Astronomy news

• 27 Aug 2023 (7 hours ago): Saturn at opposition

  27-08-2023 10:20 via in-the-sky.org
  
  Saturn lies in the opposite direction to the Sun in the sky, making it slightly closer, brighter and larger than at other times. It is also optimally positioned to be observable for much of the night.
  
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• It's time to reassess the size of our solar system, scientists say

  16-10-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  Two leading space scientists say there is a need to redefine the edge of the solar system by presenting a theory which states that measurements of the Milky Way's gravitational field, including its dark matter, redraws the sun's frontier. That theory was put forward by Jim Green, former NASA chief scientist and past director of the space agency's Planetary Science Division, along with Ed Belbruno, a professor of mathematics at Yeshiva University and a senior research associate at Princeton Unive
  
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• Astronomers discover the 1st ever green star, a cosmic zombie just in time for Halloween

  15-10-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  How awesome would it be if the sun could take on a spooky green glow for Halloween? It turns out that scientists have discovered that our star may indeed go green, but only billions of years from now after its death  — and only if it then starts eating planets like a cosmic zombie. That's possible because scientists have discovered that white dwarfs, the type of stellar remnants sun-sized stars leave behind when they die, can actually take on a range of colors including green if they
  
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• On this day in space! Oct. 15, 1997: NASA launches Cassini-Hugyens probe on 7-year voyage to Saturn

  15-10-2026 21:13 via space.com
  
  On Oct. 15, 1997, NASA launched the Cassini spacecraft on a mission to explore Saturn and its moons. It lifted off aboard a Titan 4B rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.It took almost seven years for the Cassini spacecraft to reach Saturn, with the spacecraft entering orbit around the ringed planet in 2004. Another smaller spacecraft called Huygens hitched a ride with Cassini, and it landed on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. Cassini spent 13 years studying the Saturn system up c
  
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• SpaceX launches classified mission for the US Space Force (video)

  15-10-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  SpaceX launched a classified mission for the U.S. Space Force from California this evening (Oct. 15).A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 8:01 p.m. EDT (5:01 p.m. local time; 0001 GMT on Oct. 16), rising into clear blue skies above the Golden State's central coast.Such visibly striking launches are far from guaranteed; Vandenberg and its scenic surroundings are often blanketed by fog, making rocket watching in the area a dicey proposition.The Falcon 9's first st
  
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• SpaceX launches classified mission for the US Space Force (photos)

  15-10-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  SpaceX will launch a classified mission for the U.S. Space Force this evening (Oct. 15), and you can watch the action live.A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today, on California's beautiful but frequently fog-blanketed central coast, during a four-hour window that opens at 7:44 p.m. EDT (2344 GMT; 4:44 p.m. local time).You can watch it live via a SpaceX webcast, which is expected to begin about 10 minutes before launch.(Image credit: SpaceX)This evening'
  
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• Vaonis unveils Atlas, the world's 1st modular smart telescope system

  15-10-2026 19:40 via space.com
  
  Vaonis has just announced its new generation of smart telescope technology, known as Atlas. Less of a single smart telescope and more of a new optical system, Atlas was designed with interchangeability and adaptability in mind. Its new SkyDock system allows two optical tubes to be connected and the telescope has live night sky monitoring to predict available observations. You can preorder the Vaonis Atlas with a single Atlas 80 module for $3,990, or $5,490 for the twin at Adorama. But it'll also
  
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• NASA's SkyFall helicopters will 'show us parts of Mars we've never seen before', scientists say

  15-10-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  NASA is accelerating the development of three helicopters that will be deployed into the sky above Mars after a voyage aboard NASA's Space Reactor‑1 Freedom spacecraft.Slated for launch in 2028, SR-1 Freedom is the first fission nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft and is assigned the duty of dropping off the SkyFall entry capsule loaded with the trio of aerial vehicles at the Red Planet. SR-1's trajectory will deliver the SkyFall helicopters in Mars' northern hemisphere during the pl
  
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• Windblown yardangs on Mars | Space photo of the day for Oct. 15, 2026

  15-10-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  A new image from the Mars Express spacecraft reveals windblown ridges known as yardangs, seen here as wrinkled sections on the left and right sides of the image. (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin)A new image from the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft reveals the powerful erosive forces that have shaped and re-shaped the surface of the Red Planet over long periods of geological time.What is it?This new Mars Express image captures Amazonis Mensa, a large, flat mountain on the Red Plan
  
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• Beat light pollution with these six portable telescopes

  15-10-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  Light pollution is the astronomer's biggest enemy, especially if you're gazing into deep space. And while some of the best telescopes can make a difference, there's no way to eliminate it. That's why, if you want to observe the cosmos without obstruction, you need to seek out darker skies, get a smart telescope or combine the two.You don't have to book a flight to a dark sky reserve; just traveling away from suburbia can be enough. That's where portable telescopes come in. Set one up in a field,
  
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• Scientists discover 'chemical starter kit' for life in planetary birthplaces

  15-10-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  Methanol, coming as part of the 'chemical starter kit' around young stars, has produced some unexpected surprises that could ultimately reveal some of the conditions in which planets and potentially life form around protostars.The methanol discoveries were made by astronomers using ALMA (the Atacama Large millimeter/submillimeter Array) in the Atacama Desert in Chile, as part of a project called COMPASS (the Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys)."Our work provides i
  
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• SpaceX wants to launch Starship more than 450 times per year from South Texas

  15-10-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  SpaceX wants to start flying its Starship megarocket a lot more often.The company has requested permission to launch Starship from its Starbase site in South Texas up to 456 times per year. That's a big jump from the currently allowed cadence of 25.The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is in the early stages of reviewing the request. Today (Oct. 14), the agency announced "its intent to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, open a public scoping period and hold public sc
  
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• Watch SpaceX deliver more than 6,000 pounds of cargo to the ISS today

  15-10-2026 06:05 via space.com
  
  A Dragon is closing the gap between itself and its destination after a more than two-day-long orbital pursuit. SpaceX's cargo Dragon, flying the CRS-35 (35th Commercial Resupply Services) mission for NASA, is scheduled to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) this morning (Oct. 15), delivering fresh food, long-term provisions, research and hardware to the orbital lab and its crew. Coverage of Dragon's arrival at the ISS will begin at 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT), with docking schedul
  
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• SpaceX Cargo Dragon delivers more than 6,000 pounds of supplies to the ISS

  15-10-2026 06:05 via space.com
  
  A Dragon has settled into its nest after a more than two-day-long orbital pursuit. SpaceX's cargo Dragon, flying the CRS-35 (35th Commercial Resupply Services) mission for NASA, rendezvoused with the International Space Station (ISS) this morning (Oct. 15), delivering fresh food, long-term provisions, research and hardware to the orbital lab and its crew. Coverage of Dragon's arrival at the ISS began at 9:00 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT), as the spacecraft approached from approximately 2.3 miles (3.6 km)
  
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• Planetary genealogy: Milky Way worlds belong to 1 of 2 'families,' scientists find

  14-10-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  You can tell a lot about how a child will age by looking at their parents, and it turns out that this could be true for planetary systems, too. Scientists have performed cosmic genealogy on planetary systems in the Milky Way, finding two distinct families that influence the evolution and fate of these systems. The study team, led by researchers at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), studied 300 of the best-understood multiplanet systems of the over 1,000 that astronomers have
  
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• Planetary genealogy: Milky Way worlds belong to 1 of 2 ‘families,’ scientists find

  14-10-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  You can tell a lot about how a child will age by looking at their parents, and it turns out that this could be true for planetary systems, too. Scientists have performed cosmic genealogy on planetary systems in the Milky Way, finding two distinct families that influence the evolution and fate of these systems. The study team, led by researchers at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), studied 300 of the best-understood multiplanet systems of the over 1,000 that astronomers have
  
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• 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' author Matt Dinniman talks inspirations, success, and the upcoming Peacock TV series (interview)

  14-10-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  Fall has officially arrived, and as autumn leaves blaze in vivid colors, there is no better time to plunge into the imaginative world of New York Times best-selling author Matt Dinniman's "Dungeon Crawler Carl", the wildly addictive science fantasy book series that's taking the world by storm.Even if you haven't read them, you've probably seen folks carrying these books, emblazoned with their loud, neon-colored covers, at your neighborhood coffee house. You'll see it even more in the future, too
  
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• SpaceX's Starship just turned 10 years old. When will it go to Mars?

  14-10-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  Starship just reached orbit for the first time, carrying satellites for SpaceX's Starlink program. Analysts disagree on whether that's a detour or the destination — and what of the company's plans for the Red Planet?Ten years ago, Elon Musk stood on stage at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, and unveiled plans for a giant spaceship to carry people to Mars. This past Sept. 28 — a decade and a day later — the descendant of that vehicle reached
  
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• On this day in space! Oct. 14, 1947: Test pilot Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the Bell X-1, the first X-plane

  14-10-2026 18:30 via space.com
  
  On Oct. 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time! Chuck Yeager was a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force who made history by flying an aircraft faster than the speed of sound. Yeager made his historic flight in a Bell X-1 rocket plane that he named "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife. Yeager had broken two ribs the night before when he fell off a horse, but that didn't stop him!His aircraft was dropped from a Boeing B-29 bomber before accelerating to a speed of Mach 1.07, w
  
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• Life after the moon: Artemis II's Christina Koch steps down from active astronaut duty

  14-10-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  Don't expect any of the Artemis II moon astronauts to fly again soon.On Tuesday (Oct. 13), NASA announced that Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch will become the agency’s acting deputy chief engineer, effective Nov. 1."With this appointment, Koch will transition to management astronaut status and will no longer be eligible for future spaceflight assignments," NASA officials wrote in a statement on Tuesday.Her three Artemis II crewmates had already shared their next moves, none of
  
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• 'The X-Files' is officially returning as Hulu picks up Ryan Coogler's 'reimagining' of the sci-fi icon

  14-10-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  The truth is once again out there, as Disney & Hulu confirmed today that they have picked up a new "The X-Files" show for a full season.Described as a "reimagining" of the classic series, the project comes from Ryan Coogler, the acclaimed writer and director of "Creed", "Black Panther", and "Sinners", and will star Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel.The show's premise will sound very familiar to fans of the original, as it centers on "two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents who
  
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• Cosmic 'jellyfish' wows skywatchers after SpaceX launch | Space photo of the day for Oct. 14, 2026

  14-10-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  A "jellyfish" in the early-morning sky created by SpaceX's launch of the CRS-35 cargo mission on Oct. 13, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)Did you see a gigantic, glowing jellyfish in the night sky early on Tuesday morning (Oct. 13)? If so, it's not an alien invasion (sorry); it was SpaceX launching its latest mission to the International Space Station (ISS).What is it?Just before dawn on Tuesday (Oct. 13), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carryi
  
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• The 1st SpaceX Starship to survive a launch to space just came home to its launch site

  14-10-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  Nearly three months after surviving its launch to space and a tumultuous trial at sea, the first Starship spacecraft to survive its ocean splashdown has returned to Starbase.SpaceX shared new photos and video of Ship 40, the Starship upper stage that launched on the developing vehicle's 13th flight test, as it completed the final stretch of its journey back to the company's South Texas facility. Now, the towering spacecraft is upright inside Starbase's Megabay hangar alongside a trio of its succ
  
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• Four years ago, NASA punched an asteroid. Europe's Hera probe arrives this month to inspect the wreckage

  14-10-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  NASA's DART mission made a cosmic mess four years ago — and now a new spacecraft is ready to scout out exactly what the first-of-its-kind collision accomplished.The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft slammed into a small space rock called Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022, in humanity's first test of planetary defense. That's the field dedicated to protecting Earth from the possibility of a calamitous asteroid impact, and DART mimicked how humans could change the orbit of a threa
  
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• Scientists discover that some of the universe's biggest explosions may have never happened at all

  14-10-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  Now you see them, now you don't. Scientists have discovered that some of the universe's most powerful explosions, hypernovas, may not happen at all. These explosions, known as hypernovas, were first proposed to explain unusual stars in the halo of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and in a neighboring dwarf galaxy. It was suggested that these stars could only form from the debris of an explosion 10 times more powerful than the 'average' supernovas. The team behind these new findings suggests that ordin
  
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• On this day in space! Oct. 13, 1773: Astronomer Charles Messier discovers the Whirlpool Galaxy before we ever knew it was a galaxy

  13-10-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  On Oct. 13, 1773, a French astronomer named Charles Messier discovered the "Whirlpool Galaxy," also known as Messier 51, or M51. Charles Messier was scanning the sky for objects that could confuse comet hunters when he catalogued the galaxy as M51. However, Messier wasn't able to see the spiral structure, and he didn't identify it as a galaxy. Seventy-two years later, another astronomer named William Parsons saw the whirlpool shape, but he thought it was a spiral nebula. Eventually, Edwin Hubble
  
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• 'We basically did Top Gun in space': 'Star Trek Starfleet Academy' warps back into action in March 2027 for sophomore year in the final frontier

  13-10-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  NEW YORK — Set your phasers to back-to-school, space fans. Star Trek is going back to Starfleet Academy for season 2, and we finally have a release date. The sophomore season of "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" will warp back to the small screen in March 2027 when the limited series returns for its final season on Paramount+. The series, which follows a class of cadets balancing Starfleet classes, space adventures (and yes, some love) in the 32nd century, will return with its full cast and e
  
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• See the original Galileo shuttle from 'Star Trek' in its new home at the Original Series Set Tour in New York

  13-10-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  Nostalgia is a hell of a thing, especially when it comes to sci-fi. For "Star Trek"fans wanting to mark the franchise's 60th anniversary this year, a geeky pilgrimage to upstate New York should be on the cards. Why? Because alongside the splendid autumnal colors, they can steer over to Ticonderoga to behold the newly installed Galileo shuttlecraft.After a complete two-year restoration project in 2012 headed up by superfan and collector Adam Schneider, this iconic fictional spacecraft, seen by mi
  
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• Earth's poles shifted surprisingly fast during the age of dinosaurs, ancient sea levels reveal

  13-10-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  The location of Earth's geographic poles has changed several times over the past 320 million years in a process known as true polar wander, according to measurements of ancient flooding brought about by sea level changes resulting from our planet's crust shifting relative to Earth's spin axis.Such a shift can affect climate, both on local scales and globally, as regions that were by the poles find themselves moving down to lower latitudes and vice versa. This can then affect atmospheric circulat
  
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• How to watch 'VisionQuest' online — stream the MCU's 'WandaVision' spinoff series from anywhere

  13-10-2026 19:45 via space.com
  
  Vision (Paul Bettany) is laying low, working the pumps at an Edinburgh pub at the outset of new eight-part Marvel Television entry "VisionQuest", and understandably so given how much the synthezoid has been through. Resurrected and restored after being sacrificed for the greater good in "Avengers: Infinity War", albeit as an ever-more-disconnected version of what came before, he now spends every other waking hour retreating into a big white house deep within his mindspace, to chew the fat with A
  
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