One of the most amazing achievements in astronomy in recent decades is the discovery of planets in other star systems 5,000 of them and counting. And many of those systems are a long way off hundr

The Moon has a giant companion at dawn the next couple of days. Make that two giants. The star Antares is close to the lower left of the Moon tomorrow, and about the same distance to the upper right o

The Juno spacecraft is scheduled to visit one of the most dangerous regions of the solar system tomorrow. Itll fly less than a thousand miles from Io, one of the big moons of Jupiter. Thats where Jupi

Almost a century ago, astronomers split the celestial sphere into 88 constellations. Most of them the famous ones date from ancient times. But 14 of them none of which is famous were created b

Spica is one of the brighter stars in the night sky, so its always easy to pick out. But its especially easy to find tonight, because it huddles especially close to the Moon. They climb into good vi

Astronomers have been studying the star cluster Messier 36 for almost four centuries. Yet they still aren’t sure about its details. There’s disagreement about its distance, its age, and th

Space weather could be especially stormy this year. A forecast issued late last year said the Sun’s current cycle of magnetic activity should peak sometime this year. And the peak should be a lo

Perhaps the most important number that astronomers need to know about a star is its distance. That allows them to calculate the star’s true brightness, which helps them calculate the star’

The Moon and the star Regulus move across the sky together tonight. Regulus is to the upper right of the Moon as they climb into good view, around 8 or 8:30.The name “Regulus” means &ldquo

If you’re driving up the highway from Dallas to Minneapolis, you might rely on the Global Positioning System to help get you there. If GPS didn’t take the equations of Albert Einstein into