Astronomy news

• Venus is disappearing from the evening sky — here's how to see it while you can

  05-09-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  Soon, the sky's most glamorous evening performer will take its leave. Since late March, Venus has been the unmistakable "Evening Star," gleaming shortly after sunset and stealing attention from nearly everything else in the twilight. In June, it helped stage a striking three-planet lineup after sundown, outshining both Jupiter and Mercury. Now the curtain is beginning to fall: Venus is sinking night by night and will trade its evening role for a morning one before October is over.A familiar danc
  
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• Watch Isar Aerospace try to make history today with launch from Norway

  05-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  No rocket has ever reached orbit from European soil — but that could change today.The German company Isar Aerospace plans to launch its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Space Center in northern Norway today (Sept. 5), during a window that opens at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT; 10 p.m. local time in Norway). You can watch the historic attempt live here at Space.com, courtesy of Isar, or directly via the company. Coverage will begin at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket on the
  
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• This Lego Star Wars UCS AT-ST set is cheaper than ever — I'll always love this chicken walker

  05-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  You can keep your space camels, the AT-ST is Star Wars' coolest land vehicle, and now this Lego Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series AT-ST is $39 off at Amazon, the cheapest this set has ever been. Save $39 on this Lego Star Wars UCS AT-ST at Amazon. Like the rest of Lego's Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series, this Lego Star Wars AT-ST is a seriously detailed model. It has some interactive features, including rotating guns and an opening hatch, but at 14.5 inches tall, this is very much a display
  
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• This Week In Space podcast: Episode 226 — Who Owns The Moon?

  05-09-2026 15:30 via space.com
  
  On Episode 226 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik are joined by Dr. Rainer Zitelmann to discuss the history of capitalism and how it applies to our future in space.Capitalism — and a strong profit motivation — has driven enterprise forcenturies. Two notable examples are the East India Company and the UStranscontinental railroad, and the various tycoons who built it. Inneither case, by today's standards, were the operations fair or ethicalon a number of fronts. Can we do
  
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• On this day in space! Sept. 5, 1977: NASA launches Voyager 1 on epic journey across the solar system

  05-09-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  On Sept. 5, 1977, Voyager 1 began its epic journey through deep space with a glorious morning launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.Voyager 1 initially launched on a mission to explore the outer planets. After flying by Jupiter and Saturn in 1979 and 1980, the spacecraft took a sharp turn and started heading straight out of the solar system.Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space in 2012, although scientists are still debating about exactly where that boundary lies.The sp
  
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• This NASA-funded 'Slingshot' spacecraft idea could map minerals on planets and moons across our solar system

  05-09-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  Nearby Earth, an iconic series of orbiting U.S. government satellites called Landsat have collectively been charting minerals and climate change for more than 50 years.What if we can do the same thing in space? A new NASA early-stage project, whimsically named "Interworld Slingshot Resource Surveys", aims to bring "Landsat-style mineral intelligence" to other worlds, including the moon. NASA is aiming to put a moon base on the lunar surface in the 2030s that would be staffed by astronauts, as th
  
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• Scientists detect signals of hydrogen from billions of years ago. Could this help us map out the universe?

  04-09-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  Astronomers have used the MeerKAT radio telescope to detect hydrogen gas billions of light-years away from us — from a period when the cosmos was billions of years younger than its current age of 13.8 billion years. The research may provide astronomers with a new way of mapping the large-scale structure of the universe. The technique would rely on charting out where hydrogen, the universe's lightest and most abundant element, is located across the cosmos. It's known as hydrogen intensity m
  
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• Trekkies honor 'Star Trek's' 60th birthday with fan events, special screenings, and a world record Vulcan salute

  04-09-2026 21:00 via space.com
  
  Creator Gene Roddenberry's "Wagon Train To The Stars," has certainly lived long and prospered since "Star Trek" first launched on the NBC Television Network on Sept. 8, 1966 with the hour-long debut episode titled "The Man Trap."Since then, this hopeful space fantasy franchise flourished and grew to encompass a total of 9 live-action series, 3 animated series, and 14 feature films across six decades, inspiring multiple generations with its adventurous spirit, enduring optimism, and thoughtful hu
  
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• Venus is becoming a thinner crescent — and that's when it finally starts making sense

  04-09-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  Venus is something of a frustration for stargazers. It's the brightest planet and the easiest to see, while the sight of it close to a crescent moon is one of the most achingly beautiful sights in the sky. Yet it gives almost nothing away. Mars has its reddish color. Saturn rewards even a small telescope with its spectacular rings. Jupiter has moons, belts and an obvious disk. Venus, meanwhile, spends months blazing away in twilight looking exactly like what people who do not stargaze assume a s
  
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• Stars forge and deliver the elements that make up your body — and scientists may finally know how

  04-09-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  Scientists are closer than ever before to understanding how stars forge the elements that comprise our planet, bodies and pretty much everything else around us — and they're gaining a clearer picture of where star explosions fit into the story. New research reported in two different papers looks at how stars forge elements as they explode and how these supernova explosions spread those elements — and other elements stars have forged during their lifetimes — throughout the cosmo
  
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• On this day in space! Sept. 4, 1962: NASA's Mariner 2 spacecrafts performs the 1st-ever maneuver in deep space so it could reach Venus

  04-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  On Sept. 4, 1962, NASA's Mariner 2 spacecraft performed the first-ever rocket maneuver in deep space as it did a quick mid-course correction on its way to Venus. It had launched just eight days earlier and needed to burn its engines to ensure that its trajectory would take it to Venus. The midcourse maneuver was necessary because the Atlas-Agena rocket that launched Mariner 2 didn't launch with enough accuracy to get the trajectory right in one shot. When it was about 1.5 million miles (2.4 mill
  
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• Hubble Telescope sees spectacular 'superbubble' | Space photo of the day for Sept. 4, 2026

  04-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  This nebula is named LHA 120-N44, or N44 for short, and it’s located in the constellation Dorado. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Gouliermis)About 160,000 light-years away lies one of our Milky Way's little galactic neighbors: The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). And thanks to a new observing program, the Hubble Space Telescope has provided us with an intricate image of a nebula in the LMC. The surprising part? There's a giant void at the center. Scientists call it a "superbubble."Wh
  
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• We played 'Exodus', a sci-fi RPG that should please 'Mass Effect' fans, even if you can't romance the talking octopus

  04-09-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  Exodus' journey so far has been quite transparent, with publisher Wizards of the Coast and developer Archetype Entertainment giving us a surprising number of updates and looks at the sci-fi action RPG over the years. Now, at Gamescom 2026, they've finally given us the release date and a striking hands-on demo.I was able to play a 50-minute demo that takes protagonist Jun Aslan (who you can customize Commander Shepard-style) and their companions to Khonsu, a huge orbital space platform above the
  
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• How did the infant sun form? Scientists get surprising new insights from 4.6-billion-year-old space dust

  04-09-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  New research suggests that dust from meteorites contains a "fossil record" dating back to the formation of the sun. The research reveals that magnetism played a far greater role in the birth of the solar system than had previously been suspected.Around 4.6 billion years ago, the solar system was a cloud of gas and dust, known as a solar nebula. Over the next few million years, this cloud began to flatten, forming a donut-shaped ring or torus with a budding star gathering mass at its core. Eventu
  
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• Scientists watch a comet being born 3 billion miles away

  04-09-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  Astronomers have witnessed a small, icy body that orbits the sun out beyond Jupiter transforming into a comet, providing a missing link between comets and inert bodies called centaurs.The object in question is called 450P/LONEOS and is named after the Lowell Observatory survey that found it back in 2004. It is a centaur, which is a breed of inactive body that orbits the sun between Jupiter and Neptune. These objects are thought to have wandered in from the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto, their paths p
  
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• 'Alien: Isolation 2': Facing a ruthless and evolved Xenomorph in our Gamescom hands-on preview

  03-09-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  It's hard to downplay excitement for Alien: Isolation 2 after a first menacing teaser and promising early previews. Alien video games are in a good spot right now thanks to bangers like Aliens Dark Descent and Fireteam Elite 2, but nothing has hit quite like Creative Assembly's 2014 survival horror classic. Now, after a thrilling Gamescom hands-on demo, it looks like the studio has nailed it once again, bringing Xenomorph-shaped scares to the next generation. At least that's what its breezy prol
  
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• 2 spacecraft will soon reach Mercury after 8 years in space. Here's what BepiColombo can do

  03-09-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  Mercury, the tiniest and least-explored planet in the inner solar system, is hiding mysteries far larger than itself — and finally, scientists will soon be getting not one but two spacecraft designed to decode the strange world.That's thanks to the BepiColombo mission, a joint project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that launched in October 2018. After a harrowing journey through the inner solar system, the mission is tackling a crucial mane
  
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• 'Strange New Worlds'' latest episode is a soap opera spoof, but hasn't 'Star Trek' always been a soap opera in space anyway?

  03-09-2026 19:00 via space.com
  
  "Strange New Worlds"' fourth season has doubled down on the show's long-established penchant for seeking out new genres beyond "Trek"'s traditional frontiers. So far the Enterprise has encountered Martians, hangovers and Muppets, and now its latest mission, "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass", has made a detour into full-on soap opera territory. Thanks to the meddling of Q junior Trelane (Rhys Darby), the ship's lighting is slightly off, day-to-day operations are punctuated by ad breaks, and
  
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• 'Strange New Worlds'' latest episode is a soap opera spoof, but hasn't 'Star Trek' always been a soap opera in space?

  03-09-2026 19:00 via space.com
  
  "Strange New Worlds"' fourth season has doubled down on the show's long-established penchant for seeking out new genres beyond "Trek"'s traditional frontiers. So far the Enterprise has encountered Martians, hangovers and Muppets, and now its latest mission, "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass", has made a detour into full-on soap opera territory. Thanks to the meddling of Q junior Trelane (Rhys Darby), the ship's lighting is slightly off, day-to-day operations are punctuated by ad breaks, and
  
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• 'A new mission starting today': 8 years after launch, BepiColombo begins Mercury arrival

  03-09-2026 18:25 via space.com
  
  After nearly eight years traveling through the inner solar system, the trailblazing BepiColombo spacecraft has finally begun its arrival at Mercury.The joint European Space Agency (ESA)-Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission reached a major milestone today (Sep. 3), entering its arrival phase at one of our sun's least-studied planets. BepiColombo's Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), the main power and propulsion system that has ferried a dual stack of planetary probes through space for
  
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• Comet McNaught put on a surprise show this summer: Here's how to spot it before it fades

  03-09-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  Comet 220P/McNaught has already put on an unexpectedly impressive show this summer as two dramatic outbursts of activity caused it to shine 20,000 times brighter than usual. Here's how you can spot the icy interloper before it fades in the coming weeks.Comet 220P/McNaught orbits the sun once every 5.5-years. It reached perihelion — its closest point to the sun — on June 14. Solar heating typically increases cometary activity by causing volatile ices to turn directly into gas, releasi
  
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• On this day in space! Sept. 3, 2006: Europe's SMART-1 spacecraft crashes into the moon in lunar death dive

  03-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  On Sept. 3, 2006, a European satellite named SMART-1 crashed into the moon! This wasn't actually as disastrous as it sounds, because the spacecraft did it on purpose.SMART-1 launched in 2003 and was the first European spacecraft to go to the moon. It was also the first mission of a program called Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology, which was a series of low-cost spacecraft that the European Space Agency launched to test new spaceflight technologies.SMART-1's primary objective was
  
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• Mesmerizing plasma loops on the sun | Space photo of the day for Sept. 3, 2026

  03-09-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  Astrophotographer Mark Johnston captured the sun in remarkable detail from his backyard in Arizona. (Image credit: Mark Johnston)A spectacular series of glowing plasma loops arcs above the sun in this remarkable view captured from an astrophotographer's backyard. What is it? This image is a still from a high-resolution timelapse captured by astrophotographer Mark Johnston from Scottsdale, Arizona on Aug. 21, 2026. The footage shows a coronal loop arcade — a series of arching loops of hot p
  
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• Watch India launch its 1st geosynchronous Earth-imaging satellite today

  03-09-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  India plans to notch a spaceflight milestone today (Sept. 3), and you can watch the action live.A GSLV Mark II rocket is scheduled to launch an Earth-imaging satellite toward geosynchronous orbit — something India has never done successfully — from Satish Dhawan Space Centre today at 5:25 p.m. EDT (2:55 a.m. on Sept. 4 India Standard Time).You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of the Indian Space Research Organisation, or directly via ISRO. Coverage will start 30 minutes
  
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• India sends Earth-imaging satellite toward geosynchronous orbit in milestone launch (video)

  03-09-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  India notched a spaceflight milestone today (Sept. 3).A GSLV Mark II rocket launched an Earth-imaging satellite toward geosynchronous orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre today at 5:25 p.m. EDT (2:55 a.m. on Sept. 4 India Standard Time).The GSLV deployed the satellite, called EOS-05, into sub-geosynchronous transfer orbit about 18 minutes later as planned. The success marked a first for India, which had never hit that mark with an Earth-observing satellite before.An Indian GSLV Mark II rocket l
  
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• India launches geosynchronous Earth-imaging satellite to orbit (video)

  03-09-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  India plans to notch a spaceflight milestone today (Sept. 3), and you can watch the action live.A GSLV Mark II rocket is scheduled to launch an Earth-imaging satellite toward geosynchronous orbit — something India has never done successfully — from Satish Dhawan Space Centre today at 5:25 p.m. EDT (2:55 a.m. on Sept. 4 India Standard Time).You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of the Indian Space Research Organisation, or directly via ISRO. Coverage will start 30 minutes
  
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• Rocket issues delay 1st-ever private mission to Venus: 'We are awaiting Neutron readiness'

  03-09-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  The future of a privately backed robotic mission Venus seems about as cloudy as the planet itself at the moment.Scientists based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working with the California-based company Rocket Lab to search for possible signs of life on Venus. The first step in that program is the Rocket Lab Mission to Venus, which will deploy a small, nose cone-like probe crafted to sample the Venusian atmosphere using a device called an autofluorescence nephelometer (AFN
  
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• Astronomers discover mysterious 10-sided cloud structure at Saturn's south pole

  02-09-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  A mysterious giant 10-sided pattern of clouds has recently formed around Saturn's south pole, a new study finds.This newfound "decagon" joins the bizarre colossal hexagon seen for decades at Saturn's north pole. Saturn's hexagon — a cloud pattern about 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) wide — was first discovered in 1988 by scientists reviewing data from NASA's Voyager flybys of Saturn in 1980 and 1981. Despite decades of observations, no similar structure was seen anywhere else on Sa
  
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• China's private, reusable Pallas-1 rocket aces debut launch (video)

  02-09-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  Another reusable Chinese rocket has taken to the skies.Pallas-1, a launcher developed by the Beijing-based company Galactic Energy, flew for the first time ever on Monday (Aug. 31), lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 10 p.m. EDT (0200 GMT and 10 a.m. Beijing time on Sept. 1).Everything went well on the mission, according to Galactic Energy.Galactic Energy's Pallas-1 rocket launches for the first time ever, on Aug. 31, 2026. (Image credit: CCTV)"The rocket
  
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• This was always the way: 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' is finally on Disney+

  02-09-2026 21:00 via space.com
  
  Famed author Thomas Wolfe coined the phrase "You Can’t Go Home Again" with the title of his classic 1940 novel, and while that actually might be true in some cases, "The Mandalorian and Grogu" gets its homecoming as it arrives on Disney+ for fans today, Sept. 2, 2026.Honestly, this is probably where the $166 million "The Mandalorian"spinoff movie should have premiered in the first place, but Disney decided to test the big screen waters with its charismatic clansman and Baby Yoda. Sadly, it
  
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