See Where Future U.S. Eclipses Will be Visible
Just how rare are total solar eclipses, which require a perfect alignment of the sun and moon?
Astronomy
Do Stars Outnumber the Sands of Earth’s Beaches?
Figuring out whether there are more stars in the universe than sand grains on Earth’s seashores requires math—and imagination
Solar Eclipse Experiment Will Fly a Kite to Avoid Cloudy Skies
A kite-borne experiment will observe the sun’s mysterious corona during the upcoming total solar eclipse
Earth Has More Than One Moon
Quirks of orbital mechanics make a cadre of sun-orbiting asteroids appear to be moons of Earth
Astronomers Fight to Save X-ray Telescope as NASA Dishes Out Budget Cuts
The Chandra X-ray Observatory faces a premature end under new funding cuts proposed by NASA—and astronomers aren’t happy
Don’t Panic, But A Lot of Stars Seem to Eat Their Own Planets
At least one in a dozen binary stars shows signs of eating their planets
Stunning Comet Spiral Offers Glimpse of Icy Snowball at Its Core
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is hiding a strange spiral in its icy heart—and it may tell scientists about the comet’s innards
Astronomers Are Snapping Baby Pictures of Planets by the Dozen
Snapshots of a plethora of planet-forming disks offer more than just eye candy—they also reveal some fundamental aspects of how worlds are born
We Need Small Astronomy as Much as Big Astronomy
In an era of budget-busting mega-telescopes, we shouldn’t forget the importance of smaller telescopes, more focused missions and the unexpected surprises they reveal about the universe
JWST Will Finally Hunt for Alien Moons—And Much More
The next year of science for the James Webb Space Telescope has been selected. It includes remote galaxy observations and, at last, a hunt for exomoons
Two Giant U.S. Telescopes Are Threatened by Federal Funding Cap
The Thirty Meter Telescope and Giant Magellan Telescope might need to compete for survival in the face of federal spending limits
New X-Ray Map of Cosmic Megastructures Unravels Subatomic Mysteries
A new catalog of more than 12,000 galaxy clusters is helping scientists better understand the universe’s clumpiness, dark energy and some of the smallest particles in the cosmos: neutrinos