Leap Day is coming.
Marvin Samuel Tolentino Pineda/iStock, via Getty images
Humans have synced their calendars to the sun and moon for centuries, but every so often, these systems need a little correction.
UCLAN
The observation could fill in gaps in our knowledge about planet formation.
Telescopes have to contend with light pollution from satellites.
(Shutterstock)
Megaconstellations of satellites are hindering the most powerful tool for space exploration: telescopes.
The dark, far side of the Moon is the perfect place to conduct radio astronomy.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Projects under NASA’s CLPS program – including the Odysseus lander that made it to the lunar surface – will probe unexplored questions about the universe’s formation.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS
Mars has been a popular destination since space exploration began – and there are plenty of people who’d love to go there.
Planets can gravitationally affect each other when their orbits line up.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Orbital resonance is kind of like musical harmony, but systems that display it are far more rare than songs with harmonic melodies.
Shutterstock
When most of us left school there were still 9 planets – but we’ve come a long way since Pluto’s demotion. Here’s what’s next on the space agenda.
Data from the SLIM mission projected at JAXA’s Sagamihara Campus during the craft’s landing.
AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
Japan is one of several countries that weren’t part of the space race of the 1950s and 1960s looking toward the Moon. They’ve now become the 5th country to have landed on its surface.
Southern African Large Telescope.
SAAO
The astronomical community has thrived and world-class astronomical facilities have been established in South Africa.
Nearby planets can affect how one planet ‘wobbles’ on its spin axis, which contributes to seasons.
Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
You might hate winter, but at least you know what to expect every year. Other planets have wobbly axes that lead to wild, unpredictable seasons.
The remains of a Type Ia supernova – a kind of exploding star used to measure distances in the universe.
NASA / CXC / U.Texas
After a decade studying thousands of supernovae, astronomers are still perplexed by the enigma that led Einstein to his ‘greatest mistake’.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
The nature of dark energy remains one of the biggest puzzles in cosmology.
Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God (1873)
Jan Matejko / Wikimedia Commons
A team of archaeologists discovered the remains of the 16th-century father of modern astronomy, who demonstrated that the Earth orbits the Sun.
Geoffrey Wyatt
In 2024 we will see meteor showers, Saturn disappearing behind the Moon, and – if we’re lucky – a comet bright enough to see with the naked eye.
Photograph: Nasa (Goddard Space Flight Center)
The Peregrine and Nova-C landers are due to carry out valuable science at two diverse lunar locations.
Thirdman/Pexels
A telescope can reveal so much of the night sky, including Saturn’s rings and the Moon’s craters. But choosing the right telescope is a difficult decision – here’s what you need to know.
Stargazers in Bourke, New South Wales, Australia.
David Trood/Getty Images
People have been looking up at the stars for thousands of years. Here’s where to start if you want to learn more about the night sky – from spotting easy-to-find constellations to using the best apps.
Black holes use gravity to pull matter into them.
NASA/Chandra X-ray Observatory/M.Weiss via AP
Pictures of black holes have a white outline around them when photographed, due to one of black holes’ unique and key features.
A still from footage showing Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.
US Department of Defense/US Navy
Several scientific projects are aiming to investigate UFO sightings.
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder in the Western Australian desert.
CSIRO
Do all big black holes in very massive galaxies emit radio waves? We used the latest radio telescopes to find out.