A Long Story
An 1825 illustration depicts Hydra, the water snake, and the surrounding constellations. Corvus and Crater sit atop its back. In…
Alien Ocean
Grooves and cracks criss-cross the icy surface of Europa, one of the larger moons of Jupiter. Scientists suspect that a…
A Bill of Goods
When Comet Halley passed close to Earth in 1910, some slick operators sold “comet pills” to protect the public from…
Planet Parade
Astronomers have discovered about 4,000 confirmed planets in other star systems, including a few that could be similar to Earth.…
Digging In
Workers prepare the site for the future Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile. The project is a major feat of civil…
Galactic Nurseries
Vast nurseries that are giving birth to thousands or even millions of stars highlight the spiral arms of these galaxies…
Planets by the Half-Dozen
This artist’s concept depicts a family of six planets orbiting K2-138, a cool orange star that’s almost as big as…
Galactic magnet
A star that generates a magnetic field that could be a trillion times stronger than Earth’s lurks near the supermassive…
Seeing Double
A pair of star clusters, collectively known as the Double Cluster, shines from the constellation Perseus. Known individually as NGC…
Inside Job
The Cassini spacecraft passes between Saturn and its beautiful rings in this artist’s concept of the craft’s final days. Cassini…