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A large radio antenna dish dominates the left side of the frame, pointing upward against a deep purple night sky dense with stars. A brilliant blue-white star flares brightly in the upper right, surrounded by a soft purple nebular glow. The horizon is dark and flat beneath the antenna.

Alien Life, Uncategorized

The real disclosure day: The protocols for announcing extraterrestrial intelligence

Astrophotography

Astronomy magazine launches 2026 astrophotography contest presented by Celestron

Four astronauts in bright orange Orion spacesuits pose for an official crew portrait against a muted blue-gray background. Two stand at the back and two sit in front; all hold or rest their hands near their white helmets.

Human Spaceflight

Meet the astronauts flying on Artemis 3

A screenshot of the July 2026 issue landing page. The hero image features a bright deep-space scene with a glowing blue core of a nebula, wrapped in thick, textured clouds of amber and brown gas and dust. Sharp white stars fill the outer regions of the frame, with a few brighter stars showing cross-shaped spikes.

How to read the July digital issue of Astronomy magazine

Picture of the Day

Prominent filaments

📷 Mark Johnston from Scottsdale, Arizona

A line of filaments march toward the limb of the Sun, which itself is bedecked with multiple prominences in this Hα image. Both phenomena are made of loops and tendrils of plasma that arch off the surface of the Sun; their varying appearance depends on the viewing geometry. The photographer is the author of the The Solar Observer’s Handbook, published this month.

In the Sky

A telescope image of Comet 220P in outburst, showing a bright green coma glowing near the center of the frame against a dark star-filled background. The comet's nucleus appears as a bright condensed point within the fuzzy green cloud, with a faint tail extending to the upper right.

The Sky Today on Saturday, June 13: Catch Comet 220P/McNaught

What’s Launching This Week

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, surrounded by a billowing cloud of white exhaust and a bright orange flame at the base. The rocket climbs vertically against a hazy blue-gray sky, flanked by four lightning rod towers. Launch infrastructure, including a yellow crane arm and concrete support structures, is visible at the bottom of the frame.

What’s Launching This Week

SpaceX and Rocket Lab set for liftoff this week

Today in the History of Astronomy

An artistic color painting depicts a metallic spacecraft with a large, grey dish antenna and golden instruments floating in deep space. A very long, thin boom extends from the spacecraft toward the upper left into a dark, textured void speckled with white stars. In the background, the massive curve of a planet glows with thick, swirling bands of orange, yellow, and brown under bright illumination.

Robotic Spaceflight, Today in the History of Astronomy

June 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 leaves solar system

More News

A daytime photograph of a crescent Moon visible against a clear blue sky. A bright point of light — a planet being occulted — is caught just above the Moon's illuminated limb moments before disappearing behind it, with the ghostly outline of the Moon's full disk faintly visible through earthshine.

Sky This Week, The Sky This Week

The Sky This Week from June 12 to 19: A daytime occultation of Venus

A dense web of thin blue-purple filaments spans the entire frame, threading through deep red and maroon voids to converge on a blazing central cluster of orange, yellow, and white gas. Scattered across the field, smaller orange and gold clumps glow at the intersections of the filaments. The overall effect resembles a three-dimensional cosmic spiderweb

Cosmology, Features

Untangling the cosmic web

An artist's illustration of the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars, with the spacecraft positioned in the upper left and the rust-colored Martian surface filling the right side of the frame. The spacecraft features a large circular dish, two pairs of extended solar panels, and a long boom extending toward the planet. A star-scattered deep-space background fills the upper left corner.

NASA fails to reestablish contact, decommissions MAVEN

Telescopes and Equipment

Kickstart summer with these new astronomy products

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