Stars shine because atoms fuse in their interiors, releasing energy. When a very massive star has exhausted its nuclear fuel, radiation pressure can no longer provide sufficient counterforce to gravity. The star then collapses under its own mass until only a single point remains: the singularity.
A “galaxy-killing” wind driven by cosmic mergers may explain why many massive galaxies in the early universe stopped forming stars far earlier than expected, according to new JWST and ALMA observations. Continue ReadingJames Webb Space Telescope discovers ‘galaxy-killing’ wind that may explain why some early galaxies lived fast and died young
NASA pushed its Deep Space Network beyond its limits during the Artemis I mission nearly four years ago. The global array of deep space communications antennas couldn’t keep up with the routine demands of 40 robotic science missions and the extraordinary surge required by NASA’s Orion space capsule as it flew around the Moon. The experience in late 2022 reduced or delayed downlinks from several high-profile science missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope and Mars rovers, as the data-hungry Artemis I mission took priority on NASA’s communications network. And that was before the first Artemis mission with astronauts onboard. Continue ReadingAfter nearly breaking, NASA’s Deep Space Network “worked well” on Artemis II
The past and present are rife with examples of advisers convincing leaders of the benefits of launching an ill-advised war, or downplaying the risks of a potentially fatal flaw in the design of a car or spacecraft.
Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will form a striking 3-planet parade low above the western horizon after sunset tonight (June 12), offering a brief but beautiful show. Continue ReadingDon’t miss this beautiful 3-planet parade after sunset tonight — it won’t last long
If you’re like us, you’ve been following the close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the June dusk sky. Next week, the Moon enters the evening scene, and actually occults (passes in front of) the planet Venus in what promises to be one of the top skywatching events for 2026.
To truly understand what an asteroid is made up of, we need to send a probe to it. Remote sensing from ground-based telescopes, or even orbiting observatories, and only do so much. A new white paper submitted to the UK Space Agency’s 2035 Space Frontiers programme, pitches just such a mission architecture. Called the REndezvous Mission for Orbital Reconstruction of Asteroids (REMORA), the plan calls for a swarm of autonomous CubeSats to tag, track, and characterize multiple near-Earth asteroids.
El Niño, Nature’s chaotic climate agent, has formed in a warmed-up Pacific Ocean and is expected to grow to historic strength, meteorologists announced Thursday.
In Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, opening tomorrow, protagonists race across the globe to expose a decades-long government cover-up and reveal to the world that extraterrestrial life is real. It’s a question Spielberg has been asking since his 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind: How would the knowledge of extraterrestrial intelligence change us? Spielberg makesContinue reading “The real disclosure day: The protocols for announcing extraterrestrial intelligence” The post The real disclosure day: The protocols for Continue ReadingThe real disclosure day: The protocols for announcing extraterrestrial intelligence
‘It’s not a big deal that they’re women in their fields. They’re just sort of surviving and ruthless.’ Continue Reading‘Star City”s Agnes O’Casey and Anna Maxwell Martin spill the tea on Soviet severity, fighting for trousers, and furry hats
Sulfur is one of the most abundant elements in the universe. If you peer into a diffuse interstellar cloud, you find loads of it – about the amount expected based on fusion patterns of the stars it was born in. However, if you look at a dense, cold, molecular cloud – the kind where those stars actually form – it seems like 99% of the sulfur that is expected to be there is missing. Scientists have puzzled over this “missing sulfur problem” for decades, though a leading theory is that the element hides on icy dust grains making it hard to detect. A new paper published in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and the Centro de Astrobiologia describes a new computer simulation model that they aimed to support the interpretation of laboratory results and test our current understanding of sulfur evolution in interstellar ices.
Moon missions come in all shapes and sizes, from car-sized rovers packed with scientific equipment to towering rocket payloads—and now, a small, shape-shifting machine that is about the size of the average palm.
Celestron’s iconic orange NexStar series is on sale on Amazon and includes the smallest of the set, the NexStar 4SE, a perfect first telescope for new stargazers. It has a 4-inch aperture and go-to technology for easily finding night sky objects. Continue ReadingGrab our best telescope for beginners with $100 off the Celestron NexStar 4SE
Binary asteroid systems are widespread throughout our inner solar system. For decades, the standard paradigm held that many of them form when a rapidly spinning primary asteroid casts off material, which then reaccumulates into an elongated moon orbiting near the Roche limit.
Changes in the Southern Patagonia Icefield can be seen from space Continue ReadingAstronauts watch from space as ice splinters from a glacier | Space photo of the day for June 11, 2026
We got tactical and stayed frosty for our preview of Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, guided by game director Chris Cross. Continue Reading‘Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2’ upgrades the sci-fi action shooter to the state-of-the-badass art
Born in 1888, artist and illustrator Chesley Bonestell became famous for his realistic paintings of space. His work spanned decades and many formats and publications; perhaps most influential was his collaboration with Wernher von Brain on the 1952–54 Collier’s series, “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” By making the stuff of science fiction seem achievable, his artwork helpedContinue reading “June 11, 1986: Chesley Bonestell dies” The post June 11, 1986: Chesley Bonestell dies appeared first on Astronomy Magazine. Continue ReadingJune 11, 1986: Chesley Bonestell dies
After only four short years, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and observational cosmologists like Richard Ellis at University College London (UCL) have pushed the cosmic lookback time to an era when the universe’s very first stars and galaxies are within observational reach.
Discover why some stars shine blue, white, orange or red and what those colors tell us about the cosmos. Continue ReadingWhy do stars appear different colors in the night sky?
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk outlined more details for his company’s planned data centers in space ahead of a widely anticipated IPO on Thursday (June 11) expected to make him a trillionaire. Continue ReadingElon Musk wants to put 1 million AI satellites in space. Here’s how SpaceX could do it
