astrophysics

Tonight, the waxing moon and the brilliant blue-white star Spica create a stunning pairing visible across the southern sky.

NASA astronaut Chris Williams captured a sunset from the ISS, revealing Earth’s atmosphere in vibrant color and breathtaking detail.

This week, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to find the Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra — a glowing shell of gas that offers a glimpse of our solar system’s distant future. When a Sun-like star exhausts its hydrogen, it blows off an illuminated cloud of gas that lingers for tens of Continue reading "Come full circle with the Ring Nebula" The post Come full circle w…

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray spacecraft has observed a super-bright, supercharged supernova explosion powered up by the creation of a highly magnetic dead star, or magnetar.

This webinar will provide an overview of the current landscape of space interferometry, spanning foundational concepts, enabling technologies, mission architectures, and key astrophysical science applications. 9:00am - 10:00am PT | 12:00pm - 1:00pm ET The post ASTRA Space Interferometry Webinar, 5 June 2026 appeared first on NASA Science .

The largest moon in the solar system — Jupiter’s Ganymede — has a unique and inexplicable magnetic field. New research could finally explain it: the moon is heating up.

So i always saw those graphical diagrams of blackholes where we can an opening at the top and the cannal goes deeper into the space time fabric revealing its untra massive core but this is a 2d depiction of a 3d model ,Black holes are not circular holes in space time fabric, they... Read more

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 24: Egeria slides on by After reaching superior conjunction midmonth, Mercury is increasing in visibility and should be easily identifiable now in the evening sky. Just half an hour after sunset, step outside to see if you can spot the solar system’s Continue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, May 25: Three planets af…

China launched the Shenzhou 23 spacecraft with 3 astronauts heading to its space station. One astronaut is set to stay in space for a year to explore human adaptability in long-duration spaceflights.

Because we define dates based on the stars, the full moon on 31 May will be the second one of the calendar month This week’s full moon is a blue moon. The term does not describe the colour of the moon, but instead arises from the way we define our calendar in reference to the stars rather than the moon. The moon takes almost a month to circle our planet. The exact time is 29.5 days but if we were…

Could the "Great Silence" be the result of extraterrestrial civilizations dying out before they can make contact, or will they evolve to the point where communication with them is no longer possible?

By examining the Moon’s surface more closely, astronomers noticed giant letter-shaped formations hidden in plain sight.

Born Feb. 19, 1473, in Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus was raised by his uncle, Bishop Lucas Watzenrode, who ensured he was well educated as he grew up. The education continued at the University of Cracow, where he studied painting and math; the University of Bologna, where he studied canon law; the University of Padua, where he Continue reading "May 24, 1543: The death of Nicolaus Copernicus" The po…

A mysterious particle from deep space has scientists buzzing after the most energetic neutrino ever detected slammed through the Mediterranean Sea. Now, researchers think they may have identified the cosmic “culprits” behind it: blazars — supermassive black holes blasting jets of matter straight toward Earth.

Planetary nebulae like the Crystal Ball Nebula (NGC 1514) are sort of like stellar obituaries. Though crystal balls supposedly reveal the future, the Crystal Ball Nebula tells us more about the past. It shows us how a binary pair of stars met their end. And since NGC 1514 is 1500 light years away, we’re seeing […] The post A Beautiful Death How a Dying Star Created the Crystal Ball Nebula appeare…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 23: View Vallis Alpes Moving through vast Virgo, 11th-magnitude asteroid 13 Egeria is passing near some stationary background stars tonight, offering an excellent chance to chart its motion over the course of a few hours.  You can begin looking for the Continue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, May 24: Egeria slides …

There are black holes that are too big to be born from the death of a star but aren’t quite supermassive either. There’s finally evidence for where those came from.

The Entry of π: The Conditions That Force Compact Closure asks not where π appears, but what conditions make π unavoidable. The paper argues that π is usually defined too late, after the circle has already appeared, and instead proposes that π enters when distinction becomes boundary-bearing, when boundary creates an inside/outside relation, and when persistence requires completed return. The cen…

This note introduces three interlocking definitions in the σ := i.c.t (E = -i.c.p_t) language and derives a chain of consequences that reframe some of the deepest questions in physics. The central result is that temporal momentum p_t = imc for a particle at rest. This single equation says: rest mass is the magnitude of temporal momentum. Mass is not a mysterious intrinsic property — it is how muc…

This paper provides the formal mathematical programme for the Reactive Medium Framework (the "Jar of Water" theory), translating a dynamic cosmic medium into standard general relativity via a canonical quintessence scalar field (\phi). Core Postulate: Dark energy reactivity grows linearly with cosmic time: R(t) = \alpha t. The Mathematical Proof: This unyielding time constraint forces the univers…