Astronomy

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 moves toward the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. The crawler will transport NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft to Launch Complex 39B ahead of the Artemis II launch.

Week in images: 12-16 January 2026

Discover our week through the lens

Volunteers consider it relatively unacceptable to cancel social plans – but they are more forgiving if it's someone else cancelling the plans

Volunteers consider it relatively unacceptable to cancel social plans – but they are more forgiving if it's someone else cancelling the plans

Jupiter with the Great Red Spot

Additive Manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, will be an absolutely critical technology for any long-term settlement on another world. Its ability to take a generic input, such as plastic strips or metal powder, and turn it into any shape of tool an astronaut will need is an absolute game changer. But the chemistry behind these technologies is complicated, and their applications are extremely varied, ranging from creating bricks for settlements to plastics for everything from cups to toothbrush holders. A new paper available in pre-print on arXiv from Zane Mebruer and Wan Shou of the University of Arkansas, explores one specific aspect of a particularly important type of 3D printing, and realized that they could save millions of dollars on Mars missions by simply using the planet’s atmosphere to help print metal parts.

The James Webb Space Telescope has picked up the light from a massive star that exploded about a billion years after the birth of the universe

The James Webb Space Telescope has picked up the light from a massive star that exploded about a billion years after the birth of the universe

Understanding a molecule that plays a key role in nitrogen fixing – a chemical process that enables life on Earth – has long been thought of as problem for quantum computers, but now a classical computer may have solved it

Understanding a molecule that plays a key role in nitrogen fixing – a chemical process that enables life on Earth – has long been thought of as problem for quantum computers, but now a classical computer may have solved it

A distinctive nebula inside the constellation Lyra holds a never-before-seen cloud of iron atoms—and researchers aren’t sure why

Stars emit lots of green light, but our eyes don’t let us see them that way

This mysterious type of fat cell may play an important role in heart health, new research shows

A break down of why Venezuela’s oil boom is clashing with a hotter, more fragile planet

This winter the biggest planet is the brightest. The brightest star pins the Winter Triangle. And did you know Capella and Rigel march in step?

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, January 16 – 25 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image over the South Atlantic Ocean features a close-up view of the A23a iceberg, once the world’s largest. The unusually cloud-free image shows the first signs that the iceberg will soon disintegrate completely.

Using a chess computer to advise you on just three moves during a game dramatically increases your chances of winning in a way that is difficult for others to spot

Using a chess computer to advise you on just three moves during a game dramatically increases your chances of winning in a way that is difficult for others to spot

As NASA moves closer to launch of the Artemis II test flight, the agency soon will roll its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft to the launch pad for the first time at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin final integration, testing, and launch rehearsals. NASA is targeting no earlier.