Astronomers have long known where water is first formed in the universe and how it ends up on planets, asteroids and comets. A recent discovery has finally answered what happens in between.
All human development, from large cities to small towns, shines light into the night sky.
Benny Ang/Flickr
With more than 100 lunar missions planned in coming years, space junk near the Moon could become an issue for humanity. No agency tracks lunar space junk, so two astronomers decided to do it themselves.
This cluster of galaxies, called Stephan’s Quintet, is a composite image produced from two cameras aboard the James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA/STScI
NASA released five new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, revealing incredible details of ancient galaxies, stars and the presence of water in the atmosphere of a distant planet.
The mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope is fully aligned and producing incredibly sharp images, like this test image of a star.
NASA/STScI via Flickr
It has taken eight months to test and calibrate all of the instruments and modes of the James Webb Space Telescope. A scientist on the team explains what it took to get Webb up and running.
Scientists think there are 300 million habitable planets in the Milky Way, and some may be home to intelligent life.
Bruno Gilli/ESO
This year, two groups of astronomers plan to send messages containing information about humans and the location of Earth toward parts of space they think may be home to intelligent life.
The Hubble Space Telescope was born from a previous decadal survey. What leaps forward will come from this one?
NASA Johnson/Flickr
The astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey for the 2020s lays out plans to search for life on distant planets, understand the formation of galaxies and solve deep mysteries of physics.
Some stars travel at high speeds through the universe and sometimes leave spectacular clouds of dust and gas in their wake.
NASA, ESA and R. Sahai (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Hypervelocity stars were discovered only 15 years ago and are the closest things in existence to real shooting stars. They travel at millions of miles per hour, so fast that they can escape from galaxies.
Flouride is created by Wolf–Rayet stars, here seen in the Milky Way by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Nasa/Judy Schmidt
Such a mission could be developed soon, allowing astrophysicists to take selfies of the solar system and use the Sun’s gravity as a lens to peer deep into space.
It can stretch your mind to ponder what’s really out there.
Stijn Dijkstra/EyeEm via Getty Images
In the early morning of May 26, 2021, there will be a super blood-red lunar eclipse. The show will be spectacular and can all be explained by the orbits of the Earth and Moon.
There’s an extensive range of telescopes, mounts and accessories on the market, and trying to pick from it might have you seeing stars. Here’s what the experts suggest.
Once featured in movies, TV shows and video games, the Arecibo Observatory was the pride of Puerto Rico.
RICARDO ARDUENGO / Contributor / AFP via Getty Images
COVID-19 may have messed up school and shut down a lot of entertainment venues. But you can still brighten things up by doing a little stargazing at night, an astronomer says.
Diligence, technological progress and a little luck have together solved a 20 year mystery of the cosmos.
CSIRO/Alex Cherney
Cosmologists had only been able to find half the matter that should exist in the universe. With the discovery of a new astronomical phenomenon and new telescopes, researchers just found the rest.
Today we hear about some of the fascinating space research underway at Siding Spring Observatory – and how, despite gruelling hours and endless paperwork, astronomers retain their sense of wonder for the night sky.
Shutterstock
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation e Cameron Furlong, The Conversation
‘The size, the grandeur, the peacefulness of being in the dark’: what it’s like to study space at Siding Spring Observatory
The Conversation, CC BY54,3 MB(download)
Three hours north-east of Parkes lies a remote astronomical research facility, unpolluted by city lights, where researchers are trying to unlock some of the biggest questions about our Universe.
The HESS telescopes in Namibia are on the alert for high-energy gamma rays.
HESS Collaboration / Clementina Medina