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$Photograph of a spiral galaxy tilted diagonally across the frame, with a glowing golden-tan core threaded with brown dust lanes and pink star-forming regions. Blue-white spiral arms and clusters of young stars extend outward from the core toward the upper right and lower left. A bright blue-white star with prominent diffraction spikes sits just below the core, and several other foreground stars with spikes are scattered across the dark background, along with a few small orange background galaxies.$

Galaxies, Science

Uncovering M96’s violent past

$Annotated astrophotograph of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), a face-on spiral with a pale blue-white core, dark dust lanes, and sweeping blue spiral arms dotted with red and pink star-forming regions, set against a dark star field. A bright blue star with diffraction spikes appears at left. Small white labels with leader lines point to star clusters labeled C20, C27, C38, C39, H10, H38, M9, R12, R14, U49, U62, U77, and U137.$

Astrophotography, Deep-Sky Objects

Imaging star clusters in other galaxies

Science

How do professional astronomers book time on JWST or Hubble?

Solar System, Stars

Case closed on long-standing space weather mystery

Satellite photograph of the contiguous United States at night, showing city lights as golden points and clusters against a dark navy landmass and black ocean. The eastern two-thirds of the country glow densely and almost continuously along the coasts and around the Great Lakes, while the western half shows sparser, more isolated clusters of light concentrated along the Pacific coast and scattered through the interior.

Observing

How can I reduce my personal contribution to light pollution?

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This artist’s conception illustrates one of the most primitive supermassive black holes known (central black dot) at the core of a young, star-rich galaxy. Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have uncovered two of these early objects, dating back to about 13 billion years ago. The monstrous black holes are among the most distant known, and appear to be in the very earliest stages of formation, earlier than any observed so far. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Science

Explore the science of space, from the astrophysics of stars to the ultimate fate of the universe.

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Observing

Learn about upcoming observing events such as eclipses, meteor showers, comets, conjunctions, and more.

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This 2016 Curiosity rover selfie shows the vehicle at the “Okoruso” drilling site on Mount Sharp’s Naukluft Plateau. The Martian scene is a mosaic of images taken with the arm-mounted Mars Hands Lens Imager (MAHLI). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Space Exploration

Human and robotic missions are helping humanity explore our solar system and beyond.

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October 2026

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Sky This Week

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Sky This Week, The Sky This Week

The Sky This Week from October 9 to 16: Mars passes through the Beehive

Sky This Month

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Photograph of Saturn against a dark background, seen nearly edge-on with its ring system stretching horizontally across the globe and casting a thin shadow band on the planet. The pale gold and tan cloud bands are visible, with a bright white storm feature swirling in the planet's southern hemisphere.

Observing

October 2026: What’s in the sky this month?

Picture of the Day

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A tall, roughly oval ring of tangled, thread-like clouds fills the frame against a dark red haze sprinkled with tiny stars. The strands glow red with streaks of pale blue and white, brightest along a curved arc at upper left, a long sweeping arc at right, and a pair of thin, nearly straight streaks running diagonally through the middle, while a fainter, looser loop trails off toward the bottom.

Thrown for a loop

Ionut Nedelcu from Central Bedfordshire, England

The Cygnus Loop (Sharpless 2-103), a supernova remnant whose brightest arcs form the Veil Nebula, lies about 2,400 light-years away. Its glowing filaments trace gas heated by the blast wave of a massive star that exploded roughly 10,000 years ago. The imager took 17 hours of exposure in Hα/OIII/RGB filters with a 2.6-inch refractor at f/4.8.