Astronomy Magazine: Space News, Observing, Planets, Galaxies

Top Stories

A 360-degree panoramic view of the Milky Way galaxy stretching horizontally across the frame as a bright, glowing band of stars and dust. The galactic center is visible near the middle, dense with warm orange and brown dust lanes and bright star clusters. The surrounding sky is deep black, dotted with individual stars and a few faint nebulae and satellite galaxies visible in the lower portion of the image.

Cosmology, Galaxies

Giant supercluster discovered hiding behind the Milky Way

Astrophotography

Astronomy magazine launches 2026 astrophotography contest presented by Celestron

Side-by-side grayscale comparison of the Moon's two hemispheres. The left image shows the familiar near side of the Moon, featuring large dark volcanic plains called maria that give it a distinctive mottled appearance. The right image shows the far side of the Moon, which lacks significant maria and instead appears more uniformly cratered and bright, with prominent crater ray systems radiating outward from impact sites.

Science, Solar System

Why does one side of the Moon have a lot of craters, while the other does not?

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

A circular, flower-like nebula fills the frame, with a bright, hollow center of soft blue and purple gas surrounded by thick, textured clouds in golden-orange and deep red. Dark, finger-like dust lanes cut into the glowing gas along the inner edges, especially on the right and bottom. A small cluster of bright stars sits near the middle of the cavity, while countless fainter stars and very subtle, reddish wisps of gas dot the darker background around the nebula.

Budding stars

Jeffrey Horne, taken from Nashville, Tennessee

The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237–9) is a vast star-forming complex about 5,000 light-years away in Monoceros. This portrait combines 200⅓ hours of SHO data taken from Jan. 1 to April 12, 2026, with a 5-inch f/5.6 scope. The extremely deep exposure reveals myriad delicate tendrils within the nebula, where where hot young stars are carving a central cavity in hydrogen-rich clouds. At right lies a line of Bok globules — dense nuggets of dust where stars are forming.

In the Sky

The evening sky on June 9, 2026, 1 hour after sunset, looking west

The Sky Today on Tuesday, June 9: Bright planets’ conjunction

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

A grid of eight distinct square panels are arranged in two rows of four against a black background. Each panel shows a bright, yellowish-orange core surrounded by thin, glowing blue rings or partial arcs that encircle the central light. Text labels containing long strings of numbers appear at the bottom of each square panel, with a larger informational title section situated underneath the entire grid.

Cosmology, Today in the History of Astronomy

June 9, 1988: First image of an Einstein ring

More News

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

A 360-degree panoramic view of the Milky Way galaxy stretching horizontally across the frame as a bright, glowing band of stars and dust. The galactic center is visible near the middle, dense with warm orange and brown dust lanes and bright star clusters. The surrounding sky is deep black, dotted with individual stars and a few faint nebulae and satellite galaxies visible in the lower portion of the image.

Cosmology, Galaxies

Giant supercluster discovered hiding behind the Milky Way

An artist's illustration of two astronauts in white spacesuits working on the gray lunar surface beside a large cylindrical mobile habitat on wheels, with a smaller open surface vehicle to the right and equipment cases scattered between them, set against a black sky.

Human Spaceflight

How NASA plans to build a Moon Base

Astronomy Newsletter

Get newsletters, updates and special offers via email from Astronomy.com!

Product Recommendations

Visit The Space Store

Popular Explorations