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Your Guide to the Universe

StarDate magazine keeps you in touch with the universe with detailed skywatching information, in-depth features, the latest astronomy news, and more. Six issues per year, including the Sky Almanac issue in January! Subscribe today!

Current Issue: November/December 2021

Splashing into Dark Places

Splashing into Dark Places
A new round of robotic orbiters, landers, and rovers will seek out lunar water, helping a new generation of astronauts return to the Moon—perhaps to stay

 

Blurring the View

Primordial Black Holes
Space might be full of ancient black holes that could flip what we know about the universe on its head. Astronomers just have to find them

 

Merlin

Merlin answers questions about commercial space flights and about viewing beautiful galaxies as Hubble Space Telescope sees them.

Pose your own questions for future issues.

Sky Highlights

Taurus climbs high across the sky, reaching its zenith around midnight in November, marked by the bull’s ruddy eye, Aldebaran, and its shoulder, the little dipper-shaped Pleiades star cluster. Orion and Gemini climb skyward earlier each night and by year’s end are in good view by early evening. In the meantime, Venus reaches its peak in the southwestern evening sky, while Jupiter and Saturn slide toward it. And a comet might sneak in a faint appearance in December.
 

AstroNews

DART takes aim at Dimorphos (left) in this artist’s concept, with the larger Didymos on the right. [NASA/JHUAPL]DART takes aim at Dimorphos (left) in this artist’s concept, with the larger Didymos on the right. [NASA/JHUAPL] * A spacecraft set for launch in November will fly past nine asteroids, most of which share an orbit with the planet Jupiter.

* A big impact in a big desert

* Longer days could have helped pump oxygen into Earth’s early atmosphere

* Digging into a Martian lake

* Blowing up a neighbor
 

AstroMiscellany

Looking at the invisible universe, capturing the night sky, women on the Moon, diving into the International Space Station
 

In the Next Issue

It’s our 2022 Sky Almanac issue, with skywatching tips for the entire year. We’ll highlight some of the most interesting moons in the solar system.

Download a sample issue (PDF)
 

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