Herschel and the new planet William HerschelSir William Herschel, detail of an oil painting by L. Abbott, 1785; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.(more) The foremost observational astronomer of the period was William Herschel. Herschel was born in Hannover, Germany, in 1738, but he moved to England as a young man to avoid the Continental…

Jonathan McDowell is a go-to expert for all things spaceflight. Thousands of subscribers read his monthly Space Report, and far more people have seen him on cable news and other media platforms explaining unexpected events in orbit. But that has always been his side gig: For 37 years, Dr. McDowell has been a specialist in…

There’s a bit of “a mess” out there in the Earth’s orbit, where about 11,000 satellites are in place — a number that could grow to around 50,000 over the coming years. That’s the word from David Kendall, retired director general of Space Science and Technology at the Canadian Space Agency, who spoke to Jonathan…

We thought, when we sat down to compile a list of songs about space and astronomy, that it would be  a nice easy thing to do. After all, there are loads of them, aren’t there? Well, yes and no. There are certainly a million and one songs with ‘star’ or ‘sun’ or ‘cosmic’ or ‘planet’…

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope — which has been fully built and is scheduled to launch in 2027 — could be cancelled if the Trump administration’s proposed NASA budget is enacted. Credit: NASA NASA could see a 20 percent cut to its overall 2026 budget, with funding for its science division slashed in half,…

Astronomers have uncovered shocking evidence that one of the closest galaxies to our own is being torn to shreds by its neighbor. Located around 200,000 light-years from Earth, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a dwarf galaxy that, alongside its neighbor the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), is gravitationally bound to our Milky Way. The two…

Nine people are crammed in a tiny room with no ceiling on the grounds of Kitt Peak National Observatory. It’s cold. It’s dark. Each person awaits a turn at the eyepiece of a 20-inch telescope trained on an object. A marbled sphere, swirled in colors of maroon, rust, and cream. It’s Jupiter, a fellow planet in…

The Research Topic you are reading highlights the breadth and cross disciplinary nature of Astronomy and Space Physics. The papers contained here feature research efforts spanning the wide range of research topics covered by this Journal, from our Solar System to Relativity theory, and even to ourselves as scientists. Close to home, new research on…

CHAMPAIGN — The number of active satellites orbiting Earth has increased dramatically in recent years, surpassing 10,000. With so many objects in orbit, space traffic control is necessary to prevent collisions.  “Though there is a lot of space in space, it’s starting to get crowded,” said Dave Leake, former director of Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland…

CHAMPAIGN — The number of active satellites orbiting Earth has increased dramatically in recent years, surpassing 10,000. With so many objects in orbit, space traffic control is necessary to prevent collisions.  “Though there is a lot of space in space, it’s starting to get crowded,” said Dave Leake, former director of Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland…