Astronomy Magazine

On June 16, 1963, 26-year-old Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova made history by becoming the first woman to travel into space. A former factory seamstress, Tereshkova was an accomplished amateur parachutist with over 100 jumps — a vital skill, since Vostok cosmonauts ejected before landing. Selected from over 400 applicants in 1962, she underwent months of Continue reading "June 16, 1963: Val…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 15: Mercury at greatest eastern elongation The Moon passes 3° north of Mercury at 4 P.M. EDT. Looking west again after sunset this evening, the Moon now sits above Mercury, forming a triangle with Mercury and Jupiter.  Half an hour after Continue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, June 16: The Moon meets up with Mer…

Astronomers have created a comprehensive census of active galactic nuclei (AGN) — galaxies powered by a feeding central black hole. The new census, led by data pipeline developer Mugdha Polimera at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, began while she was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Continue reading "Active black holes are more common than…

On June 15, 763 B.C.E., a near-total solar eclipse occurred over northern Assyria and was recorded by observers in Nineveh, the capital city. This event is preserved in the Eponym Canon, a list of historical events made by the Assyrians on clay tablets, following a specialized calendar system. The text notes: “Insurrection in the City Continue reading "June 15, 763 BCE: Assyrians record a solar e…

Gaetan Thibault from Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Quebec, Canada A meteor slices across the Summer Triangle — glowing hot blue as it reaches peak brightness in the center of its trail. This wide-field view combines 21 minutes of total exposure taken with a Canon astrophography DSLR and 20mm lens at f/3.2 (one meteor frame and 20 additional 60-second Continue reading "A June Epsilon Cyg…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 14: Irene nears opposition This afternoon, Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation at 4 P.M. EDT, standing 25° from the Sun. You’ll find the solar system’s smallest planet in the evening sky, now shining at magnitude 0.5.  Half an hour after sunset, Continue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, June 15: Mercury at …

On June 14, 1949, a rhesus monkey named Albert II was launched into space aboard a V-2 rocket from White Sands, New Mexico. Prior to Albert II, animals including fruit flies, mice, and another monkey (Albert I) had been launched in rocket and balloon flights as part of American space biology research, but Albert II’s Continue reading "June 14, 1949: The first mammal in space" The post June 14, 19…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 13: Catch Comet 220P/McNaught Asteroid 14 Irene reaches opposition at 6 A.M. EDT tomorrow morning, making now a great time to catch it. Glowing at mid-9th-magnitude, Irene is already 20° high in the south an hour before midnight and stands highest Continue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, June 14: Irene nears oppos…

Pioneer 10 holds the titles for many “firsts”: It was NASA’s first mission to the outer planets, the first spacecraft to fly beyond Mars, the first to traverse the asteroid belt, and the first to fly past Jupiter. It was also the first spacecraft placed on a trajectory to escape the solar system into interstellar Continue reading "June 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 leaves solar system" The post June 13, 1…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 12: The Moon meets Mars Turn your telescope toward southern Pisces this morning, where Saturn outshines any of the stars in this part of the sky. This is where Comet 220P/McNaught recently underwent an outburst, quickly brightening from 18th magnitude to Continue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, June 13: Catch Co…

📷 Mark Johnston from Scottsdale, Arizona A line of filaments march toward the limb of the Sun, which itself is bedecked with multiple prominences in this Hα image. Both phenomena are made of loops and tendrils of plasma that arch off the surface of the Sun; their varying appearance depends on the viewing geometry. The Continue reading "Prominent filaments" The post Prominent filaments appeared fi…

On June 12, 2021, Nova Herculis 2021 (V1674 Herculis) erupted, and was discovered by amateur astronomer Seiji Ueda of Japan. The white dwarf quickly became visible to the naked eye, surging to 10,000 times brighter than it originally had been. Its speed was unprecedented: V1674 Herculis faded from that peak brightness in just over one Continue reading "June 12, 2021: Seiji Ueda discovers Nova Her…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 11: Point to the Polarissima Cluster We’re interested in the early-morning sky today as the waning crescent Moon joins up with Mars in Aries. Now just 11% lit, the Moon sits almost directly above the Red Planet as they rise. Above Continue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, June 12: The Moon meets Mars" The post The …

Friday, June 12The Moon passes 6° north of Mars at 5 P.M. EDT. You can catch the pair in the early-morning sky today (see The Sky Today on Friday, June 12) or tomorrow (June 13) before dawn, when they will stand about 8° above the eastern horizon an hour before sunrise, with the Moon to Continue reading "The Sky This Week from June 12 to 19: A daytime occultation of Venus" The post The Sky This W…

In Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, opening tomorrow, protagonists race across the globe to expose a decades-long government cover-up and reveal to the world that extraterrestrial life is real. It’s a question Spielberg has been asking since his 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind: How would the knowledge of extraterrestrial intelligence change us? Spielberg makes Continue reading "The real…

Born in 1888, artist and illustrator Chesley Bonestell became famous for his realistic paintings of space. His work spanned decades and many formats and publications; perhaps most influential was his collaboration with Wernher von Brain on the 1952–54 Collier’s series, “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” By making the stuff of science fiction seem achievable, his artwork helped Continue reading "June …

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 10: The Moon shines with Saturn Look north after dark this evening to find the Little Dipper standing on its handle, its cup high over the horizon. The star at the end of that handle is Polaris, the North Star, marking Continue reading "The Sky Today on Thursday, June 11: Point to the Polarissima Cluster" The post T…

There is a pattern found in nature. It is indeed the largest pattern there is. It is so vast that it spans the universe, filling up its observable volume. The pattern is made of individual units in the same way your body is made of cells — if each of your cells were a galaxy Continue reading "Untangling the cosmic web" The post Untangling the cosmic web appeared first on Astronomy Magazine .

Eugene Parker, pioneer of theoretical solar and plasma astrophysics, was born June 10, 1927. Parker revolutionized the field of heliophysics, notably by first proposing the existence of the solar wind — a stream of charged particles ejected from the Sun — in 1958. His theory was confirmed by Mariner II in 1962. Among many other Continue reading "June 10, 1927: The birth of Eugene Parker" The post…

Emmanuel Delgadillo from Jalisco, Mexico The Eagle Nebula (M16) is well-known for its dense star-forming pillars of gas and dust — including those in the famed Hubble Space Telescope’s “Fingers of Creation” image. It lies roughly 5,000 light-years away in Serpens, This photographer combined over 14 hours of exposure taken with Hα/OIII and SII/OIII dual-band Continue reading "The eagle’s lair" The…