Blue Origin explosion update: Less damage than expected
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp gave an update on June 1, 2026, about the explosion that occurred during launch of its New Glenn mega-rocket in Florida. The post Blue Origin explosion up...
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Sun news: Cannibal sun-stuff incoming! Auroras tonight?
Sun news for June 4, 2026: Cannibal CME heading for Earth! G2–G3 storms possible tonight. AR4455 gains delta complexity. Auroras coming! Get ready! The post Sun news: Cannibal sun-...
Visible planets and night sky guide for June
Visible planets and night sky guide. This evening, Venus and Jupiter shine in the western twilight. See an exciting video about their upcoming conjunction. The post Visible planets...
The constellation Norma is home to the Great Attractor
The constellation Norma lies in southern skies and is home to the Great Attractor, the Norma cluster and other deep-sky objects. The post The constellation Norma is home to the Gre...
A new chapter for ESA’s brand
Last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) unveiled its long-term vision for the decades ahead with ESA Strategy 2040. Framed around five encompassing goals which demonstrate the i...
ExoMars rover targets vast bed of clay in search for life
In the region where the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover will search for signs of life, clay deposits extend beyond previous estimates, a new study finds. One hypothesis even sugges...
A Moonlit Earth as Seen From Artemis II
An astronaut’s photo, taken en route to the Moon, reveals our planet and its place in space in a novel way.
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4908-4912: Goodbye Campo Marte, It’s Been Fun!
By Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, UK Earth planning date: Friday, May 29, 2026 Drilling always keeps the rover in place for a littl...
NASA Finds New Way Earth May Have Received Elements Needed for Life
NASA-supported scientists have provided new information about how the early Earth may have acquired some elements necessary for the planet to become habitable. They also suggest a...
International Sea Level Satellite Observes El Niño Precursor
Description Sea level height data from the international Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite collected from March to May 2026 show higher, warmer water moving from the western Pa...
Venus, Jupiter Converge in Stunning June 9th Dusk Conjunction
A beautiful conjunction is coming, and all you need are your eyes to enjoy it. The post Venus, Jupiter Converge in Stunning June 9th Dusk Conjunction appeared first on Sky & Telesc...
Journey to the Center of the Virgo Cluster
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy Messier 88 (M88).
Journey to the Center of the Virgo Cluster
The focus of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image released on May 29, 2026, is an active spiral galaxy on a journey lasting hundreds of millions of years. The galaxy Messier...
Rare meteorite hints at giant early planet
A rare meteorite contains evidence of a lost early protoplanet, offering a glimpse into the chaotic collisions that shaped our solar system. The post Rare meteorite hints at giant...
Mars MAVEN Mission Lost; NASA Says Farewell
NASA is working to restore communications with its MAVEN Mars Orbiter mission. The post Mars MAVEN Mission Lost; NASA Says Farewell appeared first on Sky & Telescope .
NASA Drains 66-Million-Gallon Reservoir to Upgrade Critical Water System
A powerful but mostly unseen water system at work during rocket engine tests at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, underwent an upgrade in May. Crews brou...
NASA Says Farewell to MAVEN Mars Mission, Hosts Media Call Today
The first mission devoted to observing the Martian atmosphere and its evolution, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), has ended after more than 11 years in orbit...
Magnetic exoplanets? Strange winds are strongest hint yet
Astronomers have found the strongest hint yet of magnetic exoplanets, thanks to new measurements of strange winds on distant worlds. The post Magnetic exoplanets? Strange winds are...
Crystal Ball Nebula hides a fading star and its companion
The Crystal Ball Nebula is a giant sphere of gas and dust encircling a pair of stars in the direction of the constellation Taurus the Bull. The post Crystal Ball Nebula hides a fad...
Big and Little Dippers in the northern sky on June evenings
The Big and Little Dippers are June sky favorites, with the Big Dipper’s Pointer stars leading the way to Polaris and the Little Dipper. The post Big and Little Dippers in the nort...
Typhoon Jangmi
The sprawling storm promised to deliver torrential rain across a wide swath of southern Japan.
NASA Space Roboticist Challenge
The Fly Foundational Robots (FFR) mission will launch a robotic arm, with seven degrees of freedom, to low Earth orbit. NASA is opening access to the robotic arm to a select group...
Prepare for El Niño conditions, urge officials
The WMO said on June 2 that people should start preparing now for above average temperatures and extreme weather due to coming El Niño conditions. The post Prepare for El Niño cond...
Look Up!
Astronauts Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) and Jack Hathaway of NASA, both Expedition 74 flight engineers, look out a window in the cupola.
Look Up!
Astronauts Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) and Jack Hathaway of NASA, both Expedition 74 flight engineers, look out a window in the cupola, monitoring the automated ap...
NASA Testing Wastewater Treatment Facility for Future Moon Base
A mobile wastewater treatment system built at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida that can help prepare for long-duration missions on the Moon and Mars departed the spaceport an...
The black hole or galaxy: Which came 1st?
QSO1 is an ancient Little Red Dot galaxy from the early universe. It contains a supermassive black hole. Which came first, the black hole or galaxy? The post The black hole or gala...
Spacewalking With Scott Wray, Artemis EVA Training Lead
Scott Wray’s experience with spacewalks started when he was about 6 years old. A tent resembling a lunar lander provided the perfect imaginary spacecraft. “I would lie on my back w...
Webb sniffs methane from interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
Image: Webb's MIRI image of the interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS in three different light wavelengths
Smile: cleanroom to space
Video: 00:03:24 Smile successfully launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 19 May 2026. This timelapse captures the excitement and precision of launch operations as th...
Pretty in Pink
This image of Westerlund 2 features Chandra X-ray Observatory data (pink) and James Webb infrared data (red, orange, green, cyan, and blue).
Venus-Jupiter conjunction: Sky’s 2 brightest planets to meet
Get ready for a spectacular Venus-Jupiter conjunction! You can already start watching the planets after sunset. The big event happens on June 8 and 9. The post Venus-Jupiter conjun...
June Podcast: Dance of the Planets
This month’s episode highlights the close pairing of Venus and Jupiter under way in the western sky after sunset. You'll also learn why astronomers are fixated on a star in Corona...
Deneb is an incredibly distant star. But how do we know?
The star Deneb - part of the Summer Triangle - is one of the most distant stars you can see with your eye alone. But why don't we know its distance precisely? The post Deneb is an...
NASA Brings Its Lunar Ambitions into Focus with Moon Base Missions
Rovers, drones, and landers will usher in a sustained lunar presence, under the new plan NASA announced this week. The post NASA Brings Its Lunar Ambitions into Focus with Moon Bas...
Hubble Spies Faint Irregular Galaxy
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the faint glow of the dwarf irregular galaxy ESO 490-017.
Evidence of Water Plumes from Jupiter's Moon Europa Vanishes
Reanalysis shows that the Hubble Space Telescope's detection of water vapor escaping from Jupiter’s moon Europa might have been a glitch. The post Evidence of Water Plumes from Jup...
This Month at ESA: May 2026
Video: 00:04:15 What did space deliver for Europe this month? From asteroid flybys to Mars landing tests, new discoveries from Webb and Hubble, and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot capt...
Big impacts
New asteroid discoveries, big changes at NASA, and breathtaking views of Saturn.
Week in images: 25-29 May 2026
Week in images: 25-29 May 2026 Discover our week through the lens
This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 29 – June 7
Venus and Jupiter grab your eyes in the west in late twilight. The Summer Triangle marks the dark in the east. So will the subtler Milky Way once the glary Moon is gone. The post T...
Earth from Space: Batagaika Crater
Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features the Batagaika Crater in Siberia. This is the biggest permafrost crater in the world, caused by melting permafrost and also known as...
Journey to the centre of a galaxy cluster
Image: Journey to the centre of a galaxy cluster
Painting the Growing Season in the Maize Triangle
Radar data from an agricultural area in South Africa, shown in a vivid color palette, reveal crop types and how they changed during the Southern Hemisphere’s growing season.
I Am Artemis: Daniel Stubbs
Listen to this audio excerpt from Daniel Stubbs, NASA aerospace engineer: If you’ve driven through a cloud of dust and dirt that temporarily obscured your view, you’ve gotten a par...
NASA Uses Mineralogical Marker to Understand Ancient Martian Climate
Scientists analyzed 20 Martian samples collected by NASA’s Curiosity Rover and found that differences in hematite crystallite size at varying elevations could serve as a new minera...
Going Low and Slow in Testing
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft flies above NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, during testing focused on lower-speed and altitude flight...
What would it be like to fly through Saturn’s rings?
Saturn’s rings are one of the most beautiful sights in the Solar System, but most of us have no idea what they look like up close.
Skywatching in June 2026
There's a lot happening in this month's sky, and coming soon: Venus and Jupiter meet up.
Students Build Moon Robots for NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics Challenge
Katherine Rauscher, of Michigan Technological University, prepares her team’s prototype lunar robot for its turn during the finals for NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics Challenge competition...
NASA-European Sea Level Mission Homes in on El Niño
Sea level data from a satellite launched by NASA and European partners shows that a swell of warm water hundreds of miles wide has arrived in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Sou...
Lost in the Star Clouds — A Milky Way Odyssey
I share my "discovery" of a new Milky Way star cloud that's been staring at me for ages. The post Lost in the Star Clouds — A Milky Way Odyssey appeared first on Sky & Telescope .
Webb reveals black hole that formed before its galaxy
Using the unprecedented imaging and spectroscopic power of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers have mapped the motion and composition of gas orbiting a black h...
NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics: Winning Student Teams Engineering Lunar Future
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, to align with current program details. All confirmed information regarding the 2026 Lunabotics Challenge remains u...
Your Moon Guide for June 2026
Discover the Moon phases for June, including the Moon meeting up with Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus.
NASA to Announce Artemis III Crew, Provide Mission Progress Update
NASA will provide an update on the agency’s Artemis III mission and announce the astronauts assigned to the test flight during a live event at 11 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 9, at th...
NASA Provides Update on Moon Base Rovers, Landers, Missions
Editor’s note: Release was updated May 27, 2026, to provide additional details on the crewed lunar terrain vehicles. During a Moon Base event Tuesday at NASA’s Headquarters in Wash...
Chennai City Lights
Chennai, on India's southern coast along the Bay of Bengal and with a metropolitan population of about 8.7 million, shines with white LED streetlights in this photograph taken at a...
NASA's Psyche Sends Back Amazing Images of Mars
NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission made a course adjustment via a flyby past Mars en route to its final destination. Here's what it saw. The post NASA's Psyche Sends Back Amazing Image...
Jaclyn Kagey Shapes Humanity’s Return to the Moon
For Jaclyn Kagey, preparing astronauts to put boots on the Moon is part of her daily work. As the Artemis extravehicular activity lead in NASA’s Flight Operations Directorate, Kage...
The Astronomical Imbalance Hidden Inside Manhattanhenge
It's Manhattanhenge: the time of year when the setting Sun aligns perfectly with Manhattan’s street grid.
Call for Creatives: NASA Seeks Help Illuminating Mission Storytelling
As NASA pushes the boundaries of exploration and innovation for the benefit of humanity, the agency is looking for partners to share mission stories covering Artemis Moon missions...
Webb Studies Star Clusters
This near-infrared image shows a section of one of the spiral arms of Messier 51 (M51).
ESA’s Prodex programme brings scientific research to space
The launch of the 4DSpace-Daedalus mission in Norway is the latest success supported by Prodex, a European Space Agency (ESA) programme which enables highly skilled research instit...
NASA to Compete Contract for Jet Propulsion Laboratory Management
NASA announced plans Friday to compete the next contract for managing and operating the agency’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in Southern California at...
With a little help from our planet friends
Speeding up, slowing down, capturing amazing views, making discoveries — all thanks to planets.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 22 – 31
Venus and Jupiter — the Evening Star and the False Evening Star — draw closer together in the western twilight and point down to Mercury. The waxing Moon shows off its rich telesco...
Nereid Could be Neptune’s Only Original Moon
New research suggests that Triton — or a Triton-like object — might have disrupted Neptune's original moon system. Nereid might be the sole survivor. The post Nereid Could be Neptu...
NASA Joins Artemis Accords Workshop as Global Signings Rise
The United States participated in an Artemis Accords workshop in Lima, Peru, last week, following a new wave of nations committing to safe and responsible exploration of the Moon...
Hubble Sights Galaxy in Transition
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope images reveals the lenticular galaxy, NGC 1266. This enigmatic post-starburst galaxy has a bright center and a face that hints at spiral structure...
Psyche Spacecraft Completes Mars Flyby
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft completed its close approach of Mars on May 15, capturing images as it came within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet’s surface. This is an enhan...
Astronomers thought JWST might find signs of life. Now they have a new plan.
An update in the search for alien life beyond the Solar System.
Join ESA for a total solar eclipse on 12 August 2026
Follow the total solar eclipse with the European Space Agency (ESA), in person or online.
NASA-developed AI Could Help Track Harmful Algae
NASA scientists have developed an artificial intelligence tool to take on a longstanding challenge in ocean waters. In a study recently published in AGU Earth and Space Science, re...
NASA’s Psyche Mission Aces Mars Flyby, Targets Metal-Rich Asteroid
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft completed its close approach of Mars on May 15, coming within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet’s surface. This flyby used a gravity assist from...
Moon-Venus Conjunction
The Moon and Venus, center, are seen in conjunction above the Washington Monument, Monday, May 18, 2026, as viewed from the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters Building in Washington...
Smile launch highlights
Video: 00:04:00 ESA’s Smile satellite launched aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on at 04:52 BST / 05:52 CEST (00:52 local time...
Find the Keystone in Hercules, and the Hercules Cluster M13
Let the bright star Vega guide you to a famous star pattern in Hercules - called the Keystone - and then to the Hercules Cluster, aka M13. The post Find the Keystone in Hercules, a...
Smile lifts off on quest to reveal Earth’s invisible shield against the solar wind
The Smile spacecraft lifted off on a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 04:52 BST / 05:52 CEST (00:52 local time) on 19 May 2026. The launch marks the beginn...
Beacon of Light
This latest Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous and appreciated among astronomers for its...