Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

May 31, 2023

2 planets will align with the 'Earth-shining' moon on the summer solstice. Here's how to watch.

The summer solstice on June 21 may be an important annual observance on Earth, but aside from the sun being its highest in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere, it's not typically a stargazing event. That changes in 2023 with the appearance in the solstice's evening twilight of Venus, Mars...

May 31, 2023

Get started with astronomy with this fantastic telescope bundle deal

Getting started with astronomy? This Amazon deal is perfect for you. Stargazing isn't an easy hobby to take up, partially because many of the best telescopes are so expensive. Thankfully, though, there are still plenty of the best telescope deals - and we've found a great one. Hexeum may not...

Apr 30, 2023

Scientists discover 62 new moons around Saturn, raising total to 145 — the most in the solar system

Jupiter's brief but glorious reign as the planet with the most moons in our solar system came crashing down this week as scientists confirmed the discovery of 62 new moons orbiting Saturn — bringing the ringed planet's total to a whopping 145 moons. That's a decisive leap ahead of Jupiter's...

Apr 30, 2023

Mysterious, ultra low-frequency noises detected in Earth's atmosphere — and scientists can't explain them

Solar-powered balloons launched into the Earth's stratosphere have recorded a series of mysterious rumblings, and scientists can't pinpoint their origins. The noises, detected by specialized instruments at 70,000 feet above the Earth's surface, are known as infrasound because they are so low-pitched they are inaudible to human ears. Picked out...

Apr 30, 2023

New 'quasi-moon' discovered near Earth has been traveling alongside our planet since 100 BC

Scientists recently discovered an asteroid that tags along with Earth during its yearly journey around the sun. Dubbed 2023 FW13, the space rock is considered a quasi-moon or quasi-satellite, meaning it orbits the sun in a similar time frame as Earth does, but is only slightly influenced by our planet’s...

Mar 31, 2023

Rare red asteroids around Neptune could reveal the secrets of the early solar system

Neptune is famously a vivid blue, but the asteroids orbiting near it are decidedly not. An international team of astronomers recently took a peek at Neptune's Trojan asteroids and found that they all seem to be some shade of red — far redder than most asteroids in the solar system....

Mar 31, 2023

'Hidden' rings of Uranus revealed in dazzling new James Webb telescope images

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have zoomed in on the faint and dusty rings around Uranus — and they are magnificent. Located near the frigid edge of the solar system an average of 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from the sun, Uranus is not often thought...

Feb 28, 2023

1st evidence of recent volcanic activity on Venus detected in groundbreaking study

Planetary scientists have found groundbreaking evidence of recent volcanic activity on Venus. Archives from NASA's Magellan mission show telltale signs that Maat Mons, a 5-mile-high (8 kilometers) volcano on Earth's hellish twin, was active in 1991. Magellan, launched in May 1989, was the first spacecraft to map the entire surface...

Feb 28, 2023

The universe might be shaped like a doughnut, not like a pancake, new research suggests

The universe could, in fact, be a giant doughnut, despite all of the evidence suggesting it's as flat as a pancake, new research suggests. Strange patterns found in echoes of the Big Bang could be explained by a universe with a more complicated shape, and astronomers have not fully tested...

Jan 31, 2023

'1-in-10-billion' star system is doomed to explode in a fiery kilonova

For the first time, scientists have discovered a double-star system that is doomed to explode in a fiery kilonova, a precious-metal-creating blast caused by the merger of two stellar corpses. The kilonova — which will send gold, silver, platinum and other new heavy elements careening into space — won't happen...

Jan 31, 2023

Enormous 'polar vortex' on the sun is unprecedented, scientists say

On Feb. 2, a massive tentacle of plasma snapped apart in the sun's atmosphere before tumbling down, circling the star's north pole at thousands of miles a minute, and then disappearing — leaving scientists baffled. The entire spectacle, which lasted about 8 hours, went viral on Twitter when Tamitha Skov,...

Dec 31, 2022

Gigantic 'alien' comet spotted heading straight for the sun

Scientists have spotted an enormous, 'alien' comet streaking straight towards the sun. The 3.7 mile-wide (6 kilometers) space iceball, called 96P/Machholz 1, is thought to have come from somewhere outside our solar system, and is being monitored by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft as...

Dec 31, 2023

Einstein Probe, with unique 'lobster eye,' deploys to unravel the mysteries of black holes, colliding neutron stars and supernovas

China just launched its Einstein Probe, a unique telescope with a special lobster eye camera designed to study the X-rays produced by colliding black holes, stellar corpses and supernovas. The spacecraft, which blasted off atop a Long March 2C rocket Tuesday (Jan. 9) at 2:03 a.m. EST (0703 GMT, 3:03...

Dec 31, 2023

'Mind-blowing' James Webb telescope images reveal 19 spiral galaxies in the greatest detail ever seen

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed images of 19 Milky Way-like spiral galaxies, showing stars, gas and dust in stunning detail. The images show the galaxies at the smallest scales ever observed outside our own galaxy. Webb's new images are extraordinary, Janice Lee, a scientist at the Space...

Feb 12, 2024

Watch the 1st X-class solar flare of 2024 erupt from the sun in explosive fashion

The sun unleashed a powerful X-class solar flare on Friday (Feb. 9), peaking at 8:10 a.m. (1310 GMT) and triggering shortwave radio blackouts across South America, Africa and the Southern Atlantic. The solar flare erupted from sunspot AR3576 — the same sunspot that put on a fiery show on Feb....