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Astronomers

The three brightest stars in the image make up the Summer Triangle.

Cool Finds

The Red Planet and Summer Triangle Will Soon Shine Bright

Mars is swooping closer to the Earth this week while the Summer Triangle rises in the sky

New Research

Astronomers Recreate Ancient Skies to Date a Nearly 2,600-Year-Old Greek Poem

Researchers narrow down the dates for when the lonely poet Sappho wrote “Midnight Poem”

An artist's depiction of Kepler's latest planetary find.

New Research

Kepler Discovers More Than 1,000 New Exoplanets

The space telescope is still alive and kicking

Sisters Emilia Ponzoni, Regina Colombo, Concetta Finardi and Luigia Panceri mapped the positions and brightness of 481,215 stars.

Cool Finds

These Little-Known Nuns Helped Map the Stars

A century later, the identities of women who mapped over 481,000 stars are finally known

An illustration of the path Mercury will take across the sun on  May 9.

Cool Finds

For The First Time in a Decade, Watch Mercury Cross the Sun’s Face

Next week’s transit of Mercury is one of the major astronomical events of the year

Cool Finds

Astronomers Deploy a Laser System for a Clearer View of the Skies

A new four-laser system at the Paranal Observatory will help the massive telescope compensate for atmospheric turbulence

This artist's concept shows the distant dwarf planet Makemake and its newly discovered moon. Makemake and its moon, nicknamed MK 2, are more than 50 times farther away than Earth is from the sun.

Think Big

Hubble Spies a Tiny Moon Orbiting Dwarf Planet Makemake

Our solar system still has plenty of surprises

A visualization of the Varying Length Model of the cosmic web.

Cool Finds

Take in the Beauty of This Gravity Web That Connects Galaxies Across the Universe

A new simulation visualizes how distant galaxies might be connected

Cool Finds

The Hubble Scoped This Space Bubble Just in Time For Its Birthday

The Hubble Telescope has been in orbit for 26 years

This is a hypothetical set of possible universes.

Think Big

Can Physicists Ever Prove the Multiverse Is Real?

Astronomers are arguing about whether they can trust this untested—and potentially untestable—idea

Cool Finds

Watch Earth’s Atmosphere Brilliantly Light Up From Space

The glow isn’t from an aurora, it’s a phenomena called airglow

Chandra image of the Antenna Galaxy.

Life in the Cosmos

Life in the Cosmos: Special Report

Exploring the mysteries of the universe

The 1917 photographic plate spectrum of van Maanen's star from the Carnegie Observatories’ archive.

New Research

Scientists Discovered Exoplanets More Than 70 Years Earlier Than Thought

A 1917 glass plate discovered in an observatory archive records the first evidence of exoplanets

Artist's rendering of the Alpha Centauri system

Trending Today

Stephen Hawking and Billionaire Announce Project to Send Tiny Probes to Nearest Star System

Yuri Milner is investing 100 million dollars in research to develop a swarm of tiny probes for a mission to Alpha Centauri

Trending Today

The Planet-Hunting Kepler Telescope Entered Emergency Mode

The probe suddenly went into a safe mode for unknown reasons last week

Galaxy NGC 1600

New Research

Supermassive Black Holes May Be More Common Than Previously Thought

Astronomers have found a huge black hole in a “cosmic backwater,” opening the possiblity there could be many more in the universe

The remnants of a supernova.

New Research

Radioactive Isotopes in The Oceans May Be Remnants of Ancient Supernovae

Cosmic dust may have altered life on Earth as we know it

Cool Finds

Amateur Astronomers Capture an Asteroid or Comet Colliding With Jupiter

The object recently exploded in the atmosphere of the solar system’s largest planet

New Research

NASA Spies a Supernova’s First Shockwave

Astronomers spot the first flash of a distant supernova in visible light

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