Astronomy

The Artemis II crew (from left to right) CSA (Canadian Space Agency) Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist; Christina Koch, mission specialist; Victor Glover, pilot; and Reid Wiseman, commander, don their Orion Crew Survival System Suits for a multi-day crew module training beginning Thursday, July 31, 2025, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behind the crew, wearing clean room apparel, are members of the Artemis II closeout crew.

Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence for a new exoplanet — one orbiting Alpha Centauri A, the nearest sun-like star to Earth.

In some of its most ambitious work yet, the James Webb Space Telescope looked to spot a planet in a potentially habitable orbit around Alpha Centauri A, the nearest sunlike star to our solar system

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.

Structured interventions that encourage a good giggle, whether they are laughter yoga or clown visits, could have health benefits

Structured interventions that encourage a good giggle, whether they are laughter yoga or clown visits, could have health benefits

Though the Fibonacci sequence shows up everywhere in nature, these young mathematicians were surprised to find it in the answer to a variation of the pick-up sticks problem⁠—a nearly two-century-old form of puzzle

A solar system model with a small projector built in, the Science Can Solar System Planetary Projector is a great educational tool for kids.

August's full Sturgeon Moon rises this weekend, days before the Perseid meteor shower hits its peak.

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A team of astronomers has taken the sharpest-ever picture of the unexpected interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, using the crisp vision of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

ESA's Planetary Defence Office responded promptly to the discovery of the comet, and has been tracking it since the beginning of July.

Now, Hubble's observations from space are allowing astronomers to more accurately estimate the size of the comet’s solid icy nucleus. The upper limit on the diameter of the nucleus is 5.6 km, but it could be as small as 320 m across, researchers report.

Though the Hubble images put tighter constraints on the nucleus size compared to previous ground-based estimates, the solid heart of the comet presently cannot be directly seen, even by Hubble. Further observations, including by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, will help refine our knowledge about the comet, including its chemical makeup.

Hubble also captured a dust plume ejected from the Sun-warmed side of the comet, and the hint of a dust tail streaming away from the nucleus. Hubble’s data show that the comet is losing dust in a similar manner to that from previously seen Sun-bound comets originating within our Solar System.

The big difference is that this interstellar visitor originated in some other stellar systems, elsewhere in our Milky Way galaxy.

3I/ATLAS is traveling through our Solar System at roughly 210 000 km per hour, the highest speed ever recorded for a Solar System visitor. This breathtaking sprint is evidence that the comet has been drifting through interstellar space for many billions of years. The gravitational slingshot effect from innumerable stars and nebulae the comet passed added momentum, ratcheting up its speed. The longer 3I/ATLAS was out in space, the higher its speed grew.

This comet was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on 1 July 2025 at a distance of 675 million km from the Sun. 3I/ATLAS should remain visible to ground-based telescopes until September, after which it will pass too close to the Sun to observe. It is expected to reappear on the other side of the Sun by early December.

Icy wanderers such as 3I/ATLAS offer a rare, tangible connection to the broader galaxy. To actually visit one would connect humankind with the Universe on a far greater scale. To this end, ESA is preparing the Comet Interceptor mission. The spacecraft will be launched in 2029 into a parking orbit, lying in wait for a suitable target – a pristine comet from the distant Oort Cloud that surrounds our Solar System, or, unlikely but highly appealing, an interstellar object.

While it is improbable that we will discover an interstellar object that is reachable for Comet Interceptor, as a first demonstration of a rapid response mission that waits in space for its target, it will be a pathfinder for possible future missions to intercept these mysterious visitors.

The research paper based on Hubble observations will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

[Image description: At the center of the image is a comet that appears as a teardrop-shaped bluish cocoon of dust coming off the comet’s solid, icy nucleus and seen against a black background. The comet appears to be heading to the bottom left corner of the image. About a dozen short, light blue diagonal streaks are seen scattered across the image, which are from background stars that appeared to move during the exposure because the telescope was tracking the moving comet.]

They don't yet have a name, but "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds"'s latest foes have surely beamed in from a horror movie.

Start preparing now to catch next month's dramatic total lunar eclipse.

The powerhouse R8 is ideal for astrophotography, and is already a brilliant budget performer, now even better at this price, with a Canon lens included.

Auroras may be visible from Alaska to Illinois as an incoming solar storm could spark geomagnetic storm conditions overnight.

Satellite streaks are ruining astronomical images. Can scientists and space companies find solutions before it’s too late?

The Prague Planetarium hosted a first-watch party to unveil the first images captured by the Vera Rubin Observatory

If you have any doubts about the objectives of the program, just check out their logo: a stylized crescent moon with two footprints in the middle.

In the northern hemisphere, we're getting on to enjoying summer time which traditionally includes vacationing. Typically, vacations are a time to pause from work and remember life's possibilities beyond work. Now, perhaps you, the vacationer, want to rekindle a brief fling you had with science or maybe begin a new science tryst. Ersilia Vaudo's book "The Story of Astrophysics in Five Revolutions" could be just the impetus necessary for such a diversion.

The UK-based not-for-profit company Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is) has announced the winners of the Project Hyperion Design Competition, a global challenge that called upon interdisciplinary teams to envision generation ships designed for a 250-year journey to Proxima b. The teams designed habitats of such a spacecraft that would allow a society to sustain itself and flourish in a highly resource-constrained environment.

AI models supposedly did well on International Math Olympiad problems, but how they got their answers reminds us why we still need people doing math