Astronomy

Thousands of spacecraft circle Earth. Seeing them from the ground is surprisingly easy—and a lot of fun

Earth is bombarded by millions of bits of cosmic debris every day. Here’s how to distinguish between the different types

A new interpretation of Isaac Newton’s writings clarifies what the father of classical mechanics meant in his first law of motion

The doomed class of stars named Wolf-Rayets produce mysterious pinwheel shapes

Yellow, white or maybe even green—the sun’s hue depends on how you see it

August gets not only a second full moon but a rare super blue moon

Scientists debate what the future of the cosmos looks like and whether space will ever stop getting bigger and bigger

If you want to make it through the trials and tribulations of Mercury in retrograde, it’s easy: don’t do anything. You’ll be fine

Although Arecibo Observatory is slated to become an education center, astronomers hope research might one day return to the site

A new view of a record-shattering distant star shows it to be twice as hot as our sun and likely accompanied by a stellar companion

All you need to see one of the year’s best meteor showers is a clear, dark sky—and patience

Marvel for a moment at the Milky Way’s night-sky spectacle—and the scientific revolutions it has sparked