The brainchild of George Ellery Hale, the 200-inch Hale Telescope was dedicated June 3, 1948, at Palomar Observatory in California. In promoting and fundraising for the project, Hale had a firm science agenda for the scope, but also wrote more fancifully of “the lure of the uncharted seas of space”; though he died in 1938,Continue reading "June 3, 1948: Hale Telescope dedicated"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 2: Titan stands close to Saturn Asteroid 3 Juno is stationary at 3 P.M. EDT, standing still against the stars of Aquila the Eagle. The large main-belt world is in far eastern Aquila and doesn’t rise until an hour before midnight.Continue reading "The Sky Today on Wednesday, June 3: Juno stands still"

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New observatories and spacecraft missions are probing environments in our solar system that could potentially host life but have long remained hidden. Icy moons like Saturn’s Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa likely contain oceans beneath frozen outer shells. But a layer of ice prohibits space probes from sampling them directly. Exploring these icy moons is almost forensic: Their surfaces keep aContinue reading "Scientists used a method from ecology to identify whether icy moons could hold conditions for life"

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📷: Greg Meyer from Phoenix, Arizona The Antenna Galaxies (NGC 4038/9; at left) in Corvus are one of the most famous examples of interacting galaxies. As the two galaxies merge, gravitational tidal forces have flung their stars out into long tails. At right are the galaxy NGC 4027 and its smaller companion NGC 4027A. TheContinue reading "A galactic collision"

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About 63 hours after its launch, Surveyor 1 landed on the Moon on June 2, 1966. The 2,200-pound (998 kilograms) craft touched down inside a 62-mile (100 kilometers) crater north of Flamsteed Crater in Oceanus Procellarum, or the Ocean of Storms. Surveyor 1 took more than 11,000 photos, and measured the Moon’s temperature and theContinue reading "June 2, 1966: Surveyor 1 lands on the Moon"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 1: Mercury at its best Titan, Saturn’s brightest moon, is located near its parent planet for the next two days. Visible in the early-morning sky, you’ll find Titan just northeast of Saturn this morning.  Spotting Saturn is easy — rising shortlyContinue reading "The Sky Today on Tuesday, June 2: Titan stands close to Saturn"

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Blue Moons are known for the folklore surrounding their appearance in the skies. But the real thing has less to do with its color and more with the timing of the year’s Full Moons. The next Blue Moon is May 20, 2027. It will be a seasonal Blue Moon; here’s what that is: There areContinue reading "What is a Blue Moon? When’s the next one?"

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What’s launching this week Early this morning, Monday, June 1, the state owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) successfully completed the maiden flight of the reusable Long March 12B — a two-stage, 236-foot (72-meter) rocket powered by nine liquid oxygen and kerosene engines with a 44,000-pound (20,000 kilogram) payload capacity. The mission launchedContinue reading "SpaceX, China set for busy launch week"

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On May 22, 2026, the Pentagon released a second batch of previously classified photos and videos showing what appear to be unexplained flying objects. These file dumps were the culmination of a process that was set in motion back in July 2023, when a group of government whistleblowers testified before Congress that the U.S. government was secretly inContinue reading "Could aliens ever visit Earth?"

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Occasionally I see references in Astronomy to the speed of something as “supersonic.” I’m having trouble reconciling this term with velocities typically found among astronomical objects. Wouldn’t “relativistic” be closer to the truth? Anything close to sonic speeds in Earth’s atmosphere wouldn’t cover much distance in outer space. Peter IanchiouTucson, Arizona One would certainly thinkContinue reading "What does the term ‘supersonic’ mean in astronomy?"

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The phenomenon of a Full Moon arises when our planet, Earth, is precisely sandwiched between the Sun and the Moon. This alignment ensures the entire side of the Moon that faces us gleams under sunlight. Thanks to the Moon’s orbit around Earth, the angle of sunlight hitting the lunar surface and being reflected back toContinue reading "2026 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases"

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In the 1870s, real-estate mogul James Lick established a trust of $700,000 (around $1.2 billion today) for the purpose of constructing the world’s most powerful telescope. By August 1875, he had selected the peak of Mount Hamilton, near San Jose, California, as his site, taking advantage of the clear air at the high elevation. ConstructionContinue reading "June 1, 1888: Lick Observatory changes hands"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 31: Blue Moon, red star Mercury is at its best for the year. It’s now easy to spot in the evening sky, already 10° above the western horizon 30 minutes after the Sun sets. Tonight, it shines at magnitude –0.5 andContinue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, June 1: Mercury at its best"

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Mercury reaches greatest elongation in the evening sky this month. Venus and Jupiter have a spectacular conjunction, and later in the month the Moon occults Venus. Meanwhile, Jupiter drops deeper into twilight as it sinks toward next month’s conjunction with the Sun. The morning sky hosts ever-more-prominent Saturn, while Mars and Uranus meet in Taurus.Continue reading "June 2026: What’s in the sky this month? Venus and Jupiter have a spectacular conjunction, and the Moon occults Venus"

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June evenings offer a great chance to view three bright planets. Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury gather in the northwestern sky as darkness settles in, creating a grand sight to the naked eye and worthy targets through a telescope. Jupiter has been wandering through Gemini the Twins since the dawn of 2026. Shining at magnitude –1.9,Continue reading "June 2026: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?"

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In the 1960s, two organizations were formed for cooperation around a European presence in space: the European Space Research Organization, which focused on scientific research, and the European Launcher Development Organization, which concentrated on engineering launch systems. By the end of the decade, however, dissatisfaction was growing with this split structure, and in 1968, theContinue reading "May 31, 1975: ESA begins operations"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 30: Fly a cosmic kite Full Moon occurs at 4:45 A.M. EDT on May 31, bringing us May’s second Full Moon and the first — and only — Blue Moon of 2026. Shortly after that, at 5 A.M. EDT, the FullContinue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, May 31: Blue Moon, red star"

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Harry Clement Stubbs – perhaps better known by his penname, Hal Clement – was born near Boston on May 30, 1922. Stubbs earned a B.S. in astronomy from Harvard University in 1943, followed by master’s degrees in chemistry and education. After military service in the Army Air Corps in World War II, he began workContinue reading "May 30, 1922: The birth of Harry Clement Stubbs"

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Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 29: Split Nu Draconis Already high in the eastern sky an hour after sunset is the constellation Boötes the Herdsman. Easy to find thanks to its brightest star, the magnitude –0.1 red giant Arcturus, the stars of this constellation form aContinue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, May 30: Fly a cosmic kite"

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Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida resumed operations Friday following the explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket during a test Thursday night. Space Launch Delta 45 (SLD 45), which manages the U.S. Space Force’s Eastern Range and oversees all East Coast rocket and missile launches, said Friday that a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket deployedContinue reading "New Glenn explosion: what it means for Blue Origin and SpaceX"

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