Did you know that sunsets on Mars are blue? It sounds backwards for a planet named for its rusty red color, but it comes down to how sunlight scatters through Mars’ thin, dusty atmosphere: fine dust particles scatter red light... Continue Reading →
The Moon is practically on our doorstep, and yet, after decades of orbital missions and Apollo sample returns, we still don't have a complete chemical map of its surface. A new study published in Earth, Planets and Space proposes an... Continue Reading →
Today's NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day features the Vela Supernova Remnant — a vast tangle of glowing filaments left by a star that exploded 12,000 years ago, just 800 light-years from Earth. At its heart, a pulsar spins ten times per second.
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 22, 2026 stopped me in my tracks. It shows a glowing ring of ionized gas floating in the constellation Cygnus, sculpted over thousands of years by one of the most extreme stars... Continue Reading →
Astronomers have just given us the sharpest picture yet of the universe's vast, invisible architecture and it's breathtaking. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers at the University of California, Riverside have produced the most detailed map ever made... Continue Reading →
The NASA New Horizons spacecraft’s extensive observations of Lyman-alpha emissions have resulted in the first-ever map from the galaxy at this important ultraviolet wavelength, providing a new look at the galactic region surrounding our solar system. The findings are described... Continue Reading →
A new study in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society by researchers including István Szapudi of the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy suggests the universe may rotate—just extremely slowly. The finding could help solve one of astronomy’s biggest puzzles. “To paraphrase the... Continue Reading →
Firefly Aerospace's robotic Blue Ghost lander is scheduled to land on the moon on Sunday no earlier than 3:34 a.m. EST (0834 GMT) when it touches down on the vast Sea of Crises (or Mare Crisium). Watch it live here: https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/firefly-blue-ghost-mission-1-lunar-landing/ The $93.3 million Blue... Continue Reading →
Beautiful and bright spiral galaxy M83 lies a some twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. Prominent spiral arms traced by dark dust lanes and blue star clusters lend this galaxy its popular name, The Southern... Continue Reading →