Magazine

Galaxies

How do we get such beautiful, ornate, and symmetrical shapes of galaxies — pinwheels, ovals, spirals, and central bars — when the same gravitational forces are at work as those that affect Earth and the Sun’s other planets?

Astrophotography

CCD imagery of the heavens

Exoplanets, Planets, The Sun

What produces the “blue flash” during sunset?

Science

ALMA’s science, so far

Astronomy for beginners, Deep-Sky Objects

Sagittarius in detail

Astrophotography

The most colorful stars

Solar System

The end of the line for our planet

Exoplanets, Planets, Solar System

A pair of close encounters

Galaxies

Besides computer simulations, what evidence do astronomers have to support the popular hypothesis that elliptical galaxies form from merging spirals?

Astrophotography, Deep-Sky Objects

On the trail of dark nebulae

Exoplanets, Planets, Solar System

Where does Enceladus get its water?

Science

How today’s rising stars got their start