In this photo taken Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, the skies over the frozen Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska are lit up by a display of the northern lights, or Aurora Borealis. A common occurrence in northern climates, the aurora was enhanced in this display by solar flares in the days preceding the event. (AP Photo/Michael Dinneen)
November kicked off with a dazzling display of the aurora across Canada and the northern United States, and a similar light show may unfold in the sky this weekend.
Saturday night will bring the chance to see the northern lights with the naked eye across the northern tier of the U.S. following an eruption on the sun that could set off a G2 (minor) geomagnetic storm, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. In the past, storms of this magnitude have caused the northern lights to be seen over New England, the Great Lakes, the northern Plains and parts of the Northwest. People farther south might not be able to see the celestial lights for themselves, but photographers capturing long-exposure images may be able to snap pictures of the aurora perhaps as far south as Virginia, Missouri, Colorado and Nevada. For many, the aurora will appear as a green or red glow in the northern sky, and will only be visible in dark areas far away from city lights.
Skywatchers should also keep an eye out for shooting stars as the Northern Taurid meteor shower peaks over the weekend. The event only produces a few meteors per hour, but is known for sparking incredibly bright fireballs. Click here to see the stargazing weather forecast for your area.
Autumn is sometimes referred to as meteor shower season as there are several that peak this time of the year, including one that will unfold in the night sky this weekend.
The Northern Taurids will reach peak activity on Saturday night into Sunday morning, although onlookers should meter expectations as it will only offer around five shooting stars per hour, according to the American Meteor Society. However, the few meteors that do streak through the sky could be impressive as the Northern Taurids are sometimes rich in fireballs, which are incredibly bright and can briefly light up part or all of the night sky.
Nearly one week after the Northern Taurids, the annual Leonid meteor shower will reach its climax. On the night of Friday, Nov. 17 into the morning of Saturday, Nov. 18, the Leonids will peak with up to 15 shooting stars per hour. This will be the final meteor shower of November, and the last until mid-December when the hyperactive Geminid meteor shower brings the chance for stargazers to spot more than 100 meteors per hour.
Celebrate the beginning of the weekend with Jupiter reaching opposition on Nov. 3. The gas giant will roam the sky shining bright all night long.
November features a trio of astronomy events ranging from a historic meteor shower to autumn’s final full moon, and the first event is about to unfold in the night sky. About once every 13 months, Jupiter reaches opposition, the point in its orbit when it appears opposite of the sun from the perspective of the Earth. This is also around the same time that Jupiter is closest to the Earth, meaning that it appears brighter than any other time of the year and is visible in the sky all night long. This year, the Jupiter opposition takes place on Friday, Nov. 3.
No telescope is needed to spot the planet as it will outshine nearly all of the stars and other planets in the sky, but having a telescope or a pair of binoculars will give folks a better view of the event.
An image of what Jupiter and its four largest moons look like through a telescope. (ScienceAtNASA)
Most telescopes are powerful enough for onlookers to see Jupiter’s four largest moons: Europa, Callisto, Io and Ganymede. Stronger telescopes will show stargazers the stripes of colorful clouds in the planet’s atmosphere, and perhaps even Jupiter’s famous red spot, a storm that has been raging for hundreds of years. After November, Jupiter will not appear this bright in the sky again until the end of 2024.
Millions across North America looked skyward on Saturday to see an event dubbed a “ring of fire.” An annular solar eclipse was seen from southern Oregon to southern Texas, while the remainder of the continent was in the shadow of a partial solar eclipse. During this event, the moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth but does not appear large enough in the sky to block out all of the sun. The result is a halo of sunlight around the moon that some call a ring of fire.
Folks who missed Saturday’s event will not have to wait long for the next opportunity to witness an eclipse from North America. On April 8, 2024, an even more impressive total solar eclipse will be visible from Texas to Maine, as well as portions of Mexico and Canada. Similar to the recent eclipse, anyone across the rest of the continent will also have the chance to see a partial solar eclipse, weather permitting.
NASA's Perseverance Rover captured video of a ghostly dust devil on Mars on Aug. 30, 2023. The video is actually a series of 21 photos taken four seconds apart by one of the cameras on the rover.
An animation created from photos taken 21 seconds apart from NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover on Aug. 30, 2023, showing a dust devil moving along the mountains of Mars. (NASA)
This particular dust devil was likely around 200 feet wide and was estimated to be more than a mile high. A cropped version of the animation shows the dust devil in detail.
An animation created from photos taken 21 seconds apart from NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover on Aug. 30, 2023, showing a dust devil moving along the mountains of Mars. (NASA)
In 2020, Perseverance recorded sound and atmospheric pressure data as a dust devil passed directly over the rover. Photos of dust devils on Mars date back to 2012, when a dust devil was sighted from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flying over the planet. Every three Martian years, which is equivalent to five and a half Earth years, global dust storms encircle the planet with winds as high as 60 mph.
A towering dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on April 1, 2012. (NASA)
Seen trough the haze of a light fog the moon rises over Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
The “summer of the supermoon” has come to an end. Every full moon throughout summer, which started on June 21 and concluded on Sept. 23, was a big and bright supermoon. However, the cosmos is about to perform an encore that will coincide with one of the most well-known full moons of the entire year.
On Thursday night, the Harvest Moon will illuminate the sky. This nickname is given to the full moon that falls closest to the September equinox, which occurred this past Saturday at 2:50 a.m. EDT. The moniker dates back hundreds of years, as the moonlight helped farmers work well past sunset to harvest their crops before the first frost and freeze of the season. The upcoming Harvest Moon will also be the final supermoon of 2023, appearing slightly bigger and brighter than other full moons throughout the rest of the year. The result is the long-winded nickname of a Super Harvest Moon, although it will appear like an ordinary full moon to many onlookers. The next supermoon does not occur until Sept. 18, 2024.
The first full moon of fall will be the final supermoon of 2023.
If there ever was a time to have a window seat on a flight, Wednesday morning was it during takeoff from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Wednesday morning, airline passengers were treated to a jaw-dropping view of the northern lights. Photographer David Jon snapped a stunning picture of green lights dancing in the sky above city lights from his iPhone. He said it was an experience that he “will never forget,” noting that the pilot got on the intercom to comment on the phenomenon.
Photographer David Jon captured a surreal picture of the northern lights from a plane that was taking off at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Wednesday morning, Sept. 20, 2023. (David Jon)
The spectacle was triggered by a geomagnetic storm that the National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) said peaked at G3 strength, which is considered a strong disturbance in Earth’s geomagnetic field. Geomagnetic storms are caused by eruptions of large clouds of charged particles emitted from the surface of the sun. The aurora was witnessed as far south as Oklahoma and North Carolina.
The first week of September is almost in the books, but there is still plenty to look forward to in the night sky, including a newly-discovered comet.
On Sept. 12, Comet Nishimura will make its closest approach to Earth, making it the best night to look for the green glow of the celestial object. It will appear near the constellation Leo in the early morning sky, although the comet may be difficult to spot without the help of a telescope or a pair of binoculars. September also brings the opportunity to see the famous Harvest Moon -- the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. For the full scoop on all of the astronomical happens this month, watch the video below:
A newly discovered comet, an astronomical phenomenon on the equinox and the last supermoon of 2023 make up this month’s top astronomy events you’ll want to mark on your calendar. Don’t miss out!
Astronomy enthusiasts witnessed a rare super blue moon on Aug. 30, which won’t be seen again until January and March of 2037.
People around the globe stepped outside on Wednesday night to see the full moon -- but it wasn’t a typical full moon. At the time, the moon was near perigee, or the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Earth. The result was a full moon that appeared slightly bigger and a bit brighter than normal, known as a supermoon. Additionally, it was the second full moon to rise in August, a phenomenon that is dubbed a blue moon, although the moon did not appear blue.
The combination of the viral nicknames culminated in a “super blue moon,” a celestial coincidence that will not occur again until 2037.
The annual Perseid meteor shower is often touted as one of the best annual astronomy events, and this year, it didn’t disappoint. Stargazers around the world soaked in sights of shooting stars streaking through the sky throughout the weekend, at least where Mother Nature cooperated.
Typically, the mid-August event produces around 40 to 60 shooting stars per hour on peak night, with the potential for as many as 100 meteors per hour -- nearly two a minute. The Perseids lived up to the hype this year with observers counting up to 110 meteors per hour on the night of Saturday, Aug. 12, into the early morning of Sunday, Aug. 13, according to the International Meteor Organization. This is significantly greater than many other meteor showers, such as the springtime Lyrids or October Orionids, which average around 20 meteors per hour.
There is still some time to spot a few Perseids before the show concludes. According to the American Meteor Society, the Perseids remain active through the end of August, although hourly rates will gradually taper off throughout the second half of the month.
On July 26, NASA released a mesmerizing image of two stars forming as seen with the help of the powerful James Webb Space Telescope. The pair is located around 1,470 light-years from Earth, but lurking in the background in the depths of the cosmos is a familiar shape that was only recently noticed by eagle-eyed observers. Can you see it?
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. (NASA, ESA, CSA. Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI))
Below the developing stars and associated clouds of cosmic dust is a small celestial object that is shaped like a question mark. It is easy to miss the hidden symbol amid a sea of glowing stars and hundreds of galaxies, but its resemblance to the common punctuation mark is uncanny. According to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the question mark shape is likely the result of one or two galaxies that appear distorted due to gravitational forces in the region of space.
An object in deep space that resembles the shape of a question mark. (NASA, ESA, CSA. Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI))
NASA has yet to release additional details about the question mark-shaped object, such as how far away it is from Earth.
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The season of the supermoon continued on Tuesday night with photographers worldwide snapping pictures of Earth’s celestial companion rising over city skylines. Every full moon in astronomical summer, which began on June 21 and concludes on Sept. 23, is a supermoon. That means the moon appears slightly bigger and brighter than other full moons throughout the year, although the difference in appearance may be hard to notice.
August’s full moon is also known as the Sturgeon Moon, as it is the time of year when sturgeon were readily caught in Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Other nicknames for the month’s full moon include the Black Cherries Moon, Ricing Moon and Mountain Shadows Moon.
The first of August’s two supermoons rose on Aug. 1. A supermoon occurs when the moon is full while its orbit is closest to Earth, making it look bigger and brighter than usual.
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Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket lifts off from the launch pad at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Saturday Feb. 19, 2022, in Wallops Island, Va. The rocket is scheduled to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
The majority of rockets launched from the United States blast off from Florida, but an upcoming rocket launch will take place farther north, and if the weather cooperates, it could be seen by millions across the East Coast.
At 8:31 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 1, an Antares rocket is scheduled to liftoff from NASA’s mid-Atlantic spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. If the launch takes place as planned, the rocket will blast off shortly after sunset, meaning millions of people across the East Coast could have the chance to see the glow of the engines in the sky. NASA said people from Boston to Pittsburgh and south toward Charlotte, North Carolina, might be able to see the Antares rocket on its journey to space.
The weather is looking favorable for the Tuesday evening launch with mainly clear conditions in the forecast. The uncrewed Antares rocket will carry supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.
Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket lifts off from the launch pad at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Saturday Feb. 19, 2022, in Wallops Island, Va. The rocket is scheduled to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spent 13 years orbiting Saturn, where it took astounding images of the ringed jewel of the solar system and gathered observations that led to groundbreaking discoveries about the planet and its dozens of moons. But Saturn wasn’t the only planet Cassini pointed its camera toward during its time in the outer solar system.
On July 19, 2013, Cassini took an image of Earth while photographing Saturn and its famous rings. “In the Cassini images Earth and the moon appear as mere dots — Earth a pale blue and the moon a stark white, visible between Saturn’s rings,” NASA said. “It was the first time Cassini’s highest-resolution camera captured Earth and its moon as two distinct objects.” At the time, Cassini was 900 million miles away from Earth, but even at this distance, some folks struck a pose for the camera.
NASA announced when Cassini would snap the photo of Earth, so the agency told people to find Saturn in the sky and wave at the heavens when the picture was taken. More than 20,000 people worldwide participated in one of the most distant selfies in history. However, Voyager 2, which photographed Earth from 3.7 billion miles away, holds the title for taking the most distant selfie of Earth.
In this rare image taken on July 19, 2013, the wide-angle camera on NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn's rings and our planet Earth and its moon in the same frame. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
Cassini’s mission ended four years after taking the picture of Earth below Saturn’s mesmerizing rings. With the spacecraft running low on fuel, NASA sent Cassini on a series of hair-pin flights between Saturn and its rings before it broke apart as it plunged into the planet’s atmosphere on Sept. 15, 2017.
On July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto after a nine-year journey, becoming the first robotic explorer to visit the distant world. It came within 4,800 miles of the surface of Pluto and collected 6.25 gigabytes of data, according to NASA. The first images were transmitted to Earth hours after the flyby, but it took 15 months before the probe was able to send home all of the images and data that it had collected. Some of the images showed layers of clouds in Pluto’s atmosphere. “If there are clouds, it would mean the weather on Pluto is even more complex than we imagined,” Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern said
New Horizons gave scientists a scare just days before the pinnacle of the mission when the onboard computer entered safe mode on July 4, 2015. Fortunately, the computer returned to normal operations on July 7, one week before the close encounter with Pluto.
This illustration provided by NASA shows the New Horizons spacecraft. NASA launched the probe in 2006; it's about the size of a baby grand piano. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is set to fly past the mysterious object nicknamed Ultima Thule at 12:33 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP)
After passing Pluto, NASA redirected New Horizons toward a 22-mile wide space rock in the far reaches of the solar system named Arrokoth, which it reached on Jan. 1, 2019. “We’ve never seen anything like this anywhere in the solar system,” Stern said about Arrokoth. “It is sending the planetary science community back to the drawing board to understand how planetesimals – the building blocks of the planets – form.” New Horizons continues to gather scientific observations and is on a trajectory that will lead it out of the solar system and through interstellar space.
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A woman watches northern lights (aurora borealis) over the village of Podolye, Russia, 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of St. Petersburg, on Sunday, April 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Several news outlets have been touting the chance to see the mesmerizing glow of the aurora borealis over the United States on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, but the headlines could outshine the celestial lights.
The aurora ignites when charged particles from the sun collide with Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in colorful swirls of green, pink and red that can fill the night sky. Earlier this year, a massive cloud of charged stellar particles bombarded the planet to produce the most significant outburst of the northern lights in two decades. However, the aurora forecast for this week is a far cry from the epic light show that unfolded on April 23.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said there is a “slight chance” of a G1 (minor) storm on Wednesday into Thursday. Minor geomagnetic storms are common and can produce some aurora, but only over Canada, Alaska and the far northern reaches of Minnesota and North Dakota. For the northern lights to be seen farther south in places like Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Oregon, a G3 (strong) or G4 (severe) storm must occur.
While the forecast this week does not look promising for people hoping to see the aurora borealis, hope is on the horizon. The sun is approaching solar maximum, a period when it spews more matter into space, increasing the chances of seeing the aurora. The solar maximum is predicted to peak in 2024 or 2025, and will remain active through 2028.
The first week of July kicked off with marvelous views of a supermoon, a type of full moon thatappears slightly bigger and brighter than others throughout the year. It was the first supermoon of astronomical summer, and it won’t be the last, as every full moon throughout the season will be a supermoon.
Photographers worldwide snapped images of the moon as it illuminated the sky on Monday, July 3. Some of the most breathtaking photos were captured over Istanbul, Turkey; Baghdad, Iraq; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the United States, the supermoon coincided with Independence Day celebrations.
July’s full moon is often called the Thunder Moon, as it is the time of year when thunderstorms frequently rumble across North America. Other nicknames for July’s full moon include the Buck Moon, Berry Moon, Salmon Moon and Halfway Summer Moon.
The first image of Saturn taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Tiscareno (SETI Institute), M. Hedman (University of Idaho), M. El Moutamid (Cornell University), M. Showalter (SETI Institute), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), H. Hammel (AURA); image processing by J. DePasquale (STScI))
NASA recently pointed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) toward Saturn for the first time, and the images it captured have fascinated researchers. The goal of the observations was to test the telescope’s ability to detect small faint moons around the planet, but Saturn’s rings stole the spotlight.
The JWST collects infrared light, which is different from the visible light humans see. The planet appeared dark in the infrared images due to methane in Saturn’s atmosphere, while its icy rings appeared incredibly bright. “This is the first time that the planet’s atmosphere has been seen with this clarity at this particular wavelength,” NASA said.
Features in Saturn's glowing rings could be seen in the image captured on June 25, 2023, as well as its moons Dione, Enceladus and Tethys. The first image of Saturn taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Tiscareno (SETI Institute), M. Hedman (University of Idaho), M. El Moutamid (Cornell University), M. Showalter (SETI Institute), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), H. Hammel (AURA); image processing by J. DePasquale (STScI))
Scientists were able to see incredible details in Saturn’s rings, as well as its moons Enceladus, Dione and Tethys. Stargazers can head outside to see Saturn for themselves throughout July. However, it may require losing some sleep as the planet rises in the eastern sky after midnight, local time, and gradually climbs high in the southern sky throughout the second half of the night.
Hotel searches for the week of the solar eclipse are up by more than 5,000 percent, so if you want to travel to see it in totality, you’re already running out of time.
Time is running out to book a hotel reservation to see the total solar eclipse that will unfold over North America on April 8, 2024. “If you want to see the next solar eclipse, you’re going to start researching NOW,” AccuWeather National Reporter Emmy Victor said. “The longer you wait, the harder and more expensive it will be to find accommodations.” While nearly all of North America will experience a partial solar eclipse next April, only people in a narrow zone called the path of totality will be able to see the moon completely block out the sun.
Melanie Fish, a Travel Expert at Expedia, spoke with Victor and said that leading up to the 2017 Great American Eclipse, some private vacation rentals were charging $2,000 a night. Fish added that hotel searches are up as much as 6,000% in towns where the total eclipse will be visible next year.
Texas has the highest chance of good weather on the day of the eclipse, with the probability of clouds increasing farther north and east along the path of totality, according to historical averages. However, next April’s weather patterns could be much different than the long-term climatology. Click here for more details about where to see the eclipse and what you can do now to prepare for the astronomy event of the decade.
Summer is just days away, with the astronomical season officially beginning at 10:47 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 21. At this precise time, the sun’s most direct rays will be focused on the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere, an event known as the solstice. Festivities are held at historic sites around the world, some of which predate modern history.
Stonehenge is perhaps the most well-known spot for solstice celebrations, with the sun aligning with the ancient rock formation that has stood in England for millennia. Several pyramids in Egypt were also built with the celestial calendar in mind. On the day of the June solstice, the sun appears to set directly between the pyramids of pharaohs Khufu and Khafre, located southwest of Giza, Egypt. In North America, the Indigenous people of the American Southwest created a solar calendar with a crevasse in a rock at Puerto Pueblo, located in the present-day Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. On the days surrounding the summer solstice, a beam of sunlight is projected on a nearby boulder and illuminates a spiral petroglyph drawn by humans thousands of years ago.
For areas north of the equator, the June solstice is the longest day of the year, with the amount of daylight slowly decreasing with each passing day. The days will continue to get shorter and the nights will gradually grow longer until the winter solstice, which will occur this year on Dec. 21 at 10:27 p.m. EST.
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas of “Marker Band Valley” at two times of day on April 8. Color was added to a combination of both panoramas for an artistic interpretation of the scene. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA’s Curiosity rover just sent Earth a postcard from the Red Planet.
The breathtaking image is the combination of two separate photos snapped by the rover at different times of the day. “The views were taken on April 8 at 9:20 a.m. and 3:40 p.m. local Mars time, providing dramatically different lighting that, when combined, makes details in the scene stand out,” NASA explained. The right side of the photo, which features shades of blue, was captured during the Martian morning, while the left side, which shows an orange sky, was captured during the afternoon.
“Anyone who’s been to a national park knows the scene looks different in the morning than it does in the afternoon,” said Curiosity engineer Doug Ellison of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who planned and processed the images. “Capturing two times of day provides dark shadows because the lighting is coming in from the left and the right, like you might have on a stage – but instead of stage lights, we’re relying on the Sun.” Curiosity has been exploring Mars for over a decade, driving around an area known as Gale Crater since landing on the planet in 2012.
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Venus is the brightest natural object in the sky after the sun and the moon, and this week stargazers may want to set up a telescope to get a closer look at the planet as it glows near a dim formation of stars.
About one hour after sunset on Tuesday evening, Venus will appear to shine in a grouping of stars known as the Beehive Cluster. The cluster is comprised of hundreds of stars, many of which are too dim to see with the unaided eye. By zooming in on this area of the sky with a telescope or pair of binoculars, onlookers will be able to see an array of stars dotting the sky around Venus. Even with the magnification power of a telescope, most people will only be able to see a handful of the nearly 1,000 stars that make up the star cluster.
If cloudy weather obscures the sky on Tuesday evening, people can still look for the Beehive Cluster throughout the remainder of June. It will appear below and to the right of Venus, becoming farther away from the planet with each passing evening.
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This feather-shaped iridescent cloud was captured just after sunset on Jan. 27, 2023, the 3,724th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s mission. (Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
NASA’s Curiosity Rover has been studying the surface of Mars for over a decade, but occasionally it captures intriguing images of the Martian sky.
A feather-shaped cloud was spotted near the rover early this year, one that shimmered with rainbowlike colors called iridescence. “Where we see iridescence, it means a cloud’s particle sizes are identical to their neighbors in each part of the cloud,” said Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “By looking at color transitions, we’re seeing particle size changing across the cloud. That tells us about the way the cloud is evolving and how its particles are changing size over time.” Iridescence also occurs in Earth’s atmosphere when sunlight illuminates certain clouds.
A few days after photographing iridescence, Curiosity spotted “sun rays” over Mars.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured these “sun rays” shining through clouds at sunset on Feb. 2, 2023, the 3,730th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. It was the first time that sun rays, also known as crepuscular rays, have been viewed so clearly on Mars. (Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/SSI)
According to NASA, it was the clearest display of the rays ever seen on the Red Planet. The rays are also known as crepuscular rays and occur when beams of sunlight shine through gaps in clouds. Each of the mesmerizing cloud images are comprised of 28 images captured by the Curiosity rover and were later stitched together by scientists on Earth, NASA said.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon capsule and a crew of four private astronauts lifts off from pad 39A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Sunday, May 21, 2023.(AP Photo/John Raoux)
Humans have been making trips into space since the 1960s, but a recent launch propelled the history of spaceflight into a new chapter.
For a little over 24 hours, from late Monday into Tuesday night, 17 people were orbiting the Earth, according to SPACE.com. The tally included six Chinese taikonauts on the Tiangong space station, seven people on the International Space Station, and a crew of four on the private Axiom-2 SpaceX mission. The number climbed to 17 on Monday after China launched a new crew of three to its space station, and fell to 13 when the Axiom-2 mission returned to Earth on Tuesday night.
Previously, the record for the most people orbiting the planet at one time was 14, set in September of 2021.
In this image from NASA TV, top row from left, Ali al-Qarni, John Shoffner, Rayyanah Barnawi, and Peggy Whitson, pose for a picture with current residents of the International Space Station, Monday, May 22, 2023. The space station rolled out the welcome mat for the two Saudi visitors, including the kingdom's first female astronaut. (NASA TV via AP)
While this week’s feat was impressive, it did not break the record for the overall number of people in space. On Dec. 11, 2021, Blue Origin launched a rocket that briefly boosted the number of humans in space to 19, according to SPACE.com. Unlike the astronauts aboard the International Space Station, the people on the Blue Origin rocket did not orbit the Earth and instead merely crossed the threshold into space for a few minutes before returning to the planet.
Saturn long held the record for having the most moons, however, just a few months ago the discovery of more moons orbiting Jupiter allowed that planet to take the lead. Now, researchers say Saturn once again has more moons than Jupiter.
Saturn is known for its breathtaking rings, earning it the nickname “The Jewel of the Solar System,” but it is also known for its abundance of moons.
Earlier this year, Jupiter surpassed Saturn on the list of planets with the highest number of moons. It was announced in early February that astronomers discovered 12 previously unknown moons orbiting Jupiter, giving the largest planet in the solar system 92 moons, according to SPACE.com. It didn’t hold this title for four months before it fell back into second place.
Researchers with the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan discovered 62 new moons circling Saturn, sending the planet’s total up to 145 satellites. One of the new orbiters is only 1.55 miles in diameter, the smallest moon ever discovered. Click here to learn more about the discovery.
This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows Saturn's northern hemisphere in 2016, as that part of the planet nears its northern hemisphere summer solstice in May 2017. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
A long-exposure image of the International Space Station flying over Pennsylvania on Sept. 16, 2022. (AccuWeather)
The International Space Station (ISS) has been orbiting the Earth since 1998, and every night through Memorial Day weekend will present an opportunity to see it drift across the sky.
Onlookers can easily see the ISS when it flies overhead at specific times of the night when sunlight reflecting off the station makes it shine incredibly bright. On some occasions, the celestial outpost may even outshine every star and planet in the sky. At first it might look like an airplane, but unlike planes that have blinking lights, the station will be a solid ball of light.
People can find out what day and time the ISS will be visible from their town by checking NASA’s Spot The Station website. A detailed cloud forecast can be found on the free AccuWeather App.
ðA SpaceX rocket carrying a NASA astronaut and three paying customers blasted off from Florida on Sunday in the second such private mission of Axiom. The crew, which included the first woman from Saudi Arabia to travel to space, docked at the ISS on Monday morning. Learn more about the launch and mission.
ð The crescent moon will pair up with two planets in the night sky this week. Explore when and where to catch a glimpse of this celestial event.
âï¸An extremely bright fireball put on an impressive display in the night sky over Cairns, Australia, on May 20, seemingly transforming night into day momentarily. Take a look at the stunning footage.
The Space Shuttle program was at the forefront of NASA for three decades and launched pivotal missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and helped to construct the International Space Station (ISS). After the Columbia disaster in 2003, President George W. Bush announced that the Space Shuttle program would be retired after the ISS was completed.
The penultimate flight of the program blasted off 12 years ago on May 16, 2011, when Space Shuttle Endeavour took to the sky. It was initially slated to be the final mission of the program, but NASA added one more flight to the docket that took place two months later. Endeavour carried six astronauts to the ISS, including Mark Kelly, twin brother to astronaut Scott Kelly who became well-known in 2016 after spending nearly a year in space. Endeavour returned to Earth on June 1, 2011, marking the conclusion of its 25th and final trip into space.
Space Shuttle Atlantis carried out the last mission of the shuttle program when it blasted off on July 8, 2011, returning to Earth 13 days later. “Although we got to take the ride, we sure hope that everybody who has ever worked on, or touched, or looked at, or envied or admired a space shuttle was able to take just a little part of the journey with us,” Commander Chris Ferguson said after the landing. The shuttles may now be permanently stationed on Earth, but they continue to amaze people every day with Endeavour, Atlantis, Discovery and Enterprise on display at museums across the United States.
The suspected meteorite that hit a home in New Jersey on May 8, 2023. (Facebook/Hopewell Township Police Department)
Earlier this week, a charred rock was discovered inside a home in Hopewell, New Jersey, located north of Trenton. Not only was the rock an unusual color and texture, but it was found near a cracked floor and the house suddenly had a hole in the ceiling.
Nate Magee, a physics professor at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), examined the rock and took detailed measurements and confirmed it was a meteorite from outer space. “Getting the chance to examine the meteorite yesterday was a rare and thrilling opportunity for me, as well as for a group of physics students and professors at TCNJ,” Magee said, according to a Facebook post from the college. “We are excited to be able to confirm that the object is a true chondrite meteorite, in excellent condition, and one of a very small number of similar witnessed chondrite falls known to science.”
The meteorite was determined to be 4.56 billion years old and weighed 2.2 pounds. The incident occurred a few days after the peak of the annual Eta Aquarids, but it is unclear if the meteorite was related to the meteor shower.
More celestial stories:
Astronomers discover a star so bright that it defies the laws of physics.
NASA’s Perseverance rover drives across ancient river bed in an area known as “Shrinkle Haven.” Astrophysicists want to build an observatory in space that is 2.5 million kilometers wide.
An aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, is seen in the sky in the early morning hours of Monday, April 24, 2023, near Washtucna, Wash. An intense solar storm has the aurora borealis gracing the skies farther south than usual. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
The aurora borealis could glow over parts of the northern United States Thursday night, less than a month since one of the most vibrant displays of the northern lights since 2003.
A recent explosion on the sun sent a massive cloud of charged particles, known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), toward the Earth. When the CME collides with the Earth, it will generate another outburst of the northern lights, although it is not predicted to be as intense as the aurora outbreak in late April. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said the CME would arrive by Thursday afternoon and continue into Thursday night. It should be strong enough to spark the aurora over Canada and the northern tier of the United States. As long as it is not cloudy, the aurora can be seen as far south as Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Idaho.
In many areas of the northern United States, the aurora will appear as a green or red glow above the northern horizon rather than dramatic spirals of sensational colors directly overhead. To increase the chances of seeing the celestial lights, experts recommend heading to a dark area away from human-created light pollution with a good view of the northern horizon.
This image of the dusty debris disk surrounding the young star Fomalhaut is from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). It reveals three nested belts extending out to 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the star. (NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Gáspár (University of Arizona). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI))
The asteroid belt in our solar system is a conglomeration of space rocks orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter, but similar features in other solar systems might be more mysterious than previously thought. Scientists recently used the James Webb Space Telescope to zoom in on Fomalhaut, a young star approximately 25 light-years from Earth. With the help of the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, astronomers gathered detailed data about the first asteroid belt ever seen outside our solar system in infrared light.
“The belts around Fomalhaut are kind of a mystery novel: Where are the planets?” said George Rieke, an American astronomer who serves as the science team lead for the James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument. The image captured by Webb revealed complex structures that took scientists by surprise. “I think it’s not a very big leap to say there’s probably a really interesting planetary system around the star.”
Fomalhaut is a bright star that can easily be spotted in the night sky without a telescope, although it cannot be seen in May as it rises around the same time as the sun. It will become visible in the night sky by mid-June, rising in the southeastern sky near Saturn shortly before daybreak.
This combination of images provided by NASA on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021 shows the planet Jupiter seen by the Juno probe's microwave radiometer, left, and in visible light, captured by the Gemini Observatory. The Great Red Spot, a storm so big it could swallow Earth, extends surprisingly deep beneath the planet’s cloud tops, scientists reported Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Kevin M. Gill; Gemini Observatory via AP)
A new study published in the journal Nature detailed the blazing bright end of a planet roughly the same size as Jupiter.
The discovery was made about three years ago by astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility near San Diego. As they were scanning the sky one night, they noticed an unusually bright object. The star in question is located about 15,000 light-years from Earth, and it took some time before scientists figured out what was going on. Mansi Kasliwal, a professor of astronomy at Caltech, said, “when every single clue fell right in place, then I was convinced that what we were seeing here was indeed a star engulfing a planet,” according to an NPR report.
The observations may be a glimpse into the future of the Earth. “Like all stars, our Sun will eventually run out of energy,” NASA explained. “When it starts to die, the Sun will expand into a red giant star, becoming so large that it will engulf Mercury and Venus, and possibly Earth as well.” However, this certain doom is not expected anytime soon with NASA projecting that it will take place in about 5 billion years.
An image of the sun on May 3, 2023. (NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory)
The sun has been bursting with activity as of late, and scientists are closely monitoring the star as it could continue to rage in the coming days and potentially create another outburst of northern lights over North America.
From Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning, scientists with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center recorded multiple solar flares, or explosions on the sun. These explosions were not significant but still caused temporary disruptions to radio signals on Earth. They could also be a sign of what’s to come, as the sun could spawn more explosive flares in the near future.
Larger solar flares can blast clouds of charged particles through the solar system, in what’s known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). If a CME hits the Earth, it can lead to an outburst of aurora, although not every solar flare results in a vivid display of the celestial lights. Powerful CMEs can also “harm satellites, communications systems, and even ground-based technologies and power grids,” NASA explained.
Activity on the sun will continue to increase into 2025 as the sun nears solar maximum. Similar to the seasons on Earth, the sun goes through an 11-year cycle that features a significant uptick in activity, called the solar maximum, followed by a period of tranquility, called the solar minimum. The years surrounding solar maximum bring a major uptick in solar flares and more chances to view the northern lights.
SpaceX delayed the launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket, as severe storms battered the east coast of Florida on April 27.
Severe thunderstorms rumbled over Florida once again on Thursday, and one storm came shockingly close to a massive SpaceX rocket on a launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket was scheduled to blast off at 7:29 p.m. EDT Thursday, but a tornado-warned thunderstorm moved over the area less than an hour before the anticipated liftoff. The launch attempt was eventually scrubbed due to the weather, but the rocket remained on the launch pad.
On Thursday evening, a lightning bolt streaked through the sky and struck a lightning rod at the top of the launch pad, mere feet from the tip of the Falcon Heavy. The rocket was unscathed, and the launch was rescheduled to Friday evening. Every launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center is outfitted with a lightning protection system to divert lightning away from the rocket. One year ago on April 2, 2022, a lightning bolt hit the launch tower while NASA’s Space Launch System rocket was undergoing a wet dress rehearsal ahead of the Artemis 1 mission, according to SPACE.com. Despite Florida’s electrifying weather, it is one of the best spots in the U.S. for launching rockets into space.
View of a lightning bolt during the launch of the Apollo 12 Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 14, 1969. The silhouetted structure is the mobile launch tower. This electrical discharge between clouds and the ground took place at about 36.5 seconds after lift-off when the Apollo 12 space vehicle was at about 6,000 feet altitude. (Image/NASA)
Lightning almost spelled disaster for the Apollo 12 mission to the moon seconds after liftoff on Nov. 14, 1969. Two bolts that struck the rocket in midair almost forced the crew to abort the flight, but swift action kept the moon-bound astronauts and the rocket safe. “Think we need to do a little more all-weather testing,” NASA astronaut Pete Conrad said, who later went on to become the third human to walk on the moon.
In the news: Fallout from Starship explosion was larger than expected. Mystery solved: Scientists finally cracked the secret behind an asteroid with a rare tail. In case you missed it: Outburst of northern lights over North America was seen as far south as Texas and Arizona.
One of the most famous telescopes in history has been orbiting the Earth for more than three decades and it continues to capture breathtaking images of the cosmos to this day. “First conceived in the 1940s and initially called the Large Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope took decades of planning and research before it launched on April 24, 1990,” NASA said. Space Shuttle Discovery deployed Hubble on April 25, 1990, but with a significant flaw -- its mirror was out of focus.
This comparison image of the core of the galaxy M100 shows the dramatic improvement in the Hubble Space Telescope's view of the universe after the first servicing mission in December 1993. The original view, taken a few days before the servicing mission, is on the left. (NASA)
NASA carried out a special mission in December of 1993 to fix the issue with Hubble’s mirrors, with the in-orbit repairs successfully correcting the telescope’s vision. Hubble has since captured astounding images of distant galaxies, the remnants of supernova explosions and even planets in our own solar system. Following the launch of the more powerful James Webb Space Telescope in 2021, NASA has used Hubble in tandem with the newer telescope to take even more detailed observations of the cosmos. “Hubble and Webb will work together to showcase the universe across multiple wavelengths of light,” NASA said. “Two space telescopes, twice the star power.”
Northern lights illuminate the sky as visitors walk along Hornbaek Beach in the northern part of Sealand, Denmark late on February 27, 2023. (Photo by Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)
UPDATE: Click here for photos and more information about the outburst of aurora on Sunday night.
Stargazers in the United States will have the rare opportunity to see the glow of the northern lights on Sunday night into Monday morning. The upcoming event could be as impressive as the aurora outburst from late March, with the celestial lights might be visible as far south as Pennsylvania, Kansas, Colorado and Oregon, weather permitting.
The chance to see the northern lights comes after a solar flare erupted on the sun on Friday afternoon. The flare sent a massive cloud of charged particles hurtling toward the Earth, which NOAA said will reach the planet late Sunday into Monday. When the charged particles interact with the upper extent of Earth’s atmosphere, it generates the colorful lights known as the Aurora Borealis in the Northern Hemisphere and the Aurora Australis in the Southern Hemisphere.
An animation of the solar flare that was observed on the sun on Friday, April 21, 2023. (NOAA/GOES-EAST)
NOAA said that a moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm is predicted, but it could reach strong (G3) or severe (G4) status. Geomagnetic storms of this strength typically cause the aurora to be seen as far south as the northern tier of the United States and parts of the United Kingdom and northern Europe. Stargazers may also spot some shooting stars on Sunday night following the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower earlier in the weekend.
Spectators of the launch of the SpaceX Starship in Boca Chica, Texas, cheered as the rocket cleared the launch tower and eventually exploded into a ball of fire on April 20.
A spectacular SpaceX launch ended with an explosion off the coast of Texas Thursday morning as the Starship rocket failed abruptly minutes after liftoff. The largest rocket ever constructed took to the sky at 9:32 a.m. EDT with hundreds of people cheering on from nearby beaches while over 1.5 million people tuned in online to watch history. The thrust was twice that of the Saturn V rocket that propelled humans to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
The first few minutes of the flight were nearly flawless, but as the massive rocket climbed higher in the sky, problems started to arise. “This does not appear to be a nominal situation,” a SpaceX employee on the telecast said as the rocket began to spiral out of control. The mishap took place around the same time the rocket’s second stage was supposed to separate from the first stage booster, continuing on a journey to space while the first stage booster fell into the Gulf of Mexico. About four minutes into the flight, the rocket exploded in a ball of fire and smoke, an event SpaceX called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
Despite the explosion, the company was thrilled with the launch. “[The] goal was to gather data, clear the pad and get ready to go again,” one person said on the telecast. “A spectacular end to a truly incredible test.” The fallout from the explosion was able to be detected on doppler radar over the Gulf of Mexico. The data collected during the first Starship flight will help the company be more successful with the next launch, which SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk said is "in a few months."
The clock is ticking down as SpaceX prepares to launch its new super heavy Starship rocket for its inaugural mission. The launchpad is in Boca Chica, Texas, located along the southern coast of Texas. This is the second launch attempt this week, with additional launch opportunities through next week if today’s launch is scrubbed.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a payload of second-generation Starlink V2 Mini internet satellites lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday morning ahead of a potentially historic launch on Thursday morning in Texas. The Wednesday flight delivered a new batch of Starlink satellites into orbit around the Earth and was followed up by the first stage of the rocket landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 186th time the company had landed a rocket after an orbital launch.
During the telecast for Wednesday’s mission, SpaceX said it is preparing for another launch attempt for its Starship super heavy rocket from Boca Chica, Texas, located along the state’s southern coast. However, the commentator added, “the chances for scrubs are high.” Founder and CEO Elon Musk added to this on Twitter, explaining, “the team is working around the clock on many issues.” On Monday, a frozen valve prevented the most powerful rocket ever built from taking to the sky.
People gather and wait for SpaceX's Starship to launch in South Padre Island, Texas, Monday, April 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
The 62-minute launch window on Thursday opens at 8:28 a.m. CDT. The weather is predicted to be favorable for the launch despite cloudy and breezy conditions. People traveling to the coast of Texas for the launch can expect temperatures in the mid-70s with an AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperature of 80 degrees. AccuWeather’s exclusive RealFeel Temperature® combines more than a dozen factors to provide an accurate measure of how representative the current or forecast weather conditions really “feel” to an appropriately dressed person. If Starship does not lift off on Thursday, there are several backup launch dates through April 28.
Crowds gathered along the coast of southern Texas early Monday morning, hoping to watch a new rocket from SpaceX take to the sky on its maiden voyage. The weather was good, the clock was ticking down and the intensity in the air was swelling, but the hopes of seeing the rocket blast off were dashed by a last-minute issue with the first stage of the behemoth rocket. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said that the postponement was due to a valve on the rocket that froze. It will take at least 48 hours before the rocket can be ready for another launch attempt, although SpaceX has yet to announce a new launch date.
Starship has been years in the making at the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica, Texas, located along the Gulf Coast about 20 miles northeast of Brownsville. The super heavy rocket is the most powerful ever built in human history with the first stage being powered by 33 rocket engines. It towers 394 feet above the launch pad, taller than the 363-foot tall Saturn V rocket that sent humans to the moon and the 322-foot SLS rocket used during NASA’s Artemis 1 mission in 2022.
The SpaceX Starship rocket stands on the launchpad from the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica as seen from South Padre Island, Texas on April 17, 2023. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
On Nov. 15, 2022, NASA announced that it awarded SpaceX with a contract to use Starship to send astronauts to the surface of the moon. As part of the contract, SpaceX will conduct an uncrewed demonstration mission to the lunar surface before a crewed landing on the moon during the Artemis III mission. This will be the first time humans have walked on the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring the surface of Mars for more than a decade, and its latest finding could be one of the most intriguing and puzzling ones yet.
Over the past two weeks, the rover has taken hundreds of photos of a field of rocks, including one rock in particular that has needle-like features poking out like the teeth on a comb. “In 20 years of studying Mars, that’s the most bizarre rock I have ever seen,” astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol said in a Twitter post. It is unclear how these odd formations developed, but it was not the first time that Cabrol had seen this type of rock structure. “I saw this type of thing in Chile in a dry lakebed. Bacteria were involved there,” Cabrol said. “Strange for sure.”
The Curiosity rover has been exploring an area known as Gale Crater since landing on the Red Planet on Aug. 5, 2012. The crater was the site of a significant meteor impact around 3.7 billion years ago, which was a wetter period in the planet’s history. Water gradually flowed into the crater to create a lake, although the lake has long since dried up. Curiosity is now roaming the dried remnants of the ancient lake and has drilled into rocks to investigate the rocks that were once submerged in water. “The evidence points to Gale Crater (and Mars in general) as a place where life — if it ever arose — might have survived for some time,” NASA said.
A woman takes a photo of the rising pink moon as people walk in Athens, Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Siv Heang Tav recorded April’s full moon rising above Calgary, Alberta, in a stunning time-lapse video on Thursday, April 6. The nickname ‘Pink Moon’ comes from the time of year rather than the color of the moon itself. Its moniker can be traced to wildflower ground phlox, which is one of the first flowers to bloom in North America and has pink and purple petals. April’s full moon is also known as the Frog Moon, Breaking Ice Moon, Sugar Maker Moon and the Broken Snowshoe Moon, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Tav is a photographer based in Calgary, and she regularly captures nighttime time-lapse videos. Many of her captures are incredible views of the northern lights over Alberta, including displays above Calgary. She also books photoshoots for those who would like to have pictures taken under the aurora or Milky Way.
A photographer captured this stunning time-lapse video of the Pink Moon emerging from the skyscrapers of Calgary, Alberta, on the night of April 6.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has peered into the depths of the universe, leading to startling discoveries of distant worlds, but its latest celestial target was a bit closer to home.
On Thursday, NASA released a series of images of Uranus that allowed scientists to see some of its rings for just the third time in history. “Only Voyager 2 and Keck (with adaptive optics) have imaged the planet’s faintest rings before, and never as clearly as Webb’s first glimpse at this ice giant,” NASA said. The images were captured when the JWST focused its sensors on the planet for only 12 minutes. “It is just the tip of the iceberg of what Webb can do when observing this mysterious planet,” NASA added.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun, and it takes the planet 84 years to complete one trip around the star. It is unlike any other planet in the solar system with its poles pointed nearly 90 degrees from its orbit, compared to the Earth which is tilted on its axis by roughly 23.5 degrees. As a result, the polar regions of Uranus experience 42 years of sunlight and 42 years of darkness. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have ever visited Uranus, but astronomers are eager to learn more with the help of the JWST. “Additional studies of Uranus are happening now, and more are planned in Webb’s first year of science operations,” NASA said.
In the news: The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Friday morning. Get the scoop on NASA’s mission.In case you missed it: AccuWeather Prime host and senior on-air meteorologist Adam Del Rosso interviewed NASA’s new Head of Science, Dr. Nicola Fox, about the missions she is most excited about. Watch the interview here.
Must-see: Something strange happened when physicists simulated a black hole in a lab. Watch the story here.
Astronauts do more than conduct experiments while living on the International Space Station (ISS). NASA astronaut Don Pettit spent 193 days orbiting the Earth from Dec. 2011 into July 2012, and during his extended time in space, he captured a hypnotic image of the Earth and the stars.
“The image is compiled from a series of photographs taken by NASA astronaut Don Pettit while he was onboard the ISS in April 2012,” NASA explained. “This composite was made from more than 72 individual long-exposure photographs taken over several minutes as the ISS traveled over the Caribbean Sea, across South America, and over the South Atlantic Ocean.”
The swirls of light in the top half of the image are star trails. In a long-exposure photo, star trails show how the stars appear to move in a circular motion over time from the perspective of the ISS. The Earth appears in the bottom half of the image, with natural and human-made lights visible. In a single snapshot from the ISS, a city appears yellow or orange at night due to a concentration of human-made light. In a long-exposure image, the city lights transform into glowing highways due to the swift motion of the station as it orbits the Earth. White and blue lights also dot part of the image of the Earth, and are the result of intense flashes of lightning from towering thunderstorms. The green-yellow color is a phenomenon called airglow, a constant faint light that occurs 50 to 400 miles above the planet’s surface.
A green and red aurora hung above bright blue, glimmering water on Feb. 16, in the Greater Hobart area in Tasmania.
The aurora has made many appearances in the night sky in recent weeks, but one photographer near Hobart, Tasmania, was treated to the light show of a lifetime while recording a time-lapse video. On Feb. 16, photographer Ben Swanson captured green and red aurora illuminating the sky over Tasmania while waves crashing ashore were glowing a vibrant blue. The colorful waves were due to a phenomenon called bioluminescence, resulting in an awe-inspiring scene that nearly left the photographer speechless. “To see both of these phenomenon together was truly magical,” Swanson told Storyful.
The northern lights and southern lights occur when charged particles from the sun bombard the planet’s atmosphere, but bioluminescence is created by life on Earth. “If you’ve ever seen a firefly, you have encountered a bioluminescent organism,” NASA explained. “In the ocean, bioluminescence is not as rare as you might think. In fact, most types of animals, from bacteria to sharks, include some bioluminescent members.”
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a time-lapse video of the sun from March 14-18, and the footage revealed a massive solar tornado that developed near the north pole of the sun. NASA explained that this may be “the tallest tornado” ever captured in the solar system. It reached towering heights of 75,000 miles or 14 times that of Earth’s diameter. Not only was it extraordinarily large, but the fiery twister raged on the sun’s surface for three days before it dissipated and ejected the sun’s plasma out into space. Andrew McCarthy, an astrophotographer based in Arizona, captured the phenomenon in incredible detail using a solar telescope.
The event is not expected to affect Earth, but the sun’s recent solar activity may produce solar winds, which can lead to geomagnetic storms that can trigger auroras on Earth at the end of the week.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a time-lapse video of the sun from March 14-18. A solar tornado emerged near the north pole of the sun, towering as high as 14 Earths!
Streaks of bright lights were spotted across the night sky over Sacramento, California, on March 17. This was likely small debris from a Japanese interorbital communications system.
Skywatchers who had a bit of luck on St. Patrick’s Day spotted an astounding sight over California on Friday around 9:30 p.m. PDT. Jaime Hernandez was in Sacramento on Friday evening for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration and was one of the people across the state who witnessed the stunning sight. “Mainly, we were in shock, but amazed that we got to witness it,” Hernandez told The Associated Press. “None of us had ever seen anything like it.”
Around half a dozen glowing lights were spotted streaking across the sky, but they were unrelated to a meteor shower or an asteroid hitting the Earth. According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the objects were pieces of space junk burning up as they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. Experts believe the debris was most likely from a Japanese communications satellite that was launched to the ISS in 2009 but recently jettisoned to create valuable space for newer technology aboard the space outpost. “It probably almost completely burnt up during reentry, but any small surviving debris may have, at a guess, reached the Yosemite area,” McDowell said in a tweet.
This latest image from the James Webb Space Telescope features Wolf-Rayet 124, a dying star on the verge of going supernova.
Spring is on the verge of blooming in the United States, with the start of the new season arriving on the equinox at 5:24 p.m. EDT on March 20. On Tuesday, NASA released an image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that, like a flower about to blossom, showed a star about to burst open.
Star WR 124 is around 15,000 light-years from Earth and is 30 times more massive than our sun. The distant star is nearing its end, and as it progresses through the twilight of its life, it is shedding its outer layer into space, creating an enormous cloud of glowing gas and dust. The pink and purple colors in the image captured by the mid-infrared instruments aboard the JWST are massive clouds of dust and gas cast off by the star.
WR 124 will eventually explode in a cataclysmic eruption known as a supernova. It is rare for astronomers to take observations of a star during this brief stage before exploding into smithereens, making the observations from the JWST valuable for scientists. “Stars like WR 124 also serve as an analog to help astronomers understand a crucial period in the early history of the universe,” NASA said. “Similar dying stars first seeded the young universe with heavy elements forged in their cores – elements that are now common in the current era, including on Earth.”
The luminous, hot star Wolf-Rayet 124 (WR 124) is prominent at the center of the James Webb Space Telescope’s composite image. The star is 15,000 light-years from Earth. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team)
In this handout photo released by Roscosmos Space Agency Press Service, a view of the International Space Station taken on March 30, 2022 by crew of Russian Soyuz MS-19 space ship after undocking from the Station. (Roscosmos Space Agency Press Service via AP)
Four astronauts recently arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after blasting off from Earth on a SpaceX rocket on Thursday, March 2. It took less than a week before the new residents were introduced to the growing crowd of satellites and space junk orbiting the Earth.
A satellite was on a potential collision course with the football field-sized space station early this week, so NASA had to take action to avoid a potential catastrophe. “The orbital outpost maneuvered out of the way of an Earth observation satellite early Monday,” NASA said in a statement. A space capsule docked to the ISS fired its engines for just over six minutes to avoid the satellite and raise the station’s orbit. The satellite in question is believed to be Nusat-17, an Earth-observation satellite launched in 2020 and operated by Argentina, according to SPACE.com.
Raising the orbit of the ISS is a standard procedure as the pull of the planet’s gravity gradually tugs the station down toward Earth over time. However, it is becoming more common for the station to maneuver out of the way of a satellite or piece of space junk. A NASA report about space debris stated that the ISS made 32 maneuvers between 1999 and 2022 to avoid potential collisions with other human-made objects. Half of these occurred between 2014 and 2022, with nine such maneuvers occurring in 24 months.
An infrared image of Jupiter's north pole, taken by the Juno spacecraft on March 7, 2018. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM)
Nine robotic explorers have journeyed over 500 million miles to Jupiter since the dawn of space exploration. The latest probe, Juno, has taken some of the most detailed observations of the planet to date. On March 7, 2018, NASA unveiled an infrared image of Jupiter’s north pole. Eight cyclones were pictured revolving around the pole, and although they look like lava, temperatures in the cloud formations are as low as 181 degrees below zero. Each cyclone is 2,500 and 2,900 miles across, about the same size as the contiguous United States or roughly one-third the diameter of the Earth.
“Before Juno, we could only guess what Jupiter’s poles would look like,” said Alberto Adriani, Juno co-investigator from the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome. “Now, with Juno flying over the poles at a close distance it permits the collection of infrared imagery on Jupiter’s polar weather patterns and its massive cyclones in unprecedented spatial resolution.” Juno photographed a similar geometric pattern over Jupiter’s south pole, but scientists were surprised to see only five cyclones compared to the eight observed circling the north pole.
The basketball court-sized spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since July 5, 2016, and recently completed its 47th orbit around the planet. NASA extended the Juno mission through September 2025, and the agency could extend the mission again if the spacecraft remains healthy.
It was a tranquil evening along Florida’s Atlantic coast, but tension filled the air around the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Two nights had passed since a crewed mission to the International Space Station was called off just minutes before the countdown reached zero, and NASA and SpaceX were once again preparing to launch four humans to the celestial outpost 259 miles above the Earth.
At 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday, the nine engines of the SpaceX rocket lit up and the rocket took to the sky, the start of a 25-hour journey to the ISS. On board were NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi -- the first astronaut from the UAE to partake in a long-duration mission in space. Al-Neyadi, who is Muslim, will be in space throughout Ramadan, which takes place from March 22 through April 23. Adult Muslims fast from dawn to sunset during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, but on the ISS, the sun rises and sets once every 90 minutes. According to SPACE.com, there are exceptions to the Ramadan fasting rule for travelers, but Al-Neyadi told reporters that he would try to fast as his schedule allows.
The four-person crew will spend roughly six months on the ISS conducting research, performing maintenance and fulfilling other duties while orbiting the Earth. Thursday’s mission was SpaceX’s 14th launch of the year, good for an average of one launch every 4.2 days.
An engine ignition system issue forced SpaceX to halt a launch attempt Monday, just two minutes from liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch, intended to send four humans to the International Space Station for NASA, will be postponed through at least Thursday.
Officials stated the problem was due to ground equipment used for loading engine ignition fluid, equipment a SpaceX engineer compared to spark plugs for a car. The launch team could not be sure that there was a full load of fluid aboard. The SpaceX Crew-6, consisting of two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, waited about an hour for SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket to be drained of fuel before getting out. “I’m proud of the NASA and SpaceX teams’ focus and dedication to keeping Crew-6 safe,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “Human spaceflight is an inherently risky endeavor and, as always, we will fly when we are ready.”
The next available launch attempt for Crew-6 will be at 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday, pending a resolution of the equipment issues that prevented Monday’s launch. The crew will replace four current residents of the space station that have been there since October. Currently, there is a 90% chance of favorable weather accompanying the Thursday launch. NASA and SpaceX will forgo a launch opportunity on Tuesday due to unfavorable weather conditions, including sustained winds of 15 mph with gusts up to 29 mph at Cape Canaveral. Fast winds can postpone a launch, as they can disrupt a rocket both at the launchpad and miles above the ground. High winds, lightning and downrange conditions (weather factors off Florida’s east coast and over the Atlantic Ocean) can all hinder a launch.
Jupiter, Venus and the moon aligned in the sky over Disney World's Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (Instagram/ dstarcastle)
Venus, Jupiter and the crescent moon gathered in the evening sky this week, a three-night event that caught the attention of stargazers worldwide -- including one parkgoer in Florida’s famous Disney World resort.
Tuesday evening was the first opportunity to spot the alignment with the crescent moon appearing below Venus and Jupiter. Donna Papaycik was in Disney’s Magic Kingdom, often touted as “The Most Magical Place On Earth,” and snapped a breathtaking photo of the celestial trio. Hues of red and pink in the evening sky nearly matched the enchanting glow of Cinderella’s Castle, the park’s centerpiece.
The celestial spectacle continued on Wednesday evening when the moon appeared side-by-side with Jupiter while Venus shined bright below the pairing. As the sun set on Thursday evening, the trio once again was strung out in a line, similar to Tuesday evening’s event, although this time, the moon glowed above the two planets. Jupiter and Venus are slowly converging in the evening sky, and on March 1, the two will appear extremely close to each other during one of the top astronomy events of 2023.
A huge planet that has never been seen by astronomers could be lurking at the edge of our solar system, some scientists believe.
The existence of another planet hidden in the depths of our solar system has been hypothesized for years. While a planet has not been officially discovered, many refer to it as Planet X.
Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, have scanned the icy reaches of the outer solar system for evidence of another planet. They have not confirmed its existence, but they have made a prediction about the planet’s potential characteristics. If the mysterious Planet X does exist, it is likely to be about 10 times larger than the Earth and take roughly 10,000 to 20,000 years to make one orbit around the sun. For comparison, Neptune, the eighth planet from the sun, is four times bigger than Earth and takes 165 years to orbit the sun.
A large gas planet on the background of its star. Computer graphics. Exoplanet in the artist's view. (iStock / Getty Images Plus)
The most challenging aspect of discovering such a planet is spotting it in space. Even if the planet does exist, it may be impossible to see with current technology due to how far away it is from Earth. However, scientists may eventually be able to detect Planet X with its gravity signature as it will influence other objects in the far reaches of the solar system. “I would love to find it,” said Mike Brown, an astronomer at Caltech. “But I’d also be perfectly happy if someone else found it. We hope that other people are going to get inspired and start searching.”
The weekend was a time of celebration for NASA as Saturday marked two Earth years since the Perseverance rover touched down on Mars. “Anniversaries are a time of reflection and celebration, and the Perseverance team is doing a lot of both,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California. The robotic explorer arrived at the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021, and in a first for planetary exploration, recorded audio of the Martian winds to convey the mission to folks who are visually impaired.
Since becoming the latest robotic resident of Mars, Perseverance has navigated 9.3 miles of the rocky Martian terrain, captured more than 166,000 images of the planet and gathered over 15,769 hours of weather observations. Perseverance has not been alone, traveling with Ingenuity, the first helicopter to fly on another planet. The rover has even made a friend with NASA scientists discovering a pet rock hitching a ride in one of its six wheels.
Perseverance is already laying the groundwork for future missions to the Red Planet. Since Aug. 6, 2021, the rover has been gathering samples of rocks, dirt and air, placing them in tubes and leaving them on the planet’s surface. Future missions to Mars will collect these sealed tubes and blast them back to Earth, where scientists worldwide can study the samples.
Pink aurora illuminated the night sky over northern Vermont on Wednesday night, a rare sight that could be followed up with more outbursts of the Northern Lights over Canada and the far northern United States into the weekend.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G1 storm watch for Thursday night and a G2 storm watch for Friday night. Geomagnetic storms of this magnitude can create enchanting displays of the Aurora Borealis over Canada and the northern tier of the U.S., including New England, the Upper Midwest, the northern Plains and the northern Rockies. Experts say the peak of the activity is likely during the first half of Saturday night, and anyone hoping to get a glimpse of the aurora should travel to dark areas away from light-polluted cities.
The northern lights are visible over Anchorage, Alaska, on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
The Northeast could be the best spot in the contiguous U.S. for viewing the northern lights on Friday night with partly cloudy to mainly clear conditions in the forecast, including areas of Upstate New York north of Albany. Clouds will be an issue for stargazers across most of the Midwest and northern Plains, including around Grand Forks, North Dakota. Poor stargazing conditions are also in the offing for the interior Northwest, including around Spokane, Washington, although a few breaks in the clouds cannot be ruled out.
A minor geomagnetic storm was taking place on Wednesday, setting the stage for northern parts of the United States to see auroras on Wednesday night, according to EarthSky.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) highlighted the potential for the northern lights to be spotted across northern parts of the U.S., including parts of Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Michigan, northern New York and northern parts of New England.
The AccuWeather stargazing index is rated as good for places like Billings, Montana, and Fargo, North Dakota, where few clouds will interfere with views of the aurora. Meanwhile, areas farther east like Green Bay, Wisconsin, will have poor stargazing conditions due to clouds from a large storm affecting the U.S.
The Voyager program was instrumental in exploring the outer solar system, and it remains the only time that NASA visited Uranus and Neptune. Decades later, the last image from the historic mission has stood the test of time. On Feb. 14, 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft -- located 3.7 billion miles away -- pointed its camera at Earth and captured an image of home. This was the final image taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft before the camera was powered down to conserve energy.
Carl Sagan, an American astronomer who had a pivotal role in the Voyager program, unveiled the image at a press conference and put the picture into perspective. “It looks like more than a dot, but it is, in fact, less than a pixel. You can see that it is slightly blue and this is where we live on a blue dot,” Sagan said.
“On that blue dot, that’s where everyone you know and everyone you’ve ever heard of, and every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. It’s a very small stage in a great cosmic arena. Just speaking for myself, I think this perspective underscores our responsibility to preserve and cherish that blue dot, the only home we have.”
The Subaru-Asahi Star Camera perched atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, captured a rare sighting of red sprites hovering above a distant thunderstorm on Feb. 5.
Hawaii offers incredible night sky views, making it an ideal location for telescopes to observe the night sky. On Feb. 5, 2023, a camera focused on the night sky over the Asahi-Shimbun and Subaru Telescope on the Big Island of Hawaii captured images of a rare weather phenomenon. A thunderstorm was rumbling in the distance behind the telescopes when multiple jellyfish-shaped lightning bolts called sprites appeared high in the sky.
Lightning sprites are much larger and more elusive than typical lightning during a thunderstorm. Unlike standard lightning flashes that are white and can strike the ground, sprites appear red or pink and extend upward over powerful thunderstorms, frequently reaching 30 to 56 miles (50-90 km) above the surface of the Earth. The Kármán line, which many scientists consider to be the edge of space, is 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth’s surface. Spites only last for a fraction of a second, making them incredibly challenging to witness.
Reports of sprite sightings date back hundreds of years but were not captured on camera until 1989. “Researchers from the University of Minnesota were testing a low-light TV camera for an upcoming rocket flight mission,” NASA explained. “By sheer accident, their camera captured the very first credible evidence for what we now call sprites.” Meteorologists have many unanswered questions about the formation of sprites since they are extremely difficult to observe and document. NASA has asked citizen scientists to file reports to help scientists study the electrifying phenomenon.
An image of Jupiter captured by the Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 7, 2000, as the space probe made its way through the solar system toward Saturn. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, but it ranked second in terms of the number of moons after Saturn, which has 83 confirmed moons in addition to its awe-inspiring rings. That is, until 2023.
Astronomers announced the discovery of 12 never-before-seen moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing its total number of confirmed moons to 92. Astronomer Scott Sheppard and a team of fellow scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., made the discovery, although it took around a year to confirm that the objects they were tracking were indeed orbiting the planet. Sheppard believes these moons could be remnants of at least seven larger moons that broke apart when they collided with other moons, asteroids or comets.
And that’s not all. The confirmed number of moons orbiting Jupiter could soon reach triple digits, with Sheppard saying that his team is working to confirm “many, many more moons around Jupiter.”
A cloud of icy molecules that could one day give birth to stars and planets. (NASA, ESA, CSA and M. Zamani (ESA))
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured breathtaking images of the cosmos since its launch on Dec. 25, 2021, including one picture of a region of space that could one day give birth to planets and stars.
The telescope recently observed a massive molecular cloud 630 light-years away from Earth, with its instruments detecting the presence of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur inside the cloud. “These elements are important ingredients in both planetary atmospheres and molecules like sugars, alcohols, and simple amino acids,” NASA explained. “This is the most comprehensive census to date of the icy ingredients available to make future generations of stars and planets before they are heated during the formation of young stars.”
The blue, wispy material in the center of the image is the heart of the icy cosmic cloud, and the shimmering orange bursts of light on the left side of the image are young stars that have developed in the same region of space.
An image of the sun captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on Aug. 13, 2022. (NASA/SDO)
The sun has been bubbling with activity in recent months with solar flares frequently erupting on the surface of the star. Many of these eruptions have little to no impact on the Earth, but a 133-day timelapse released by NASA revealed how the surface of the sun has been bustling with activity since last summer.
The timelapse began on Aug. 12 and continued through Dec. 22, the day after the December solstice. In the video, the sun’s appearance is much different and more detailed than the human perspective from Earth (with proper eye protection, of course). That is because NASA’s instruments observe the sun through multiple wavelengths of light. Different wavelengths can help scientists identify different features on the sun’s surface, which can improve the accuracy of space weather predictions. “The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma,” NASA explained. “These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection.”
Larger outbursts on the sun can send clouds of charged particles at the Earth and spark vibrant displays of the northern lights. Intense solar activity could also cause issues with GPS systems, fluctuations with power grids on Earth and an increase in radiation exposure for astronauts on the International Space Station.
