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How Roman will unlock the universe

Robotic Spaceflight, Science

Roman Space Telescope lifts off

Human Spaceflight, Science

Why do astronauts get constipated?

Astrophotography, Telescopes and Equipment

ZWO unveils the Seestar S50 Pro

Picture of the Day

$A large, glowing orange-tan disk — the Sun — fills most of the frame against a black sky. A thin, dark, needle-like silhouette crosses near its left edge, trailing a bright, feathery plume that distorts and refracts the image of the disk, extending below it. A faint dark smudge of clouds sits near the center of the disk, as well as small dark specks of sunspots.s$

A new era dawns for astronomy

Pascal Fouquet, taken from Titusville, Florida

The Falcon Heavy booster carrying NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aloft transits a rising Sun just after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. The photographer captured the moment with a Nikon DSLR and zoom lens at 500mm equipped with a 16.6-stop neutral-density solar filter. The exposure was 1/1250-seconds at f/8 and ISO 320.

In the Sky

A telescopic photograph of M30, a globular cluster appearing as a compact, dense ball of white and blue-white stars near the center of the image, with a bright yellow-orange foreground star visible just above it. The cluster is set against a black sky scattered with numerous orange, yellow, and white foreground stars of varying brightness.

The Sky Today on Tuesday, September 1: Visit globular cluster M30

What’s Launching This Week

What’s Launching This Week

Norway, India, and New Zealand target launches as Starlink continues

Today in the History of Astronomy

A monochrome photograph shows a large, roundish asteroid filling the frame against a solid black space background. Strong directional lighting coming from the right illuminates a heavily pockmarked, grey surface covered in round craters and ridges. The left half of the body curves sharply into deep black shadow, creating strong contrast across the terrain.

Today in the History of Astronomy

Sept. 1, 1804: Karl Harding spots 3 Juno

More News

Solar System, The Moon

Why doesn’t the moonrise time change by the same amount of time each day?

A pale blue Neptune centered against a dark gray background, showing faint darker banding and a bright wispy cloud feature near its equator.

September 2026: What’s in the sky this month? Neptune reaches opposition with Saturn nearby, and Venus shines after sunset

Human Spaceflight

Cast your vote to name Virgin Galactic’s next spaceplane

A panoramic twilight photograph taken along the rocky shore of the Salish Sea, looking west across calm water that mirrors the vivid sunset colors. Venus and Spica are visible as two close points of light in the deep blue sky above the center of the scene. The horizon glows in brilliant bands of orange and yellow, fading upward through purple to deep blue, with silhouetted clouds stretched across the middle sky. A silhouetted house is visible on the left, dark rocky outcroppings frame the foreground, and a distant mountain range is outlined against the orange glow on the right.

Sky This Week, The Sky This Week

The Sky This Week from August 28 to September 4: Venus and Spica meet

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