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Friday, August 19 Last Quarter Moon occurs at 12:36 A.M. EDT; later this morning, the Moon will pass 3° due north of Mars at 8 A.M. EDT. With no Moon in the evening sky this week, it’s going to be a great time for some deep-sky observing...

Stephan’s Quintet, one of the first science targets of the James Webb Space Telescope, sits just 0.5° southwest of NGC 7331, making it one of the easiest tight groups to find. Halton C. Arp listed this compact group as Arp 319 in his 1966 A...

I’ve read that the strength of a neutron star’s magnetic field is greater than any other found in the universe. Wouldn’t a supermassive black hole have a stronger one? Patrick Clough Wichita, Kansas The answer to this question ...

The ocean floor is famously less explored than the surface of Mars. And when our team of scientists recently mapped the seabed, and ancient sediments beneath, we discovered what looks like an asteroid impact crater. Intriguingly, the crater, named &l...

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, postcards were the social medium of choice, The period between 1907 and 1915 is now known as the Golden Age of Postcards. At its peak, it is estimated that the U.S. postal service mailed out over a billion o...

The Orion Nebula may be the best-known emission nebula, but it loses to the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) as the most spectacular. Measuring 2° across, the Carina Nebula looks like an ethereal orchid blossoming, with many dark rifts dividing it into s...

Civilizations come and go, with some lasting mere decades while others endure for millennia. But what rarely changes, at least on human timescales, are the stars above us. Nonetheless, past cultures have often connected the dots of various stars in d...

Why will the DAVINCI spacecraft jettison its parachute so soon after entering Venus’ atmosphere? Won’t this result in less time to collect data and images? Steven Portalupi Newmarket, New Hampshire Venus and its massive atmosphere pre...

Many astronomy enthusiasts live under the veil of light pollution, either from local sources like poorly aimed lights on neighboring houses or the enormous light domes enveloping large cities. It can be quite discouraging at first. But it doesn&rsquo...

Satellites owned by private companies have played an unexpectedly important role in the war in Ukraine. For example, in early August 2022, images from the private satellite company Planet Labs showed that a recent attack on a Russian military base in...

Observing planets in the process of being born is a challenging task. But in recent years, radio telescopes like the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured images of glowing disks of material around young stars. The image a...

The third-brightest star in the sky, Alpha (α) Centauri, gleams in the southern constellation Centaurus. Since it is positioned at a declination of almost –61°, only stargazers located south of latitude 29° have any hope of seeing...

Saturn, the ringed wonder, achieved opposition this year on Aug. 14 at 17h02m Universal Time (UT). With its rings currently 14° open, now is the perfect time to target the solar system's showpiece gas giant. It will be another five years before S...

Friday, August 12 The Perseid meteor shower peaks today with a still nearly Full Super Moon in the sky, which will make viewing all but the brightest fireballs difficult. For those at mid-northern latitudes or higher, the radiant in Perseus is always...

Extragalactic pugilist M64, the Blackeye Galaxy in Coma Berenices, sports a massive shiner of dust that lies asymmetrically across the galaxy’s prominent bulge. Apparently, M64 met another galaxy over a billion years ago and did not so much bat...

Although oxygen is now the most abundant element in our oceans and our atmosphere, comprising about 88.8 percent and 23.1 percent of the mass of the two, respectively, this wasn’t always the case. In actuality, the abundance of oxygen on Earth arose ...

At 8,040 feet above sea level (2,450 meters) in Uttarakhand, India, lies a prime site for astronomical observations — Devasthal, 31 (52 kilometers) miles east of the resort town Nainital. Surrounded by the scenic beauty of the lofty Himalayas, Devast...

In a few short weeks, NASA will be just a bit closer to establishing a long-term presence on the Moon — a foundational step toward sending astronauts to Mars. Shooting for a launch date of Aug. 29 (pending optimal weather conditions) the Artemi...

Few technological advances have impacted astronomy as much as the digital revolution. That’s been true in the professional realm since the 1980s, and it’s been true for amateur astrophotographers like us since the turn of the millennium. ...

Friday, Aug. 12, marks the official peak of the year’s most popular meteor shower: the Perseids. The shower’s radiant, which sits in Perseus the Hero near magnitude 3.8 Miram (Eta [η] Persei), is highest in the early morning hours ...

The summer sky is for the birds — literally. There is Cygnus the Swan, Aquila the Eagle, the Eagle Nebula, and even a flock of wild ducks within the small constellation Scutum the Shield. The Wild Duck Cluster (M11) was discovered in 1681 by ...

Donald (Don) Machholz, an amateur astronomer who co-invented the Messier marathon and visually discovered 12 comets that now bear his name, died early yesterday morning (Aug. 9) at his home — called “Stargazer Ranch” — in Wiki...

For Whovians, this James Webb Space Telescope image of NGC 628 posted on Judy Schmidt’s Flickr account might remind you of the opening credits. But where the TARDIS is flying through the time vortex, JWST is simply doing what it does best: look...

You know that M31 (NGC 224) in Andromeda is another galaxy far outside our own Milky Way, don’t you? Of course you do! Everyone knows that. But we haven’t always known it. In fact, we’ve only known for just under a century. Prior ...

Like its companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a remarkable spectacle enjoyed by Southern Hemisphere astronomers. It is visible to the unaided eye as a hazy glow. But at 4° by 3° in size, it is faint...

The weather on Mars is dusty — especially during the southern hemisphere’s spring and summer, when warmer temperatures produce stronger winds that stir the surface. Spinning columns of air known as dust devils are common, too, propelling ...