We can’t travel to other stars yet – and maybe we never will. But other residents of the solar system can tour the galaxy. At the same time, former residents of other star systems can visi

The next total eclipse of the Sun is almost two years away. But astronomers will watch many “total eclipses” between now and then. Known as occultations, they occur when one astronomical o

The Alpha Persei cluster is a family of more than 500 stars, spanning almost 150 light-years. All of the stars were born at the same time, from the same giant cloud of gas and dust.Tens of millions o

Before you climb a ladder, you want to make sure all of its rungs are secure. And astronomers try to do the same thing – with the cosmic distance ladder. It’s a series of techniques that r

A hundred years ago today, the New York Times reported that Edwin Hubble had made a big discovery. He confirmed that many of the spiral objects known as nebulae were really separate galaxies – &

The stars of the Big Dipper dip quite low at nightfall at this time of year. In fact, from south of about Kansas City, one or more of its stars dip below the horizon and out of view. And from south of

For the Moon, it’s another night, another bright companion. After passing close to the brightest star of Gemini and the planet Mars over the past couple of nights, tonight it takes aim at Regulu

There’s no liquid water on the surface of Mars. But if you could squeeze the planet like a damp sponge, a lot of water might ooze out. Observations by a Mars lander suggest that huge amounts of

When astronomers compare the brightness of different stars, they use a scale known as absolute magnitude. That’s how bright the stars would look if they were lined up at the same distance: 10 pa

This has been a busy year for the Sun. It’s near the peak of its 11-year magnetic cycle, so it’s produced some big eruptions of energy and charged particles. Some of those outbursts have c