Astronomy

Both science fiction and real life have some interesting spacecraft names, sometimes borrowing from each other. This quiz will test to see if you know the difference.

The rate of human-produced light is increasing in the night sky by as much as 10% per year, making it difficult for astronomers to study the night sky.

Twin orbs of superhot plasma at the Milky Way's center known as the "Fermi bubbles" contain inexplicable clouds of cold hydrogen, new research reveals.

Napoleon’s campaign against the Russian Empire was one of the most costly wars in history. Many soldiers died of diseases. Some of these illnesses are only now being identified

The 2025 full 'Sturgeon Moon' graced the night sky on Aug. 9.

Spot Saturn near the moon on Aug. 11! See them with the naked eye and learn what to expect through a telescope.

Imagine building an entire city on the Moon using nothing but sunlight and lunar soil! Chinese scientists have made this science fiction dream a reality by creating a revolutionary machine that acts like a solar powered 3D printer, melting lunar soil at temperatures exceeding 1,300°C to create strong construction bricks. This technology could transform space exploration by eliminating the need to transport heavy building materials from Earth, making lunar bases not only possible but affordable.

Technicians have successfully installed two sunshields onto NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s inner segment. Along with the observatory’s Solar Array Sun Shield and Deployable Aperture Cover, the panels (together called the Lower Instrument Sun Shade), will play a critical role in keeping Roman’s instruments cool and stable as the mission explores the infrared universe. […]

A new executive order repeals a 52-year-old ban on commercial supersonic flights, while new technology can make supersonic flight quieter than ever before.

In a Q&A interview, author and science writer David Baron discusses the turn-of-the-century Mars craze, which he covers in his new book, "The Martians."

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Earth has endured, and been shaped by, a constant rain of material from elsewhere in the Solar System. Some of the material was large, like the Chicxulub asteroid that ended the dinosaur's reign. But most of it is in the form of tiny micrometeorites. Those tiny rocks hold clues to Earth's ancient atmosphere.

August sees all of the naked eye worlds excepting Mars hiding in the dawn. Set your alarm, and you can uncover Mercury through Saturn all in the dawn twilight sky, crowned with a fine close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on Tuesday, August 12th. You can see the changing scene each morning starting this weekend, as the two get ever closer from one morning to the next.

Ingenuity marked a number of milestones in space exploration. Arguably most importantly, it proved that powered flight was possible on another planet. However, it did have some limitations, such as being tied to the Perseverance rover and there only being one copy of the helicopter itself. AV Inc, one of the sub-contractors for Ingenuity, hopes to fix those problems with a proposed new mission called Skyfall that would involve six helicopters and no rover.

A four-legged robot tested under simulated Martian gravity jumps from wall to wall, demonstrating how future missions could navigate terrain too challenging for today's rovers.

SpaceX's Crew-10 astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday (Aug. 9) after living on the International Space Station for nearly five months.

The four members on SpaceX's Crew-10 mission are Earth-bound after bidding farewell to their Expedition 73 crewmates and departing the International Space Station.

For most of the past decade, forecasters have been able to use satellites to track these smoke plumes, but the view was only two-dimensional