Astronomy

An artist's impression of Proxima b

Astronomers Have Discovered an Earth-Sized Exoplanet in Our Cosmic Backyard

But what would potential life look like on this planetary neighbor?

Astronomy students at the Banneker and Aztlán Institutes in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Why the Universe Needs More Black and Latino Astronomers

Astronomy has one of the worst diversity rates of any scientific field. This Harvard program is trying to change that

Abell 370: Galaxy Cluster Gravitational Lens

Long After Einstein, Cosmic Lensing Reaches Its Full Potential

How Hubble is taking advantage of Einstein’s theories to study the most distant galaxies

Grab your sunglasses—all of those far-off stars, black holes and celestial bodies contribute to your killer tan.

Part of Your Suntan Comes From Photons That Are Billions of Years Old

Thank bodies from beyond the galaxy for a bit of that golden glow

Maria Zuber, first woman to run a NASA spacecraft mission, says she has a "genetic predilection" to explore space.

This Scientist Seeks Out the Secret History of Other Worlds

Maria Zuber has spent her career enabling discoveries beyond Earth. She says the best is yet to come

A long-exposure of Perseids taken in August 2004.

The Perseid Meteor Shower Looks Even More Beautiful When You Know Where It Comes From

Each streak across the sky is a fragment of the original material of our solar system

NASA's Kepler spacecraft launched on March 6, 2009. Today, technology and international collaborations are democratizing the space race.

Opening the Space Race to the Entire World

A new era of collaboration and affordable technology has scientists across the globe sending spacecraft into outer space

Look Up! The Perseid Meteor Shower Is Going to Be a Doozy This Year

The number of shooting stars could double this year

An image of a nebula used in "The Hubble Cantata."

The Cosmos Sings in This Fusion of Astrophysics and Music

<i>The Hubble Cantata</i> brings the stars down to earth

An artist's conception of four of the new planets, orbiting a single dwarf star. These small, rocky worlds are far closer to their star than Mercury is to our sun, but the star is smaller and cooler than our own.

Kepler Just Found 104 New Planets Outside of Our Solar System

Is anyone home?

A Delta Aquarid meteor streaks across the sky.

Keep Your Eyes to the Sky for the Delta Aquarid Meteors This Month

The late-July meteor shower heralds the popular Perseids

This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Breathtaking New Images Capture Failed Stars and Planet-Sized Objects Inside the Orion Nebula

It’s the deepest look into the nebula ever seen before

Galaxy GN-z11 seen in its youth by the Hubble telescope. GN-z11 is shown as it existed 13.4 billion years in the past, just 400 million years after the Big Bang.

If Telescopes Are Time Machines, the JWST Will Take Us the Furthest Back Yet

The James Webb Space Telescope promises to peer back into the making of the first galaxies

An artist's rendition of Juno in orbit around Jupiter. The craft is powered entirely by the sun's rays.

It's Official: We Are Now in Orbit Around Jupiter

After a nerve-wracking entry, NASA spacecraft Juno successfully entered the gas giant's orbit

Photograph of the megalithic cluster of Carregal do Sal, one of the passage graves in Portugal that may have doubled as an ancient telescope.

These Ancient Tombs May Have Been Both Grave and Observatory

The best view of the heavens could be from within the tomb

Ultraviolet images overlying a photo of Jupiter taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Catch the Solar System’s Best Light Show With New Images of Jupiter’s Auroras

Jupiter’s Auroras Are the Best Light Show in the Solar System

Help astronomers track asteroid 2010 NY65 as it streaks across the sky on Asteroid Day

Track These Space Rocks From Your Couch on Asteroid Day

With just a click, you can help astronomers learn more about two nearby asteroids

The "Mystic Mountain" image released for the Hubble's 20th anniversary showcases a three-light-year tall pillar of gas and dust stretching out of the Carina nebula. Mostly made of cool hydrogen, the structure is created by stars releasing jets of gas, which is worn away by radiation from other nearby stars, giving it its eroded shape.

Breathtaking Images to Celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope Getting Another Five Years of Life

These amazing views are just a selection of the beautiful images the craft has captured over the years

The Bullet Cluster, originally detected using weak lensing

“Weak Lensing” Helps Astronomers Map the Mass of the Universe

By making galaxies a little bit brighter, it points the way to elusive galaxies and lets us detect that most mysterious of substances: dark matter

An illustration of asteroid 2016 HO3's orbit.

Scientists Spot Tiny Asteroid Tagging Along Behind The Earth

It's our very own “quasi-moon”

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