Astronomy news

• 04 Jun 2023 (11 hours away): Full Moon

  03-06-2023 17:56 via Astronomy News visible from latitude 51.51°N
  
  The Moon reaches full phase and is visible for much of the night.
  
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• 9 nightmarish sci-fi spaceships to crawl aboard for Halloween if you dare

  31-10-2026 16:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Abandoned, possessed, or infested spaceships in sci-fi films, books, and video games are usually not a welcoming place to hang your helmet and kick back inside. Many are distinctly marked as DO NOT APPROACH zones and equipped with clearly articulated warning messages to keep your distance, but that doesn't ever seem to stop scavengers, space pirates, or evil industrial mega corporations from waving off these dangerous signs to board anyway. Other creaky craft are apt to contain nasty alien hitch
  
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• This Week In Space podcast: Episode 234 — Living in Lunar Caves

  31-10-2026 14:36 via Latest from Space.com
  
  On Episode 234 of This Week In Space, Tariq Malik and Mike Wall are joined by Than Putzig of the Planetary Science Institute about a NASA-backed payload bound for the Marius Hills Pit on the moon.In our ongoing quest to develop a moon base, could we possibly utilize the area beneath the surface of the moon in order to make the moon habitable? Could Marius Hills Pit, a roughly 50-meter-wide opening that may lead into a lunar lava tube, become the Moon's first living habitat for humans? Putzig exp
  
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• On this day in space! Oct. 31, 2015: Creepy skull-shaped Halloween asteroid flies by Earth, NASA names it the 'Great Pumpkin'

  31-10-2026 14:26 via Latest from Space.com
  
  On October 31, 2015, an asteroid shaped like a human skull flew by Earth. It arrived with excellent timing on Halloween, which made the already-creepy asteroid even creepier. During its closest approach, the creepy asteroid was about 300,000 miles from Earth, or 1.3 times the average distance between Earth and the moon. So, it didn't pose a threat to our planet. It was discovered by astronomers at Hawaii's Pan-STARRS observatory only three weeks before the flyby, and it was given the official de
  
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• The moon, Mars, and Jupiter shine in the heart of the Lion overnight on Nov. 1-2

  31-10-2026 14:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  The moon dives towards the glowing heart of the constellation Leo for a spectacular rendezvous with Mars and Jupiter overnight on Nov. 1-2, as the glittering stars of the Beehive Cluster shine nearby. Here's what you need to know.Look to the eastern horizon an hour after midnight to see the 45%-lit waning moon shining less than 5 degrees from the red light of Mars — roughly the width of your three middle fingers held at arm's length to the night sky.Jupiter's bright light will gleam just below
  
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• Betelgeuse is haunted by a cosmic poltergeist tormenting the doomed star's atmosphere

  31-10-2026 13:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Something spooky is stirring in the shadows of the infamous star Betelgeuse, a cosmic poltergeist that is disrupting the atmosphere of the red supergiant.New radio observations have shown Betelgeuse's smaller stellar companion, Siwarha (not Betelguese Betelguese, unfortunately), cutting through the supergiant's extended atmosphere and leaving a wake in its path, like a jet boat slicing through a lake. Because the name of this red supergiant star located about 650 light-years away from Earth, mar
  
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• Halloween night sky 2026 — Saturn, shooting stars and a space station await US stargazers

  31-10-2026 11:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  There could be more than just ghosts and ghouls lurking in the skies this Halloween! From Saturn's spectacular rings to shooting stars and even a space station flyover, the night sky has a few treats of its own in store for U.S. skywatchers on Oct. 31. Based on the latest national forecast, skies will be mainly clear on Saturday evening over most of New York State, northeast Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey and New England as well as a swath of the southern and central Great Plains, central Roc
  
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• Happy Halloween! SpaceX launches 27 Starlink satellites to orbit from California (video)

  31-10-2026 06:24 via Latest from Space.com
  
  SpaceX celebrated Halloween with an early-morning launch from California. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today (Oct. 31) at 12:04 a.m. EDT (0404 GMT; 9:04 p.m. on Oct. 30 local time), sending 27 of the company's Starlink internet satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO).The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth as planned, touching down about 8.5 minutes after launch on the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You," which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.A Sp
  
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• Happy Halloween! SpaceX launches 27 Starlink satellites to orbit from California

  31-10-2026 06:24 via Latest from Space.com
  
  SpaceX celebrated Halloween with an early-morning launch from California. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today (Oct. 31) at 12:04 a.m. EDT (0404 GMT; 9:04 p.m. on Oct. 30 local time), sending 27 of the company's Starlink internet satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO).The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth as planned, touching down about 8.5 minutes after launch on the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You," which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.The
  
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• The world mourns the passing of 'Star Trek's' Patrick Stewart with a galaxy of tearful tributes

  31-10-2026 00:26 via Latest from Space.com
  
  As we all begin to absorb the bitter news of Patrick Stewart's death at the age of 86, a flood of personal tributes are pouring in, reflecting this global treasure's wonderful life lived with a dignity and bravado that few mortals possess.We’re getting just a hint of what Patrick Stewart meant to those who worked with him or knew him throughout his stellar career. Whether on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, on TV as the dashing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generatio
  
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• An aquanaut comes home: Returning to Earth from an undersea 'space station'

  30-10-2026 22:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Our time on our "space mission" underwater was coming to an end, and I felt like what I imagine an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) must feel before returning to Earth. On one hand, you are excited to return to your home and loved ones, as well as to fresh food and normal hygiene. On the other, you know you will miss your crew and the incredible experience of being in space.While my SEA STAR crew and I had not left Earth during our mission, we were separated from the surface of
  
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• India launches next-gen navigation satellite to orbit (video)

  30-10-2026 21:29 via Latest from Space.com
  
  India bolstered its homegrown satellite-navigation system today (Oct. 30).A GSLV Mark II rocket launched the nation's NVS-03 satellite from Satish Dhawan Space Centre today at 2:21 p.m. EDT (1821 GMT and 11:51 p.m. India Standard Time).Everything went well: The rocket deployed NVS-03 into geostationary transfer orbit as planned, officials with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on X about 30 minutes after liftoff.An Indian GSLV Mark II rocket launches the NVS-03 navigation s
  
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• 5 horror franchises that went to space... and one that absolutely should have but didn't

  30-10-2026 20:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  In space, no one can hear you scream... not unlike in the empty theater screens that aging horror franchises play to when the lustre has gone and their final installments limp to the public. It is perhaps little wonder that some horror franchises go to space to die... or take long breaks, at least.
  In celebration of Halloween, we're running down some horror franchises that made the journey to the final frontier, resulting in films that range from the sublime and outrageously campy fun to just pu
  
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• The rocket scientist who summoned demons: The true horror story of Jack Parsons

  30-10-2026 19:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  In the winter of 1946, two men from very different walks of life walked into California's Mojave Desert together, where one of them became convinced an extraordinary experiment they had been conducting had finally succeeded.One of the men was pioneering rocket scientist Jack Parsons, a self-taught chemist who helped establish what would become NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and whose innovations in rocket propulsion would help lay the groundwork for the Space Race that would erupt in the year
  
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• The Taurid meteor shower isn't much to look at. That's why I love it

  30-10-2026 17:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  I used to make a basic mistake with meteor showers — I treated the zenith hourly rate (ZHR) like a timetable. If a shower were advertised at 20 meteors per hour, I'd go outside expecting something roughly every three minutes. After 10 quiet minutes, I'd start wondering what I was doing wrong. After half an hour, I'd start to doubt the whole idea of meteor showers.The Northern and Southern Taurids cured me of all that. Two linked meteor showers that peak around Nov. 4-5 and Nov. 11-12 this year
  
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• 'Star Trek's' William Shatner and George Takei honor the death of Walter Koenig

  30-10-2026 16:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  This has been a pretty rough week for "Star Trek" royalty on this 60th anniversary year with the deaths of both Walter Koenig, "Star Trek's" Lt. Pavel Chekov on Sunday, Oct. 25 and Patrick Stewart, the storied sci-fi property's Captain Jean Luc-Picard on Wednesday, Oct. 28. With the passing of Walter Koenig at the age of 90 this past week, franchise luminaries of all degrees are coming out with heartfelt condolences, kind words of remembrance, and tearful reflections. William Shatner, 95, and Ge
  
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• On this day in space! Oct. 30, 1964: NASA's weird Lunar Landing Research Vehicle takes 1st test flight to help Apollo astronauts land on the moon

  30-10-2026 15:46 via Latest from Space.com
  
  On October 30, 1964, NASA's Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, or LLRV, took to the skies for the first time. The LLRV was a bizarre, four-legged flying contraption commonly known as the "Flying Bedstead." NASA used it to simulate moon landings and liftoffs on Earth to prepare for Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing. The first person to give it a whirl was the X-15 pilot Joe Walker. During this test flight, he reached an altitude of about 10 feet, and he hovered there for about a minute. He d
  
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• Ghostly Cat's Head Nebula haunts the cosmos | Space photo of the day for Oct. 30, 2026

  30-10-2026 15:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Three views of the Cat's Head Nebula. A visible light image captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (left); a mid-infrared image taken by James Webb Space Telescope (center); and the James Webb Space Telescope's near-infrared view (right). (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI))This "cat's head" would work perfectly in a witch's cauldron, glowing red "eyes" and all.Just in time for Halloween, we have new, ghostly views of the Cat's Eye Nebula haunting
  
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• Watch Virgin Galactic's new 'Delta-class' space plane take to the skies for the 1st time (video)

  30-10-2026 13:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Virgin Galactic's first "Delta-class" space plane just made its maiden voyage.The next-gen suborbital vehicle, named Apeiron (Greek for "Boundless"), lifted off for the first time ever on Thursday (Oct. 28). Flying beneath the wings of its carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, Apeiron traveled from Virgin's manufacturing site in Mesa, Arizona, to its launch site, Spaceport America in New Mexico."Seeing the ship fly beneath Eve to Spaceport America was a moment years in the making," Virgin Galactic CEO Mich
  
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• Look up! China's mysterious space plane is visible over the US this week

  30-10-2026 12:45 via Latest from Space.com
  
  China's secretive space plane is making a series of passes over the United States in the coming days and you could spot it with your own eyes! The mysterious spacecraft, Shenlong, is currently orbiting Earth on its fourth mission. Although we don't know what it's up to, China's space agency has said it is testing technologies that "will pave the way for more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future." Under favorable conditions, Shenlong is bright e
  
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• China's secretive space plane is flying over the US this week — here's how to see it for yourself

  30-10-2026 12:45 via Latest from Space.com
  
  China's secretive space plane is making a series of passes over the United States in the coming days and you could spot it with your own eyes! The mysterious spacecraft, Shenlong, is currently orbiting Earth on its fourth mission. Although we don't know what it's up to, China's space agency has said it is testing technologies that "will pave the way for more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future." Under favorable conditions, Shenlong is bright e
  
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• Think Halloween is scary? This scorched alien world is a real-life cosmic horror story

  30-10-2026 11:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Earth would be terrifying if we celebrated Halloween every 11 hours, a possibility on a super-Earth investigated by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). That is, if this extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, wasn't so hellishly hot that no life could survive on its surface.The exoplanet in question is the rocky lava planet TOI-561 b, located around 280 light-years away, which was discovered by NASA's exoplanet-hunting spacecraft TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) in 2020. The planet is lo
  
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• Patrick Stewart, renowned actor and ‘Star Trek’s’ Captain Picard, dies at 86

  30-10-2026 00:49 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Less than a week after the fates took Walter Koenig from our galaxy, another "Star Trek" legend has left us: Sir Patrick Stewart has died at the age of 86.According to his spokesperson Kelly Bush Novak, the beloved Shakespearean actor passed away on Wednesday (Oct. 28) at his Los Angeles home after a short struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia."He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter and the kind of profou
  
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• On this day in space! Oct. 29, 1991: NASA's Galileo spacecraft flies by asteroid Gaspra and snaps amazing photos while flying at 18,000 mph

  29-10-2026 22:28 via Latest from Space.com
  
  On Oct. 29, 1991, the Galileo spacecraft flew by the asteroid Gaspra on its way to Jupiter. Gaspra was the first asteroid to ever be visited by a spacecraft. Gaspra orbits near the inner edge of the asteroid belt. The Galileo spacecraft had been travelling through the asteroid belt for about two months before it reached Gaspra. Galileo was 990 miles (1,593 kilometers) away from Gaspra when it whizzed by, and it was travelling at a relative speed of about 5 miles (8 km) per second. The spacecraft
  
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• Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman named deputy director for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  29-10-2026 22:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  The leader of NASA's first mission around the moon in half a century is the last to announce what's next for him after retiring from active astronaut duty.All four astronauts of the Artemis II mission, which flew around the moon in April, have hung up their spacesuits and moved on to greener pastures. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), managed by Caltech, announced yesterday that former NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman will step into the role of Caltech associate vice president and deputy direct
  
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• Astronauts deploy solar array on 100th US spacewalk by International Space Station crew members

  29-10-2026 21:01 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Two astronauts successfully installed and deployed the second-to-last upgraded solar array for the International Space Station (ISS) during the 100th U.S. spacewalk from the orbiting outpost.Anil Menon of NASA and Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), both ISS Expedition 75 crewmates, completed the 7-hour-and-11-minute extravehicular activity (EVA) at 3:08 p.m. EDT (1908 GMT) on Thursday (Oct. 29). The spacewalk began and ended inside the U.S. Quest airlock, with both astronauts wear
  
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• 'Crystal Lake' is great, but nothing tops the space horror shenanigans of 'Jason X'

  29-10-2026 21:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Peacock's "Crystal Lake" takes the story of the Voorhees family back to the beginning.It's a full-circle moment revisiting Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), who's the real star of 1980's "Friday the 13th" and the catalyst for all the murder and mayhem. While it's a welcome shake-up to the timeline of the horror franchise, nothing tops the originality of the slasher-in-space spectacle known as "Jason X".It was 2001, and the "Friday the 13th" franchise had hit a bit of a snag. Audiences had seen
  
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• See NASA's Artemis III astronauts meet Trump at the White House as they train for a critical 2027 moon lander test flight (photos)

  29-10-2026 19:55 via Latest from Space.com
  
  U.S. President Donald Trump just met another NASA Artemis crew.The astronauts of NASA's Artemis III mission visited the Oval Office on Thursday (Oct. 28) and posed for a few photos with the president.Their visit came nearly six months to the day after that of the Artemis II crew, who stopped by the White House on April 29, 19 days after the end of their historic flight around the moon. President Trump talks to the Artemis III crew on Oct. 28, 2026. (Image credit: The White House)The Artemis III
  
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• Cosmic graveyard of zombie planets offers a grisly warning about our own solar system's fate

  29-10-2026 19:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  "Sometimes dead is better." Who can forget the immortal words of Jud Crandall, delivered by the incomparable Fred Gwynne in the 1989 film adaptation of Stephen King's Pet Sematary? Turns out Crandall could have been talking about somewhere just as otherworldly as the cursed Chumash burial ground at the heart of one of King's most terrifying works of fiction. That's because astronomers have discovered two husks of two zombie planets shuffling through the gory remains of what was once their planet
  
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• Big cats, unexplained lights and a floodlit eclipse — 7 skywatching 'horror stories' to keep you entertained this Halloween

  29-10-2026 17:00 via Latest from Space.com
  
  Halloween is almost upon us! To celebrate we've pulled together a series of short "skywatching horror stories" perfect for getting you in the mood for the spooky season.Granted, stargazing may not be the most hazardous of past times. But you'd be surprised how often things can go wrong. The best laid plans can be shattered by the unforeseen, unexpected phenomena can leave you scared witless, or mother nature itself can step in to remind us how little control we have over the environment around u
  
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