Muhammad Mirza 
Spend Christmas with Comet A3 thanks to the Virtual Telescope Project. Watch live as the comet departs our neighborhood. Image via Virtual Telescope Project. The 2025 EarthSky Lunar Calendar is now available! A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar. Get yours today! A goodbye glimpse of Comet A3 Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS made a great evening appearance … Read more
Through the Artemis Program, NASA will send the first astronauts to the Moon since the Apollo Era before 2030. They will be joined by multiple space agencies, like the ESA and China, who plan to send astronauts (and “taikonauts”) there for the first time. Beyond this, all plan to build permanent habitats in the South … Read more
The recent sightings of puzzling unidentified aircraft in New Jersey and other states have triggered yet another round of unanswered questions — and fueled conspiracy theories. For one, the odd objects have sparked a visual public mayday and melee — one that might be mirroring elements of the ongoing unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) issue, spurring … Read more
This artist’s concept shows many tiny primordial black holes. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center While black holes are perplexing at any size, some of the most mysterious are hypothetical primordial black holes, those that sprung into existence in the first second after the Big Bang and some of which are featherweights on the black … Read more
How much Star Wars is too much Star Wars? Disney and Lucasfilm don’t think we’ve reached critical mass yet. On top of the many Star Wars shows already available on Disney Plus — and the five Star Wars movies released post-Disney acquisition so far— many more projects are in development, with a renewed focus on … Read more
Giant, gas-rich planets may have been able to form more easily in the very early universe than they do today, according to astounding new findings from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that corroborate earlier Hubble Space Telescope evidence. In 2003, Hubble found a massive exoplanet. There’s nothing too unusual about that, but closer inspection … Read more
Imagine building a shield in orbit to protect Earth against environmental destruction — a fleet of cooperative satellites forming a massive umbrella that reduces solar energy reaching Earth, mitigating the impacts of climate change. This might sound like science fiction or a politically impossible dream, but it’s neither. It’s an engineering and governance challenge the … Read more
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Rob Ratkowski took this all-sky view from Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii in 2023. It shows the path of the sun across the sky at the solstices (top and bottom) and at the equinoxes (center). Thanks, Rob! Find more personal solstices below! Read December solstice 2024 all you need to … Read more
In 2024, the December solstice falls at 9:21 UTC on December 21 (3:21 a.m. CST). Long nights, short days, for the Northern Hemisphere. Short nights, long days, for our friends south of the equator. No matter where you live on Earth’s globe, the solstice is your signal to celebrate seasonal change. EarthSky’s veteran stargazers Deborah … Read more
Orion the Hunter is arguably the most recognizable constellation in the world. Orion lies on the celestial equator, making it visible from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Orion’s shape is easy to pick out because of its many bright stars and signature Orion’s Belt: three stars close together in a nearly straight line. Orion … Read more