking sea ice has made life harder for polar bears in many parts of the Arctic, but the population in Svalbard seems to be thriving
Categories: Astronomy

Webb Zooms into Helix Nebula

NASA Image of the Day - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 10:49am
A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a portion of the Helix Nebula highlights comet-like knots, fierce stellar winds, and layers of gas shed off by a dying star interacting with its surrounding environment. Webb’s image also shows the stark transition between the hottest gas to the coolest gas as the shell expands out from the central white dwarf.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Faecal transplants could boost the effectiveness of cancer treatments

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 7:46am
Adults with kidney cancer who received faecal microbiota transplants on top of their existing drugs did better than those who had placebo transplants as their add-on intervention
Categories: Astronomy

Faecal transplants could boost the effectiveness of cancer treatments

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 7:46am
Adults with kidney cancer who received faecal microbiota transplants on top of their existing drugs did better than those who had placebo transplants as their add-on intervention
Categories: Astronomy

The universe may be hiding a fundamentally unknowable quantum secret

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 7:00am
Even given a set of possible quantum states for our cosmos, it's impossible for us to determine which one of them is correct
Categories: Astronomy

The universe may be hiding a fundamentally unknowable quantum secret

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 7:00am
Even given a set of possible quantum states for our cosmos, it's impossible for us to determine which one of them is correct
Categories: Astronomy

How new CT scanners ended Heathrow 100ml liquids rule

Scientific American.com - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 7:00am

New CT scanners can build a 3D model of your carry-on, helping airport staff spot risks without making you unpack or decant liquids into tiny bottles

Categories: Astronomy

Crew-12, scheduled to launch on Wednesday 11 February

ESO Top News - Thu, 01/29/2026 - 3:24am

The crew of four will launch no earlier than Wednesday 11 February at 11:00 GMT/12:00 CET (06:00 EST) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, USA. The next available opportunities are Thursday 12 February at 10:38 GMT/11:38 CET (05:38 EST) and Friday 13 February at 10:15 GMT/11:15 CET (05:15 EST).  

Categories: Astronomy

What’s Really Going On Inside Jupiter? New Models Offer Clues

Universe Today - Wed, 01/28/2026 - 11:04pm

Jupiter’s atmosphere and clouds have mesmerized stargazers for centuries, as their multi-colored, swirling layers can easily be viewed from powerful telescopes on Earth. However, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has upped the ante regarding our understanding of Jupiter’s atmospheric features, having revealed them in breathtaking detail. This includes images of massive lightning storms, clouds swallowing clouds, polar vortices, and powerful jet streams. Yet, despite its beauty and wonder, scientists are still puzzled about the processes occurring deep inside Jupiter’s atmosphere that result in these incredible features.

Categories: Astronomy

LDN 1622: Dark Nebula in Orion

APOD - Wed, 01/28/2026 - 8:00pm

The silhouette of an intriguing


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Dark Energy Survey Data Reveals the Tightest Estimates Yet on Cosmic Expansion

Universe Today - Wed, 01/28/2026 - 7:19pm

The Dark Energy Survey Collaboration collected information on hundreds of millions of galaxies across the Universe using the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at CTIO, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Their completed analysis combines all six years of data for the first time and yields constraints on the Universe's expansion history that are twice as tight as past analyses.

Categories: Astronomy

Chile's Paranal Observatory Saved from Industrial Development

Universe Today - Wed, 01/28/2026 - 4:33pm

After months of protests led by Nobel laureate Reinhard Genzel, the American energy company AES Andes has abandoned plans to build a massive solar and wind facility just kilometres from one of the world's premier telescope sites. The decision preserves the pristine night skies above Chile's Paranal Observatory, where the European Southern Observatory operates some of humanity's most powerful eyes on the universe.

Categories: Astronomy

Solving the Century Old Puzzle of Our Galaxy's Neighborhood

Universe Today - Wed, 01/28/2026 - 4:28pm

Nearly a century after Edwin Hubble discovered the universe's expansion, astronomers have finally explained the nagging mystery of why most nearby galaxies rush away from us as if the Milky Way's gravity doesn't exist? The answer lies in a vast, flat sheet of dark matter stretching tens of millions of light years around us, with empty voids above and below that make the expansion appear smoother than it should.

Categories: Astronomy

Mercury May Not Be "Dead" After All

Universe Today - Wed, 01/28/2026 - 4:16pm

Researchers using machine learning have discovered hundreds of mysterious bright streaks on Mercury's surface that appear to be caused by gases escaping from the planet's interior. The finding suggests the Solar System's smallest planet isn't the static, geologically dead world we thought it was, Mercury might still be active today, continuously releasing material into space even billions of years after its formation.

Categories: Astronomy

JWST spots most distant galaxy ever, pushing the limits of the observable universe

Scientific American.com - Wed, 01/28/2026 - 3:00pm

The galaxy MoM-z14 could offer clues to what the universe looked like in its early infancy

Categories: Astronomy