Astronomy

The search for extrasolar rocky planets circling other stars is more than mere science. It offers researchers a chance to gain crucial insight into how our own planet functions.

In recent years, the idea that galaxy mergers are responsible for quenching galaxies has grown in importance. This paradigm says that galaxies merge, their black holes form a powerful quasar, and that quasar stifles star formation. But new results from the IllustrisTNG simulations shows that this paradigm may not be accurate.

Physicists, mathematicians and philosophers have been exploring the possibility of going forward to the future or back to the past

Little Red Dots are among the most intriguing discoveries made to date by the infrared-sensitive James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They are distant, small objects that appear red in the JWST observations and they've only been known since 2024. More than 300 of them have been found as part of JWST's infrared surveys of the early Universe.

Where will you be on August 12th? Many an eclipse chaser and the ‘eclipse curious’ will make the journey to stand in the Moon’s shadow on that fast-approaching Wednesday date. This unique eclipse sees the pencil-thin shadow of our Moon curl around the Earth’s pole, before arcing across Greenland, Iceland and the Iberian peninsula towards a dramatic sunset over the western Mediterranean.

The Southern Crown (Corona Australis) dazzles with young and ancient celestial jewels.

Neuroscientists show how the brain weighs effort against reward when we're mentally fatigued

This quake, which has caused damage to several roads and buildings, occurred along a strike-slip fault

More than one month on from the catastrophic twin earthquakes in northern Venezuela on 24 June 2026, satellite data show the ground displacement was greater than first estimated.

After decades of hints and speculation, scientists have at last unveiled the hidden companion to the iconic star Betelgeuse

Long before a human ever sets foot on the Red Planet, we already know how hard the environment is. Once one finally does, the only things protecting them from that harsh environment will be the infrastructure we’ve built up there, and the spacesuit that keeps that in a protective bubble. Unfortunately, modern space suits aren’t built with Martian gravity, which is 3/8ths of Earth’s, in mind. To prove that point, a team of NASA and industry engineers made a presentation at the 55th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES) that showed that the newest generation of spacesuits are simply too heavy to use on Mars.

Image: Liftoff as Ariane 6 takes flight for the first time

Learn how to photograph this captivating target.

The post Solar Photography: Catch the Sun appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Jupiter’s moon, Io, is the most volcanically active planetary body in the solar system, boasting hundreds of active volcanoes spewing molten lava into space. This occurs from a process called tidal heating where Jupiter’s massive gravity constantly stretches and compresses the much smaller moon during the latter’s non-circular orbit. However, a lesser-known fact is that Io’s volcanic gases fuel Jupiter’s aurorae by traveling along Jupiter’s magnetic field lines, resulting in Jupiter’s bright aurorae observed by spacecraft and Earth-based telescopes. But what if this same phenomenon could be used to detect Io-like exomoons, also called exo-Ios, orbiting Jupiter-like exoplanets?

The samples returned by the Chang'e-6 mission from the far side of the Moon reveal that the two hemispheres have had rather different experiences when it comes to space weather.

Little Red Dots are one of the mysteries uncovered by the JWST. Astronomers have been trying to figure out what they are, and have come up with multiple possibilities. New research says they could be ancient Globular Clusters with supermassive stars in their centers.

In searches for past and present Martian life, some scientists say we’ve been too cautious to see what’s right in front of us

NASA astronaut Chris Williams is seen outside the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft after he landed with Expedition 74 Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and Sergei Mikaev in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday, July 26, 2026. The trio returned to Earth after logging 241 days in space as a members of Expeditions 73 and 74 aboard the International Space Station.

We’ve been covering the journey of the Habitable Worlds Observatory for some time now. Over the past few years, it's gone from a proposal to a relatively fleshed-out plan for how and what the next Great Observatory should do—in this case, look at and characterize potentially habitable exoplanets. Back in August 2024, NASA set up the HWO Technology Maturation Project Office (TMPO) to coordinate the technological and scientific development needed to make the mission a success. They recently released a comprehensive plan for the first steps of that process in pre-print form on arXiv, and it’s very clear on what needs to happen before the Mission Concept Review (MCR) at the end of the decade.

Image: Raging wildfires near Madrid, Spain