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$A detailed telescope image of a star-forming region, showing dramatic pillars and billowing clouds of gas and dust in vivid shades of orange, red, and brown, contrasting with cooler blue nebulosity in the upper left. A tall, dark pillar dominates the center with a bright jet of material streaming from its tip, illuminated by nearby stars. Smaller pillars and sculpted gas structures are visible throughout, and several bright foreground stars with diffraction spikes are scattered across the scene.$

Science

Still going strong: Hubble’s 36th anniversary image

A promotional graphic on a dark blue starfield background. On the left in gold and white text: "Starmus VIII, The Search for Truth," "First Time in Spain, Artemis II Astronauts," the names Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen, and "October 2026, Tenerife, Canary Islands." On the right, three astronauts in orange spacesuits with helmets removed stand close together, smiling toward the camera, with a NASA patch and name tag visible on the center suit. A row of small sponsor and institutional logos runs along the bottom.

Science

Artemis 2 crew lands at Starmus VII — 15 years after Armstrong, Aldrin, and Leonov launched its lengacy

Features, Science

How Roman will unlock the universe

Features, Robotic Spaceflight

Why we need in-orbit refueling to return to the Moon

Picture of the Day

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A bright green comet head glows near the top of a star-filled frame, streaming a long, faint white tail that stretches diagonally down almost the full height of the image. Wisps of dim brown dust clouds drift across the dark background, with a vivid blue-white star near the upper left.

McNaught lights up Taurus

Gerald Rhemann, taken from Farm Tivoli, Namibia

Comet 220P/McNaught, a Jupiter-family comet on a 5.5-year orbit, appears in Taurus about five weeks after it exploded in brightness in a Aug. 5, 2026 outburst, becoming 600 times brighter at magnitude 7. The imager took 51 minutes of exposure in LRGB filters with a 12-inch f/3.6 astrograph on Sept. 10, 2026, after the comet had faded to magnitude 12.

In the Sky

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A telescopic photograph of NGC 7243, a loose open star cluster set against a densely packed star field. The cluster's members are scattered loosely near the center of the image, with a mix of bright blue-white stars standing out against a background of countless fainter yellow-white and gold stars on a black sky.

Observing

The Sky Today on Friday, September 18: The Lizard’s brightest cluster

What’s Launching This Week

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What’s Launching This Week

Europe launches two Earth-observation satellites amidst a busy week for China

Today in the History of Astronomy

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A bright greenish-yellow streaks vertically down the center of a dark night sky filled with tiny stars, fanning out softly into a faint, curved white tail near the top. In the lower-right corner, a dark, silhouetted horizon is bordered by a intense, glowing red and orange sky band. The bright streak and colorful horizon contrast sharply against the surrounding deep black space.

Today in the History of Astronomy

Sept. 18, 1965: Discovery of Comet Ikeya-Seki

More News

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$A photograph of the autumnal equinox sunrise over a hazy rural landscape in Spain, showing the Sun as a large, heavily distorted red-orange disc flattened by atmospheric refraction just above the treeline. A silhouetted tree line, distant mountains, and what appears to be a castle or fortress on a hilltop are visible through the haze. Pink-tinted clouds and a gray-blue sky fill the upper portion of the frame, and a flat golden field stretches across the foreground.$

Sky This Week, The Sky This Week

The Sky This Week from September 18 to 25: Autumn begins

Robotic Spaceflight

U.S. confirms it has weapons in orbit

$A detailed telescopic photograph of a face-on barred spiral galaxy, showing tightly wound blue spiral arms laced with pink star-forming regions surrounding a soft, glowing golden core. Several distant background galaxies are visible scattered across the black field, and a bright foreground star with diffraction spikes is visible to the left.$

Galaxies