Astronomy News: All the latest astronomy and space news updated hourly.

Nov. 13: Something strange is happening in the atmosphere above Africa and researchers have converged on Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the phenomenon. The Africa Space Weather Workshop kicked off Nov. 12th with nearly 100 scientists and students in attendance.
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Nov. 7: Astronomers have announced the discovery of a fifth planet circling the star 55 Cancri, 41 light years away. The star now holds the record for number of confirmed extrasolar planets orbiting around it in a planetary system.
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Nov. 5: If you're looking for a telescope for yourself or as a Christmas present, I've added a new telescope store to the website where you can browse discount telescopes, along with accessories. There's also meteorites, space program memorabilia and astronomy software available from the store.
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Nov. 1: On Oct. 24th, Comet 17P/Holmes shocked sky watchers around the world with a sudden million-fold increase in brightness. It literally exploded into view, rapidly becoming a naked eye "star" in the constellation Perseus. Since then the comet has expanded dramatically. It is now physically larger than the planet Jupiter and subtends an angle in the night sky similar to the Moon's Sea of Tranquility, the right eye of the "Man in the Moon."
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Oct. 24: This week's full Moon (Oct. 25-26) is the biggest full Moon of 2007. It's no illusion. Some full Moons are genuinely larger than others and Thursday night's will be as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons we've seen earlier this year.

Oct. 24: Astronomers in Japan and Europe report that Comet 17P/Holmes is undergoing a spectacular eruption. The 17th-magnitude comet has brightened by a factor of five hundred thousand or more during the past 24 hours becoming a naked eye object in the evening sky. This may signify a breakup of the comet's core or a rich vein of ice suddenly exposed to sunlight--no one knows. Look for a yellow 2.5th-magnitude fuzzball in the constellation Perseus after sunset. At present the comet looks more like a star than a comet; it does not have a discernable tail, but it might grow one as the outburst continues. See map

Oct. 11: Last week, cameras in Iowa captured a giant atmospheric wave passing over Des Moines--see the movie in today's story. Atmospheric scientists believe these waves, called undular bores, may be more common and important than previously thought.
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Oct. 11: A solar wind stream is heading for Earth and it may spark a geomagnetic storm when it arrives on Oct. 11th or 12th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. More information on the Aurora Page.

Oct. 11: Set your alarm. For the next four mornings, just before dawn banishes the night, you can see a compact celestial triangle rising in the eastern sky. The corners are dazzling Venus, Saturn and the bright star Regulus. This is worth waking up for - at least once.

Sept. 27: NASA's Dawn spacecraft began its 1.7 billion mile journey through the inner solar system to study a pair of asteroids Thursday at 7:34 a.m. EDT.
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Sept. 21: NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano. The find is fueling interest in potential underground habitats and sparking searches for caverns elsewhere on the Red Planet.
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Sept. 21: NASA has made a decision to restart an astronomy mission that will have greater capability than any existing instrument for detecting black holes in the local universe.
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Sept. 21: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is examining several features on Mars that address the role of water at different times in Martian history.
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Sept. 19: Hundreds of people have suffered headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems after an object from space - believed to be a meteorite - crashed in southern Peru.
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Sept. 9: Photon was an astronomy ezine I put together a couple of years ago that ran for 8 issues. I originally charged $15 a year for it. Now, for the first time, I'm making all issues of the ezine available to download for free.
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Sept. 7: Two months after sky-darkening dust from severe storms nearly killed NASA's Mars exploration rovers, the solar-powered robots are awake and ready to continue their mission. Opportunity's planned descent into the giant Victoria Crater was delayed, but now the rover is preparing to drive into the half-mile diameter crater as early as Sept. 11.
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August 27: Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 28th, there's going to be a dreamy, colorful, total eclipse of the Moon. The eclipse will be visible from Australia, Japan, parts of Asia and most of the Americas, but not from Africa or Europe.
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and check out the latest eclipse info at: August Eclipse, including a NASA request for amateurs to image the Moon for Helion meteoroid impacts.
Live eclipse broadcasts: from Australia; from Las Vegas, Nevada; North Dakota, USA

August 23: A new NASA contest encourages university art and design students to partner with science and engineering departments to create art representation of living and working on the moon.
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August 22: Earth and Mars are rapidly converging. Relative speed: 22,000 mph. Contrary to rumor, Mars is not about to swell to the size of a full Moon, but there is something eerie and Martian to look for in the night sky next week.
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August 20: NASA's two venerable Voyager spacecraft are celebrating three decades of flight as they head toward interstellar space. Their ongoing odysseys mark an unprecedented and historic accomplishment.
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August 15: Astronomers have discovered something they've never seen before: a star with a tail like a comet. Even more amazing is the fact that the newfound tail is attached to one of the most popular stars in the sky, a red giant named Mira. Amateur and professional astronomers have been watching Mira for 400 years and only recently has a NASA space telescope spotted its massive tail.
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August 9: The Perseid meteor shower has begun. Although the display will not peak until August 12th and 13th, sky watchers are already counting as many as a dozen meteors per hour (including some nice fireballs) during the darkest hours before dawn. Rates could increase 5- to 10-fold when the shower reaches maximum on Sunday night and Monday morning. Get away from city lights if you can. While many Perseids will be bright enough to see from light-polluted urban areas, the shower's full grandeur is reserved for places with dark and starry skies. This is a good weekend to go camping.
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July 30: The Meade Electronic Eyepiece is on sale for just $39.95 (it sells on Amazon for $69). The eyepiece transmits live, black-and-white images of the moon, planets, and terrestrial subjects from your telescope to a TV monitor, VCR, or camcorder. Made to fit 0.965" or 1.25" focuser sleeves, the eyepiece includes a 6-foot cable and requires a 9-volt battery that installs neatly inside the eyepiece housing. Contrast adjustment is built in.
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July 27: Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have caught some supermassive black holes engaged in a piranha-like feeding frenzy.
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July 22: The International Space Station is now accessible in cyberspace. On Thursday, NASA launched its Interactive Space Station Reference Guide, a new tool that features an in-depth look inside and outside of the orbiting laboratory that has never before been seen.
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July 21: Having explored Mars for three-and-a-half years in what were missions originally designed for three months, NASA's Mars rovers are facing perhaps their biggest challenge - severe dust storms on Mars.
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July 20: NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft, known as Messenger, and the European Space Agency's Venus Express recently provided the most detailed multi-point images of the Venusian atmosphere ever seen.
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July 19: Two NASA robots are surveying a rocky, isolated polar desert within a crater in the Arctic Circle. The study will help scientists learn how robots could evaluate potential outposts on the moon or Mars.
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July 9: During the weekend new sunspot 963 emerged, and it is putting on a remarkable show for onlookers with solar telescopes. The big double-sunspot is just beginning a two week journey across the face of the sun, promising many more photo-ops in the days ahead.

July 5: Mars is dimming the sun and reducing sunlight to the solar panels of Spirit and Opportunity. In the past week Opportunity's energy levels dropped sharply, delaying the rover's planned descent into Victoria Crater. The storm is big enough to see in backyard telescopes; amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor developments.

July 3: Two NASA spacecraft now have new assignments after successfully completing their missions. The duo will make new observations of comets and characterize extrasolar planets. Stardust and Deep Impact will use their flight-proven hardware to perform new, previously unplanned, investigations.
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June 28: For sky watchers in the northern hemisphere, this weekend is the best time of the year to experience the mysterious and beautiful Moon Illusion.
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June 16: On Monday 18 June the Moon will occult brilliant Venus, mag -4.4, at about 13:50 UT. The Moon will be a thin crescent, 14.4% illuminated, so it won't be all that easy to see in the daylight sky. The occultation is visible from SW Asia, Northeastern North America and Europe. Read more...

June 15: This summer, NASA plans to launch a robotic probe to visit two stange and giant asteroids--one is covered with ice while the other may have been blasted by an ancient supernova. The tales these asteroids tell may reveal the true beginnings of our solar system.
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June 8: The AAVSO are starting a campaign on ASAS182612, a bright (11th mag) cephied variable and are looing for amateur astronomers to record the behavior (light curves) of the star. Read more...

June 5: Today when NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft flies by Venus en route to Mercury, the craft will shoot a laser beam into Venus' clouds, among other experiments, to learn more about Earth's "evil twin." Read more...

June 2: A big sunspot is emerging over the sun's eastern limb, posing a threat for significant solar activity. Already it has unleashed several M-class solar flares. One of the eruptions, an M3-flare on June 1st, caused a shortwave radio fadeout over Europe. Amateur astronomers with solar telescopes should keep an eye on this photogenic sunspot, while shortwave radio listeners should be alert for flare-triggered fadeouts and other propagation effects.

May 30: Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered an exceptionally dramatic event in the nearby Universe. They're not sure what caused it, but they've narrowed it down to two exciting possibilites. Read more...

May 25: A scientist using the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has found a way to forecast solar radiation storms. The new method offers as much as one hour advance warning, giving astronauts time to seek shelter and ground controllers time to safeguard their satellites when a storm is approaching. Read more...

May 21: A patch of Martian soil analyzed by NASA's rover Spirit is so rich in silica that it may provide some of the strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now. Read more...

May 21: NASA dedicated a unique astronomy aircraft to pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh on the 80th anniversary of his historic transatlantic flight. Erik Lindbergh, the pilot's grandson, joined NASA for the event May 21, in Waco, Texas. Read more...

May 19: When the sun sets tonight (May 19), go outside and look west. Venus and the crescent Moon will pop out of the twilight barely 1 degree apart. It's a spectacular and unforgettable pairing of the two brightest objects in the night sky. Watch Jack Horkheimer's Stargazer video.

May 16: A new sunspot is growing near the sun's eastern limb, and it is crackling with solar flares. Yesterday, one of the flares, a C1-class explosion, unleashed a radio burst heard in loudspeakers of shortwave radios across the United States. Ham radio operators may wish to point their antennas at the sun in the days ahead in case this activity continues.

May 15: Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a ghostly ring of dark matter that formed long ago during a titanic collision between two galaxy clusters. Dark matter makes up most of the universe's material. Ordinary matter, which makes up stars and planets, comprises only a small percent of the universe's matter. The ring's discovery is among the strongest evidence yet that dark matter exists. Read more...

May 12: Wherever humans venture, microorganisms follow—and make themselves right to home, thank you, if conditions are right. So how do you prevent a spaceship from becoming contaminated with undesireable passengers (and I'm not talking about space tourists here!)? Read more...

May 9: Researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have learned what the weather is like on two distant, exotic worlds. One team of astronomers used the infrared telescope to map temperature variations over the surface of a giant, gas planet HD 189733b, revealing it likely is whipped by roaring winds. Read more...

May 8: LunarPhase Pro Version 3.25 Released. Added in this upgrade are more Moon and astronomy-related videos as well as Jack Horkheimer's weekly "StarGazer" show (taking the total to over 300 videos). See the screen with a sample video here.
About LunarPhase Pro

May 7: Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have recorded the brightest supernova ever seen. The explosion came from a star about 150 times more massive than the Sun located in a distant galaxy. What researchers have learned from the blast suggests that a similar explosion could happen soon here in our own Milky Way. Read more...

May 7: This week, a famous asteroid is flying past Earth: 1862 Apollo. Discovered in 1932, Apollo was the first asteroid recognized to cross Earth's orbit. Apollo will be about 10.7 million kilometers away at closest approach on May 8th. Southern hemisphere astronomers with big backyard telescopes may be able to photograph the 1.7 km-wide asteroid and its tiny 75 meter-wide moon gliding through the constellations Microscopium and Grus. Read more...

May 3: Pioneering astronaut Walter "Wally" Schirra, the only man who flew in all three of America's first human space projects - Mercury, Gemini and Apollo - died Wednesday night. He was 84. Read more...

May 3: More than a year ahead of schedule, a team of independent experts has approved all ten new technologies developed for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Many of the technologies are revolutionary and have never before been used on any satellite or space telescope. Read more...

May 2: NASA has released stunning new images of Jupiter and its moons taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. Highlights include a movie of a volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon Io; a nighttime shot of auroras and lava on Io; a color photo of the "Little Red Spot" churning in Jupiter's cloudtops; images of small moons herding dust and boulders through Jupiter's faint rings. Read more...

May 1: The Moon pages have been converted to the new website design and the various graphics have been updated for May.

April 28: It's a big week on SLOOH. Comets, planets, a special guest (Comet Hunter Don Machholz), and a super-earth! And there's a chance to photograph Mars and Uranus which will be less than one degree apart in the night sky. This week's news and telescope schedule.

April 28: Noxious Lightning: Lightning is more than light and noise - it's an intense chemical factory that affects both local air quality and global climate. But how big is the effect? Researchers aren't sure. To answer the question they're developing a new technique to estimate the factory's output.

April 23: Meade Mysky Personal Planetarium - Meade is introducing the $399 mySKY, a GPS-based point and shoot personal planetarium that can locate and identify 30,000 celestial objects and display sky maps, videos, images, and multimedia presentations about them on a built-in full-color LCD screen.

April 21: Astronomy Videos page fixed. The links on this page were leading to a non-existent page. Video links are now working.

April 21: Earth is entering the dusty tail of Comet Thatcher (discovered in 1861), and this will cause a mild meteor shower this weekend called the Lyrid meteor shower because the bits of incandescent comet dust appear to come from the constellation Lyra. The best time to look is during the dark hours before dawn on Sunday, April 22nd, and Monday, April 23rd, when you can expect to see a shooting star overhead every 5 minutes or so.

The Lyrids will also impact on the Moon. Amateur astronomers may be able to see such impacts using backyard telescopes.

April 21: 3D SUN: On Monday, April 23rd, NASA will release 3-dimensional photos for the first time of the sun taken by a pair of spacecraft named STEREO. Magnetic loops, prominences and plumes will practically leap out of your computer screen. These images will be displayed on big screens at many museums and science centers around the USA (see list) and posted on the internet. You can get ready this weekend by buying, borrowing or building some 3D glasses. See the new STEREO News page for up-to-date information.

April 20: The past few months have seen the roll-out of a world first, exclusive Virgin Galactic programme designed to make it easier for budding astronauts around the world to make reservations on SpaceShipTwo. Read more...

April 17: Newly discovered asteroid 2007 HA is flying past Earth today about 2.5 million kilometers away. There's no danger of a collision, but it is an interesting flyby: the asteroid is big (300 meters wide), bright (13th to 14th magnitude), and an easy target for large backyard telescopes. Last night, Greg Selleck of Madison, Wisconsin, made this 75-minute movie (1.8 MB mpeg) of the space rock racing 47,000 mph through the constellation Virgo. Tonight the asteroid cuts through Ursa Major. Get ephemeris

Asteroid 2006 VV2 is about to fly past Earth. Tonight, March 30th, the 2 km-wide space rock will streak through the constellation Leo only 2 million miles away glowing like a 10th magnitude star.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed some spectacular Northern Lights on the planet Jupiter. The data may help researchers solve the mysteries of the biggest auroras in the solar system.

New measurements of Mars' south polar region indicate extensive frozen water. The polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 36 feet deep.

NASA has established a requirements baseline for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, bringing America's next human spacecraft a step closer to construction.

Publish your astronomy articles on the new Astronomy Article Directory section of this website and benefit from backlinks to your own pages.

Total Lunar Eclipse, 20:19 UT March 3rd - 02:22UT March 4th. See here for more information or learn more about lunar eclipses
Live webcasts: from Italy; from Norway; from the Netherlands; from the Canary Islands; from the Netherlands (2); from Spain;

On February 19th, late-night sky watchers across Australia witnessed a bright explosion followed by a debris cloud that hung in the sky for nearly an hour.

There's a bright nova in Scorpius, showing some very unusual behaviour. The nova has brightened dramatically within the last week to 3rd magnitude, becoming one of the brightest novae in the past several years..

If you woke up tomorrow morning and found yourself on the moon, what would you do? NASA has just released a list of 181 good ideas.

Aurora Alert: NOAA forecasters estimate a 50% chance of severe geomagnetic activity on Dec. 16th when a second Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is expected to hit Earth. The first CME hit on Dec. 14th: Spectacular Auroras.

On Sunday, Nov. 19th, Earth will pass through a stream of debris from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. The result: a shower of Leonid meteors.

On Wednesday, 2006 Nov 08, Mercury will transit the Sun for the first time since 2003. The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence.

The Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) onboard Japan's Hinode spacecraft has opened its doors and started snapping pictures. Hinode carries three advanced space telescopes. During the month ahead, mission controllers will progress from testing the basic operation of these telescopes to implementing full scientific operations.

The Night Sky Observer has teamed up with Clickbank and now offers LunarPhase Pro through Clickbank, one of the premier digital download networks in the world. Because of Clickbank's low administration fees, affiliates can now earn a 50% commission (approx. $18) on sales of the digital download version of LunarPhase Pro. Becoming an affiliate is free. All the information you need to sign up is at the Affiliate Page.

LunarPhase Pro Version 3.18 Released on October 23rd, 2006. Added in this upgrade are more Moon and astronomy-related videos (taking the total to over 300 videos). See the screen with a sample video here.
About LunarPhase Pro

Comet Swan is moving into the evening sky. It's particularly easy to find after sunset on Oct. 13th and 14th. On those two nights, the handle of the Ursa Major curves toward the comet, guiding you right to it.

Europe's SMART-1 spacecraft crashed into the Moon on Sept. 3rd at 05:42 UT. The resulting flash was too faint for most backyard telescopes, but a team of astronomers using the big 3.6m CFH telescope in Hawaii did photograph the explosion.

Finding high-quality satellite image photos of places you're intersted in, that you can hang on a wall, has never been easy. SatPrints offer a selection of high resolution satellite images and topographic maps of our planet's majestic landscapes. Most prints are in standard 24"x36" format.

On January 15, 2006, the Stardust spacecraft's sample return capsule parachuted gently onto the Utah desert. Stardust@Home was set up to allow volunteers (who meet certain criteria) to help search for interstellar dust in Stardust's aerogel collector via the internet. The Stardust@home Team are in a short hiatus at the moment, but you can still register as a volunteer.

The astronomers have voted and it's official. Pluto is not a planet. Instead, it and some other bodies in the solar system (including the asteroid Ceres) have been relegated to "dwarf planet" status.

Dark matter and normal matter have been wrenched apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies. The discovery, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, gives direct evidence for the existence of dark matter.

Topical Astronomy Video: Neil deGrasse Tyson, who famously removed Pluto from the exhibit at the New York Planetarium because he doesn't count Pluto as a planet, eats humble pie regarding Pluto's planetary status (humorous).

Aurora Alert: An explosion on the sun on Aug. 16 hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. The approaching cloud could spark a geomagnetic storm when it arrives, probably on August 18th. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras. If a storm erupts, the best displays will be at higher latitudes: e.g., Alaska, Canada, and Scandinavia. However, auroras could descend to lower latitudes, too, spreading across northern-tier US states from Maine to Washington and elsewhere. Sometimes during a geomagnetic storm, the sky appears to be blank--no auroras. The display may be too faint to see with the unaided eye. Try using your camera: a 15+ second exposure can reveal colorful auroras just below the threshold of naked-eye visibility. Station.

NASA Gives 'Go' for Space Shuttle Atlantis' Launch: NASA senior managers on Aug. 16th unanimously voted to launch the Space Shuttle Atlantis on Aug. 27. Commander Brent Jett and his five crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 4:30 p.m. EDT on the STS-115 mission, which restarts construction of the International Space Station.

NASA has announced the award of launch services for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. The orbiter will spend a year mapping the moon from an average altitude of approximately 30 miles. It will also carry an instrument designed to confirm the presence or absence of water ice at the moon's south pole.

Cassini Finds Lakes on Titan: Numerous well-defined dark patches resembling lakes are present in radar images of Titan's high latitudes. At Titan's frigid temperatures, about minus 180 degrees Celsius, the liquids in the lakes are most likely methane or a combination of methane and ethane.

Binoculars.com have some great deals on astronomy binoculars at the moment with discounts ranging from 20%-45%. Of particluar note is the Nikon 20x120 Bino-Telescope which has a 45% discount. If you've been thinking about buying a pair of binoculars, now's the time!

LunarPhase Pro Version 3 was released on June 29th, 2006. This next generation of the highly-acclaimed software adds even more features to an impressive feature set...

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission emphasizes the overall objective of obtaining data that will facilitate returning men safely to the Moon where testing and preparations for an eventual manned mission to Mars will be undertaken. The mission has been given the go-ahead and launch is expected to happen in 2008...

NASA is seeking proposals for creating and managing innovative activities, events, products, services and other education methods for increasing America's science and technological literacy. Here's your chance to inspire NASA...

NASA issued information April 27th about Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, which has broken into more than 40 fragments and will be passing Earth as it approaches the point nearest the sun during its 5.5 year orbit..

Aviation Pioneer Scott Crossfield Dies. Crossfield made aeronautical history in 1953 when he reached a speed of more than 1,320 mph, or Mach 2, in a Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket. He played an important role in the NASA's highly successful X-15 research aircraft program in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

NASA is looking for ideas for exploration of the Moon that could be pursued as part of its long-term goals. Suggestions from individuals and organizations are being solicted.

SLOOH V2 was launched just over a week ago and offers more features than V1. If you can't afford a good-quality telescope or your skies are badly light-polluted this is the site for you.

NASA and San Francisco's Exploratorium will team up to providewebcast, podcast and broadcast via NASA TV of the total solar eclipse on March 29.

The first test images of Mars from NASA's newest spacecraft - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - provide a tantalizing preview of what the orbiter will reveal when its main science mission begins next fall.

NASA will honor former astronaut Buzz Aldrin for his involvement in the U.S. space program with the presentation of the Ambassador of Exploration Award on Saturday, March 25 at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Samples from Comet Wild 2 have surprised scientists, indicating the formation of at least some comets may have included materials ejected by the early sun to the far reaches of the solar system.

Using new Hubble Space Telescope observations, a research team led by Dr. Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Dr. Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute has found that Pluto’s three moons are essentially the same color - boosting the theory that the Pluto system formed in a single, giant collision.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt in Yellowstone-like geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions about the mysterious moon.

Jupsat Pro Pro V1.70 Released: The latest upgrade for Jupsat Pro, the Jupiter Observer's Software Toolkit, was released on March 8th. New features have been added.

Jupiter's New Red Spot: Backyard astronomers, grab your telescopes. Jupiter is growing a new red spot. The official name of this storm is "Oval BA," but "Red Jr." might be better. It's about half the size of the famous Great Red Spot and almost exactly the same color.

Wide Awake On The Sea Of Tranquillity: Neil Armstrong was supposed to be asleep. The moonwalking was done. The moon rocks were stowed away. His ship was ready for departure. In just a few hours, the Eagle's ascent module would blast off the Moon, something no ship had ever done before, and Neil needed his wits about him. He curled up on the Eagle's engine cover and closed his eyes. But he could not sleep...