SpaceX shared stunning photos of its Falcon 9 rocket carrying the U.S. Space Force’s secretive X-37B space plane into orbit last week.
The pictures capture the nighttime launch on Aug. 21, when the robotic X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 11:50 p.m. EDT (0350 GMT on Aug.
James Webb Space Telescope takes 1st look at interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS with unexpected results
August 27, 2025
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has observed the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS for the first time. The powerful space telescope trained its infrared vision and its Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument (NIRspec) on the comet on Aug. 6, 2025.
Discovered on July 1 by the…
World's most powerful solar telescope sees incredible coronal loops on the sun (image)
August 27, 2025
The smallest magnetic loops ever seen in the sun’s corona — imaged for the first time by the National Science Foundation’s Daniel F. Inouye Solar Telescope — could be the bottom floor of the machinery that powers the ferocious flares that routinely blast out…
A glowing hand stretches across the cosmos, with its palm and fingers sculpted from the wreckage of a massive stellar explosion.
The eerie structure is part of the nebula MSH 15-52, powered by pulsar B1509-58 — a rapidly spinning neutron star that is only about 12 miles (20 kilometers) in diameter. By combining radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) with X-rays from…
On Aug. 2, 2027, a total solar eclipse will cast its shadow from the Strait of Gibraltar through North Africa and into the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. During the eclipse, the sun’s disk will be completely covered from our perspective on Earth for a maximum of 6…
New research suggests that dark matter could gather over vast periods of time at the heart of Jupiter-sized planets, creating black holes that eat these worlds from within. This striking concept may mean extrasolar planets, or “exoplanets,” could be used to study…
If you’ve been looking for a great full-frame mirrorless camera to capture the cosmos, you’re in luck. Walmart is currently offering a deal on the Canon EOS R8 with an RF 24-50mm lens for $1316, a huge saving from the original price of $1,699. This is a good time to buy, as you’ll be able to capture some stunning images of the Milky Way before the galactic core disappears from…
Pair of colliding galaxies may hint at the fate of the Milky Way and its closest galactic neighbor
August 25, 2025
New observations of a pair of colliding spiral galaxies hint at what might be in store for the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy if and when they collide.
The findings, described in July in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, may also help to…
The latest mission of the U.S. Space Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane is underway.
The robotic X-37B lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida tonight (Aug. 21) at 11:50 p.m. EDT (0350 GMT on Aug. 22).
The…
On Aug. 23, the night sky will play host to an unusual lunar event known as a Black Moon.
While you won’t actually see anything unusual (in fact, you won’t see the moon at all), this event is still exciting because of its rarity.
At 2:06 a.m. EDT (06:06 GMT) — which is 11:06 p.m. PDT on Friday (Aug. 22) — the moon will officially pass through its new moon phase. At that moment…