Throughout time, eclipses have inspired societies to understand the cosmos and its events.
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Eclipses have inspired myths, predictions and scientific discoveries. The total solar eclipse occurring on April 8 provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage with science and the cosmos.
Dietmar Muller
Deep-sea sediments show how the changing orbits of Earth and Mars are linked to past global warming and the speeding up of deep-ocean eddies.
Solar eclipses happen because of a few factors, including the Moon’s size and distance from the Sun.
AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley
Many people will see a dazzling eclipse this April, but these events are possible only because of the sizes and precise distances between Earth, the Moon and the Sun.
Discs giving birth to new planets, seen by the Very Large Telescope.
ESO/C. Ginski, A. Garufi, P.-G. Valegård et al.
Astronomers have spotted a surprisingly diverse set of planet-forming disks.
Solar eclipses don’t come around often, but make sure to view these rare events with eclipse glasses to protect your vision.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Now’s the time to get your hands on a pair of eclipse glasses in preparation for April’s display of celestial wonder.
The surface of Mars is cold, dry and rocky.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Determining whether or not life exists on another planet is an extraordinarily complicated – and expensive – scientific endeavor.
A photograph of the 2017 total solar eclipse, taken at the Oregon State Fair Grounds, Salem, Ore.
(Dominic Hart/NASA)
Mentions of total solar eclipses in ancient history help researchers pinpoint precise dates of notable events.
Solar panels in Brazil.
AP Photo/Bruna Prado
When the Moon blocks the Sun during an eclipse, utility suppliers have to pull power from the grid to make up for gaps in solar energy.
NASA / ESA / CSA / Ivo Labbe (Swinburne) / Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh) / Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
With the help of a magnifying glass 4 million lightyears wide, astronomers may have solved the riddle of what burned away the hydrogen fog that pervaded the early universe.
NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
The discovery raises big questions about widely accepted models of galaxy formation.
Merlin74 / Shutterstock
The extreme object could tell us more about the environment around black holes.
Cristy Roberts/ANU
The black hole J0529-4351 is 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun.
Leap Day is coming.
Marvin Samuel Tolentino Pineda/iStock, via Getty images
Humans have synced their calendars to the sun and moon for centuries, but every so often, these systems need a little correction.
UCLAN
The observation could fill in gaps in our knowledge about planet formation.
Telescopes have to contend with light pollution from satellites.
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Megaconstellations of satellites are hindering the most powerful tool for space exploration: telescopes.
The dark, far side of the Moon is the perfect place to conduct radio astronomy.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Projects under NASA’s CLPS program – including the Odysseus lander that made it to the lunar surface – will probe unexplored questions about the universe’s formation.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS
Mars has been a popular destination since space exploration began – and there are plenty of people who’d love to go there.
Planets can gravitationally affect each other when their orbits line up.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Orbital resonance is kind of like musical harmony, but systems that display it are far more rare than songs with harmonic melodies.
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When most of us left school there were still 9 planets – but we’ve come a long way since Pluto’s demotion. Here’s what’s next on the space agenda.
Data from the SLIM mission projected at JAXA’s Sagamihara Campus during the craft’s landing.
AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
Japan is one of several countries that weren’t part of the space race of the 1950s and 1960s looking toward the Moon. They’ve now become the 5th country to have landed on its surface.