EarthSky

The Venus-Jupiter conjunction is one of the most spectacular astronomical events of 2026. Enjoy these photos our talented community photographers have captured so far from around the world. Vegastar Photography shared this lovely image of blazing Venus and bright Jupiter from Épernay, France, on June 1. Thank you! Best photos of the Venus-Jupiter conjunction 2026 The two brightest planets in our sky – Venus and Jupiter – have been inching closer each day in the west after sunset for

Since at least the 1970s, people around the world have reported a mysterious hum. It’s known simply as The Hum. What produces it? No one knows. But a new scientific study provides clues. Image via Idun Haugan/ Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)/ Norwegian SciTech News. People have reported a mysterious humming sound around the world since the 1970s. It’s called The Hum. Scientists have proposed possible explanations. But there may not be a single answer for the ph

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Cecille Kennedy captured this scene on April 2, 2026, from Oregon. She wrote: “The sun is setting on the ever-present marine cloud layer over the ocean horizon. The seagull is flying north heading home.” Thank you, Cecille! Celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8. You deserve a daily dose of good news. For the latest in science and the night sky, click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.   World Oceans Day 2025 World Oceans Day has fallen

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Steven Bellavia in Smithfield, Virginia, captured this telescopic view of galaxy Messier 83 on May 11, 2026. Steven wrote: “Even down here in southern Virginia, M83, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, only reaches an altitude of 22 degrees. So this is a challenging object to capture. M83, also called the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation borders of Hydra and Centaurus. Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille discovered it on February

Watch NASA’s perpetual ocean video here. NASA has created a second perpetual ocean video, building on the incredibly popular original video from 2011. The new video traces some of the strongest currents, showing surface ocean currents in white and deeper ocean currents in dark blue. The video helps scientists understand the characteristics of these currents better and ultimately understand how heat is transported globally in the ocean. NASA published this original article on February 27

On Monday, June 1, 2026, NASA detected a worsening ISS leak. And on Friday, June 5, it told the astronauts aboard the aging International Space Station to don spacesuits and shelter in an escape craft while repairs were attempted. A few hours later, they were given the all-clear to exit their shelter. But the leak is still there. Is an ISS evacuation still in the cards? Image via NASA/ Roscosmos. ISS leak worsens, as astronauts shelter then return At 13:04 UTC on June 5, 2026, NASA ordered astro

On Friday, June 5, 2026, NASA told the astronauts on the International Space Station to don spacesuits and shelter in their escape spacecraft after an air leak worsened. A few hours later, they were given the all-clear to exit their shelter. Could an ISS evacuation still be on the cards? Image via NASA/ Roscosmos. ISS evacuation? Astronauts briefly shelter as leak worsens At 13:04 UTC today (June 5, 2026), NASA ordered astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to put on their space

The Small Magellanic Cloud is our galactic neighbor. It’s a satellite galaxy that orbits our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists long assumed it was rotating like other galaxies, but new observations show its stars are expanding outward instead. The arrows show the motion of stars away from the center of the galaxy, and the colors indicate the velocities of the stars. Image via ESO/ VISTA VMC/ AIP/ S. Vijayasree. The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds are dwarf satellite galaxies of our Milky Wa

Did you know the names for the days of the week come from bodies in our solar system? Image via Pixabay/ EarthSky. Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter. Names for days of the week come from the solar system Did you know the days of the week are named after objects in our solar system? Sure, Sunday is easy for us to recognize as being named for the sun. And maybe you can even spot Monday as origina

The Summer Triangle, ascending for Northern Hemisphere observers in the east on June evenings. Are you in the Southern Hemisphere? See below. Chart via EarthSky. Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter. Northern summer is Summer Triangle time During the summertime in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are long. The sun is high in the midday sky. And our summer sky is with us, too. Watch for the famous

The Arietids are an active shower, but they’re visible mostly in daytime. Watch for them in the sunrise direction in the dark hour before dawn from May 22 to July 3. They’ll be best around June 10. You’ll be looking for meteors that shoot up from the horizon. The radiant is below the constellation Aries the Ram. Chart by EarthSky. June 2026 daytime meteor shower … the Arietids Most meteor showers are easy to observe. Just find a dark sky, and look up! But what about meteo

The Blue Origin mega-rocket explosion took place at 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 28, 2026. On June 1, 2026, the CEO of Blue Origin released more information about the explosion and its aftermath. Image via SpaceFlight Now. Blue Origin mega-rocket explosion update On May 28, 2026, Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin was testing its New Glenn mega-rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a huge explosion erupted in a fireball that you could see on the other side of the state. It was one of t

The constellation Norma in the Southern Hemisphere is meant to represent a right angle. Chart via EarthSky. What is the Great Attractor? The Great Attractor is a massive gravitational anomaly: an invisible, unimaginably colossal amount of mass in space that astronomers did not expect to find. They know it’s there because it’s pulling on everything around it. It’s like a cosmic tug-of-war champion, pulling millions of galaxies – including our own Local Group of galaxies &#

This is a view of the rare meteorite NWA 12774 under cross-polarized light. Scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder said the source of the meteorite might be a giant, early planet that shattered in a collision billions of years ago. Image via CU Boulder/ John Kashuba. Rare meteorite hints at giant early planet Fragmented rocks and debris in our solar system sometimes strike Earth, burning up in our atmosphere as meteors. Occasionally, those pieces of debris are large enough to survive

This illustration shows magnetic activity in an exoplanet. The planet is a gas giant like Jupiter, but it’s very close to its host star. By studying strange winds on 7 worlds like these, astronomers have found the strongest signs yet of magnetic exoplanets. Artist’s illustration via ESO/ M. Kornmesser/ L. Calçada. You deserve a daily dose of good news. For the latest in science and the night sky, subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter. ESO originally published this article on

The Crystal Ball Nebula, also known as NGC 1514, is an exquisite ball of gas encircling a pair of stars. The Gemini North telescope captured this image from atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Image via International Gemini Observatory/ NOIRLab/ NSF/ AURA. Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter. Meet the Crystal Ball Nebula NOIRLab released this sensational new image of the Crystal Ball Nebula on May 21, 2026

Here are 2 asterisms – noticeable star patterns – known to Northern Hemisphere stargazers as the Big and Little Dippers. To find the Little Dipper, use the 2 outer stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper – aka the Pointers – to point to Polaris, the North Star. Note that Polaris marks the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. After you find Polaris, if your sky is dark enough, you should be able to trace out the other stars in the Little Dipper. Chart via EarthSky. Tonight,

This is a gravitationally lensed image of QSO1, an ancient Little Red Dot galaxy. It contains a supermassive black hole in its center. Which came 1st: the black hole or galaxy? A new study says the black hole did. Image via NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ Lukas Furtak (Ben-Gurion University); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI). QSO1 is a tiny galaxy from the early universe. It contains a supermassive black hole in its center. Which came first, the galaxy or the black hole? A new study says that the black h

Pearls – 1 of 3 choices for the June birthstone – come in many sizes, shapes and colors. Image via Masayuki Kato/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0). Pearl as a June birthstone Most gemstones are found within the Earth. But pearls grow inside the shells of oysters and clams. Some pearls form naturally in these mollusks, which is a word that describes many creatures possessing soft, unsegmented bodies plus a mantle or shell, found both in salty seas and in fresh water. But many pearls today are

Elephant calf reunion in Kenya reveals the powerful family bonds of elephants after a lost baby answers her aunt’s call and rushes back to her herd. Image via George Wittemyer and Save the Elephants. Used with permission. On February 11, 2026, a baby elephant wandered alone into a tourist camp in northern Kenya. She had become separated from her family. What happened next revealed just how powerful elephant bonds can be. After researchers spent hours searching for the calf’s relatives, they reun