Planetary scientists may see many descriptions this week that are similar to this one:Return to MimasBlow up the Death Star (moon) andFind hidden oceans.Thats from a presentation about one of S

Sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing. That was the case with a constellation that was created thousands of years ago. It was so big that astronomers eventually split it apart.Argo Navis

The Moon is nowhere in sight the next couple of days. Thats because its new it crosses between Earth and the Sun, so its hidden in the Suns glare. But coastal residents will definitely feel its

The Big Dipper is on the move. Not just its nightly circle around the North Star. And not even its shifting position from month to month. The stars themselves are moving through the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Sun is building toward the peak of its magnetic cycle, probably sometime this year. Thats when it produces more sunspots, flares, and giant clouds of charged particles. All of those can have an e

A nearby star has one of the largest families of planets yet seen an even half-dozen. Only two other known exoplanet families are bigger. But this system is different from the others. All of the pla

Descriptions of the Coma Cluster of galaxies sound like bad car-dealership commercials. The cluster contains more than a thousand galaxies. Theyre bound together by their mutual gravitational pull. T

A sprinkling of faint stars stands in the east a few hours after sunset right now. Its to the upper right of brilliant Arcturus, the brightest star in that part of the sky. Those ribbons of stars are

All stars are big balls of glowing gas, powered by nuclear fusion. But stars come in many different sizes, masses, and colors. And theyre put together in different ways.The Sun is in the middle rang

The night sky plays tricks. Objects that appear close together in the sky can actually be far apart. As an example, look at the Moon and the star Antares before dawn tomorrow. Theres almost no separa