Astronomy news

• LINK spacecraft gets close to NASA's Swift Observatory, but not close enough to save it

  10-09-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  LINK, the satellite sent to boost the orbit of NASA's Swift Observatory, may have had to give up on its mission, but LINK's manufacturer and operator Katalyst Space hasn't completely abandoned the spacecraft to its cosmic demise.NASA called off LINK's mission to rendezvous with its Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory when the specialized probe encountered a thruster control issue. LINK was delivered to orbit on July 3, aboard an air-launched Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, but began to spin uncon
  
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• The Summer Triangle — 3 stars, 1 seasonal mystery

  10-09-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  On clear September evenings, I often find myself looking up just after dusk, expecting the sky to feel a little less like summer. Yet there, still commanding the overhead darkness, are Vega, Altair, and Deneb — the three brilliant stars of the famous Summer Triangle. Their familiar pattern can make the season feel as though it is lingering above us, even as cooler nights and earlier sunsets suggest otherwise. In fact, even as late as mid-November, the Triangle is still nearly overhead soon
  
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• On this day in space! Sept. 10, 2011: NASA launches GRAIL probes to the moon to map lumpy lunar gravity

  10-09-2026 20:01 via space.com
  
  On Sept. 10, 2011, NASA's GRAIL spacecraft launched on a mission to the moon! GRAIL, which stands for Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, was sent to the moon to map its gravitational fields. Scientists could study the moon's interior structure by looking at maps of the moon's gravity. Asteroid impacts from billions of years ago left dense pockets of material under the lunar surface, which can exert extra gravitational pull on spacecraft orbiting the moon. So by measuring that gravitationa
  
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• Scientists study 3,000 supernovas and discover that dark energy may be evolving

  10-09-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  A catalog of almost 3,000 white dwarfs that exploded as type Ia supernovas after overfeeding on companion stars indicates that dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the expansion of the universe, is changing over time.The discovery, in conjunction with data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), backs results revealed from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) published in 2024 that suggested dark energy's influence is weakening. That means that the team's research doesn't just in
  
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• The next 'Star Trek' movie will be inspired by 'Crimson Tide', and 'Strange New Worlds' latest episode just showed them how to do it

  10-09-2026 17:15 via space.com
  
  During the recent press rounds for Apple TV's Ryan Reynolds/Kenneth Branagh vehicle "Mayday", writer/director duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley talked about their plans for the next "Star Trek" movie. As well as confirming their story will feature an all-new crew, they mentioned that the in-development project will be inspired by a pair of hit films from the '90s and '00s, both of which — coincidentally — feature Denzel Washington operating at very different ends of the m
  
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• Mercury is shrinking faster than we thought. What's going on inside of it?

  10-09-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  Wrinkles on the surface of Mercury have revealed that the closest planet to the sun is shrinking faster than scientists thought.New research suggests that Mercury is shrinking between 10% and 30% faster than had been previously estimated. The team behind this research calculated that the planet has lost nearly 12 miles (19 kilometers) of its total diameter since it formed. The researchers think that the extremity of this shrinking has gone unnoticed previously because bombardment from space rock
  
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• Iconic Star Trek filming location spotted from space | Space photo of the day for Sept. 10, 2026

  10-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  This new satellite image shows Vasquez Rocks in southern California, where Captain Kirk once faced off against the Gorn.(Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison/CBS via Getty Images)Decades ago, Captain Kirk faced off against the Gorn on the uncharted desert planet Metron.But as we can see in new satellite imagery from NASA, that mysterious rocky world can actually be found right here on Earth in California. What is it?In this new image captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI)
  
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• What comes after the moon? Artemis II commander and pilot shift to 'emeritus' status at NASA

  10-09-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  Three of NASA's Artemis II astronauts are starting off the school year with new assignments.Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman and pilot Victor Glover, both NASA astronauts, will transition into "emeritus status" in September, the space agency announced on Wednesday (Sept. 9). Meanwhile, Canadian mission specialist Jeremy Hansen shared a video on X on Tuesday (Sept. 8) concerning his already-announced transfer from active duty to reserve status in the Canadian military. The fourth Artemis II astr
  
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• Strange 'fast radio bursts' across the universe could help solve major cosmic mysteries: 'It's only the beginning'

  10-09-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  Though their origins may be shrouded in mystery, fast radio bursts (FRBs) could be used to probe some of the universe's biggest puzzles. This includes probing the nature of dark matter, the invisible sort of matter that somehow dominates the universe, and dark energy, the mysterious force causing the expansion of our universe to accelerate. They could even shed light on the mysteries of neutrinos, or "ghost particles." Let's dive into how.FRBs are brief but intense blasts of radio waves currentl
  
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• Watch SpaceX launch classified mission for the US Space Force today

  10-09-2026 06:05 via space.com
  
  SpaceX will launch a secret mission for the U.S. Space Force today (Sept. 10), and you can watch the action live.A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base today during a three-hour window that opens at 11:37 a.m. EDT (1537 GMT; 8:37 a.m. local time), kicking off a mission called USSF-153.You can watch live via SpaceX, starting about 10 minutes before launch. USSF-153 is a classified mission, so little is known about its payloads — what they ar
  
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• SpaceX launches classified mission for the US Space Force from California (video)

  10-09-2026 06:05 via space.com
  
  SpaceX launched a secret mission for the U.S. Space Force today (Sept. 10) from California's central coast.A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 11:42 a.m. EDT (1542 GMT; 8:42 a.m. local time), kicking off a mission called USSF-153.The rocket's first stage came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes later, landing in the Pacific Ocean atop the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You." It was the 27th flight for this particular booster, which is designated B1801. T
  
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• SpaceX launches classified mission for the US Space Force from California

  10-09-2026 06:05 via space.com
  
  SpaceX launched a secret mission for the U.S. Space Force today (Sept. 10) from California's central coast.A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 11:42 a.m. EDT (1542 GMT; 8:42 a.m. local time), kicking off a mission called USSF-153.The rocket's first stage came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes later, landing in the Pacific Ocean atop the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You." It was the 27th flight for this particular booster, which is designated B1801. T
  
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• This 'impossible' black hole merger may be explained by a warp in spacetime

  09-09-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  A "forbidden" merger between two massive black holes may not have been quite as impossible as previously thought. That's according to new research that suggests the black holes involved were smaller than expected.On Nov. 23, 2023, the gravitational wave detector LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detected tiny ripples in spacetime caused by the merger of two black holes. What was incredible about this signal, designated GW231123, was that it seemed to be the result of a b
  
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• International Space Station astronaut gives out of this world tribute to honor Star Trek’s 60th anniversary

  09-09-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  Celebrations of Star Trek's 60th anniversary made it all the way to the final frontier.Among the science and supplies delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) for European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot's mission on orbit was a small piece of memorabilia to honor one of the most influential pop culture phenomena that has continually called for humanity to turn its gaze to the stars. Adenot carried a small Starfleet badge from one of Star Trek's newest series, Strange New Wo
  
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• Astronomers discover two stars that joined together to form a binary system just 60 years ago

  09-09-2026 21:00 via space.com
  
  Using the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) radio telescope, astronomers have watched as two stars come together to form a massive stellar binary. The observations revealed that these stars didn't form from the same collapsing cloud of gas and dust, as most binary stars are assumed to form, but instead came together later in their infancy. Here on Earth, we are slightly prejudiced by our single sun to view stars as somewhat solitary bodies. However, around half of sun-sized sta
  
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• NASA's newly launched Roman Space Telescope will 'directly' image exoplanets. But what does that mean?

  09-09-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  A brand new observatory began its tenure on Aug. 30 — it's called the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and it's equipped with a high-tech tool that can directly photograph planets beyond our solar system.The tool is called a coronagraph; in simple terms, a coronagraph is a device that can be affixed to a telescope and block out the light of a star the telescope is looking at to study features around that star. Without such a device, starlight can be so overpowering that it outshines deta
  
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• We're about to exceed 1.5-degree global warming limit, according to the UN

  09-09-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  Global warming will soon cross a critical threshold, surpassing a dangerous limit set years ago, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has found. But experts say it's still possible to cool things back down, emphasizing that the stakes are too high to stop trying. In 2015, 196 nations and territories signed the Paris Agreement, pledging to restrict the average rise of global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Ideally, the rise
  
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• US military practices orbital dogfighting in 1st-ever 'live fly' exercise in space

  09-09-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  United States Space Command just held its first-ever "Apollo Maneuvers" exercise, which saw spacecraft maneuvering through simulated contested environments.U.S. Space Command combines assets and personnel from each U.S. military branch (including the U.S. Space Force) to project American military power into and from orbit. It's unclear which or how many satellites or spacecraft took place in Space Command's recent Apollo Maneuvers 2026, but the exercise involved international partners, according
  
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• On this day in space! Sept. 9, 1982: The 1st private rocket, called Conestoga 1, launches from a Texas cattle ranch

  09-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  On Sept. 9, 1982, the first private rocket launched from a Texas cattle ranch.The Conestoga 1 rocket was designed by Space Services Inc. of America (SSIA) and built from spare parts of other rockets. It was named after a type of covered wagon that used to transport American settlers westward to the new frontier during the 19th century.The 36-foot rocket lifted off from a private launch facility on Matagorda Island, Texas and flew for 10-and-a-half minutes. It reached an altitude of 195 miles and
  
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• Indonesian volcanic eruption spotted from space | Space photo of the day for Sept. 9, 2026

  09-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  The Anak Krakatau volcano began erupting on Sept. 4, 2026, as seen here on Sept. 5 by the Landsat 8 satellite jointly operated between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison)A volcano on an Indonesian archipelago began erupting on Sept. 4, and satellites in orbit have been watching closely. What is it?The volcano Anak Krakatau started spitting out ash and lava on Sept. 4. On an archipelago between Sumatra and Java, the island volcano's s
  
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• A photon from the biggest cosmic explosion since the Big Bang appears to have defied Einstein. Scientists may finally know how

  09-09-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  A photon, or particle of light, from the biggest cosmic explosion since the Big Bang, nicknamed "the BOAT" (for the brightest of all time), should not have reached Earth. That is, unless it defied rules defined by Einstein. Now scientists may know how it did this, with new research suggesting how the high-energy photon may have survived a journey of more than two billion light-years without being absorbed.The BOAT, a gamma-ray burst officially designated GRB 221009A, was first detected on Oct. 9
  
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• Now 40% off, it's your last chance to grab this retired Lego Marvel Baby Rocket Raccoon's Ship, including the most adorable Lego figure ever

  09-09-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  Disney's Marvel movies have had their ups and downs, but James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy has never missed. Now, thanks to this deal, you can get 40% off this Lego version of Baby Rocket Raccoon's Ship, as seen in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.However, you'll have to hurry as this set has been retired by Lego and is selling fast.Get the retired set of Lego Marvel Baby Rocket Raccoon's Ship, on sale for $21 at Walmart.Put together this 330-piece set and you have a blocky replica of t
  
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• A ghostly pyramid of light is about to appear before dawn — here's how to see it

  09-09-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  Starting today (Sept. 9), skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere have a chance to spot one of the night sky's more elusive sights: the zodiacal light.Zodiacal light is a faint, pyramid-shaped glow rising in the east before morning twilight. It is caused by sunlight reflecting off interplanetary dust.The phenomenon is sometimes nicknamed the "false dawn" because its soft glow can be mistaken for the signs of morning twilight. Unlike dawn, however, the zodiacal light appears as a distinct cone or
  
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• China on track to launch Mars sample-return mission in 2028: 'If accurate, this represents a Sputnik moment'

  09-09-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  China is making progress on its Tianwen 3 Mars sample return mission, which aims to bring back to Earth roughly 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of Red Planet collectibles in 2031. According to the China National Space Administration, the Tianwen 3 mission will have a lander, an ascender, a service capsule, an orbiter and an Earth reentry module. If all goes to plan, Tianwen 3 will launch in 2028 on two Long March 5 heavy-lift rockets from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the island of Hainan, China's s
  
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• Did Venus eat its own moon?

  08-09-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  Scientists may finally know why Venus, Earth's twin, lacks a moon, finding that the hottest planet in the solar system may have consumed its own natural satellite. Venus is often referred to as Earth's twin due to its size, mass, rocky composition, and distance from the sun, but there are some glaring differences between the two planets. Aside from Venus' blisteringly hot temperature, which could melt lead, incredible surface pressure, violent high-speed winds, and clouds of sulfuric acid, one o
  
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• Stoke Space raises $1 billion for fully reusable rockets, targets 'early 2027' for 1st-ever launch

  08-09-2026 21:23 via space.com
  
  Stoke Space has amassed a substantial sum during its latest round of financing and is revealing exactly where it plans to invest its new stack of cash. The Kent, Washington-based company just raised$1 billion via its"Series E" capital campaign, bringing Stoke’s total investor haul to $2.3 billion. The Sept. 8 announcement provided a development update for Stoke’s fully reusable Nova Pathfinder launch vehicle and included plans for its never-before-seen Nova Block 2 rocket, a more pow
  
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• 'Star Trek' imagined strange new worlds 60 years ago, but real exoplanets are even stranger

  08-09-2026 21:00 via space.com
  
  September 8th, 1966 was a Thursday. Not a fresh-start-Monday or an exciting Saturday. A regular old Thursday; except that this one catalysed a cultural phenomenon. This was the Thursday that "Star Trek" was first broadcast, drawing viewers across the United States into a space-age world that revolutionised television. The thing is, in 1966 no exoplanets (planets beyond our Solar System) had actually been discovered. Yet the franchise gave audiences a galaxy brimming with desert planets, ocean wo
  
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• 'Star Trek' imagined strange new worlds 60 years ago, but are real exoplanets even stranger?

  08-09-2026 21:00 via space.com
  
  September 8th, 1966 was a Thursday. Not a fresh-start-Monday or an exciting Saturday. A regular old Thursday; except that this one catalysed a cultural phenomenon. This was the Thursday that "Star Trek" was first broadcast, drawing viewers across the United States into a space-age world that revolutionised television. The thing is, in 1966 no exoplanets (planets beyond our Solar System) had actually been discovered. Yet the franchise gave audiences a galaxy brimming with desert planets, ocean wo
  
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• Astrophotographer captures jaw-dropping view of the Crescent Nebula

  08-09-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  The Crescent Nebula shines in the constellation Cygnus. (Image credit: Kevin Boardman)Astrophotographer Kevin Boardman captured this spectacular view of the Crescent Nebula, revealing intricate filaments of gas surrounding a massive star nearing the end of its life some 4,700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.Boardman's image represents a turbulent chapter in the life of the colossal Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163), which, visible as a blue point of light at the center of the
  
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• On this day in space! Sept. 8, 2004: NASA's Genesis spacecraft crashed in the Utah desert, shattering its samples of solar wind particles from the sun

  08-09-2026 19:17 via space.com
  
  On Sept. 8, 2004, NASA's Genesis spacecraft crash-landed in Utah after its parachutes failed to deploy. Genesis was NASA's first sample-return mission since the Apollo program, and the first attempt ever to bring back samples from someplace farther than the moon. The spacecraft picked up solar wind particles while orbiting the L1 Lagrange point, which is about 1 million miles from Earth. L1 is a "sweet spot" between the Earth and the sun, where the gravitational pull from both objects balances o
  
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