Astronomy

A composite image showing multiple stages of 2019's solar eclipse as seen from Chile.

This Handheld Device Allows Blind People to Experience the Solar Eclipse With Their Ears

The technology, which translates the intensity of sunlight into a range of sounds, was designed to make eclipses more accessible to visually impaired people

Texas Motor Speedway staff watch the August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse through special eclipse glasses.

This Is the Gear You Need to View the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Protect your eyesight with eclipse glasses, binoculars, telescopes or lens filters

The new image of the Milky Way's black hole, seen in polarized light. It shows the organized magnetic fields that surround the black hole itself, from which no light can escape.

Astronomers Capture Dazzling New Image of the Black Hole at the Milky Way's Center

The first image of the black hole taken in polarized light, the new view shows the supermassive structure's magnetic fields and hints that it could be hiding an enormous jet

The Moon's North Pole

Why Scientists Are Calling for the Moon to Be Better Protected From Development

Only a few lunar sites are ideal for certain cutting-edge research—and they’re under threat from mining, satellites and bases, scientists argue

Traffic backed up on Interstate 57 near Johnston City, Illinois, after the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017.

Planning a Road Trip for the Total Solar Eclipse? Here's Why You Should Drive Extra Carefully

Scientists found a 31 percent increase in fatal car crashes around the 2017 total solar eclipse, akin to spikes in traffic risk on busy holiday weekends

The darker areas across Titan's equatorial regions represent its dunes, as taken by the Cassini rover.

Titan's Massive Dunes May Be a Comet and Moon Graveyard From the Early Solar System

A new modeling study suggests the dark dunes on Saturn's largest moon are made of tiny particles created by crashing comets and moonlets billions of years ago

Officials have been working toward the designation for four years.

Oregon Is Now Home to the World's Largest Dark Sky Sanctuary

The Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary covers 2.5 million acres in the southeastern part of the state

The 2017 total solar eclipse as seen from Madras, Oregon

Five Fascinating Science Projects Using the Total Solar Eclipse to Illuminate New Discoveries

The NASA-supported experiments are mobilizing legions of researchers and volunteers to capture wide-ranging observations during totality, from amateur radio operations to elusive solar plumes to unusual animal behavior

Art historian Federica Gigante examines the device at the Fondazione Museo Miniscalchi-Erizzo in Verona, Italy.

Long Overlooked, This 11th-Century Astronomical Device Documents Scientific Exchange Among Muslims, Jews and Christians

The astrolabe features Hebrew and Latin inscriptions added by different owners over time

Roughly every 71 years, the bright periodic comet 12P/Pons-Brooks passes by the sun and Earth. At its brightest, it can be seen with the naked eye in fairly dark skies.

You Can See a Rare, Bright Comet This Month. Will It Be Visible During the Solar Eclipse?

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is a frigid, volcanic ice ball that won’t pass near Earth again until 2095

A total solar eclipse as seen from Kentucky in 2017

How Ancient Civilizations Reacted to Eclipses

Communities may have thought the celestial events were messages from the gods, a reason to abandon a settlement or a cue to end a war

The Whirlpool Galaxy (also known as M51), located 31 million light-years from Earth, is a particularly radiant object seen during the Messier marathon. This image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope—skywatchers looking through a backyard telescope or binoculars would see the galaxy in far less detail.

What It Takes to Complete the Ultimate Skywatching Endurance Challenge

The "Messier marathon" prompts space hobbyists to spot 110 celestial objects in one night, and the best time to try it is in March

An artist's rendition of the Europa Clipper mission, set to launch to Europa in October. The mission could provide new insights about the life-supporting potential of the moon, which hosts a massive saltwater ocean beneath its icy surface.

Jupiter's Moon Europa May Have Less Oxygen Than Previously Thought

The new findings could have implications for whether Europa's vast ocean contains the conditions necessary to support life

A drawing of the aurora observed from Nagoya, Japan, on September 17, 1770. The written description also notes its intensity: “as bright as a night with a full moon.”

How Ancient Texts Can Shed Light on Auroras

Documenting episodes of the phenomenon thousands of years ago may help us predict damaging solar storms in the future

Math historian Glen Van Brummelen came across decimal points in Giovanni Bianchini's manuscript, Tabulae primi mobilis B.

The Decimal Point Is 150 Years Older Than Previously Thought, Medieval Manuscript Reveals

A Venetian merchant used the mathematical symbol while calculating the positions of planets between 1441 and 1450

An illustration of the DART spacecraft next to the asteroid, Dimorphos, and the larger asteroid it orbits, Didymos.

Asteroid Hit by NASA Spacecraft Was Reshaped by the Collision, Study Finds

Instead of forming a crater, the agency's intentional DART crash redistributed massive amounts of the asteroid and shot large quantities of rock into space

Flights typically soar above the clouds, which means passengers should have an unobstructed view of the total solar eclipse on April 8—regardless of the weather on the ground.

You Can Watch the Solar Eclipse From These Flights Through the Path of Totality

Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines are operating flights on April 8 that could give passengers unobstructed views of the rare celestial spectacle

An artist's rendering of the quasar that set the record for the universe's brightest object, with its black hole at its center.

Astronomers Discover the Brightest Known Object in the Universe, Shining 500 Trillion Times as Bright as the Sun

The quasar—a glowing, active core of a galaxy—has a black hole at its center that consumes more than a sun’s-worth of mass each day

Data from the retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint venture between NASA and the German Space Agency, led scientists to their discovery.

Scientists Detect Water on the Surface of Asteroids for the First Time Ever

Using data from a retired NASA mission, researchers identified unique signs of water molecules on two space rocks, unlocking new insight into how water may have arrived on Earth

Phobos passes across the sun's surface on February 8, as captured by NASA's Perseverance rover.

What Does a Solar Eclipse on Mars Look Like? New, Breathtaking Images, Caught by NASA's Perseverance Rover, Give Us an Idea

The robot recently observed each of the Red Planet’s moons passing across the sun in the Martian sky

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