Space

Newly released photographs of the sun captured during the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse reveal the sun’s outer atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The images, released by researchers working as part of the Solar Wind Sherpas project coordinated by the University of Hawaii, also show rare structures in the solar wind known as smoke rings. Named for their resemblance to the circles blown by…

Update for 4 p.m. ET on Oct. 28: Virgin Galactic unveiled its first Delta-class space plane on Wednesday (Oct. 28), revealing that it’s named Apeiron. You can read about it here. Space tourists and citizen astronauts rejoice! A new suborbital spacecraft is about to be introduced that will fly ticketholders on brief, suborbital journeys just above Earth. Virgin Galactic plans to unveil its…

In 1927, Norwegian civil engineer and amateur radio operator Jørgen Hals made an unusual discovery: while monitoring transmissions from a shortwave radio station in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, he began hearing odd, “delayed” radio echoes, arriving approximately three seconds after the original transmissions, that sometimes accompanied the station’s signals. “From where…

The full “Hunter’s Moon” wowed stargazers with a breathtaking display of natural light when it rose to dominate the autumn sky overnight on Oct. 25-26. Here are our favorite photos captured from around the world. October’s full moon is often known as the Hunter’s Moon because it traditionally rose around the time that hunters would take to the newly harvested fields…