EarthSky

Brian Jackson, Boise State University Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter. Why is space dark if the universe is filled with stars? People have been asking why space is dark despite being filled with stars for so long that this question has a special name: Olbers’ paradox. Astronomers estimate that there are about 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe. And many of those

The 1st photo of Earth from space gave us a look at our world’s clouds from above. The image is from October 24, 1946. Image via White Sands Missile Range/ Applied Physics Laboratory/ Wikimedia Commons. 1st photo of Earth from space On October 24, 1946, scientists launched a V-2 rocket — carrying a 35-mm motion picture camera — to a height 65 miles (105 km) above a New Mexico desert. After a few minutes, the camera dropped back to Earth and was destroyed on impact. But the film survi

Why does anything exist? Physicists are puzzled that matter and antimatter didn’t annihilate each other soon after the Big Bang. Instead, we have a universe filled with matter, such as stars, planets, people and even the Crab Nebula (above). This image is from the Hubble Space Telescope with data from 1999 and 2000. Image via NASA/ ESA/ J. Hester and A. Loll/ Wikimedia Commons. Why does anything exist? Why does anything exist? And why is there something instead of nothing? The prevai

View larger. | Artist’s concept of the Lucy spacecraft making a close flyby of an asteroid. The Lucy mission is now less than a year from reaching the Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. Image via NASA. NASA’s Lucy mission is headed to the Trojan asteroids. These asteroids, traveling ahead of and behind Jupiter in its orbit, have never been explored before. Lucy is now less than a year away from the Trojans. But it has already made several exciting discoveries. These include new

You can find Perseus with the help of the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen. Cassiopeia’s distinctive M or W shape is ascending in the northeast on Northern Hemisphere autumn evenings, with Perseus following. Cassiopeia and Perseus travel together in a great arc around the northern sky. Be sure to look for the star Algol, sometimes called the Ghoul Star or Demon Star … a perfect star for the Halloween month! If you know how to locate the easy-to-spot constellation Cassiopeia the

View larger. | Artist’s concept of a green white dwarf star. Image via Mark A. Garlick/ University of Warwick. White dwarf stars are known to be, well, white. But that might not always be the case. White dwarfs come in a variety of colors, a new study from researchers in the U.K. shows. There are even green white dwarfs. No green stars of any kind have been identified before. Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to our

The Euclid space telescope made an accidental comet discovery as it searched the universe for evidence of dark matter and dark energy. Euclid took these images at 00:41:07, 00:58:53 and 01:16:39 UTC on September 17, 2026. The comet is now named C/2026 S1 (Euclid). Animation via ESA/ Euclid/ Euclid Consortium/ NASA, M. Pöntinen et al. 2026. Euclid makes an accidental comet discovery ESA’s Euclid space telescope is surveying the cosmos, mapping the large-scale structure of the universe

The Great Square of Pegasus can appear as a diamond shape depending on its orientation in the sky. On the evenings of October 23 and 24, the gibbous moon will shine below it. Also, look for the steady, golden light of the planet Saturn nearby. Chart via EarthSky. Almost out of nowhere, the summer skies have become the autumn skies. And, with that, here we are in the meat of baseball’s playoffs. One of the things I love most about this time of year is how, almost to celebrate baseball&#8

Auriga the Charioteer is a great constellation to spot on northern autumn evenings. Watch this video for more info. Video via EarthSky. Catch the wonder of the night sky. Subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter for the latest in science, stars, planets and more. Auriga has a flashy star and 3 star clusters Auriga the Charioteer is a great constellation for Northern Hemisphere observers to spot in autumn, because a bright, often-flashing star advertises its presence. Capella,

Artist’s concept of the new dinosaur species Invictibellatrix amberina, along with the fossil from which it was identified. The fossil had been sitting in a drawer for 100 years, until researchers pulled it out and became curious. Image via Sergey Krasovskiy and Pedro Salas/ Natural History Museum London. You deserve a daily dose of good news. For the latest in science and the night sky, subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter. More than 100 years ago on the Isle of Wight

ESA’s Giotto spacecraft captured this image of the nucleus of Comet Halley at its last return in 1986. It will be visible to the unaided eye next when it returns to the inner solar system in 2061. Image via ESA/ NASA. Comet Halley visited last in 1986 The famous comet 1P/Halley – aka Comet Halley – swings into the inner solar system about every 76 years. At such times, the sun’s heat causes the comet to lose its icy grip over its mountain-sized conglomeration of ice,

Artist’s illustration of Japan’s MMX spacecraft at Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two small moons. MMX will land on Phobos, collect a soil sample and bring it back to Earth in 2031. Image via ESA/JAXA. Japan plans to launch its MMX mission to Mars’ moons on October 19. The spacecraft will explore Phobos and Deimos and collect a sample from Phobos. The mission aims to return the sample to Earth in 2031. MMX mission will travel to Phobos and bring a sample home Japa

Venus in inferior conjunction View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Be sure to view this one larger! It’s a beautiful closeup of a colorful sundog, or parhelion, with a thin crescent Venus in its midst. See Venus? It’s in the blue patch in the upper left. EarthSky friend Paolo Palma caught it from Rome, Italy, last week. What a feat, Paolo! Thank you. He wrote: “The image captures one of those rare moments when the planet of love, peeking out from behind the white, wind-swept cloud

View larger/full image. | Closeup view of the Marius Hills Pit in in Oceanus Procellarum on the moon. Is there a lava tube-type cave below it? We don’t know yet, but now, the new GIMLI mission will be looking for one. Image via NASA/ GSFC/ Arizona State University. NASA wants to search for caves on the moon. How will it search? And where? A new mission named GIMLI will land and examine a volcanic pit — the Marius Hills Pit — in Oceanus Procellarum. It’s one of 300 such pits kn

The world’s timekeepers announced on Thursday that leap seconds will no longer be added to clocks starting in May 2027. Image via Pexels/ Stas Knop. Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter. No more leap seconds There’s big news from the world’s official timekeepers! Starting May 20, 2027, the international time standard will no longer require leap seconds to keep it closely aligned with Earth’s rotation.

NOAA’s newly released winter weather outlook says much of the US South will see more precipitation than normal, largely thanks to the strong El Niño. Image via Doug R. W. Dunigan/ Pexels. Fascinating science, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter. NOAA’s winter weather outlook reflects strong El Niño The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its winter weather outlook for th

Artist’s concept of the possible 2nd-generation planet around the white dwarf star HS 0209+0832. If confirmed, the discovery could help solve a “cold case” mystery about the white dwarf. Image via NASA/ ESA/ Leah Hustak (STScI). Planets form in the disks of dust and gas around newborn stars. These are called 1st-generation planets. But there are 2nd-generation planets too. A 2nd-generation planet can form in the material cast off from dead white dwarf stars. Astronomers mig

Earth orbit is getting more crowded, and the consequences could be serious. The European Space Agency’s 2026 Space Environment Report warns that debris collisions could trigger a runaway chain reaction, making some orbital regions unsafe or unusable. Space hazards expert Jonathan McDowell joins EarthSky to explain what the report reveals, how dangerous conditions in space have become, and what we can do about it. Watch in the player above. Science news, the night sky and beautiful photo

Cassiopeia overhead on autumn evenings The constellation Cassiopeia the Queen can be found high in the sky on October and November evenings, not far from Polaris, the North Star. And at any time of year, you can use the Big Dipper to find Cassiopeia. These two star formations are like riders on opposite sides of a Ferris wheel. In fact, they’re part of a great spinning wheel of stars seen moving counterclockwise around Polaris, the North Star, once each day. Whenever Cassiopeia rises up

Astronomers say they’ve studied 300 of the best-characterized planetary systems in the Milky Way and have discovered they fall into 2 distinct families. One family has a less massive star with smaller, close-in planets. The other family has a more massive star with a wider system than includes more massive planets. Image via INAF/ Universitat de Valencia/ image generation assisted by Gemini AI. Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscrib