Could aliens visit Earth? Here are some challenges
Scientists say it’s unlikely aliens visit Earth anytime soon, because interstellar travel faces huge barriers of distance, energy and time. The post Could aliens visit Earth? Here...
Space and astronomy feeds
News
80
Stories
13/13
Feeds online
16:44
Updated
BOOM over Massachusetts and U.S. East probably a meteor
Many reported a streak across the daytime sky and a boom over Massachusetts and surrounding areas in the US East, probably a meteor. The post BOOM over Massachusetts and U.S. East...
Visible planets and night sky guide for May and June
Visible planets and night sky guide. The full-appearing Blue Moon is still in the sky tonight. Watch a video about it with EarthSky's Deborah Byrd. The post Visible planets and nig...
Can a single season have only 2 full moons?
We know it's possible to squeeze 4 full moons into a single season. But can a season have just 2 full moons? Turns out it can, but it is rare. The post Can a single season have onl...
Deneb is an incredibly distant star. But how do we know?
The star Deneb - part of the Summer Triangle - is one of the most distant stars you can see with your eye alone. But why don't we know its distance precisely? The post Deneb is an...
How cities can change the weather during storms
Researchers looked at 22 years of data to discover how cities can change the weather. Certain storms intensify over cities, leading to more urban flooding. The post How cities can...
Sun news: Solar wind surges, brings aurora to high latitudes
Sun news for May 31, 2026: Solar wind surges past 550 km/s! Kp hits 4. G1 storm chance today. Glancing CMEs may add fuel. Aurora watchers, stay alert! The post Sun news: Solar wind...
NASA Awards Contract for Johnson Space Center Infrastructure
NASA has selected seven companies to provide construction, revitalization, and infrastructure improvements at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Johnson Space Center...
NASA Hosts SpaceX Crew-11 Astronauts for Public Event at Headquarters
NASA will host a public event featuring three crew members from the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission at 11 a.m. EDT Monday, June 1. The event, which takes place during the crew’s st...
NASA Brings Its Lunar Ambitions into Focus with Moon Base Missions
Rovers, drones, and landers will usher in a sustained lunar presence, under the new plan NASA announced this week. The post NASA Brings Its Lunar Ambitions into Focus with Moon Bas...
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Primary Mirror Gets Last Look
Engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, have completed their final inspection of a key element for the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: t...
Hubble Spies Faint Irregular Galaxy
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the faint glow of the dwarf irregular galaxy ESO 490-017.
Hubble Spies Faint Irregular Galaxy
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image released on May 27, 2026, features the dwarf irregular galaxy ESO 490-017, roughly 12,000 light-years in diameter and some 23 million light-y...
Evidence of Water Plumes from Jupiter's Moon Europa Vanishes
Reanalysis shows that the Hubble Space Telescope's detection of water vapor escaping from Jupiter’s moon Europa might have been a glitch. The post Evidence of Water Plumes from Jup...
This Month at ESA: May 2026
Video: 00:04:15 What did space deliver for Europe this month? From asteroid flybys to Mars landing tests, new discoveries from Webb and Hubble, and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot capt...
Big impacts
New asteroid discoveries, big changes at NASA, and breathtaking views of Saturn.
Week in images: 25-29 May 2026
Week in images: 25-29 May 2026 Discover our week through the lens
Blue Origin mega-rocket explodes on launch pad
Blue Origin experienced a setback late Thursday when its New Glenn mega-rocket exploded. The launch pad was also destroyed. The post Blue Origin mega-rocket explodes on launch pad...
Hubble Captures M88 on Journey to Center of Virgo Cluster
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the active spiral galaxy Messier 88 (M88), located about 63 million light-years away.
Arcturus, brightest star of the northern sky
Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern half of the sky. It's easy to find in spring in the Northern Hemisphere near the handle of the Big Dipper. The post Arcturus, brighte...
This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 29 – June 7
Venus and Jupiter grab your eyes in the west in late twilight. The Summer Triangle marks the dark in the east. So will the subtler Milky Way once the glary Moon is gone. The post T...
The 1919 solar eclipse that proved Einstein right
During a May 29, 1919, solar eclipse, astronomers saw the sun bend starlight, proving Einstein's general relativity and catapulting him to rock star fame. The post The 1919 solar e...
Earth from Space: Batagaika Crater
Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features the Batagaika Crater in Siberia. This is the biggest permafrost crater in the world, caused by melting permafrost and also known as...
Journey to the centre of a galaxy cluster
Image: Journey to the centre of a galaxy cluster
Painting the Growing Season in the Maize Triangle
Radar data from an agricultural area in South Africa, shown in a vivid color palette, reveal crop types and how they changed during the Southern Hemisphere’s growing season.
NASA’s X-59 Prepares for First Supersonic Flight
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is preparing for some of its most significant flights yet. The X-plane is about to begin a new block of test flights that will includ...
I Am Artemis: Daniel Stubbs
Listen to this audio excerpt from Daniel Stubbs, NASA aerospace engineer: If you’ve driven through a cloud of dust and dirt that temporarily obscured your view, you’ve gotten a par...
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4900-4907: Pasadena, We Have a Drill Sample!
Written by Abigail Fraeman, Deputy Project Scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Earth planning date: Friday, May 22, 2026 I spent this past we...
NASA Uses Mineralogical Marker to Understand Ancient Martian Climate
Scientists analyzed 20 Martian samples collected by NASA’s Curiosity Rover and found that differences in hematite crystallite size at varying elevations could serve as a new minera...
Going Low and Slow in Testing
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft flies above NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, during testing focused on lower-speed and altitude flight...
What would it be like to fly through Saturn’s rings?
Saturn’s rings are one of the most beautiful sights in the Solar System, but most of us have no idea what they look like up close.
MTG-I2 embarks on journey to Europe’s Spaceport
Image: The Meteosat Third Generation-Imager2 satellite sets sail from France to French Guiana
Skywatching in June 2026
What’s up in the day and night sky in June 2026, including the June solstice and a Venus-Jupiter-Moon-Mercury line-up.
Students Build Moon Robots for NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics Challenge
Katherine Rauscher, of Michigan Technological University, prepares her team’s prototype lunar robot for its turn during the finals for NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics Challenge competition...
NASA-European Sea Level Mission Homes in on El Niño
Sea level data from a satellite launched by NASA and European partners shows that a swell of warm water hundreds of miles wide has arrived in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Sou...
Lost in the Star Clouds — A Milky Way Odyssey
I share my "discovery" of a new Milky Way star cloud that's been staring at me for ages. The post Lost in the Star Clouds — A Milky Way Odyssey appeared first on Sky & Telescope .
Webb reveals black hole that formed before its galaxy
Using the unprecedented imaging and spectroscopic power of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers have mapped the motion and composition of gas orbiting a black h...
NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics: Winning Student Teams Engineering Lunar Future
Editor’s Note: This article was updated at 2:45 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, to correct the recipient of the Systems Engineering Leaps and Bounds Award. Resilient. Efficien...
Your Moon Guide for June 2026
Discover the Moon phases for June, including the Moon meeting up with Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus.
NASA to Announce Artemis III Crew, Provide Mission Progress Update
NASA will provide an update on the agency’s Artemis III mission and announce the astronauts assigned to the test flight during a live event at 11 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 9, at th...
NASA Provides Update on Moon Base Rovers, Landers, Missions
Editor’s note: Release was updated May 27, 2026, to provide additional details on the crewed lunar terrain vehicles. During a Moon Base event Tuesday at NASA’s Headquarters in Wash...
Chennai City Lights
Chennai, on India's southern coast along the Bay of Bengal and with a metropolitan population of about 8.7 million, shines with white LED streetlights in this photograph taken at a...
NASA's Psyche Sends Back Amazing Images of Mars
NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission made a course adjustment via a flyby past Mars en route to its final destination. Here's what it saw. The post NASA's Psyche Sends Back Amazing Image...
Venus-Jupiter conjunction: Sky’s 2 brightest planets to meet
Get ready for a spectacular Venus-Jupiter conjunction! You can already start watching the planets now after sunset. The big event happens on June 8 and 9. The post Venus-Jupiter co...
Jaclyn Kagey Shapes Humanity’s Return to the Moon
For Jaclyn Kagey, preparing astronauts to put boots on the Moon is part of her daily work. As the Artemis extravehicular activity lead in NASA’s Flight Operations Directorate, Kage...
The Astronomical Imbalance Hidden Inside Manhattanhenge
It's Manhattanhenge: the time of year when the setting Sun aligns perfectly with Manhattan’s street grid.
Call for Creatives: NASA Seeks Help Illuminating Mission Storytelling
As NASA pushes the boundaries of exploration and innovation for the benefit of humanity, the agency is looking for partners to share mission stories covering Artemis Moon missions...
Webb Studies Star Clusters
This near-infrared image shows a section of one of the spiral arms of Messier 51 (M51).
ESA’s Prodex programme brings scientific research to space
The launch of the 4DSpace-Daedalus mission in Norway is the latest success supported by Prodex, a European Space Agency (ESA) programme which enables highly skilled research instit...
ESA at GLOBSEC 2026
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher participated in the 21st edition of the GLOBSEC Forum, held from 21 to 23 May in Prague, Czechia, under the theme ‘The Global Systemic Transfo...
NASA to Compete Contract for Jet Propulsion Laboratory Management
NASA announced plans Friday to compete the next contract for managing and operating the agency’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in Southern California at...
With a little help from our planet friends
Speeding up, slowing down, capturing amazing views, making discoveries — all thanks to planets.
Week in images: 18-22 May 2026
Week in images: 18-22 May 2026 Discover our week through the lens
This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 22 – 31
Venus and Jupiter — the Evening Star and the False Evening Star — draw closer together in the western twilight and point down to Mercury. The waxing Moon shows off its rich telesco...
Nereid Could be Neptune’s Only Original Moon
New research suggests that Triton — or a Triton-like object — might have disrupted Neptune's original moon system. Nereid might be the sole survivor. The post Nereid Could be Neptu...
NASA Joins Artemis Accords Workshop as Global Signings Rise
The United States participated in an Artemis Accords workshop in Lima, Peru, last week, following a new wave of nations committing to safe and responsible exploration of the Moon...
NASA Seeks Interest for Artemis Mission CubeSats
Organizations interested in launching CubeSats on future Artemis missions should respond to NASA’s request for information (RFI) by Monday, June 1, for initial consideration. “The...
Hubble Sights Galaxy in Transition
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope images reveals the lenticular galaxy, NGC 1266. This enigmatic post-starburst galaxy has a bright center and a face that hints at spiral structure...
Psyche Spacecraft Completes Mars Flyby
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft completed its close approach of Mars on May 15, capturing images as it came within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet’s surface. This is an enhan...
Astronomers thought JWST might find signs of life. Now they have a new plan.
An update in the search for alien life beyond the Solar System.
Join ESA for a total solar eclipse on 12 August 2026
Follow the total solar eclipse with the European Space Agency (ESA), in person or online.
Lunar Robots: NASA Spotlights Moon Base at 2026 FIRST Robotics Competition
Robotics will play a critical role in NASA’s ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the Moon, presenting opportunities for the next generation of engineers, technologi...
NASA-developed AI Could Help Track Harmful Algae
NASA scientists have developed an artificial intelligence tool to take on a longstanding challenge in ocean waters. In a study recently published in AGU Earth and Space Science, re...
I Am Artemis: Tim Goddard
Listen to this audio excerpt from Tim Goddard, NASA open water lead: At the end of their mission around the Moon, NASA’s Artemis II astronauts were recovered from their Orion space...
NASA’s Psyche Mission Aces Mars Flyby, Targets Metal-Rich Asteroid
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft completed its close approach of Mars on May 15, coming within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet’s surface. This flyby used a gravity assist from...
Moon-Venus Conjunction
The Moon and Venus, center, are seen in conjunction above the Washington Monument, Monday, May 18, 2026, as viewed from the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters Building in Washington...
How Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede Melted Its Core
A new model explains how Ganymede got its molten core — which in turn has given Jupiter's largest moon its magnetic field. The post How Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede Melted Its Core appe...
Smile launch highlights
Video: 00:04:00 ESA’s Smile satellite launched aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on at 04:52 BST / 05:52 CEST (00:52 local time...
Find the Keystone in Hercules, and the Hercules Cluster M13
Let the bright star Vega guide you to a famous star pattern in Hercules - called the Keystone - and then to the Hercules Cluster, aka M13. The post Find the Keystone in Hercules, a...
SMILE: European Space Weather Mission Launches
An innovative new mission will probe the mystery of how the Earth’s magnetosphere interacts with the solar wind. The post SMILE: European Space Weather Mission Launches appeared fi...
Smile lifts off on quest to reveal Earth’s invisible shield against the solar wind
The Smile spacecraft lifted off on a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 04:52 BST / 05:52 CEST (00:52 local time) on 19 May 2026. The launch marks the beginn...
Beacon of Light
This latest Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous and appreciated among astronomers for its...
What's Feeding Our Supermassive Black Hole?
Astronomers have identified the likely source of gas that flows into the maw of the Milky Way’s central black hole, Sagittarius A*. The post What's Feeding Our Supermassive Black H...
Inspector Smile, chapter 3: the countdown begins
Image: Inspector Smile, chapter 3: the countdown begins
Which moon phase is best for stargazing? That depends.
Which moon phase is best for stargazing? Most astronomers would tell you that the best moon is no moon. But it depends on what you want to see. The post Which moon phase is best fo...
Curiosity Shakes Loose a Pesky Rock
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this view of a rock nicknamed “Atacama” on May 6, 2026, the 4,877th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Th...
UAP? In this case, it’s only a model.
A model Mars capsule flew through the air. Alien ships likely didn’t.
Preparing Smile for space
Video: 00:04:42 Before Smile can begin studying how Earth responds to the streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the Sun, the spacecraft had to complete an extraordinary...
Apex of the sun: Look to Vega in May
Apex of the sun shows the direction our solar system moves through space, toward the bright star Vega in the May night sky. The post Apex of the sun: Look to Vega in May first appe...
This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 15 – 24
The Moon, Venus, and Jupiter — the three brightest celestial objects after the Sun — will form up beautifully in twilight this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The post This Week's...