NEW YORK — Madison Square Park in midtown Manhattan is home to some 44 tree species. And on a Thursday afternoon blanketed in wildfire smoke, a small crowd gathered to see one in particular. The slender American sweet gum looked unassuming, especially compared to the enormous English elm neighboring it. But this tree had a secret: it had traveled 1.3 million miles before landing in New…
An 'almost blood moon' is coming on Aug. 27 and it'll be the best lunar eclipse until NYE 2028
July 28, 2026
One month from today, skywatchers across the Americas, Europe and Africa will have the chance to witness the best lunar eclipse until New Year’s Eve 2028.
On Aug. 28, Earth’s shadow will cover up to 96% of the moon’s disk in an exceptionally deep partial…
There is a particular moment every July when the night sky makes perfect sense to me. Every time I step outside at night, I instinctively look overhead for the Summer Triangle. Not because it’s the most spectacular sight in the sky. In fact, the vast asterism is almost…
A Long March-3B carrier rocket carrying the Tianlian II-06 satellite blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on July 23, 2026 in Xichang, Sichuan Province of China. (Image credit: Zhou Quan/VCG via Getty Images)
Lightning struck a Chinese rocket shortly after liftoff this week, as seen in incredible video and photographs.
A Long March-3B rocket lifted off from China’s Xichang…
Hubble telescope watches unique nova explosion fire cosmic 'bullets' through the Milky Way at 20 million mph
July 27, 2026
Using NASA’s long-serving Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that a stellar explosion in the Milky Way is blasting out cosmic bullets travelling at 20 million miles per hour.
The cosmic explosion in question is V445 Puppis, which erupted in 2000 and is…
LOS ANGELES — Standing in the shadow of the space shuttle Endeavour, a group of retired NASA astronauts announced their plan to travel the country visiting colleges to try to inspire younger generations to get out and vote. This campaign comes as we lead up to the November…
The moon’s south pole has long been the target of NASA’s Artemis lunar landing missions, but one Artemis astronaut is questioning if that’s still the best plan.
NASA’s Victor Glover, who piloted the Artemis II mission around the moon this past April, proposed a different approach while speaking at the NASA Exploration Science Forum at the agency’s Ames Research…
The James Webb Space Telescope's disappearing 'Little Red Dots' may lead to another cosmic puzzle
July 24, 2026
Paleontologists now know that many of the dinosaurs didn’t disappear but instead evolved into modern birds, and new research suggests that “cosmic dinosaurs” observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) didn’t go extinct either. Rather, they may…
'The court has to intervene now': Indigenous groups and conservationists condemn SpaceX's South Texas land swap
July 23, 2026
The fight continues against SpaceX’s controversial South Texas land swap.
That deal, which the company made with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), gives SpaceX 727 acres (294 hectares) of public land that’s currently part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley…
Swelling from a razor-thin crescent into a cratered world before fading back into the darkness, Mars gave NASA’s Psyche spacecraft both a spectacular view — and a 1,000-mph boost toward its namesake asteroid.
A new time-lapse video released by NASA, stitched from images taken throughout May, captures the probe’s month-long encounter with Mars. On May 15, Psyche swooped within 2,864…
