Cosmic Perspectives from Amid the Stars:
Astronomy Blog

The Voyager 1 space probe holds the records of most distant man-made object, fastest man-made object moving away from the Sun, and first man-made object to enter interstellar space, but next week, on November 18th, 2026, the probe will reach a new milestone. At 2:16:07 a.m. PST, the craft will be one light-day, about 16.1 billion miles (25.9 billion km), away from Earth.

In July 2026, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory announced evidence of what could be the first discovery of an exomoon—a moon that exists in a solar system beyond our own. If confirmed, this so-called moon would be a gaseous body at least the mass of Jupiter, which raises the question, what makes it a moon instead of a gas giant planet?

From red to white to blue, there are lots of different colors of stars, but traditionally it has been said that it is impossible for a star to be green. But on October 14, 2026, it was announced that astronomers had discovered the impossible and found a green star. But how can a star be green if we’ve always said they can’t exist?

The Solar System—the gravitational system composed of the Sun and everything that orbits it—is like our local neighborhood in space. Nearly everything within the influence of the Sun’s gravity shares a common origin. But how did it all start? How did the Solar System form?

The universe is expanding. Not only that, but its expansion seems to be speeding up. For that to happen, there must be something adding energy to the universe’s expansion. The problem is, we don’t see anything like that. We know there must be some unknown form of energy out there, but we have yet to understand what it is. We call this mysterious force dark energy.

On September 28, 2026, SpaceX’s Starship successfully reached Earth orbit for the first time after 13 previous test flights, marking a major milestone for the rocket. It is now the largest rocket in human history to ever make it into orbit. Its size, power, and reusability are all poised to change the way we travel to space.

Gravity is the universal attraction of any two objects with mass. It is the reason we experience weight and stay firmly on the ground. But it’s also so much more than that. Nearly any interaction or process in outer space—from the tides on Earth to the formation of stars to the spirals of galaxies to the inescapable event horizon of black holes—can be traced back to gravity as a cause, whether direct or indirect. If our universe is a sculpted work of art, then gravity is the

Nebulae are among the most visually stunning sights in our universe. A nebula is simply a cloud of gas and dust found in outer space, and their varied shapes and colors make them spectacular phenomena for night sky viewing. They also play important roles in the life cycle of stars, as both a place of birth and a place of death.

Space: the final frontier... For 60 years the Star Trek franchise has brought its viewers along for spectacular trips across the galaxy and back. Generations of physicists, astronomers, astronauts, and more were inspired to explore their universe thanks to the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. But that continuing mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no one has gone before was only possible thanks to warp driv

Have you ever wondered where to point your telescope? If you’ve ever looked into a listing of astronomical objects, you’ve likely noticed that many of the galaxies, nebulae, and more are labeled with an M followed by a number. That means the object in question is part of the Messier Catalog, a listing of 110 astronomical objects used worldwide that features some of the best targets for any telescope.

We’re about to get a whole new perspective of the universe. On August 30, 2026, NASA plans to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the newest telescope in a lineage including Hubble and Webb. With its specialized design and new technology, the Roman Telescope is poised to change the way we view the cosmos.

As of August 24, 2026, it will have been 20 years since Pluto was officially reclassified from planet to dwarf planet. While there are those who argue that Pluto didn’t deserve to be “demoted,” the history of Pluto and our perceptions of it paints a very different picture. So why isn’t Pluto considered a planet anymore?

Earth is the only planet we know in the entire universe to support life. In a universe as big as ours, life likely exists out there somewhere by sheer odds alone. But for now, Earth is all we know and the only example of a habitable planet we can study. So why can Earth support life when so many other planets fail? In order to predict what other planets might support life, we first need to understand life on Earth. What is it that makes Earth perfect for life?

In some parts of the world on August 12, 2026, day will temporarily turn to night as the Moon passes in front of the Sun, blocking its light during a rare solar eclipse. Throughout history, solar eclipses have been viewed with a unique combination of awe and fear. As wonderful a spectacle as they are, equally interesting is the science behind them and the series of coincidences that allow them to exist.

We live in a universe that is 13.8 billion years old. But how much longer does it have left? And how will the universe meet its ultimate end? We can’t yet know for sure how the universe will end, but we can use our current understanding of the cosmos to predict what might happen.

The exoplanet LHS 1140 b was first discovered in 2017. It was immediately a planet of note because it orbited within its star’s habitable zone—just the right distance from the star to potentially support liquid water on its surface. Nearly 10 years later, LHS 1140 b has become the center of a massive milestone in the search for life on exoplanets, thanks to a discovery announced July 16, 2026.

Nothing in stargazing quite beats the experience of spotting a shooting star. For just the briefest of moments, a bright light streaks across the sky in a dazzling display. With the Perseids Meteor Shower starting this week on July 17 and lasting until August 24 it’s a great time to go hunting for shooting stars.

Take a look into the early evening sky any night this summer, and you’ll see a bright light over the western horizon, just above where the sun set. It looks like an incredibly bright star, but it’s actually the planet Venus. Venus has often been called Earth’s sister planet. It’s a rocky planet with about the same size and mass, as well as being the closest planet to Earth, but the similarities end there. Venus is actually about as different from Earth as a rocky planet can g

The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was launched in 2004 in order to study highly energetic events known as gamma-ray bursts. While it was originally planned to operate for a two-year mission, it has continued to function to this day. But if left as is, that won’t be the case for long. The telescope orbiting Earth is slowly falling back down, and without intervention, it will reenter the atmosphere before the end of 2026. But not if NASA has something to say about it.

Ever since Galileo pointed his telescope to the sky in 1609, telescopes have slowly revealed the universe to us. Over time, the telescopes got better, and so did the views they provided. But we started to hit a point of diminishing returns. As powerful as telescopes were getting, factors that seemed inescapable on Earth got more and more in the way. There was one clear solution: make a telescope that’s not on Earth.