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Your online destination for news articles on planets, cosmology, NASA, space missions, and more. You’ll also find information on how to observe upcoming visible sky events such as meteor showers, solar and lunar eclipses, key planetary appearances, comets, and asteroids.

Friday, May 12, 2023

The Sky This Week: Ceres stands still

Friday, May 12 Last Quarter Moon occurs at this morning 10:28 A.M. EDT. Because the Moon rises early and sets in the afternoon during this phase, the evening sky is clear of moonlight for easier deep-sky viewing after dark. The large constellation ...
Friday, May 5, 2023

The Sky This Week: Enjoy Venus and Mars in the evenings

Friday, May 5 The week kicks off with a stunning Full Flower Moon, the name for May’s Full Moon. Luna reaches Full phase at 1:34 P.M. EDT; this evening, observers in Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand will enjoy a subtle penumbral lunar eclipse...
Thursday, May 4, 2023

Lunar eclipse on May 5 will be a subtle show of astronomical wonder

On May 5, 2023, people around the world will witness a a lunar eclipse when Earth gets between the Sun and the Moon and casts part of its shadow on the Moon. The eclipse will be visible in Africa, Asia, Australia, and large portions of Europe, though...

Snapshot: Hubble spies a luminous lenticular with an active black-hole heart

The Hubble Space Telescope recently captured this captivating image of the lenticular galaxy NGC 3489, located some 30 million light-years away in the constellation Leo the Lion. Lenticular galaxies are disk-shaped galaxies that skirt the line betwee...

We test Celestron's 10-inch StarSense Explorer

Perhaps nothing has revolutionized amateur astronomy more than go-to telescopes with motorized drives that find and track any of thousands of deep-sky objects. No longer must users rely on a celestial map to star-hop to the wonders of the sky. Some m...
Wednesday, May 3, 2023

A new look at Mars’ moon Deimos highlights its mysterious origin

Stunning new views of Deimos, one of Mars’ two strange moons, hint at questions about how the martian moons formed in the first place — and why they are still in orbit around Mars today. These questions have perplexed scientists since the...

Ask Astro: How quickly will the Sun become a red giant?

Will the Sun’s expansion into a red giant be gradual or explosive? John Haley Huntsville, Alabama Stars use pressure created by nuclear fusion to combat gravity and stay “alive.” More accurately, this balance allows stars to stay in what is calle...
Tuesday, May 2, 2023

First image from new balloon-based telescope revealed

The Super Pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) launched from Wānaka, New Zealand, on April 16 and has already captured stunning images of the Tarantula Nebula, kickstarting its 100-day hunt for dark matter. The helium-filled super pr...
Monday, May 1, 2023

Sky This Month: May 2023

Venus puts on its best show of the year in the evening sky, visible until very late. Mars also continues as an evening object, while other planets congregate in the morning. Saturn is beginning to improve its visibility in the predawn sky and Jupiter...

Hunting rogue black holes in the Milky Way

On a cool evening in a small village in India, a man sat with his son and stared up at the night sky, as was their habit after dinner. Since the village had no electricity, the stars shone extra bright against the inky backdrop of space. The two spok...

Catch a lunar eclipse: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher

Hi folks, tune in every week of 2023 for the best in astronomy from Astronomy Editor Dave Eicher, brought to you by Celestron. This week, we'll discuss the penumbral lunar eclipse that will be visible across much of the world on May 5. This event i...
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