Astronomy news

• How an ancient collision with another galaxy transformed the Milky Way

  17-08-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered evidence that our galaxy experienced a significant collision and merger with a dwarf galaxy 11.8 billion years ago.Mergers between galaxies are one of the main ways in which galaxies can grow. However, while we can witness mergers taking place in other galaxies, figuring out our Milky Way galaxy's history requires painstaking detective work. Even now,the story is only partly known."Our home is the Milky Way galaxy, but we do not know how our house was bu
  
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• China bounces back from Long March rocket explosion with back-to-back launches (video)

  17-08-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  China just completed not one but two space missions, less than a week after a Long March 7A rocket explosion briefly grounded its fleet. The state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) returned to flight with the launch of a Long March 12 rocket from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site in Wenchang. The rocket lifted off on Aug. 16 at 12:10 a.m. EDT (0410 GMT; 12:10 p.m. local time in China) and delivered a stack of 24 internet-beaming satellites into low Earth orbit
  
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• The best Ruko drone to date is half-price at Amazon but you'll have to hurry

  17-08-2026 21:56 via space.com
  
  We've seen drone deals come and go, but this Ruko F11 Pro 2 really is something else. Equipped with a 6K camera and built to last, this drone is 54% off at Amazon, saving you $280! Save $280 on this Ruko F11 Pro 2 drone at Amazon. In our Ruko F11 Pro 2 review we called it "The best designed and built Ruko drone to date," and that still stands. It can capture 30FPS 4K video, or snap 6K stills and comes with 2 batteries for a 70-minute flight time. $280 off is a serious saving, though there is one
  
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• Scientists find dead star that predicts our sun's future: 'Broken apart and returned to the galaxy'

  17-08-2026 20:16 via space.com
  
  Astronomers have watched a dead star, in the guise of the Helix Nebula, being recycled back into the interstellar gas from which it originally came, bringing the story of that star full circle.Stars can last for millions, or even billions, of years, but they do not last forever. When a sun-like star reaches the end, it blossoms into a beautiful planetary nebula. The Helix Nebula, located 650 light-years away in the constellation of Aquarius, the Water Bearer, is one such example of a planetary n
  
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• The 1st 'Star Wars: Ahsoka' season 2 trailer finally gives us a release date (video)

  17-08-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  After a solid but often unfocused debut in 2023, Ahsoka season 2 has finally kicked off its marketing campaign with a stellar first trailer that promises higher stakes and a much bigger scale when it premieres on Disney Plus early next year.As part of the D23 2026 celebrations, Disney and Lucasfilm shared a first look at the long-in-the-works second season of the live-action show – set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens – on August 15. Moreover, we now have a premiere d
  
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• Scientists find 3 supermassive black holes on the verge of collision inside a distant galaxy

  17-08-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  A trio of heavyweight black holes are entangled in a dance of death that will quite possibly see them gradually all merge to form an even greater behemoth.Scientists have discovered the black holes in a galaxy that is so far away its light has taken 12.5 billion years to reach us, meaning we see it as it was less than 1.3 billion years after the Big Bang. And it's offering strong supporting evidence that one of the ways black holes grew so massive so quickly in the early universe was through mer
  
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• Wildfire smoke blankets volcanoes across the Pacific Northwest | Space photo of the day for Aug. 17, 2026

  17-08-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  (Image credit: NASA)Imagine orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth and seeing your home planet below — up in smoke.That was the reality recently for astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) who captured this image of the volcano Mount Rainier covered in smoke from nearby wildfires. What is it?This past July, hundreds of wildfires devastated a number of regions across Canada. But unfortunately, this was not the end of wildfires decimating North America this summer. Recently,
  
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• These eight Lego Star Wars Smart Play sets are out now and Marvel needs to be next.

  17-08-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  It's a good time to be a Lego Star Wars fan. Not only are there a bunch of Mandalorian movie tie-in sets to look forward to, but there are eight brand new sets out, as part of Lego's new Smart Play system. Aimed at kids, these new Smart Play sets are designed to make play more interactive than ever before by introducing light and sound effects without the need for app support. The key element of these Smart Play sets is an interactive, audio- and light-equipped Smart Brick. The Smart Brick respo
  
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• A 'river' of cosmic gas 1 trillion miles long sent planets in the Orion constellation into tilted orbits

  17-08-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  A rare planet-forming disk around a young triple-star system in the Orion constellation has been tipped over by a river of gas over 1 trillion miles (1.6 trillion kilometers) long. The discovery, made at radio wavelengths with ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile, could explain why astronomers keep finding planets with orbits that are drastically misaligned with the rotational axes of their stars.GW Orionis is a triple system consisting of three pre-main sequence stars
  
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• 'This is unprecedented': Why the Pentagon's recent UFO file releases are so important

  17-08-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  As "The X Files" famously told us, "the truth is out there." But at the same time, inquiring minds are immersed today in finding out whether or not the proof is out there — specifically, proof that at least some unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) come from somewhere beyond Earth.The UAP acronym originally stood for "unidentified aerial phenomena," a term that itself was a rebranding of "unidentified flying object" (UFO). And UFO was a replacement of sorts for the long-lasting and styli
  
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• Blue Origin adding second pad to Cape Canaveral launch complex amid rocket explosion repairs

  17-08-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  Blue Origin plans to return its Florida launch site to a dual-pad facility to support its bigger, more powerful New Glenn "9x4" rocket, which is still under development. As facility repairs continue following the explosion of one of Blue Origin's New Glenn "7x2" rockets during tests at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex-36 in May, the company has announced its intent to expand thesite with an additional pad. The company also plans to build operations infrastructure for the compl
  
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• How to watch 'Lanterns' — HBO's gritty new Green Lantern show

  17-08-2026 01:02 via space.com
  
  In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night… Come on, you know the rest! DC Comics' Green Lantern Corps. spans the infinite boundaries of the cosmos with its legion of 7,204 intergalactic space cops representing all races, genders, and biological entities patrolling thousands of Guardian sectors of the universe. The fabled interstellar law enforcement society based on the planet Oa, armed with the coolest oath ever recited, is getting its own gritty, grounded "Lanterns" TV series and fans are eag
  
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