Magazine | Astronomy.com

A James Webb Space Telescope deep field image showing hundreds of distant galaxies scattered across a black background in a range of shapes — spirals, ellipticals, and elongated streaks — in colors from white and blue to orange and red. A large, detailed barred spiral galaxy with a bright white core and faint blue spiral arms dominates the center-left of the frame. Several foreground stars display the distinctive six-pointed diffraction spikes characteristic of JWST imagery.

Cosmology, Stars

JWST studies a supernova near the dawn of time

A wide-angle night sky photograph showing a glowing, diffuse white cloud created by a rocket fuel dump, billowing against a deep blue starry sky. A bright streak of light is visible within the expanding plume. Silhouetted trees and a hillside are visible along the bottom, and the sky fades to a lighter blue near the horizon.

What’s that in the sky?

From the Editor, July 2026: See it for yourself

Telescopes and Equipment

20 essential observing accessories

A size comparison illustration showing Earth and the Moon side by side against a black background. Earth appears on the left, showing the Americas, swirling cloud cover, and blue oceans, while the gray, crater-marked Moon is shown to the right at roughly one-quarter of Earth's diameter, accurately reflecting their relative sizes.

How is the Moon 1% of Earth’s mass, but its gravity is 17% of Earth’s?

No place like home

Photograph showing the close conjunction of bright Venus with the star Regulus in Leo at dawn on October 3, 2020.

July 2026: What’s in the sky this month? Venus and Jupiter are visible in the evening, plus a conjunction of Mars and Uranus before dawn

July 2026: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?

Features, Science

Our planet’s electronic vulnerability

A black and white photograph of a total solar eclipse. The Moon appears as a dark circular disk at center, surrounded by the Sun's glowing white corona extending outward in streaks and rays — most prominently upward and to the lower left. The background is nearly black, emphasizing the dramatic contrast of the corona's light.

Science, Solar System

Why is the Moon exactly the same apparent size from Earth as the Sun?

Stargazing under city lights

The Milky Way stretches in a broad arc across a dark, star-filled sky above a mountain range with snow-dusted peaks and green alpine valleys. Bright pink and magenta clouds of glowing gas are visible in the upper left portion of the sky, with patches of dark dust threading through the dense band of stars. A few small structures — including a tiny settlement — are visible at the base of the mountains.

Astrophotography, Features

Capturing the night sky in Kyrgyzstan