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Galaxies & Deep Space

Supermoon: What It Really Is, Why It Happens, and When to Catch the Next One

A supermoon is a full moon that lines up with the Moon's closest approach to Earth, making it look a little bigger and noticeably brighter than an ordinary full moon. At its best, a supermoon can appear up to 14% larger and about 30%...

What Is a Constellation? A Beginner’s Guide to the Sky’s 88 Star Patterns

A constellation is a group of stars that forms a recognizable pattern in the night sky, one we've given a name, usually after a mythological figure, animal, or object. There are 88 of them officially recognized, and together they map out the entire sky....
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What Is the Big Bang? The Moment Everything Started

Everything that exists, every galaxy, star, planet, and atom in your own body, traces...

What Is a Neutron Star? The Densest Objects Astronomers Can Actually See

Squeeze the mass of our entire Sun into a sphere about the size of...

What Is a Red Giant? The Bloated Stage Every Sun-Like Star Eventually Reaches

Betelgeuse just made headlines again this July, when astronomers finally captured a direct image...

What Is a White Dwarf? The Compact Corpse of a Dying Star

Most stars don't explode when they die. Instead, they shrink down into something small,...

Sagittarius A*: The Monster Black Hole Hiding at the Center of Our Own Galaxy

Every time you look up at the band of the Milky Way stretching across...

How Many Solar Systems Are in the Milky Way?

It's one of those questions that sounds simple until you actually try to answer...

Meet the 10 Nearest Stars to Our Solar System

Look up at a truly dark sky and you're seeing light from thousands of...

Is Proxima Centauri b the Most Promising Exoplanet We’ve Found?

When astronomers confirmed the discovery of Proxima Centauri b back in 2016, it felt...

What Is a Pulsar? The Spinning Stellar Lighthouses of the Galaxy

In the summer of 1967, a 24 year old graduate student named Jocelyn Bell...

Four Hypothetical Stars So Strange Scientists Still Aren’t Sure They’re Real

Most of what we know about stars fits into a fairly predictable pattern, they're...

What Is a Galaxy? Learn About Stars Planets and More

Imagine standing in your backyard on a clear, moonless night. You look up and...

The Beginning to the End of the Universe: Will Black Holes Die?

Black holes have this reputation as the ultimate cosmic bullies. They swallow stars, rip...

Latest articles

Supermoon: What It Really Is, Why It Happens, and When to Catch the Next One

A supermoon is a full moon that lines up with the Moon's closest approach...

What Is a Constellation? A Beginner’s Guide to the Sky’s 88 Star Patterns

A constellation is a group of stars that forms a recognizable pattern in the...

How Many Planets Are There? The Real Answer Is Bigger Than Eight

There are eight planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,...

What Is a Galaxy? A Simple Guide to the Great Islands of Stars

A galaxy is an enormous collection of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter, all...