Credit: PixabayA rare celestial spectacle is set to illuminate Earth’s night skies. On the evening of February 28, 2025, all seven other planets in the Solar System—Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars—will align in a striking row. This breathtaking event, known as a great planetary alignment, promises a stunning visual treat.Six Planets...
Artist's concept of the Parker Solar ProbeNASAThe Parker Solar Probe has been confirmed by NASA to be safe and fully functional following a groundbreaking close approach to the Sun on December 24, 2024. During this event, the spacecraft set a record, venturing to within just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the Sun's...
Multiple flares recorded on the Sun. (NOAA)As Earth completes another orbit around the Sun, a storm brewing in space may soon illuminate our skies with a breathtaking display of auroras.On December 29 and 30, the Sun unleashed a series of dramatic events, including massive eruptions, powerful flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), potentially aimed in...
The JWST image of NGC 628. The new Webb image of NGC 628. (Judy Schmidt/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)Three years ago, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched, marking a monumental moment in space exploration. As the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built, it has redefined our understanding of the Universe in just a...
The orbits of the planets around the Sun have been a subject of intense scientific debate. Scientists understand planetary properties well, but their trajectories have changed significantly since the Solar System's formation.
The Ingenuity helicopterNASAFuture space helicopters could benefit from findings made during the first-ever interplanetary aircraft crash investigation. NASA is finalizing a technical report that will explain the causes of the Ingenuity helicopter crash on Mars, which occurred on January 18, 2024.From a Modest Goal to a Revolutionary AchievementPart of the Mars 2020 mission, Ingenuity...
Credit: PixabayIo, one of Jupiter's moons, holds the title of the most volcanically active body in the Solar System, boasting around 400 volcanoes and vast lava flows across its surface. However, contrary to earlier theories, a recent study suggests that this volcanic activity is not driven by a global magma ocean beneath its crust.New...
A moderate solar flare that erupted on 2 October 2014. The flare is the flash of light. (NASA/SDO)The Sun is far from tranquil. Its surface churns with convection, its magnetic field continuously snaps and reconnects, and it releases energy through violent flares and plasma bursts known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs).Most solar activity poses little...
Credit: PixabayIn 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) unveiled the first image of a black hole, showcasing the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87. Now, this cosmic giant is surprising scientists with an intense teraelectronvolt gamma-ray flare, the strongest observed in over a decade. Emitting photons billions of times more energetic...
Elliptical galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 colliding. (NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/AURA/B. Whitmore et al.)It’s both humbling and inspiring to consider how much remains to be discovered about the Universe. My collaborators and I recently addressed one of astrophysics’ longstanding mysteries: how massive elliptical galaxies form.For the first time, we now have strong observational evidence to...
