Astronomy

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, headed for its closest encounter with the sun next year, has started to heat up, leading to a cinematic outburst of icy volcanism

Astrophysicist Aomawa Shields recounts her alternative career path in a new memoir about life, space and motherhood

This week—and any time there’s a new crescent moon—the lunar night is a little less dark, thanks to the bright reflected light of Earth

Get to know the stellar trio behind one of the most iconic sights in summer’s night sky

Astronomers found two colliding galaxies dating back to less than 500 million years after the big bang

The sun is quickly approaching a major peak in solar activity. Experts warn it could potentially begin by the end of 2023, years before initial predictions suggested

Our planet’s not-quite-circular orbit means that on July 6 we’ll be about 2.5 million kilometers farther from the sun than average—but we won’t feel any colder

The cold and mysterious Oort cloud at the edge of our solar system may be hiding a rogue planet

Professional and amateur astronomers alike are hoping that Comet C/2023 A3 will sparkle in Earth’s skies in the fall of 2024, although comets are notoriously difficult to predict

Nearly 100 years ago a young astronomer named Cecilia Payne changed the way we see the stars in the sky because she was able to look into their burning heart and see something no one else ever had

Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that TRAPPIST-1 c, the second world in a seven-planet system, lacks an atmosphere

The wildfire smoke that smothered the U.S. Northeast last week has surprising connections to astrophysics—and to the historic search for our place in the cosmos