Space

The European Space Agency (ESA) and The Pokémon Company International (TPCI) have launched an official collaboration to celebrate World Space Week 2026 from 4–10 October 2026.

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Mars appears red because of iron oxides in the regolith. But it's not uniformly red. Different lighting conditions and different materials accumulated on the surface can make it appear purple, as in these images from Mars Express and its High-Resolution Stereo Camera.

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Astronomer Sandra Chapman has found a connection between the quiet period of one solar cycle and the active period of the next. Her data shows how a critical cutoff point is the key, but the real test will be the solar maximum of Cycle 26 in the 2030s.

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IRVINE, Calif. and TORINO, Italy – Sept. 17, 2026 – Terran Orbital, a Lockheed Martin company and a global leader in satellite-based solutions primarily serving the aerospace and defense industries, […] The post Terran Orbital Promotes Margherita Cardi to Vice President of European Operations & Head of Strategic Programs appeared first on SpaceNews .

13h ago

Life in space is hard. Most orbiting observatories retire well before their 20th birthday. Yet the Hubble Space Telescope has survived and continues to thrive well into its 30s. Astronomers celebrated the observatory’s 36th birthday in April by releasing a new image of the Trifid Nebula (M20). This stellar nursery lies about 5,000 light-years from Continue reading "Still going strong: Hubble’s 36th anniversary image" The post Still going strong: Hubble’s 36th anniversary image appeared first on Astronomy Magazine .

13h ago

Gerald Rhemann, taken from Farm Tivoli, Namibia Comet 220P/McNaught, a Jupiter-family comet on a 5.5-year orbit, appears in Taurus about five weeks after it exploded in brightness in a Aug. 5, 2026 outburst, becoming 600 times brighter at magnitude 7. The imager took 51 minutes of exposure in LRGB filters with a 12-inch f/3.6 astrograph Continue reading "McNaught lights up Taurus" The post McNaught lights up Taurus appeared first on Astronomy Magazine .

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On Sept. 18, 1965, amateur astronomer Kaoru Ikeya and professional astronomer Tsutomu Seki each independently discovered what became the greatest comet of the century, Ikeya-Seki. When researchers calculated its orbit, they found it was a sungrazer — a comet that passes extremely close to the Sun. Small sungrazers usually evaporate or are torn apart by Continue reading "Sept. 18, 1965: Discovery of Comet Ikeya-Seki" The post Sept. 18, 1965: Discovery of Comet Ikeya-Seki appeared first on Astronomy Magazine .

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Week in images: 14-18 Sep 2026 Discover our week through the lens

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In 2024, a space rock slammed into the moon, creating a new crater in the surface. The newly formed moon crater is about 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep. The post Newly formed moon crater is once-in-a-century discovery first appeared on EarthSky .

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Image: Though the spiral galaxy in this new image by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret. This galaxy is NGC 4698, and it lies about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It’s one of over one thousand galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, the nearest large cluster of galaxies bound together by gravity. As a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way galaxy, NGC 4698 has spiral arms that curl around within a thin disc of stars, gas and dust. Its centre is dominated by a galactic bulge. The diffuse off-white glow of the galaxy’s bulge comes from stars smaller, older, and cooler than the massive blue stars that dot the galaxy’s outer disc. These tightly packed stars orbit a supermassive black hole containing millions of times the Sun’s mass. Scientists have found signs that this black hole is actively growing, drawing gas inward with its gravitational pull. With a flat, starry disc and diffusely glowing centre, NGC 4698 looks a lot like a typical spiral galaxy — but this galaxy is far from normal. NGC 4698 is one of only a few known spiral galaxies with a bulge that extends out from the disc at a right angle. The elongation is faintly visible in this Hubble image, which shows the ghostly glow of the starry bulge peeking above and below the dusty disc. What’s more, the stars and gas nearest the galaxy’s centre rotate perpendicular to the rest of the disc. What could cause a galaxy to be so out of sync? Astronomers have found that the culprit likely lies outside the galaxy. If NGC 4698 funneled in gas from an outside source, the newly collected gas could have formed a disc of gas and stars in the galaxy’s centre, at an angle relative to the rest of the disc. Some observations suggest that this galaxy once experienced a minor galactic merger, as evidenced by a short ‘tail’ of hydrogen streaming from one side of the galaxy. The data used to create this image come from an observing programme ( #18103 ; PI: Thilker) focusing on galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. [ Image Description: A spiral galaxy viewed at an angle, with a bright central bulge and winding spiral arms. The arms form a ring around the galaxy, without appearing to reach its centre. Prominent red-brown dust lanes weave through the arms, which are also dotted with bright blue and reddish regions of star formation. The galaxy is set against a dark background scattered with stars and faint distant galaxies. ] Release on esawebb.org

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. September 17: The Moon and the Scorpion High in the eastern sky this evening you’ll find the zig-zagging constellation Lacerta, home to several lovely and relatively bright open star clusters. Tonight, let’s check out the brightest of those: magnitude 6.4 NGC 7243, Continue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, September 18: The Lizard’s brightest cluster" The post The Sky Today on Friday, September 18: The Lizard’s brightest cluster appeared first on Astronomy Magazine .

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Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, acquired on 25 August 2026, shows an area of the Andean Altiplano in southern Bolivia near the border with Chile.

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Cosmic topology is as esoteric as cosmology can get. But a growing number of astrophysicists think it holds keys to understanding the universe on its largest scales.

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Friday, September 18First Quarter Moon occurs at 4:44 P.M. EDT. The Moon then reaches apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, at 11 P.M. EDT. At that time, our satellite will be 251,171 miles (404,221 kilometers) away. Venus reaches greatest brilliancy at 9 P.M. EDT, shining at magnitude –4.8. It’s bright and easy Continue reading "The Sky This Week from September 18 to 25: Autumn begins" The post The Sky This Week from September 18 to 25: Autumn begins appeared first on Astronomy Magazine .

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