The Moon and Saturn come to opposition this week, showing us their full sunlit faces. Jupiter looms big late in the night, Vega attains the zenith, and we cross the midpoint of summer. The Perseid meteors get partly mooned out.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, August 5 – 13 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Even though it's far past its warranty, Hubble is still proving its worth in this new era that includes the James Webb Space Telescope.

The post Hubble's Future in the Webb Era appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Long, hot days mean sleepless nights for stargazers, but it's worth it for the magic that happens under a dark, cool sky.

The post Summer Insomnia appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

August marks the return of the Perseid meteor shower — and as you’re looking out for shooting stars while listening to this month’s Sky Tour podcast, look for Saturn low in the southeast as soon as night begins to fall.

The post August: Saturn & the Perseids appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Why does the biggest planet in the solar system have such flimsy rings? New research shows Jupiter's moons may be to blame.

The post Why Are Jupiter's Rings So Thin? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

New imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a nearby galaxy in a whole new light.

The post Thin Red Lines: Webb Space Telescope Captures Star Creation on Grand Scale appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

As the Big Dipper dips and the Guardians of the Pole align one over the other, Saturn looms low in the southeast and the False Comet teases at its highest.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 29 – August 6 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A pulsar has devoured enough of its stellar companion to grab the title for most massive known neutron star.

The post Black Widow Pulsar Sets Mass Record appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The ecliptic, simply put, is the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun. It extends beyond that to include the seven other planets.

The post What Is the Ecliptic? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Something we take for granted about the crescent Moon's appearance may be nothing more than an optical illusion.

The post Solving an Earthshine Mystery appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

What kind of planets are likely to ensnare comets coming in from the icy outer reaches of a planetary system?

The post When Planets Collect Comets appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

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The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 22 – 30 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Blazars, the gas-guzzling black holes at the center of galaxies, could make most of the tiny particles known as neutrinos we catch on Earth.

The post Giant Black Holes Make Tiny, Ghost-like Particles appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers have found a dormant black hole orbiting a massive blue star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

The post A Black Hole Lurks in a Galaxy Near Our Own appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Scientists have observed pulses from a fast radio burst, suggesting the flash might have come from a neutron star.

The post Radio “Heartbeat” Teases Fast Radio Burst Origins appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

It's tiny. It's challenging. But you won't get the chance to see Iapetus transit the globe of Saturn again until 2037!

The post See a Rare Transit of Iapetus on July 17–18 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The waning Moon says hi to late-night Saturn, the Teapot starts tilting, the Great Square thrusts up, and the Milky Way arches high.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 15 – 23 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Scientists knew the asteroid Bennu was likely a rubble pile rather than solid rock, but OSIRIS-REX's recent visit surprised them in showing just how loosely the asteroid really is.

The post Asteroid Bennu Almost Swallowed Spacecraft Whole appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope released its first science images today. Here's what these images show us.

The post What We See in the First Science Images from the James Webb Space Telescope appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope's first year of observations promises to reveal exoplanet atmospheres and surfaces, infant galaxies, and maybe even the first black holes.

The post What the James Webb Space Telescope's First Year Will Reveal appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The first run of a new dark matter experiment turns up nothing — but that still tells us something.

The post Dark Matter Remains Elusive – For Now appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

July is Scorpius season. Maybe you know of the Cat's Eyes in the Scorpion's tail, but how about the Little Cat's Eyes in the Scorpion's body? The Sagittarius Teapot follows not far behind.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 8 – 16 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Can stargazing make you a better person?

The post Stargazing’s Lessons for Living appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

New research shows how black holes with tens of thousands of Suns' worth of mass can form in the universe's early years.

The post Where Did the First Quasars Come From? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Pick one or see them all. July offers a potpourri of celestial events for both naked-eye observers and telescope users that include a rare occultation by Saturn's moon Titan, a bright comet, and Mira at maximum.

The post Titan Occults a Bright Star, Mira Awakens, and Comet PanSTARRS Shines appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

X-ray observations add to growing evidence that the most massive black holes have a different past than their lightweight peers.

The post Monstrous Black Holes Spin More Slowly — But Why? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Stellar mergers in quadruple systems might be common, a new study shows.

The post This Triplet of Stars Was Once a Quartet appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The Moon waxes across the evening sky from Leo to Scorpius. The five-planet lineup in the dawn is now four. And amateur astronomers plan to be recording as Saturn's hazy moon Titan occult a star about as bright as Titan itself for most of North America.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 1 – 9 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

July offers lots of pretty stars and constellations to check out, and you’ll get a personally guided tour of them by downloading this month’s Sky Tour astronomy podcast.

The post July: Stars of the Summer Sky appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Disk Detective, a citizen science project dedicated identifying planet-forming disks around young stars, reports their latest results.

The post Citizen Scientists Detect Dusty Disks appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

In this installment of Meet the Stars, we get to know the nearest one: our Sun. Its properties — like its stability — likely led to life on Earth.

The post Meet The Sun, Our Home Star appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Capstone, a small pathfinder spacecraft with a big mission, launched today to pave the way for crewed return to the Moon.

The post Successful Launch of Capstone, the Lunar Gateway Pathfinder appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission has found the impact site created March 4th. The crater might help reveal the impactor's identity.

The post Found: Booster Impact Crater on the Farside of the Moon appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The crescent Moon returns to the evening, crossing Leo. The five-planet lineup continues at dawn; catch it while you still can. And for skywatchers at northern latitudes, we're entering noctilucent cloud season.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 24 – July 2 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers have mapped Orion in 3D to understand the origin of the large arc of Barnard’s Loop — and you can interact with the 3D image!

The post Supernovae Swept Out Barnard's Loop in Orion appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The Contreras wildfire has been threatening the historic Kitt Peak National Observatory in southern Arizona.

The post Wildfire Threatens Kitt Peak National Observatory appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The International Dark-Sky Association’s has summarized more than 300 peer-reviewed studies on the effects of artificial light at night in an effort to help dark-sky advocates.

The post What we know about Light Pollution – and What We Don’t appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

We'll have not one but many opportunities to enjoy a rare lineup of the bright planets over the next few weeks. Amazingly, they'll be aligned in order of their distance from the Sun.

The post Solar System Gets its Ducks in a Row appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The five naked-eye planets form a diagonal line in the dawn this week — in order of their distance from the Sun, no less. And the waning Moon visits each one in turn, day by day. The planetless evening sky features the Big Dipper hanging down, the Little Dipper floating up, Leo walking away, and the two brightest summer stars nearly straddling the zenith.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 17 – 25 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

New observations show that both rocky and icy worlds fell onto a white dwarf, indicating past orbital chaos in the system.

The post A Strange White Dwarf with a Chaotic Past appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

New images of nearby galaxies and their surroundings reveal details in galactic formation and evolution — and puzzles that remain to be solved.

The post Life and Death in Nearby Galaxies appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Hubble observations have revealed a stellar-mass compact object — a black hole or possibly a neutron star — wandering our galaxy.

The post Have We Found the First Rogue Black Hole in the Milky Way? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomers will use the newest data release from the Gaia mission to explore stellar tsunamis, Milky Way history, and more.

The post The Gaia Revolution: New Data and Strange Stars appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Changes to the design of Starlink satellite spacecraft have made them brighter again, though still dimmer than the original design.

The post Newest Starlink Satellites Have Gotten Brighter Again appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

When should we start thinking about cleaning up our space junk on Mars?

The post Crash as Trash appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The waxing gibbous Moon shines with Spica, then occults Delta Scorpii. Meanwhile, all seven planets other than Earth are forming into a diagonal line across the east to southeast at dawn.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 10 – 18 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

NASA’s Perseverance rover is recording the windy weather in Jezero Crater, chronicling its role in making the Red Planet dusty.

The post Perseverance Watches Wild Winds on Mars appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

A new source of fast radio bursts raises questions about how much we really know about these mysterious flares.

The post An Unusual Source Deepens Fast Radio Burst Mysteries appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

We touch on the highlights of the memorable Tau Herculid meteor shower and also report on the recent outburst of the recurrent nova U Scorpii.

The post Tau Herculid Meteors Surprise and Delight appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

The Moon is our most obvious and immediate celestial companion. For many stargazers, the Moon was our first astronomical love.

The post Lunaphiles, Unite! appeared first on Sky & Telescope.