Observing – Sky & Telescope

The essential guide to astronomy

FaviconAugust: Saturn & the Perseids 1 Aug 2022, 2:00 pm

August marks the return of the Perseid meteor shower — and as you’re looking out for shooting stars while listening to this month’s Sky Tour podcast, look for Saturn low in the southeast as soon as night begins to fall.

The post August: Saturn & the Perseids appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

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FaviconThis Week's Sky at a Glance, July 29 – August 6 29 Jul 2022, 5:57 am

As the Big Dipper dips and the Guardians of the Pole align one over the other, Saturn looms low in the southeast and the False Comet teases at its highest.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 29 – August 6 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

FaviconSolving an Earthshine Mystery 27 Jul 2022, 10:05 am

Something we take for granted about the crescent Moon's appearance may be nothing more than an optical illusion.

The post Solving an Earthshine Mystery appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

FaviconThis Week's Sky at a Glance, July 22 – 30 22 Jul 2022, 4:54 am

Bright Arcturus is still pretty high after dark, but as summer progresses, it moves down the western side of the evening sky. Its pale ginger-ale tint always helps identify it.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 22 – 30 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

FaviconThis Week's Sky at a Glance, July 15 – 23 15 Jul 2022, 11:58 am

The waning Moon says hi to late-night Saturn, the Teapot starts tilting, the Great Square thrusts up, and the Milky Way arches high.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 15 – 23 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Astronomy & Observing News – Sky & Telescope

The essential guide to astronomy

FaviconHubble's Future in the Webb Era 3 Aug 2022, 9:49 am

Even though it's far past its warranty, Hubble is still proving its worth in this new era that includes the James Webb Space Telescope.

The post Hubble's Future in the Webb Era appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

FaviconAugust: Saturn & the Perseids 1 Aug 2022, 2:00 pm

August marks the return of the Perseid meteor shower — and as you’re looking out for shooting stars while listening to this month’s Sky Tour podcast, look for Saturn low in the southeast as soon as night begins to fall.

The post August: Saturn & the Perseids appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

(audio/mpeg; 4.62 MB)

FaviconWhy Are Jupiter's Rings So Thin? 1 Aug 2022, 12:00 pm

Why does the biggest planet in the solar system have such flimsy rings? New research shows Jupiter's moons may be to blame.

The post Why Are Jupiter's Rings So Thin? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

FaviconThin Red Lines: Webb Space Telescope Captures Star Creation on Grand Scale 30 Jul 2022, 12:00 pm

New imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a nearby galaxy in a whole new light.

The post Thin Red Lines: Webb Space Telescope Captures Star Creation on Grand Scale appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

FaviconThis Week's Sky at a Glance, July 29 – August 6 29 Jul 2022, 5:57 am

As the Big Dipper dips and the Guardians of the Pole align one over the other, Saturn looms low in the southeast and the False Comet teases at its highest.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 29 – August 6 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

NASACast Video

NASACast combines the content of all the NASACast subject area podcasts into a single omnibus podcast. Here you'll find the latest news and features on NASA's missions as well as the popular "This Week @NASA" newsreel.

FaviconThis Week @NASA Sept. 22, 2023 22 Sep 2023, 3:15 pm

Tracking Our First Asteroid Sample Return Mission and more ...

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FaviconThis Week @NASA Sept. 15, 2023 15 Sep 2023, 5:01 pm

Rubio Sets U.S. Record for Longest Single Spaceflight and more ...

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FaviconThis Week @NASA Sept. 8, 2023 8 Sep 2023, 3:06 pm

Our SpaceX Crew-6 Mission Safely Returns to Earth and more ...

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FaviconWhat's Up - September 2023 1 Sep 2023, 6:07 pm

Enjoy the bright beacon of Venus on September mornings, end the month with a Harvest Moon, and seek the elusive zodiacal light under dark skies.

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FaviconThis Week @NASA Sept. 1, 2023 1 Sep 2023, 4:52 pm

Our SpaceX Crew-7 Mission Launches to the Space Station

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StarDate Online - Your guide to the universe

FaviconCepheus 22 Jan 2024, 1:00 am

The panoply of constellations includes one king: Cepheus, who ruled the Ethiopia of mythology. His constellation looks like a child’s drawing of a house, with a rectangle of stars topped by a pointed roof. It is in the northwest in early evening.

FaviconRedshift 22 Jan 2024, 1:00 am

The most-distant objects we can see are galaxies more than 13 billion light-years away. That means we see them as they looked just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. We know their distance because astronomers measure their cosmological redshift — an effect caused by the expansion of the universe.

As the universe expands, it “stretches” the wavelengths of light produced by stars and galaxies. The greater the distance, the more the light is stretched.

Astronomers measure that effect by looking for the “barcodes” that different chemical elements imprint in the object’s light. Each barcode keeps the same pattern. But it appears at a different place in the object’s spectrum — the “rainbow” of colors produced when you break the light into its individual wavelengths. When an object is moving away from us, the patterns are shifted to longer wavelengths — toward the red end of the spectrum — the redshift.

For galaxies that are especially far away, the wavelengths can be shifted into the infrared. But Earth’s atmosphere absorbs most infrared light. So the best way to study it is from space.

But most telescopes in space aren’t big enough to see deeply into the universe, so they can’t see the earliest galaxies — or if they do see them, the galaxies look like fuzzy red blobs. Only one space telescope allows us to see those early galaxies as galaxies — Webb Space Telescope. More about that tomorrow.
 

Script by Damond Benningfield

StarDate: 
Monday, January 22, 2024
Teaser: 
Seeing “red” in the early universe

FaviconMoon and El Nath 21 Jan 2024, 1:00 am

El Nath, known as the “butting one” because it marks the tip of one of the horns of Taurus, the bull, poses to the lower left of the Moon at nightfall. The Moon will move even closer to it before they set, around 4:30 or 5 a.m.

FaviconMarsquakes 21 Jan 2024, 1:00 am

During its four years of life, the InSight lander recorded more than 1300 “marsquakes.” Most of them were tiny, and most were caused by space rocks slamming into Mars. But the largest quake it ever felt came from the planet’s insides, far below the surface. That’s an indication that Mars isn’t dead yet.

The quake took place in May of 2022, just a few months before InSight’s mission ended. It was magnitude 4.7. By Earth standards, that’s not much – maybe strong enough to feel, but not strong enough to cause any damage. But by Mars standards, it was a whopper – five times more powerful than the second-strongest quake. And it rattled around the planet for six hours.

The quake was centered about 1400 miles away from InSight, in a region with a rugged surface. At first, scientists suspected the quake was caused by a large meteorite impact. That would’ve created a crater a thousand feet across, and blown away dust on the surface for miles around.

So they scoured pictures taken by eight spacecraft in orbit around Mars. But they didn’t find a thing – no crater, no blast zone. That means the quake probably originated inside the planet, at a depth of about 11 to 17 miles. It might have been triggered by movement along a fault line. So even though the Martian crust isn’t made of moving plates, as Earth’s is, there may still be a good bit of shakin’ and rattlin’ below the surface of Mars.
 

Script by Damond Benningfield

StarDate: 
Sunday, January 21, 2024
Teaser: 
Rumbles in the Martian crust

FaviconMars Returns 20 Jan 2024, 1:00 am

Mars is inching into the dawn sky. It’s quite close to the Sun, though, and it rises at a shallow angle. From Hawaii or southern Florida or Texas, you might spot it quite low in the southeast before sunrise. The rest of the U.S. won’t see it for a few weeks.

ESOcast HD

ESOcast is a video podcast series dedicated to bringing you the latest news and research from ESO, the European Southern Observatory. Here we explore the Universe's ultimate frontier.

FaviconSurvey reveals secrets of planet birth around dozens of stars | ESOcast Light 5 Mar 2024, 8:00 am

FaviconNew link found between water and planet formation | ESOcast Light 29 Feb 2024, 5:00 am

FaviconMetal scar found on cannibal star | ESOcast Light 26 Feb 2024, 11:00 am

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have found a metal ‘scar’ imprinted on the surface of a dead star. This video summarises the discovery.

FaviconAstronomers identify record-breaking quasar | ESOcast Light 19 Feb 2024, 11:00 am

Astronomers have characterised the most luminous quasar observed to date, which is powered by the fastest-growing black hole. This black hole is growing in mass by the equivalent of one Sun per day. The matter being pulled in toward this black hole forms a disc that measures seven light-years in diameter — about 15 000 times the distance from the Sun to the orbit of Neptune.

FaviconSupernovae give rise to black holes or neutron stars (ESOcast 269 Light) 10 Jan 2024, 11:15 am

Astronomers have found a direct link between the explosive deaths of massive stars and the formation of the most compact and enigmatic objects in the Universe — black holes and neutron stars. This video summarises the discovery.

HD - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

High-definition (HD) videos from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory feature the latest news on space and science findings from JPL and NASA. Topics include discoveries made by spacecraft studying planets in our solar system, including Mars, Saturn and our home planet, Earth. Missions also study stars and galaxies in our universe.

FaviconWhat's Up - August 2020 31 Jul 2020, 3:00 am



What are some skywatching highlights in August 2020? See the Moon posing with various planets throughout the month, plus catch the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower.



FaviconNASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Launches With Your #CountdownToMars 30 Jul 2020, 3:00 am



To get ready for the launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, NASA invited the public to join a global, collective #CountdownToMars project.



FaviconNASA's Perseverance Rover Launches to Mars 30 Jul 2020, 3:00 am



NASA’s Perseverance Rover began its long journey to Mars today by successfully launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a ULA Atlas V rocket.



FaviconMission Overview: NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover 27 Jul 2020, 3:00 am



NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover is heading to the Red Planet to search for signs of ancient life, collect samples for future return to Earth and help pave the way for human exploration.



FaviconGetting Perseverance to the Launch Pad 22 Jul 2020, 3:00 am



In February 2020, NASA’s Perseverance Rover began its long journey to Mars by first traveling across the United States.