Astronomy

Anaerobic digesters converting manure to biogas reduce methane emissions from livestock, but incentives for them have encouraged factory farms to get bigger

Anaerobic digesters converting manure to biogas reduce methane emissions from livestock, but incentives for them have encouraged factory farms to get bigger

The Artemis 2 crew set records and provided amazing views — with more to come — as they journeyed around the Moon.

The post Amazing Views From Artemis 2’s Historic Lunar Flyby appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The first images from NASA’s Artemis II mission’s lunar flyby were worth the wait

Artemis II’s astronauts got the opportunity to re-create an iconic 1968 photograph on either side of their journey around the moon, showing Earth as beautiful—and precious—as ever

Artemis II’s sixth day was a whirlwind of science and awe, with the mission’s astronauts glimpsing parts of the moon never before seen by any human—and talking to the U.S. president

If NASA’s ambitious lunar exploration plans succeed, scientists will cover the moon with sensors—and find answers to several long-standing questions about the inner solar system

Japan’s space agency, JAXA, has been knocking it out of the park with small-body exploration missions for decades. They had historic successes with both Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, and they are going to visit the Martian Moons soon with the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission. But after that, they are aiming for something much more pristine and arguably more difficult - a comet. The Next Generation Small-Body Return (NGSR) was recently described in a paper at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), and is under assessment as a large-class mission for the 2030s.

On 6 April 2026, NASA’s Artemis II mission, powered by ESA’s European Service Module (ESM), brought humans further than ever before. 

But how do future astronauts train to live on the Moon, and what kind of lunar base could they create?

That’s where school students like you can come in!

An elegant mix of math and gravity powers the Artemis II “free return” trajectory from Earth to the moon and back

Four NASA astronauts have now travelled further from Earth than any humans before them, as they flew around the moon during the Artemis II mission on 6 April

Four NASA astronauts have now travelled further from Earth than any humans before them, as they flew around the moon during the Artemis II mission on 6 April

Lasers could one day steer solar sails and adjust a satellite’s position in outer space, thanks to graphene. An experiment on a gravity rollercoaster ride showed how this innovative material has the potential to revolutionise propulsion beyond Earth.

On Monday night, the U.S. president called the crew aboard the Orion spacecraft to congratulate them on their moon mission

From the perspective of the Orion capsule, the moon will fully block the sun’s disk for nearly an hour

The space exploration milestone came during a 40-minute period during which the Artemis II astronauts were unable to communicate with Earth

The four astronauts onboard NASA’s moon mission just broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by any human

The water locked up in the Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) of the Moon’s south pole is a critical resource if we are ever going to get a permanent lunar presence off the ground. But while we know the water ice there exists, we don’t really know how much. We have to move from general estimates to mineable-scale prospecting data. That is what Oasis-1, the newly proposed lunar prospecting mission from Blue Origin that was recently introduced at the 2026 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) is meant to do.

A glimpse of a stellar cluster ties generations together.

The post When Astronomy Is In Your Blood appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

On Monday, the four astronauts of Artemis II observed the far side of the moon, setting distance records and experiencing a solar eclipse