Looking Up by Bob Eklund

Planet Nine—the undiscovered planet at the edge of the solar system predicted by Caltech’s Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown in January 2016—appears to be responsible for the unusual tilt of the Sun. The large and …[READ MORE]

In August, astronomers announced that the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, hosts an Earth-sized planet (called Proxima b) in its habitable zone. At first glance, Proxima Centauri seems nothing like our Sun. It’s a small, cool, …[READ MORE]

Rosetta’s mission is over. After the last signal on Sept. 30, 2016, the spacecraft was crash-landed on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taking measurements and sending them to Earth right until the very end. The final descent image …[READ MORE]

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. This finding bolsters other Hubble observations suggesting the icy moon erupts with high-altitude …[READ MORE]

Have you ever wondered what piece of cosmic debris is whizzing past the Earth right now? Do you crave up-to-the-minute information about asteroids large and small? Well you’re in luck because today you can subscribe …[READ MORE]

In the race to discover a proposed ninth planet in our solar system, Scott Sheppard of Carnegie Institution for Science and Chadwick Trujillo of Northern Arizona University have observed several never-before-seen objects at extreme distances …[READ MORE]

Like cosmic ballet dancers, the stars of the Pleiades cluster are spinning. But these celestial dancers are all twirling at different speeds. Astronomers have long wondered what determines the rotation rates of these stars. By …[READ MORE]

Astronomers have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri. The long-sought world, designated Proxima b, orbits its cool red parent star every 11 days and has a temperature …[READ MORE]

Step outside as the stars come out, look southwest, and you’ll see an eye-catching pattern. For the next few days, bright orange Mars shines to the right of Saturn and the reddish supergiant star Antares. …[READ MORE]

The universe is 13.8 billion years old, while our planet formed just 4.5 billion years ago. Some scientists think this time gap means that life on other planets could be billions of years older than …[READ MORE]