View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Tawnya Silloway in Colorado submitted this imgae on January 23, 2025, and wrote: “I was able to photograph many fluffy snowflakes yesterday, but this one stood out because she brought a daisy.” Thank you, Tawnya! Exquisite crystalline snowflakes capture the imagination. But what is the science behind their formation, … Read more
The discovery of a new asteroid this month has turned out to be anything but. In fact, it isn’t even a natural object. The wannabe asteroid, announced on Jan. 2 as 2018 CN41, is actually a Tesla Roadster launched into space years ago by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The company sent the car (with a … Read more
To date it has been a superb winter for viewing the queen of the planets, Venus. February marks the pinnacle of the evening visibility of Venus as it stands like a sequined showgirl nearly halfway up in the western sky at sunset. Currently shining at its greatest brilliance for this current apparition, this dazzling evening … Read more
Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2 is now in the works, and it might be a far, far weirder set of episodes. Imperfect but daring, Star Wars: Ahsoka’s first season did a lot to expand on the mystique of the Star Wars galaxy and bring back Star Wars Rebels players in surprising ways. Now, we await … Read more
For centuries, humanity has dreamed of exploring distant planets. With the upcoming Artemis 2 mission taking astronauts around the moon, NASA is taking its first steps toward future crewed missions to Mars in the 2030s and 2040s. But you don’t need to leave Earth to experience landscapes that feel out of this world. From volcanic … Read more
Researchers have obtained the first conclusive evidence of an elusive third class of magnetism, called altermagnetism. Their findings, published Dec. 11 in the journal Nature, could revolutionize the design of new high-speed magnetic memory devices and provide the missing puzzle piece in the development of better superconducting materials. “We have previously had two well-established types … Read more
Throughout February, a striking gathering of the five brightest planets—Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Saturn—along with the more elusive Uranus and Neptune, will be the main celestial attraction in the evening sky. Later in the month, anyone with a clear, unobstructed view of the horizon may be able to see all five bright planets stretching … Read more
The ESA’s Gaia mission mapped the positions and velocities of stars with extreme precision by measuring about one billion stars multiple times. It created a massive 3D map of the Milky Way that will pay scientific dividends for years to come. Gaia is based on astrometry, the study of the positions and movements of celestial … Read more
On Nov. 14, 2024, the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences marked the successful completion of SIRIUS-23, a year-long biomedical isolation experiment simulating the conditions of deep-space travel and lunar surface operations. For 366 days, a crew of six analog astronauts lived and worked in a sealed environment, a meticulously … Read more
Technicians carrying the precious sample of asteroid Bennu in 2023. The sample was headed for a newly constructed clean room at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Image via NASA. Bennu is a carbon-rich asteroid that passes semi-close to Earth about every six years. Scientists say it might have originated from a larger body farther out … Read more