Astronomy news

• AI reveals unsuspected math underlying search for exoplanets

  24-05-2022 21:49
  The astronomers' goal: find an artificial intelligence algorithm to interpret microlensing events captured by the upcoming Roman Space Telescope and speed detection of exoplanets around other stars. They achieved that, but the AI told them something unexpected and deep: the theory used to infer stellar and exoplanetary masses and orbits from observations was incomplete. Digging into the mathematics, they uncovered a theory that explains all types of microlensing events and possible ambiguities i
  
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• Remembering 'Ulysses 31', the '80s cartoon that transported 'The Odyssey' to outer space

  18-07-2026 00:00 via space.com
  
  It's not known whether "Ulysses 31" was on Christopher Nolan's radar in his teenage years, but it's intriguing to think it could have influenced the director's decision to take on Homer's "The Odyssey". This animated space opera, a French/Japanese co-production, delivered a crash course in Greek mythology to a generation of kids who grew up in the '80s. And, although it looks more like "Star Wars" than Homer's original tale, it had a decent stab at transferring the Classics to the 31st century (
  
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• These 'metallic' dunes on Mars look like sci-fi. What are they really?

  17-07-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  If you still picture Mars as a monotonous red desert, it may be time for an update.The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has been capturing some of the Red Planet's most surreal landscapes, and its latest images reveal a sprawling field that looks like molten metal frozen across the floor of an ancient Mars crater.The shimmering "waves" aren't metal at all, however. They are dark sand dunes dusted with seasonal frost, much of it carbon dioxide, or "dry ice," that settles on the surfac
  
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• The Perseid meteor shower starts this week. Here's why you should look up now

  17-07-2026 21:00 via space.com
  
  People keep asking me about the total solar eclipse on August 12. That's understandable. For anyone in the Northern Hemisphere, it is shaping up to be a joyous day of astronomy. Totality will cross eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain, but much of Europe will see a very deep partial eclipse, and even parts of North America will see a small bite taken from the sun. Then, just hours later, the Perseid meteor shower will peak beneath perfectly moonless skies. What a double-act! The
  
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• 'Aliens' at 40: Here are 26 reasons why James Cameron's sequel is still the greatest sci-fi action movie of all time

  17-07-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  Making a sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 classic "Alien" should have been a disaster. This was a movie that defined a whole new sub-genre of outer-space horror, a perfectly structured scarefest that also introduced one of cinema's greatest-ever monsters to the world.Luckily, James Cameron — then one of Hollywood's hottest properties off the back of "The Terminator" — has never been a shrinking violet, and was brave enough to face the Xenomorph challenge head-on. Reinventing the franchi
  
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• Earth's largest particle accelerator opens new window into the early universe just after the Big Bang: 'A culmination of a decades-long quest'

  17-07-2026 19:00 via space.com
  
  After more than two decades of searching, scientists have finally observed a phenomenon in a hot and dense particle 'soup' similar to that which filled the cosmos moments after the Big Bang. The observation could help cosmologists better understand the incredibly hot and dense state of the universe in its earliest moments.The world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), regularly creates this so-called quark-gluon plasma by smashing together the atomic nuclei of h
  
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• 27 Jul 2026 (10 days away): Asteroid 3 Juno at opposition

  17-07-2026 18:36 via in-the-sky.org
  
  Asteroid 3 Juno makes closest approach to the Earth.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (57 minutes ago): Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 18:31 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus share the same right ascension, at a separation of 2°01'.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (5 hours ago): Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 18:31 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus share the same right ascension, at a separation of 2°01'.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (4 minutes ago): Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 18:31 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus share the same right ascension, at a separation of 2°01'.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (4 hours ago): Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 18:31 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus share the same right ascension, at a separation of 2°01'.
  
  Read more

• 17 Jul 2026 (3 hours ago): Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 18:31 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus share the same right ascension, at a separation of 2°01'.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (2 hours ago): Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 18:31 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus share the same right ascension, at a separation of 2°01'.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (1 hour ago): Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 18:31 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus share the same right ascension, at a separation of 2°01'.
  
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• Making history: Watch Vikram-1, India's 1st private orbital rocket, launch early on July 18

  17-07-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  An Indian company will make history early Saturday morning (July 18), and you can watch the action live.Skyroot Aerospace plans to launch its Vikram-1 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, on the Indian barrier island of Sriharikota, on Saturday at 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT; 11:30 a.m. India Standard Time). Vikram-1 is the first-ever privately built Indian orbital rocket, so its liftoff could blaze a new trail for the nation and for commercial spaceflight.You can watch the launch live via Skyro
  
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• 26 Jul 2026 (9 days away): Saturn enters retrograde motion

  17-07-2026 17:34 via in-the-sky.org
  
  Saturn reverses its direction of motion across the sky.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (57 minutes away): Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 17:34 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus share the same right ascension, at a separation of 2°01'.
  
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• 'The Starry Night' in space: Dark Energy Camera channels a cosmic Van Gogh (video)

  17-07-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  Reboots and remakes may be all the rage in Hollywood with mixed degrees of success (we don't talk about the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot ... ever), but they aren't so popular in other forms of art such as painting. However, a recent cosmic rework of one of art's most well-regarded pieces could be just as breathtaking as its original counterpart.That's all thanks to the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which has captured a vibrant view of the Corona Australis molecular cloud, that shows the star-for
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (7 hours ago): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:47 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (6 hours ago): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:47 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (5 hours ago): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:47 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (47 minutes ago): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:47 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (4 hours ago): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:47 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (3 hours ago): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:47 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (2 hours ago): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:47 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (1 hour ago): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:47 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (3 minutes away): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:43 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (1 hour away): Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 16:43 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus share the same right ascension, at a separation of 2°01'.
  
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• Smoke from devastating Canada wildfires visible from space | Space photo of the day for July 17, 2026

  17-07-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  Smoke from wildfires across Canada travels across both Canada and the U.S. in this satellite image captured by NOAA-21 on July 14, 2026.(Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin)The wildfires tearing across Canada are so extreme that the smoke billowing upward can be seen from space. What is it?Over 850 wildfires are currently devastating Canada, as reported by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. The fires are spreading across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario; most remain c
  
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• 17 Jul 2026 (48 minutes away): Close approach of the Moon and Venus

  17-07-2026 15:58 via in-the-sky.org
  
  The Moon and Venus pass close to each other.
  
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