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Astronomy

Snow fell at an elevation of 9,500 feet in the Atacama Desert of Chile, the world's driest nonpolar desert.

Rare Blanket of Snow Falls in Chile’s Atacama, the World’s Driest Desert

The extraordinary event temporarily shut down equipment at the ALMA Observatory, and the snow reached the telescope’s main operations facility for the first time in 12 years

A bright streak moves across the sky in broad daylight in Monroe, Georgia.

Ultra-Bright Meteor Seen in Broad Daylight, Stunning Residents Across the Southeast

More than 200 sightings were sent to the American Meteor Society, and a Georgia resident reported a rock falling through a roof around the same time

Relay 2 was an American communications satellite launched in 1964.

Astronomers Detected a Mysterious Radio Burst. It Turned Out to Be From a Dead NASA Satellite

The signal detected last year came from Relay 2, a communications satellite that has been defunct since 1967

In this image, light from the star TWA 7 has been subtracted. The potential exoplanet TWA 7 b is the orange circle within the blue debris disk.

The James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Its First Direct Image Discovery of an Exoplanet

Researchers identified the likely planetary candidate’s infrared light after blocking out its host star’s overwhelming glare

This image of the the Trifid nebula (top) and the Lagoon nebula (bottom) was put together from 678 separate images taken over seven hours of observations.

See the First Breathtaking Images Captured by the Powerful New Telescope at the Rubin Observatory

Featuring never-before-seen views of galaxies and more than 2,100 newly discovered asteroids, the observations are only a taste of what to expect from the telescope’s upcoming decade-long survey

A section of the new view of the Sculptor galaxy, featuring thousands of colors

Stunning New Image of the Sculptor Galaxy Captures the Cosmic Landscape in Thousands of Colors

The galaxy sits in a sweet spot that allows astronomers to study it in ways that can’t be applied to even our own Milky Way

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory against the night sky, which it will soon capture in unprecedented detail

The World’s Largest Camera Is About to Unveil Its First Photos of Space. Here’s How to Follow Along With a Live Stream

The revolutionary Vera C. Rubin Observatory will unveil new insights about our universe—and you can catch a first look at a local event or online on Monday

The sun’s corona on May 23, 2025, as imaged by the ASPIICS coronagraph aboard Proba-3. The hair-like structures appeared with the help of an image processing algorithm.

See the Beauty of an Artificial Solar Eclipse, Created With a First-of-Its-Kind, ‘Perfect’ Satellite Formation

Two satellites’ highly precise alignment allows scientists to study the sun’s outer atmosphere like never before

The Solar Orbiter has captured the first-ever views of the sun's south pole.

See the First-Ever Direct Images of the Sun’s South Pole, Captured by the Solar Orbiter Spacecraft

The spacecraft’s tilted orbit will allow scientists to investigate the mechanisms behind space weather that impact crucial human activity on Earth

Ispace posted a video of Resilience circling the moon shortly before it lost contact with the lander. 

The Resilience Spacecraft Likely Crashed on the Moon

Early reports suggest that an issue with the Japanese lander’s sensors prevented it from sufficiently slowing down

An artist's rendition of Resilience on the lunar surface, where it is scheduled to touchdown later today. 

Ispace’s Resilience Spacecraft Is Set to Land on the Moon Today—Here’s How to Follow Along

The Japanese company’s second attempt at a lunar landing can be streamed live this afternoon

In this 2012 visualization, the Andromeda galaxy (left) appears in Earth's skies and begins to distort the Milky Way as the two galaxies merge. This hypothetical scenario was previously expected to play out billions of years in the future—now, astronomers say it might not be inevitable.

Our Milky Way Might Not Crash Into the Andromeda Galaxy After All—New Simulations Suggest a 50-50 Chance of Merging

Scientists previously predicted the pair of galaxies would merge in about five billion years. Now, research suggests that outcome is less certain than thought

Water may have arisen as early as 100 million years after the universe began.

Did Water Form in the Earliest Years of the Universe?

A recent study suggests huge volumes of the molecule emerged during the cosmic dawn

The five dwarf planets recognized by the International Astronomical Union are Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake—and these are pictured with 2017 OF201 in a telescope image.

Astronomers Discover a Possible Dwarf Planet Far Beyond Neptune, Where There Should Have Only Been Empty Space

As it orbits the sun once every 25,000 years, the celestial body 2017 OF201 travels beyond the Kuiper Belt into a region thought to be largely devoid of objects

An ancient star map (not the document analyzed in the new research) unearthed in Dunhuang, China, in the seventh century C.E.

New Research

These Scientists Say They’ve Identified the Oldest Known Star Chart in the World

A new preprint suggests that an ancient Chinese star catalog dates to 355 B.C.E. But other researchers aren’t convinced, arguing that the original coordinates are misaligned by one degree

The sun launched a powerful solar flare on May 14, 2025, captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Sun Launches Its Strongest Solar Flare of the Year So Far, Causing Radio Blackouts Around the World

The new sunspot responsible for this powerful blast is rotating into view, which could bring more solar activity—and potential aurora-causing coronal mass ejections—to Earth in the coming days

The first image in visible light of green auroras on Mars (left), compared to the night sky of Mars without auroras.

See the First Visible Auroras Captured on Mars, Glowing a Hazy Green Above the Planet

Scientists directed NASA’s Perseverance rover to take an image of the Martian sky after a solar storm in hopes that an aurora would show up

These observations of Jupiter’s auroras (shown on the left of the above image) were captured with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera on December 25, 2023.

Check Out Jupiter’s Stunning Auroras, Which Are Hundreds of Times Brighter Than Earth’s, in the James Webb Telescope’s Latest Images

The infrared views, captured in 2023, shed light on the giant planet’s atmosphere and magnetosphere—but they also reveal something unexpected

The Newark Earthworks in Ohio consist of three sections of preserved earthworks: the Great Circle Earthworks, the Octagon Earthworks and the Wright Earthworks.

An Ohio Earthwork Where Thousands Once Gathered for Celestial Observations and Religious Ceremonies Is Open to the Public

An earthen enclosure called the Octagon is drawing much-deserved attention to the state’s history-filled mounds built some 2,000 years ago by the Hopewell culture

An artistic rendering of a magnetar—or highly magnetized neutron star—losing material into space. The magnetic field lines, shown in green, direct the movement of charged material.

Astrophysicists Track Down the Mysterious Cosmic Origins of Gold and Other Heavy Metals in Our Galaxy

Researchers suggest powerful bursts from magnetars—collapsed stars with strong magnetic fields—may have contributed up to 10 percent of all elements heavier than iron in the Milky Way

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