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A collection of blue and orange and white stars against a deep black background

Deep-Sky Objects

Landing on the Moon is an incredibly difficult feat — here’s how 2025 is shaping up

The New Shepard booster touching down April14

Human Spaceflight

Space tourism’s growth blurs the line between scientific and symbolic achievement — a tourism scholar explains

An astronaut stands by a cliff on Mars, looking up at a drone

Solar System, Space Exploration

How close are we to ‘The Martian’? A planetary scientist checks in

Deep-Sky Objects

Deep-Sky Dreams: Kemble’s Cascade

Solar System

Asteroids hitting the Moon may have spiked its magnetic field

Science, Solar System

Does our solar system have a new dwarf planet?

Deep-Sky Objects

Deep-Sky Dreams: Face-on spiral IC 342

Observing, Observing Basics

Michael’s Miscellany: Mosquitoes

Deep-Sky Objects, Observing

Michael’s Miscellany: Virgo’s finest galaxies

Science, Solar System

The Moon’s two different faces

Deep-Sky Objects

Deep-Sky Dreams: Peculiar galaxy NGC 520

Stars

The Tarantula Nebula casts a wide web

Deep-Sky Objects

Deep-Sky Dreams: Coddington’s Nebula

Science

Quantum computers could crack the security codes used by satellites

Astrophotography, Observing

Imaging Earth and the sky above it

Deep-Sky Objects

Explore explosive supernovae from your backyard

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This artist’s conception illustrates one of the most primitive supermassive black holes known (central black dot) at the core of a young, star-rich galaxy. Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have uncovered two of these early objects, dating back to about 13 billion years ago. The monstrous black holes are among the most distant known, and appear to be in the very earliest stages of formation, earlier than any observed so far. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

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Explore the science of space, from the astrophysics of stars to the ultimate fate of the universe.

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Observing

Learn about upcoming observing events such as eclipses, meteor showers, comets, conjunctions, and more.

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This 2016 Curiosity rover selfie shows the vehicle at the “Okoruso” drilling site on Mount Sharp’s Naukluft Plateau. The Martian scene is a mosaic of images taken with the arm-mounted Mars Hands Lens Imager (MAHLI). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Space Exploration

Human and robotic missions are helping humanity explore our solar system and beyond.

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Sky This Week

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Sky This Week, The Sky This Week

The Sky This Week from May 30 to June 6: All eyes on Venus

Sky This Month

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Observing

May 2025: What’s in the sky this month? Jupiter and Mars shine in the evening, while more planets gather before dawn

Picture of the Day

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The hidden bridge of Markarian’s Chain

Overall Photons: Francisco Javier Pérez Olvera, Manuel Alejandro Chavarría Silva, George William Hoffman, Kollar Istvan, Jonathan Schwab, Giovanni Lombardi, Fumio Saito, Francesco Morini, David Serquera, Lorenzo Lilli & Giampiero Lilli, Gianni Melis, Richard Mongold, Emanuele La Barbera, Michele Mazzola, Ashley Brown, Satoshi Iino, Jeff Ratino, Ulli Wittur Fee, Marco Martinelli, Roberto Volpini, Krzysztof Gaudy, Patrick Bisaillon, Darius Kopriva, Jacopo Fallai, Roberto Testi, Kyle Fisk, Andrea Iorio, Fernando Linsalata, Elisa Cuccu

Markarian’s Chain is an alignment of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, at least seven of which appear to move together. This deep image comprising 660 hours of data collected by 29 astrophotographers reveals the bridge of ionized hydrogen that stretches from NGC 4438 to M86 — evidence of a previous gravitational interaction.