Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

May 31, 2021

How to watch the 'ring of fire' solar eclipse on Thursday

In the first solar eclipse of the year, the moon will almost entirely block the sun, leaving only a fiery ring of Earth's star visible Thursday (June 10) morning. Skygazers in just a few places — in parts of Canada, Greenland and northern Russia — will be able to spot...

May 31, 2021

How to watch 'ring of fire' solar eclipse live or online

The moon will blot out part of the sun during the ring of fire solar eclipse on Thursday (June 10) morning. But, no one should simply gaze upward at a solar eclipse (unless the sun is completely covered by the moon during totality, which is NOT happening this time). So,...

May 31, 2021

What is the Milky Way?

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, one of hundreds of billions in the observable universe. It's also our home. Like other galaxies, the Milky Way is an isolated collection of stars and other material bound together by their common gravity. In addition to the 100 billion to 400...

May 31, 2021

100,000 star nurseries mapped in first-of-its-kind survey

Stellar nurseries, the cauldrons of gas and dust where stars are forged, are far more diverse than astronomers first thought, according to a new, first-of-its kind survey. Astronomers at the Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) project have systematically charted more than 100,000 nurseries across 90 galaxies,...

May 31, 2021

Giant ghostly 'hand' stretches through space in new X-ray views

An enormous ghostly hand stretches through the depths of space, its wispy fingers pressing against a glowing cloud. It sounds like science fiction, but it's quite real, as imagery gathered by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows. The hand was spawned by the death of a massive star in a supernova...

Apr 30, 2021

China's Yutu 2 rover about to 'wake up' on the far side of the moon

China's plucky Yutu 2 rover is about to wake up and continue to explore the far side of the moon as the nation works to land a rover on Mars this May. The rover, which launched with the Chang’e 4 mission, landed on the far side of the moon in...

Apr 30, 2021

Some of the universe's stars have gone missing. But where did they go?

Stars don't just vanish — or do they? For thousands of years, astronomers accepted the idea that the lights in the sky were fixed and unchanging. Even when it became clear that these lights were actually physical objects like the sun, one of the key assumptions for astrophysicists has been...

Apr 30, 2021

How to watch the Super Flower Blood Moon Eclipse online

Want to see the Super Flower Blood Moon Eclipse, but don't have an ideal viewing spot? Perhaps you're dealing with cloudy weather, or maybe you're located in a place that doesn't fall along the lunar eclipse's path. Worry not, you can still catch the total lunar eclipse online. Here's a...

Mar 31, 2021

How long would it take to walk around the moon?

From our vantage point on Earth, the moon looks small. But if you were to hop in a spaceship, don a spacesuit and go on an epic lunar hike, how long would it take to walk all the way around it? The answer depends on myriad factors, including how fast...

Mar 31, 2021

Russia is going back to the moon this year

Russia is revisiting its Soviet space heritage for a new series of missions that will take the nation back to the moon. The first of those missions, dubbed Luna 25, is scheduled to launch this October, ending a 45-year drought of Russian moon landings with the nation's first arrival at...

Mar 31, 2021

7 solar system worlds where the weather is crazy

Our solar system is home to some weird and wonderful weather, with storms more terrifying in scale than anything in Earth's recorded history. From centuries-old hurricanes on Jupiter to immense winds on Neptune, if you leave Earth you'll be shocked by what you find. On Mars you will find immense...

Feb 28, 2021

Catch March's full supermoon Worm Moon this Sunday

March's full moon — by some accounts a supermoon — will dazzle skywatchers this Sunday (March 28), as spring's warm weather invites more people to venture outside to gaze upward. The full moon lasts just an instant, but dedicated moon watchers can catch it at 2:48 p.m. EDT (18:48 UTC)...

Jan 31, 2021

Welcome to Mars! UAE's Hope probe enters orbit around Red Planet.

After a nail-biting 27 minutes, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) first-ever interplanetary mission has successfully reached orbit around Mars. The spacecraft, dubbed Hope, launched July 19, 2020, atop a Japanese H-IIA rocket, then spent seven months trekking to the Red Planet. Today (Feb. 9), Hope needed to fire its thrusters...

Jan 31, 2021

What is the cosmological constant?

The cosmological constant is presumably an enigmatic form of matter or energy that acts in opposition to gravity and is considered by many physicists to be equivalent to dark energy. Nobody really knows what the cosmological constant is exactly, but it is required in cosmological equations in order to reconcile...

Jan 31, 2021

Perseverance beams back first images of Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover just landed on the Martian surface, and it has already sent home its first two images. The rover landed on the Red Planet on Thursday (Feb. 18) after an unfathomably fast plunge through the atmosphere, followed by a rapid deceleration thanks to a never-before used skycrane. The...