Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 9, 2020

Saturn and Jupiter to almost 'kiss' this winter solstice

Saturn and Jupiter will appear to almost kiss this winter solstice, although not because of some cosmic mistletoe hanging overhead. Rather, the two gas giants will look as though they're very close in the night sky in an event known as a great conjunction, which happens roughly every 20 years....

Dec 15, 2020

Polar cyclones on Jupiter create a spellbinding vortex cluster

Jupiter's north pole is a swirling mass of cyclones, and their mesmerizing dance was recently captured in astonishing detail in images from JunoCam, the visible light camera/telescope on NASA's Juno orbiter. The Juno mission, launched on Aug. 5, 2011, has been collecting data on Jupiter since 2016. Juno recently completed...

Dec 21, 2020

How to watch tonight's 'great conjunction' of Jupiter and Saturn

This evening, on the first day of astronomical winter, you may be able to see a rare phenomenon witnessed when the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei was alive: Jupiter and Saturn will appear so close to one another in the night sky, the gassy behemoths will look like one star: the...

Dec 22, 2020

Stunning telescope image of Jupiter and Saturn's Great Conjunction will amaze you

An amateur astro-photographer captured a stunning image of the “Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn Monday night (Dec. 21), revealing the solar system’s giant and its moons just a fingernail-width away (from our perspective) from Saturn, whose rings are shockingly clear in the night sky. Though the image was captured...

Dec 23, 2020

Jupiter and Saturn descend on world's tallest building in epic 'Great Conjunction' video

On Monday (Dec. 21), Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer together in the night sky than they had in 800 years. To the naked eye, this Great Conjunction looked like a single, massive celestial object shining over the Earth. But to telescopes — and consumer cameras equipped with telescopic lenses —...

Jan 9, 2021

How to watch the rare 'triple conjunction' of Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn this Sunday

Just weeks after Jupiter and Saturn dazzled stargazers by canoodling side-by-side in the night sky, another great conjunction of planets is on the way — and this time, Mercury is invited to the party, too. On Sunday (Jan. 10), the three planets will appear close together in a rare triple...

Mar 18, 2021

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a ruthless cannibal that devours smaller storms

What's the secret to a long life? For the Great Red Spot, a massive storm that has churned on Jupiter's surface for at least 150 years, the answer may be cannibalism. The Great Red Spot (GRS) is about twice as wide as Earth. But over time, it's been gradually shrinking,...

Mar 19, 2021

Glowing 'dawn storm' auroras that blaze in Jupiter's morning skies are born in darkness

Jupiter’s otherworldly glimmer of polar auroras is periodically brightened by brief but intense early morning displays known as dawn storms. Now, for the first time, scientists have figured out where dawn storms come from, how they grow, and that they're even more powerful than expected. Scientists knew about dawn storms...

Jun 10, 2021

Jupiter's largest moon revealed in stunning detail in first close-up images in 20 years

Swooping low over Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, NASA's Juno probe has snapped the first close-up photographs of the frozen giant in more than two decades — and they're breathtaking. Juno zoomed as close as 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) from the icy surface of the solar system's largest moon Monday (June...

Jul 12, 2021

Mystery of Jupiter's powerful X-ray auroras finally solved

Mysterious flares of X-rays from Jupiter's auroras suggest that the giant planet's northern lights may possess unexpected similarities with those of Earth, a new study finds. Auroras, the shimmering displays of radiance known as the northern or southern lights on Earth, are seen above the poles of a number of...

Jul 29, 2021

Water vapor detected on huge Jupiter moon Ganymede for 1st time

In the wisp-thin sky of Jupiter's moon Ganymede, the largest satellite in the solar system, astronomers have for the first time detected evidence of water vapor, a new study finds. The discovery could shed light on similar watery atmospheres that may envelop other icy bodies in the solar system and...

Aug 31, 2021

Could a spaceship fly through a gas giant like Jupiter?

NASA has plunged three spacecraft into gas giants. Two of them, Galileo and Cassini, were at the ends of their missions when they met their doom in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. But the Galileo spacecraft arrived with a passenger — a probe designed to drop into a...

Sep 20, 2021

Jupiter just got smacked by a space rock and an amateur astronomer caught it on camera

Jupiter got whacked again. Brazilian observer José Luis Pereira captured a bright flash on the solar system's largest planet Monday night (Sept. 13), memorializing the fiery death of a space rock high in the Jovian atmosphere. I am an assiduous planetary observer, Pereira told Space.com in a written statement Tuesday...

Sep 28, 2021

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is not only shrinking. Its winds are also speeding up.

A decade of Jovian storm-chasing paid off for the Hubble Space Telescope. The long-running telescope has been studying the Great Red Spot — a major storm on Jupiter — that is shrinking for mysterious reasons. Alongside that, researchers just uncovered huge changes in wind speeds within the massive storm. Jupiter...

Oct 22, 2021

Jupiter hit by another space rock in rare views captured by Japanese skywatchers

It's tough to be the biggest planet in the solar system, and this fall Jupiter is taking a beating. On Oct. 15, skywatchers in Japan observed a flash in the atmosphere of the planet's northern hemisphere likely caused by an asteroid slamming into Jupiter, just over a month after a...