Cosmic Perspectives from Amid the Stars:
Astronomy Blog

How likely is it that there are intelligent civilizations out there beyond our Solar System? This is the question that Frank Drake asked in 1961 when he came up with the eponymous Drake Equation. In the search for extraterrestrial life, finding an intelligent civilization that we might even be able to communicate with is the gold standard. We might not have found any yet, but given our knowledge of how the universe works, we should be able to predict how common or rare they a

Artemis II brought humanity farther than it's ever traveled before. Along the way they collected a vast array of stunning imagery of not only the Moon, but Earth and space as well. Join me as we explore my favorite of the best images from the Artemis II mission and break down any interesting science behind the photos.

The true size of the universe boggles the mind. It’s so large that it is simply impossible to truly grasp its size. Even light, which travels faster than anything else, takes time to travel through space. For light, it’s eight minutes from the Sun to Earth, four years to the closest star, and a hundred thousand years to cross the Milky Way. To truly appreciate these vast distances, a scale model is necessary.

The solar eclipse is the well-known event when the Moon passes between the Earth and Sun, blocking the Sun from view. Less known is the lunar eclipse, where the Earth passes between the Sun and Moon, blocking the light of the Sun that usually reflects off the Moon. The morning of March 3, 2026, at around 3:00 am PST, will provide this special show of celestial alignment.

You might have heard before that the nearest star is 4.24 light-years from Earth. Or that the closest galaxy is 2.5 million light-years from the Milky Way. Or even that the most distant observed objects are 33.8 billion light-years away. But how do we measure these distances in space? After all, there’s no such thing as a cosmic ruler. That’s where the cosmic distance ladder comes in.