A Virtual Telescope Project livestream will track NASA’s Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft as it races back toward Earth. Here’s how to watch it live. Continue ReadingWatch Artemis 2 race back to Earth in this telescope livestream tonight
Twin control rooms at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are actively supporting real-time mission operations in lunar orbit as part of the agency’s Artemis II mission, helping ensure astronaut safety and mission success as the crew prepares to return to Earth Friday, April 10.
The Lyrid meteor shower peaks overnight on April 21-22. Continue Reading1 week until the Lyrid meteor shower lights up April skies: Here’s what you need to know
‘I’m proof that if you keep dreaming big, you too can be out of this world.’ Continue ReadingNASA astronaut Leland Melvin makes a cartoon cameo in latest episode of Disney+’s ‘Hey A.J.!’
NASA’s Artemis II mission, carrying four astronauts on an out-of-this-world journey, flew around the Moon on Monday. The crew members took turns describing the stunning landscape below and captured images of Earth rising behind the Moon, in communications with Mission Control in Houston. What they did not send back in real time, due to a lack of communications bandwidth, was this high-resolution imagery. That changed on Monday night, when Orion established an optical link with Continue ReadingFinally, Artemis delivers some exceptional, high-quality photos of the Moon
Astronaut Christina Koch poses with zero-gravity indicator “Rise” in the viewport of the Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft. Continue ReadingArtemis 2 astronaut poses for epic selfie | Space photo of the day for April 9, 2026
A new study by researchers at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa revealed that the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO), a large-scale tropical disturbance that travels eastward through the tropics every 30–60 days, significantly influences climate conditions in Hawai’i. Their research, published recently in the Journal of Hydrometeorology, showed that during active MJO phases, rainfall increases across the islands, especially on windward slopes. In contrast, suppressed MJO phases tend to produce drier conditions.
The Paranal solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET), installed at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile, has made its first observations. The telescope will work with ESO’s ESPRESSO instrument to study the sun in detail. Described as a solar telescope for planet hunters, PoET aims to understand how the variation in the light from stars like the sun can mask the presence of planets orbiting them, helping us in our search for worlds outside the solar system.
Reading the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson brings the benefits and pitfalls of efforts to terraform the Red Planet into sharp relief. Since the 1970s, when Carl Sagan first suggested the possibility that we could make Mars more Earth-like, that process has been a staple of science fiction. But there’s always been a significant amount of humanity that thinks we shouldn’t. A new paper available in pre-print on arXiv from Edwin Kite of the University of Chicago and his co-authors skirts around the ethical and moral questions of whether we should and tries to take a long hard look at whether we can.
Just after they broke the human spaceflight distance record, the Artemis 2 astronauts shared a powerful moment that deepened their already profound bond. Continue Reading‘We all pretty much broke down right there’: Inside the Artemis 2 astronauts’ emotional moment near the moon
Artificial lights at night brightened up planet Earth by 16% from 2014 to 2022, a new study using satellite images has found. Continue ReadingLight pollution has brightened Earth by 16% since 2014, satellites find
Anything NASA can do, you can do too. Continue ReadingArtemis 2 mission sends ‘Kerbal Space Program’ player numbers soaring to the Mun
They took thousands of photographs and documented copious observations on their voyage around the moon, but as they sped closer to home the Artemis astronauts said Wednesday they have barely started processing the extraordinary experience they shared.
A week after astronaut Jeremy Hansen blasted off on the historic Artemis II mission to the moon, his wife Catherine recalled the anxiety and thrill of witnessing the journey from afar.
Artemis 2’s Orion capsule will hit Earth’s atmosphere at nearly 24,000 mph on April 10. A heat shield and 11 parachutes will help it survive the fiery trip and splash down safely. Continue ReadingAll eyes on Orion’s heat shield: Artemis 2 astronauts will hit Earth’s atmosphere at nearly 24,000 mph on April 10
Lunar love knows no bounds. Now hurtling home from the moon, the Artemis II astronauts took a poignant page from Apollo 8 earlier this week, proposing deeply personal names for a pair of lunar craters.
After a successful trip around the moon, everything has been going smoothly on the Orion spacecraft’s journey back to Earth—except for the $23 million toilet, which has gotten clogged.
Your guide to May’s full Flower Moon, from peak times to skywatching highlights. Continue ReadingMay full moon 2026: When, where and how to see the Flower Moon
The data pipeline from NASA’s Artemis II mission opened to full blast a few hours after looping behind the far side of the Moon on Monday night, when the Orion spacecraft established a laser communications link with a receiving station back on Earth. A cache of high-resolution images began streaming down through this connection. NASA released the first batch to the public Tuesday. Most of the images were taken by the four Artemis II astronauts Continue ReadingThe Moon is already on Google Maps—did Artemis II really tell us anything new?
The absence of a signal could itself be a signal. This is the idea behind a new study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, which aims to redefine how we search for dark matter, showing that it may not be necessary to find the same “clues” everywhere in order to interpret it.
