ASTRONOMY

The center of the Milky Way galaxy, with the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, located in the middle, as captured in x-ray and infrared in this 2013 NASA photo.

Astronomers Will Soon Have the First-Ever Picture of a Black Hole

“We might see a crescent, brightened on one side—or a bipolar, jet-like structure. We honestly don’t know.”

FAECIASP/NASA/Conicet of Argentina/Getty Images

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Black Holes

They’re probably the weirdest—and certainly the most puzzling—objects in the universe. Peer over the event horizon with us.

Watch How Stars Will Move Over the Next 5,000,000 Years

Constellations are temporary.

Look Up Tonight! The Lyrids Meteor Shower Is Set to Stun!

You can expect to see 10 meteors an hour tonight.

The Fireball That Killed the Dinosaurs Could Help Us Find Life on Other Planets

The Chicxulub crater is providing new clues about how life may have begun on Earth about 4 billion years ago—and point us towards how and where we can look for life across the universe.

New "Super-Earth" Exoplanet May Have Water—and Life

The planet resides in its star’s habitable zone, the slim "Goldilocks" orbit at which water can exist as a stable liquid.

An artist's rendering of the Europa mission's spacecraft. Main Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech Banner Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

How Will the Europa Lander Search for Life?

New details on the breaking-edge mission to the Jovian moon.

You Can Help NASA Prove the Existence of Planet 9

The space agency is funding a massive crowdsourcing effort to comb through 200,000 images in search of a theorized ninth planet.

Look Up! Jupiter Is Close, Bright, and Showing Its Stripes

Get your telescope: You’re going to see some magical things.

5 Teams Aim for the Moon This Year—and the $20 Million Google Lunar XPrize

They have to beat the December 31, 2017 deadline.

Astronomers Find Seven "Earth-Like" Planets Orbiting a Cool Star

“It’s the first time we have seven planets in this temperate zone … that can be called terrestrial,” lead author Michaël Gillon said in a press briefing.

10 Weird Planetary Phenomena Discovered by Amateur Astronomers

Some seriously stellar discoveries have been made by at-home stargazers.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

Hubble Captures Incredible View of Galaxy-Sized Maser

Imagine a galactic-scale laser shooting a beam of microwaves across space.

Look Up! Venus Will Be Bright and a Little Strange Tonight

Get your telescope.

Look Up Again! The Final Supermoon of 2016 Rises Tonight

Good news: the supermoon will be bright! The bad news: it brightness will dampen your view of the Geminid meteor shower.

Look Up Tonight! Here's How to Find the Beehive in Space

Are you in? You’re going to need a pair of binoculars.

Scientists Seek Your Help to Photograph Another Sun's "Pale Blue Dot"

Project Blue is an effort by a group of scientists, engineers, and space organizations to launch a small telescope into space with the singular goal of directly imaging in visible light (i.e. the light we see with our own eyes) an Earth-like planet.