The Sun sets over the Pacific Ocean in this stunning shot taken from the International Space Station. Earth reaches perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in our year-long elliptical orbit, early this week. Credit: NASA Friday, January 3Asteroid 14 Irene reaches opposition at 2 A.M. EST within northwestern Gemini the Twins. The magnitude 9.6…

From geomagnetic storms to total solar eclipses, keen astronomers and stargazers have enjoyed a big 2024 in the sky.  If you got into space attractions last year, don’t worry, there is plenty in store for 2025.  You can expect to see a spectacular meteor shower and heightened solar activity.  There will be several eclipses too,…

Fast radio bursts (FRBs)—short-lived but immensely powerful explosions of radio waves—have puzzled scientists since their first discovery in 2007. These fleeting signals can release as much energy in a millisecond as the Sun emits in an entire day. Now, an international team of researchers led by Kenzie Nimmo from MIT and colleagues from institutions like…

Our species called this latest 366-day journey around the sun “2024” and packed into it a ton of astronomical and spaceflight excitement. A solar eclipse crossed North America. Two robotic landers reached the lunar surface, largely intact. The most powerful rocket booster ever built was caught by a pair of mechanical arms nicknamed “chopsticks.” A…

Touch down: an image of the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon taken by the Lunar Excursion Vehicle-2 shows the craft landed on its nose (Courtesy: JAXA) The past few years have seen several missions to the Moon and that continued in 2024. Yet things didn’t get off to a perfect start. In 2023, the Japanese Space…

Dust in the heart of galaxy NGC628. NASA / ESA / CSA / Judy Schmidt, CC BY On this day three years ago, we witnessed the nail-biting launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest and most powerful telescope humans have ever sent into space. It took 30 years to build, but in…

Kick-off 2025 with January’s breathtaking astronomical events! In this guide, you’ll find the full stargazing forecast for January, including a spectacular meteor shower, a possible naked-eye comet, planets shining brightest, and more. To easily find celestial objects in the sky, use the free Sky Tonight astronomy app. Let’s get started! Contents All astronomical events in…

<!––><!– –><!– <!––><!– –><!––> The University of Sharjah hosted an astrolabe workshop in which western scientists showed participants how an astronomical instrument made by an ancient Muslim scholar nearly 1,000 years ago measured the altitude of the sun throughout the twelve zodiacal signs and told local time through the position of the sun in the…

Edwin Hubble (born November 20, 1889, Marshfield, Missouri, U.S.—died September 28, 1953, San Marino, California) was an American astronomer who played a crucial role in establishing the field of extragalactic astronomy and is generally regarded as the leading observational cosmologist of the 20th century. Hubble was the son of John Powell Hubble, a businessman who…

The first black hole ever photographed is still surprising researchers. Immortalized by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019, M87* , was recently spotted emitting a massive gamma-ray flare. Studying it may help scientists figure out how particles behave near black holes. Matter falling toward a black hole forms an accretion disk — a hot, swirling…