Astronomy
The Moon Occults Saturn in the Dawn this Weekend
Mark your calendars: the first in a series of interesting occultations of Saturn by the Moon for 2014 starts this…
Chang’e 3 Lander Beams Back New Lunar Panorama Photos
Little by little we're getting sharper, clearer pictures from the Chinese Chang'e 3 moon mission. Yesterday the lander beamed back…
Enduring Quests and Daring Visions: NASA Lays Out a Roadmap for Astrophysics
Three decades ago we were unaware that exoplanets circled other stars. We had just started talking about dark matter but…
Some Planet-like Kuiper Belt Objects Don’t Play “Nice”
The Kuiper belt — the region beyond the orbit of Neptune inhabited by a number of small bodies of rock…
New Online Classes to Help You Learn More about the Universe
Roughly eighty percent of all the mass in the Universe is made of dark matter – a mysterious invisible substance…
A “MiniMoon” Seen Around the World
So, did last night’s Full Wolf Moon seem a bit tinier than usual? It was no illusion, as avid readers…
John Dobson, Inventor of the Popular Dobsonian Telescope, Dead at 98
The cosmos lost a good soul Wednesday. John Dobson, famous as the creator of the simple, low-cost Dobsonian telescope, passed…
An Amazing Capture of Jupiter and its Moons
It’s always a thrill to watch the action at Jupiter, as its moons pass in front of and behind the…
A Possible Meteor Shower from Comet ISON?
Hey, remember Comet C/2012 S1 ISON? Who can forget the roller-coaster ride that the touted “Comet of the Century” took…
Why Einstein Will Never Be Wrong
One of the benefits of being an astrophysicist is your weekly email from someone who claims to have “proven Einstein…