Could Earth Have Rings? The Surprising Answer Hiding in Our Planet’s Past

Picture stepping outside on a clear night and looking up to see a bright arc of ice and rock curving across the sky, the...

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....

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...

The Harp Constellation: Meet Lyra, the Little Star Pattern With a Giant Reputation

Some constellations are enormous and still somehow forgettable. Lyra is the opposite. It's one...

Eclipse, Meteors, and Six Planets: A Rare Astronomical Night This Wednesday

There are some nights when looking up at the sky feels a little different....

How Far Is the Sun From Earth? The 93-Million-Mile Answer and Why It Keeps Changing

The Sun sits an average of about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from...

How Old Is the Universe? The 13.8-Billion-Year Answer and How We Measured It

The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. More precisely, 13.787 billion years, give...

Where Did the Term “Right Ascension” Originate, and Why Not Just Call It “Ascension”?

If you've ever tried picking up a telescope, downloading a stargazing app, or looking through a night sky map, you have probably run into...

How You’ll Be Able to Track Artemis 3 in Real Time (And What the Mission Actually Is Now)

If you spent any part of April 2026 refreshing a browser tab watching a...

The Big Dipper: How to Find the Sky’s Most Famous Star Pattern and Everything It Points To

Ask almost anyone to name a shape in the night sky and there's a...

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,...

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...

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...

How Far Is the Sun From Earth? The 93-Million-Mile Answer and Why It Keeps Changing

The Sun sits an average of about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from...

Discover 10 Space Facts That Sound Fake But Are True

Have you ever wondered if the universe is playing a trick on your imagination?...

Why Is the Moon Orange Tonight: The Simple Science Behind a Glowing Red Moon

The Short Answer The Moon usually looks orange or red because it's sitting low on...

What Is a Planet? The Three Simple Rules That Decide, and Why Pluto Failed Them

A planet is a world that orbits the Sun, is round, and has swept...

The Orion Nebula (M42): A Beginner’s Guide to the Closest Star Factory to Earth

Go outside on a clear winter evening and find Orion, the Hunter. It's one...

How Old is the Oldest Thing on the Planet from Our Solar System?

Ever look up at the night sky and wonder what's actually the oldest thing...

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...

Neptune’s Tiny Moons Contain a Mineral That Shouldn’t Exist Out There, and It’s Rewriting Their History

Larissa and Galatea, two small, dark moons orbiting close to Neptune, sit in a...

What Is a Magnetar? The Strongest Magnets in the Universe

Somewhere out there sits a stellar remnant so magnetically powerful it could, in theory,...

The Harp Constellation: Meet Lyra, the Little Star Pattern With a Giant Reputation

Some constellations are enormous and still somehow forgettable. Lyra is the opposite. It's one...

Planets

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 the night sky, you're looking, in a roundabout way, toward one of the strangest objects in the entire galaxy, a supermassive black hole sitting quietly at the very center of...

Is Pluto a Planet: The Real Story Behind the Solar System’s Most Famous Demotion

The Short Answer No, Pluto is no longer classified as a planet. In 2006 the...

What Is the Solar System? A Complete Guide for Beginners

Ever wonder how our vast cosmic neighborhood came to be? Many people gaze at...

A Musician’s Hobby Doubled the Size of the Known Solar System Overnight

For nearly six thousand years of recorded human history, the solar system ended at...

Meteorite Definition: What a Meteorite Really Is, and How It Differs From a Meteor

Here's the meteorite definition in one line: a meteorite is a piece of rock...

Space Missions

Planets Ranked by Size: All Eight Worlds From Biggest to Smallest

Here are the planets ranked by size, largest to smallest: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury. Jupiter is the undisputed giant...

Our Neighboring Galaxy Is Slowing Down, and Nobody’s Quite Sure Why

Andromeda has been humanity's most-watched galaxy for over a century, close enough to spot...

How Far Is the Sun From Earth? The 93-Million-Mile Answer and Why It Keeps Changing

The Sun sits an average of about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from...

Solar Eclipses Explained: What Are They, and How Often Does an Eclipse of the Sun Occur?

If you were anywhere in the path of totality back in April 2024, theres a good chance the memory still sticks with you, the sky going dark in the middle of the afternoon, the temperature dropping, birds going quiet like its suddenly nighttime. Its...

The Wonders of the Constellation Andromeda: Stars, Myths, and Galaxies

Fall evenings have a certain magic to them, the air gets crisp, the sky gets darker earlier, and if you look up toward the...

Planet Earth

What is Jupiter’s Distance from the Sun? Facts and Figures

Theres something almost hard to wrap your head around when you start comparing distances...

Observing Basics: Supercharge Your Observing

Owning a telescope and actually knowing how to use it well are two completely...

Venus: Size, Distance From the Sun, and Its Backward Orbit

Venus is often called Earth's twin, and on paper, that nickname makes sense, its...

James Webb Telescope Latest Discoveries Explained Today

Did you know that light from the first stars takes over 13 billion years...

What Is Uranus’s Distance from the Sun? The Complete Guide to the Ice Giant’s Orbit

When you look up at the night sky Uranus is totally invisible to the naked eye most of the time. Its way out there on the cold edge of our solar system. If you ever wondered what is uranus's distance from the sun then...

All Articles

What Colors Are the Planets in Our Solar System? (Including the Color Planet Venus)

Flip through any old astronomy textbook and you'll usually find the planets lined up...

What Sort of Star Is the Sun? Facts, Size, and Fate of Our Blazing Star

Weve all grown up staring at it, feeling its heat, and building our entire...

How to See T Coronae Borealis: The Brightest Nova of the Generation

Every so often, the night sky offers up something that genuinely doesn't happen very...

Astronomers Discover the Nearest Black Hole to Earth

Black holes have a reputation for being distant, exotic objects, the kind of thing...

How Will the Sun Die? Understanding When Does the Sun Explode (or Fade Away)

Its a question that pops into almost everyone's head at some point, usually somewhere...

How Vast Is the Universe? Discovering Exactly How Space Is Big

Try, just for a second, to actually picture the size of the universe. Most...