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Robotic Spaceflight

SpaceX targeting Thursday for second launch of the world’s largest rocket

There are already 16,000 satellites in Earth’s orbit. How will we manage the next 100,000?

Is this the first known binary system to produce two supernova remnants?

FCC approves Reflect Orbital filing for mirror in space

Picture of the Day

A glowing, ring-shaped cloud sits at the center of a dense star field, with a bright blue-green disk in the middle surrounded by a thick band of pink and magenta. Wispy, cloud-like red tendrils drift outward unevenly from the ring, reaching farther out toward the right side and giving the whole shape a lopsided, eye-like look. Countless small white, blue, and orange stars fill the dark background around it.

A glowing eye

Gerald Rhemann, taken from Farm Tivoli, Namibia

The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a planetary nebula around 650 light-years away in Aquarius, the glowing remains of a dying, Sun-like star’s outer layers. They now surround a hot white dwarf left at the nebula’s center. The imager captured about 24.3 hours of exposure in Hα/OIII/LRGB filters with a 12-inch f/3.6 reflector.

In the Sky

A simulated night sky looking south on July 26, 2026, at 10 P.M. Asteroid Juno is marked with a red dashed indicator near the center-left of the frame, with the bright star Altair visible above and to the left. A brilliantly glowing full Moon dominates the right side of the frame, surrounded by a soft halo of light.

The Sky Today on Sunday, July 26: Juno at opposition

What’s Launching This Week

What’s Launching This Week

A robotic satellite servicer and Starship’s return headline this week’s launches

Today in the History of Astronomy

Three square panels set side-by-side against a black background show a bright object glowing in shades of red and orange over three consecutive days. The object’s central bright white core grows larger from the first panel to the second, and then elongates into a bright, sweeping tail pointing toward the upper-left in the third panel. White text and labels are visible above each panel and in a larger block beneath them.

Today in the History of Astronomy

July 26, 2000: Comet LINEAR disintegrates

More News

A wide-angle nightscape photograph showing a bright meteor streaking diagonally across a star-filled sky. The meteor leaves a sharp, glowing trail as it travels from upper right toward the center of the frame. The silhouettes of pine trees and rolling hills line the bottom of the image, with a faint warm glow along the horizon suggesting distant city lights or moonlight.

Sky This Week, The Sky This Week

The Sky This Week from July 24 to 31: The Southern Delta Aquariids peak

An artist's illustration of two stars against a dense, starry background with red and blue nebula clouds. A large, intensely bright white star dominates the left side of the image, while a smaller, vivid blue star glows to its right, suggesting a binary star system.

How can a young blue giant have a white dwarf companion star that’s billions of years older?

Underappreciated Serpens

The best comets this century

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