Watch the stars and from them learn. To the Master's honor all must turn, Each in its track, without a sound, Forever tracing Newton's ground

— Albert Einstein

Feed aggregator

Perseverance Selfie with Ingenuity

APOD - 3 hours 52 min ago

On the Mars rover's mission Sol 46 or Earth date April 6, 2021,


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

NGC 6302: The Butterfly Nebula

APOD - 3 hours 52 min ago

The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Savudrija Star Trails

APOD - 3 hours 52 min ago

Savudrija Star Trails


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 3 hours 52 min ago

Is the sky the same every night?


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 3 hours 52 min ago

Why would the sky glow like a giant repeating rainbow?


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 3 hours 52 min ago

Wisps like this are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star.


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - 3 hours 52 min ago

From our vantage point in the


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

NASA's Top 5 Technical Challenges Countdown: #3: Better Computers

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

Computers have been involved in spaceflight since almost the very beginning. Just like on the Earth, computers aid in a variety of tasks, like navigation and communication. But unfortunately, space is really, really unkind to electronics.

Categories: Astronomy

NASA's Top 5 Technical Challenges Countdown: #4: Improved Navigation

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

But in space, like on the Moon or Mars, we have…none of that. Zero. No GPS satellites, no globe-spanning networks. Just radio broadcasts from command centers here on Earth to tell our robots and crews what to do.

Categories: Astronomy

NASA's Top 5 Technical Challenges Countdown: #5: High-Powered Robotics

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

Space is hard. There's no doubt about that. It's completely unlike any environment we have ever faced on the Earth.

Categories: Astronomy

Titan May be the Liveliest Place in the Solar System

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

Titan has no liquid water whatsoever on its surface. But it does have liquids. Seas, lakes, streams, rivers…of methane and ethane.

Categories: Astronomy

A Terrifying Simulation of a Black Hole Gobbling Up a Neutron Stars

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

Across the universe, some of the most dramatic events occur when a black hole meets a neutron star. A neutron star is the ultra-dense remains of a massive star that exploded—imagine all the mass of our Sun compressed into a sphere just a few tens of kilometres wide. When a black hole and neutron star spiral toward each other, the result is one of nature's most violent spectacles.

Categories: Astronomy

Is the Hubble Tension Starting to Go Away?

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

For years, scientists have been scratching their heads over the "Hubble Tension,” the mismatch between how fast the cosmos was expanding in its youth versus how fast it's expanding today. But now, armed with the most precise data ever captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found the perceived gap is starting to narrow! In fact, the expansion rate measured by Cepheid variables versus the cosmic background has overlapping error bars again. Will the tension mystery finally be resolved?

Categories: Astronomy

NASA's FY 2026 Budget Request has been Released

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

It's official. NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request (FY 2026) has been released, and the news is decidedly mixed. In a previous article, we examined the FY 2026 Budget Request (released on May 2nd) and its recommendations for the coming year. With the release of the FY 2026 Budget, what was previewed and the anxiety it caused for many have been confirmed. While the Budget bolsters funding for NASA's exploration programs for the Moon and Mars, it also contains deep cuts to many other programs and the cancellation of key elements in NASA's Moon to Mars architecture.

Categories: Astronomy

Webb Watches Haze Rise and Fall in Pluto's Atmosphere

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

When the New Horizons spacecraft swept past Pluto and Charon in 2015, it revealed two amazingly complex worlds and an active atmosphere on Pluto. Those snapshots redefined our understanding of the system. Now, new observations using the James Webb Space Telescope taken over the space of a week, show that Pluto's atmosphere is completely different from any other one in the Solar System.

Categories: Astronomy

What Life on Europa Needs

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

As the years go by, the chance of Europa hosting life seems to keep going down. But it's not out of contention yet.

Categories: Astronomy

Do the Clouds of Venus Really Host Life?

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

On the surface (you're welcome for the joke), Venus is not even close to being hospitable to life. But that's not the end of the story.

Categories: Astronomy

Did the Hubble Just Cancel the Milky Way-Andromeda Collision?

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

The idea that the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) will collide emerged after decades of observations by a host of astronomers. The Hubble played a decisive role in the determination during the early 2000s. It was a triumph of precision astronomy and space telescopes. Now, the Hubble has played an equally important role in cancelling the collision.

Categories: Astronomy

Reusable Chinese Rocket Soft-Lands in the Ocean in a New Test

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

Chinese rocket startup Space Epoch put on a show recently, with a demonstration test launch of their reusable Yanxinghe-1 rocket booster.

Categories: Astronomy

How Likely Is Life on Mars?

Universe Today - Sun, 06/08/2025 - 6:36pm

Mars is by far the most Earth-like planet in the solar system…but that's not saying much.

Categories: Astronomy