Astronomy news

• 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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• Rocket Lab protests NASA's decision to award Blue Origin $700 million Mars orbiter contract

  12-09-2026 00:06 via space.com
  
  Rocket Lab still holds out hope that it can build NASA's next Mars orbiter.The agency picked Blue Origin for that job earlier this month, awarding Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company $700 million to develop, launch and operate the Mars Telecommunications Network (MTN).Today (Sept. 11), however, Rocket Lab announced that it has challenged that decision, filing a formal protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO).Rocket Lab has filed a formal protest with the Government Accountability Offi
  
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• I've chased the 'false dawn' for years — this is the week to find and photograph it

  11-09-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  Some stargazing feels like you know exactly what you are looking for, but you're still slightly unsure whether you are actually seeing it. Zodiacal light — meaning "light from the circle of animals" — is often like that.I have chased this so-called "false dawn" for years, and the first few minutes are always the same. I stare toward the horizon and wonder whether the sky is genuinely brighter there, or whether I am simply seeing distant light pollution, the first hint of morning twil
  
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• A star is exploding 45 million light-years away — here's how you can see it

  11-09-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  An extraordinary exploding star has been spotted in a distant galaxy, and astrophotographers are racing to capture it before it fades from view.The supernova, called SN 2026aaiv, was first seen by the ATLAS survey on Sept. 1 in NGC 7331 (also known as Caldwell 30), a spiral galaxy about 45 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus, visible in the Northern Hemisphere and at mid-latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere.That makes this supernova a prime target for amateur astrophotographers
  
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• Rocket Lab launches mystery satellite to orbit for secret customer (photo)

  11-09-2026 21:00 via space.com
  
  Rocket Lab just launched a mystery mission to orbit.An Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Thursday (Sept. 10) at 11:28 p.m. EDT (0328 GMT and 3:28 p.m. local New Zealand time on Sept. 11).The launched kicked off a mission the company called "Happily Ever Faster," which we know little about.'Happily Ever Faster' to orbit 🌌✨ Today we launched our 95th Electron at 3:28 pm NZST and deployed a single Earth observation satellite to a 500km LEO for a confide
  
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• Stream every single Star Trek show from anywhere, and save up to 75% with this VPN deal

  11-09-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  The Star Trek franchise has hit the ripe old age of 60 this week. September 8 is the official 'Star Trek Day' and marks the anniversary of the 'Original Series', which first broadcast in 1966. For fans of all things Star Trek, Paramount+ is the place to be with all seasons of the 'Original Series', plus the new series 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds', which is currently in Season 4 and hits its exciting finale on September 24.If you travel regularly, a regional lock can cut off your Paramount+ su
  
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• The sun may once have swallowed a super-Earth planet and could still be hiding the evidence

  11-09-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  Our star and primary energy source that makes life on this planet possible may also be a cosmic cannibal. That's according to new research that suggests the sun may have swallowed a super-Earth planet billions of years ago in its early history. And our star may still be hiding the evidence.The scientists behind this research think that the fingerprints of this violent consumption of a planet may still exist within the solar interior. Super-Earths are common occupants of other planetary systems,
  
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• 60 years of Star Trek uniforms: Looking back at the everchanging wardrobe of Starfleet

  11-09-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  To boldly dress as no one has dressed before… In another universe, that could have been the "Star Trek" mission statement. Sure, the veteran franchise has spent much of its 60-year lifetime seeking out new life and new civilisations, but it's also been preoccupied with keeping crews fashionable as they explore the final frontier. It seems that nobody wants to make first contact sporting last year's jumpsuit. The sheer volume of uniforms worn on Federation duty is mind-boggling, as Starfle
  
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• Wavy alien dune fields stretch across Mars | Space photo of the day for Sept. 11, 2026

  11-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  A dune field on Mars, as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)Are those purple, wavy, alien thumbprints? Or perhaps an otherworldly ocean? Nope! It's actually a dune field on Mars, colored purple.What is it?Across the Martian surface are all sorts of unique features in the rocky, dusty surface material. In this false-color image, snapped by the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  
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• On this day in space! Sept. 11, 1985: The International Cometary Explorer makes 1st comet flyby in history for NASA and Europe

  11-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  On Sept. 11, 1985, the International Cometary Explorer, or "ICE," became the first spacecraft to fly by a comet. Originally launched as the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 in 1978, ICE was one of three spacecraft built for the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE) program, a joint effort by NASA, the European Space Research Organization and the European Space Agency. The program's purpose was to study space weather, or the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind. A
  
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• 2 private spacecraft zoom within 650 feet of each other to showcase 'advanced capabilities' in orbit (photos)

  11-09-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  A pair of private spacecraft just showed off some impressive maneuverability high above Earth.The two probes — Mira satellites operated by the California startup Impulse Space — zoomed within 650 feet (200 meters) of each other in low Earth orbit (LEO) recently. The rendezvous demonstrated skills that could be useful to a variety of customers down the road, according to the company."These types of dynamic, agile maneuvers are how we unlock full access to space after launch and create
  
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• 25 years ago, a NASA astronaut witnessed the tragic 9/11 attacks from space. Here's what he saw.

  11-09-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  Frank Culbertson had a birds-eye view of one of the most memorable and tragic events in American history.The NASA astronaut was the only American off of Earth on Sept. 11, 2001. He was circling the planet aboard the International Space Station (ISS) when terrorists flew commercial jets into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing more than 2,700 people.The ISS passed over New York shortly after the attacks took place, so Culbertson saw the devastation from an eerie re
  
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• 'I take the compact Nikon Stabilized 12x25 binoculars with me everywhere' — they now have $73 off, the best we've seen this year

  11-09-2026 13:00 via space.com
  
  Jase Parnell-Brookes has reviewed a huge range of skywatching optics, including the best telescopes, binoculars and image-stabilized binoculars. As our trusted authority and expert tester, when they recommend a product and you're in the market for it, their opinions and recommendations are worth paying attention to.In their Nikon Stabilized 12x25 binoculars review, Jase reckoned they were without doubt the best compact image-stabilized (IS) binoculars they had ever tested. Right now they have $7
  
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• Scientists discover mysterious new X-ray objects 'unlike any they have seen before'

  11-09-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has found a brand new type of an otherwise familiar object – compact binary systems that steal gas from other stars, but which do so while emitting very low-energy X-rays but copious amounts of ultraviolet.Chandra spotted 84 suspicious object emitting very low-energy X-rays in six galaxies – four evolved ellipticals and two spirals, namely our near-neighbor the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)."We've never encountered a group of o
  
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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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• 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 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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