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 of the smallest patterns in the whole sky, yet on...

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...

Meet the 10 Nearest Stars to Our Solar System

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

Perseid Meteor Shower 2026: Your Complete Guide to This Year’s Best Show

If you've been waiting for the right year to finally see the Perseids at...

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...

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 on the planet, or even in the whole solar system?...

The Colors of the Planets: What Are They and Why Do They Vary? planet colors

If you line up high resolution photos of all eight planets in our solar...

The Week Humanity Watched a Comet Die on Live Television

For seven days in July 1994, astronomers around the world barely slept. Twenty-one pieces...

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...

How Many Moons Does Neptune Have: Meet Triton and the Ice Giant’s Strange Family

The Short Answer Neptune has 16 known moons. That's the current official count from NASA,...

The Photo That Needed an Earth-Sized Camera to Take

Nobody had ever seen a black hole. Not because telescopes weren't powerful enough in...

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...

What Is a Nebula? The Cosmic Clouds That Build and Bury Stars

Some of the most breathtaking photos in all of astronomy, the ones that end...

The Little Dipper: How to Find Ursa Minor and the North Star That Sits at Its Tip

Almost everyone has heard of the Little Dipper, and almost everyone assumes it's easy...

Einstein Said This Would Never Be Detected. He Was Off by 100 Years.

At 5:51 a.m. Eastern time on September 14, 2015, a signal lasting a quarter...

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

Fall evenings have a certain magic to them, the air gets crisp, the sky...

Aurora Australis: The Southern Lights, Nature’s Glowing Show at the Bottom of the World

Almost everyone has seen photos of the Northern Lights, those rippling green curtains that...

The Beauty of Great Comets: Images, Pictures, and Night Sky Wonders

Every once in a while, the night sky throws in something extra, a bright,...

Planets

The Full Moon Calendar for 2026: Every Date, Name, and Phase to Know

If you've ever wondered why some months seem to have a bigger, brighter moon than others, or why your grandmother always called the September full moon the "Harvest Moon," this full moon calendar 2026 guide has you covered. Below you'll find every full moon...

August 12, 2026: The Day the Sky Puts on Three Shows at Once

Most years, skywatchers have to pick their moments. You wait for a meteor shower,...

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...

The Full Moon Calendar for 2026: Every Date, Name, and Phase to Know

If you've ever wondered why some months seem to have a bigger, brighter moon...

What is Hoag’s Object?

If you scan through deep space photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, most...

Space Missions

How Big Is the Universe? Facts About Its Incredible Size

Did you know that light travels at 186,000 miles per second, yet it would take billions of years to cross our known reality? Scientists...

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,...

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...

See the Most Detailed Real Picture of the Sun’s Surface Ever Taken

Every so often, a new image comes along that completely resets what we thought we knew about something we've been staring at our entire lives. That's exactly what just happened with the Sun. Scientists working with the world's most powerful solar telescope just released...

Venus: Size, Distance from the Sun, Orbit

When you look up at the evening sky right after sunset, you can often spot a brilliant point of light shining brighter than almost...

Planet Earth

Why Do Stars Twinkle: The Simple Reason Behind the Night Sky’s Shimmer

The Short Answer Stars twinkle because of the Earth's atmosphere, not because of anything the...

149 Years Ago Today, a Foggy Washington Sky Nearly Cost Us a Discovery

On the night of August 17, 1877, at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington,...

NASA Destroyed a Perfectly Working Spacecraft on Purpose. Here’s Why That Was the Right Call.

On September 15, 2017, mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory watched a signal...

Why Does Uranus Rotate on Its Side Learn the Science Behind It

Ever thought a planet could just tip over? Our solar system looks like a...

How Many Black Holes Are Actually in the Milky Way?

Roughly one in every thousand stars in the Milky Way is massive enough to eventually collapse into a black hole. With an estimated 100 billion stars filling our galaxy, that ratio adds up to something genuinely startling, and only a tiny sliver of them...

All Articles

What Is a Waxing Moon?

If you've ever looked up at the Moon and noticed that it seems to...

What Is Geothermal Energy?

If you've ever wondered what is geothermal energy and how heat buried deep beneath...

A Tiny Probe the Size of a Cellphone Could Make Asteroid Gravity Measurements : spc gravity

What if one of the most important things we learn about an asteroid comes...

Chinese Satellite Pulverizes Starlink

The headline sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie. A Chinese...

What Is Dark Matter and Why Can’t We See It Explained

Did you know that roughly 85 percent of the cosmos remains completely hidden from...

Perseid Meteor Shower 2026: Peak Time and Viewing Tips

If you enjoy stepping outside on a warm summer night and watching the sky,...