EarthSky

This is a model of the inner solar system. The outermost orbit shown is that of Jupiter. The dark blue ring represents known asteroids in the asteroid belt. The light blue dots mark the 11,000 new asteroids found by astronomers at the Rubin Observatory. These are the locations of the objects in August 2025. Image via Rubin Observatory/ NOIRLab/ SLAC/ AURA/ R. Proctor/ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio/ ESA/ Gaia/ DPAC. There were approximately 1.45 to 1.5 million

Observations of Comet 3I/ATLAS by the JANUS camera on ESA’s Juice mission. Juice caught the comet on November 5, 2025, when it was 64 million kilometers (40 million miles) away from the spacecraft. The length of the tail stretching away from the sun is about 6 million km (8 million miles) long here. Image via ESA/ Juice/ JANUS (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO). Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter. ESA’s JUpiter ICy M

The constellation Chamaeleon is a Southern Hemisphere target for April evenings. Chart via EarthSky. Don’t miss the next unmissable night sky event. Sign up for our free newsletter for daily night sky updates, as well as the latest science news. The constellation Chamaeleon lies deep in the Southern Hemisphere sky. You have to be south of the equator to spot it. As a south circumpolar constellation, it circles closely around the south celestial pole. So, from most of the Southern Hemisphere, it

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Catherine Hyde in Cambria, California, captured this telescopic view of Messier 53 on March 24, 2026. Catherine wrote: “This is the globular cluster M53 in Coma Berenices.” Thank you, Catherine! See more deep-sky photos from March 2026 below. Stunning deep-sky photos from our community The EarthSky community has many talented astrophotographers who capture stunning images of the deep sky. We gathered some of our favorite deep-sky photos we receive

This artist’s concept depicts the tiny comet 41P, a Jupiter-family comet. As it approached the sun, frozen gases began to sublimate and shoot material off into space. Scientists analyzing observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope found that these jets slowed the comet’s spin and then caused it to rotate in the opposite direction. Image via NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ Ralf Crawford (STScI). You deserve a daily dose of good news. For the latest in science and the night sky, subscribe to EarthSky’s

View larger. | An artist’s depiction of a human hunter-gatherer camp in ancient Turkey. Scientists used genetic analysis to find the oldest known dogs, from 15,000 years ago. They also discovered that dogs were widespread across Europe 14,000 years ago. Image via Kathryn Killackey/ University of Liverpool. Dogs and humans have been companions for more than 15,800 years, with evidence of domestication spreading across Europe by 14,000 years ago. Ancient dogs mostly descended from eastern Eu

This is the elegant crested tinamou (Eudromia elegans). Many bird species that are closely related will lay eggs that are similar in color. But tinamou birds, which live in habitats ranging from Mexico down through South America, lay eggs that come in a variety of colors. Image via Scott Hecker/ Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Why do tinamou birds lay such colorful eggs? The myriad egg colors that tinamou birds lay – which range from brilliant pinks and blues to rich purples and greens – have long fascinate

Star-hopping is the art of navigating around the sky using bright stars. On April evenings, you can look west after sunset to star-hop from the constellation Orion to Sirius. Chart via EarthSky. Don’t miss the next unmissable night sky event. Sign up for our free newsletter for daily night sky updates, as well as the latest science news. Star-hop from Orion to Sirius One very easy constellation to find at this time of the year is the magnificent Orion the Hunter, now descending in the west after

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Steve Price of Draper, Utah, posted this photo on March 30, 2024. Steve wrote: “These are some of the Ukrainian Pysanky Easter eggs I made. We display them each Easter season.” Thanks, Steve! Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.   When is Easter in 2026? Here’s the rule for Easter Sunday. It generally falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on

Sungrazing comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) has entered the field of view of the SOHO spacecraft’s LASCO C3 coronagraph. It’s expected to be visible there from April 2 to April 6, 2026. Comet MAPS will pass extremely close to the sun’s surface, so SOHO is one of the only ways to observe it during its most dramatic moments. Perihelion (closest Approach) will come at approximately 10:22 a.m. EDT (14:22 UTC) on April 4, 2026. You deserve a daily dose of good news. For the latest in science

View larger. | Artist’s concept of an earthlike planet orbiting a sunlike star. A new study from researchers at Cornell University identified the 45 best planets for life. That means they are the most potentially habitable out of the known exoplanets so far. Image via Gillis Lowry/ Royal Astronomical Society (CC BY 4.0). Is there alien life elsewhere in our galaxy? Where are the best places to search for it? 45 of the most potentially habitable exoplanets known so far have been identified

The strange platypus has unveiled another new quirk. Scientists in Belgium said that the structures inside its hair cells are hollow. Previously we only knew bird feathers to have this unique trait. Image via Charles J. Sharp/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). 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. The platypus, one of the strangest animals on the planet, has surprised scientists once again. A team of rese

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Our friend Cecille Kennedy captured the waning gibbous moon in the early morning of November 7, 2025, from the Oregon Coast. Cecille wrote: “At moonset … the waning gibbous moon in the western sky with sunrise hues, two days after the full Beaver Moon [Hunter’s Moon].” Thank you, Cecille! Find out more about the daytime moon below. Don’t miss the next unmissable night sky event. Sign up for our free newsletter for daily night sky updat

Comet Hale-Bopp with its prominent dust (white) and plasma (blue) tails. Photo via E. Kolmhofer, H. Raab; Johannes-Kepler-Observatory/ Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Discovered by amateur astronomers: Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered on July 23, 1995, independently by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, two amateur astronomers. Many people saw it! Comet Hale-Bopp became one of the brightest comets seen from Earth in the 20th century. It reached peak brightness in April 1997 and was visible to the un

The April birthstone is the diamond. And a diamond solitaire ring is a popular choice for engagement rings. Image via EarthSky’s Marcy Curran. The April birthstone The April birthstone is the diamond. It’s treasured for its exceptional hardness and purity of color. Although the diamond is not the rarest of gems, it’s still one of the most popular gemstones. As a result of a diamonds’ cold, sparkling fire, it’s held us spellbound for centuries. What’s more, it&

Artist’s illustration showing a Starlink satellite orbiting Earth. Image via Wikideas1/ Wikimedia. CC BY 4.0. Starlink satellite unexpectedly breaks up, scattering debris A Starlink satellite unexpectedly broke up on March 29, 2026, while in orbit about 350 miles (560 km) above Earth. The satellite – numbered 34343 – had been in orbit for less than a year. It launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on May 27, 2025. SpaceX said it is investigating the cause of th

View larger/full image. | Artist’s illustration of lightning on Jupiter, based on data from the Juno spacecraft. Lightning bolts in Jupiter’s storms can be 100 times more powerful than those on Earth. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ SwRI/ MSSS/ Gerald Eichstädt. Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter. Jupiter is known for its gigantic storms, with some raging continuously over centuries. Lightning in t

This is Giants of Yosemite, by Gavin Heffernan. Heffernan has shared 4 timelapse videos from U.S. national parks with EarthSky. They’re a part of his PARKLIGHT project, meant to inspire people to protect our parklands. See the other national park timelapse videos below. Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter. Awe-inspiring national park timelapse videos Watch Taurus the Bull rise above Half Do

Look for the Big and Little Dipper high in the northern sky on spring evenings. This view is for the Northern Hemisphere. The 2 outer stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris, the North Star. Polaris marks the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. Chart via EarthSky. Don’t miss the next unmissable night sky event. Sign up to EarthSky’s free newsletter for daily night sky updates. The Big and Little Dipper The Big Dipper is one of the easiest star patterns to locate in Earth&#

We’re entering the long meteor draught after the early January Quadrantids. Up next is the Lyrid meteor shower, they’ll be best after midnight and before dawn on April 22. And good news, they will be under a dark and moonless sky. April 2026 meteors … the Lyrids When to watch in 2026: After midnight and through dawn on the morning of April 22. The predicted** peak is 19:15 UTC on April 22. The peak of the Lyrids is narrow (no weeks-long stretches of meteor-watching, as with som