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Space and Astronomy

Highlights

  1. A Conversation With

    Edward Dwight Aims for Space at Last

    Six decades ago, Mr. Dwight’s shot at becoming the first Black astronaut in space was thwarted by racism and politics. Now, at 90, he’s finally going up.

     By Matt Richtel

    “My whole life has been about getting things done,” said Edward Dwight, a retired pilot, current sculptor and future crew member on a Blue Origin mission into space. “This is the culmination.”
    CreditNathan Bajar for The New York Times

  2. Killer Asteroid Hunters Spot 27,500 Overlooked Space Rocks

    With the help of Google Cloud, scientists churned through hundreds of thousands of images of the night sky to reveal that the solar system is filled with unseen objects.

     By Kenneth Chang

    An algorithm and cloud computing identified overlooked space rocks. Most, in green, are in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but other items in orange share Jupiter’s orbit, and items in light blue are closer to Earth.
    CreditB612 Asteroid Institute/University of Washington DiRAC Institute/OpenSpace Project

  1. NASA Seeks ‘Hail Mary’ for Its Mars Rocks Return Mission

    The agency will seek new ideas for its Mars Sample Return program, expected to be billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.

     By Kenneth Chang

    An artist’s conception of multiple robotic vehicles teaming up to return samples of rocks and soil, collected from the Martian surface by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover, to earth.
    CreditNASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech

  2. She Dreams of Pink Planets and Alien Dinosaurs

    Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, hunts for aliens in space by studying Earth across time.

     By Becky Ferreira

    Lisa Kaltenegger, founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University. “I think a lot of people might not be so aware of where we are right now, and that they are living in this momentous time in history,” she said. “We can all be a part of it.”
    CreditHeather Ainsworth for The New York Times
    A Conversation With …

  3. A Tantalizing ‘Hint’ That Astronomers Got Dark Energy All Wrong

    Scientists may have discovered a major flaw in their understanding of that mysterious cosmic force. That could be good news for the fate of the universe.

     By Dennis Overbye

    Credit
    Out There

  4. Cosmic Forecast: Blurry With a Chance of Orbital Chaos

    Astronomers have gotten better at tracking the motions of stars just beyond the solar system. But that’s made it harder to predict Earth’s future and reconstruct its past.

     By Dennis Overbye

    Researchers discovered that a sunlike star named HD 7977, found 247 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, could have passed close enough to the sun about 2.8 million years ago to alter the orbits of the Earth and other planets.
    CreditAlan Dyer/VWPics, via Alamy
    Out There

  5. One Satellite Signal Rules Modern Life. What if Someone Knocks It Out?

    Threats are mounting in space. GPS signals are vulnerable to attack. Their time-keeping is essential for stock trading, power transmission and more.

     By Selam Gebrekidan, John Liu and Chris Buckley

    In this long exposure, a string of SpaceX Starlink satellites passed over an old stone house in 2021 near Florence, Kan.
    CreditReed Hoffmann/Associated Press

  1. NASA Is Recruiting a New Class of Astronauts

    Victor Glover, a nine-year veteran of the astronaut corps who will fly around the moon in 2025, said the search for excellence and diversity were not mutually exclusive.

     By Kenneth Chang and Emma Goldberg

    Victor Glover, the pilot of NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon next year, discussed his experience of applying to be an astronaut during a recent interview.
    CreditChandan Khanna/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

  2. The Night Sky Will Soon Get ‘a New Star.’ Here’s How to See It.

    A nova named T Coronae Borealis lit up the night about 80 years ago, and astronomers say it’s expected to put on another show in the coming months.

     By Robin George Andrews

    Credit

  3. Why It’s So Challenging to Land Upright on the Moon

    Two spacecraft have ended up askew on the lunar surface this year. It is easier to tip over in the weaker gravity on the moon than you may imagine.

     By Kenneth Chang

    The tilted Odysseus lander on the moon, one of the last images it transmitted before shutting down on Thursday.
    CreditIntuitive Machines

  4. Ingenuity, the NASA Helicopter Flying Over Mars, Ends Its Mission

    The robot flew 72 times, serving as a scouting partner to the Perseverance rover, aiding in the search for evidence that there was once life on the red planet.

     By Kenneth Chang

    CreditNASA/JPL-Caltech

  5. Sync Your Calendar With the Solar System

    Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other astronomical and space event that’s out of this world.

     

    CreditEuropean Space Agency/Euclid Consortium/NASA; image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi

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Total Solar Eclipse 2024

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  1. Highlights From the Total Solar Eclipse’s Dark Path Through the U.S., Mexico and Canada

    People all over North America spent the afternoon awed by the movement of the moon’s shadow, the last time it will pass through so much of the continent until the 2040s.

     

    Credit

  2. The Eclipse Across North America

    What people in the path of totality were seeing and saying as the eclipse unfolded across the continent.

     By The New York Times

    CreditRenaud Philippe for The New York Times

  3. See the Total Solar Eclipse’s Shadow From Space

    An American weather satellite is capturing the movement of the moon’s shadow across North America during the total eclipse of the sun on Monday.

     By K.K. Rebecca Lai and William B. Davis

    CreditThe New York Times

  4. Fjords, Pharaohs or Koalas? Time to Plan for Your Next Eclipse.

    If you can’t get enough of totality, or missed out this time, you’ll have three more chances in the next four years in destinations like Iceland, Spain, Egypt and Australia.

     By Danielle Dowling

    If you missed out on Monday’s total solar eclipse, which dazzled viewers in places like Burlington, Vt., you’ll have the chance to see another one starting in 2026 — but you may need a passport.
    CreditCassandra Klos for The New York Times

  5. Did You Really Need to Be There to See the Eclipse?

    For much of the 20th century, Rochester, N.Y., was the “imaging capital of the world.” For three and a half minutes on Monday, it was living up to its old nickname.

     By Christopher Valentine and Gideon Jacobs

    Credit

Out There

More in Out There ›

  1. A Lifetime Under the Moon’s Shadow

    The late Jay Pasachoff inspired generations of students to become astronomers by dragging them to the ends of the Earth for a few precarious moments of ecstasy.

     By Dennis Overbye

    The astronomer Jay Pasachoff observing a solar eclipse from a DC-9 over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii in 1981.
    CreditRoger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG, via Getty Images

  2. Good News and Bad News for Astronomers’ Biggest Dream

    The National Science Foundation takes a step (just one) toward an “extremely large telescope.”

     By Dennis Overbye

    One of the two proposals for an “extremely large telescope” could involve construction on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
    CreditCaleb Jones/Associated Press

  3. A Voracious Black Hole at the Dawn of Time?

    Scientists debate whether this object is the brightest in the visible universe, as a new study suggests.

     By Dennis Overbye

    An artist’s concept of the quasar J0529-4351. Astronomers studying the supermassive black hole said it grew in mass by the equivalent of a star a day, although others questioned the claims it was the brightest.
    CreditM. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory, via Associated Press

  4. The Doomsday Clock Keeps Ticking

    Are humans the only beings in the universe confronting global self-destruction? Or just the last ones standing?

     By Dennis Overbye

    CreditLibrary of Congress

  5. What Do You Call a Galaxy Without Stars?

    To dark matter and dark energy, add dark galaxies — collections of stars so sparse and faint that they are all but invisible.

     By Dennis Overbye

    An artist’s depiction of hydrogen gas observed in the galaxy J0613+52, with the colors indicating the likely rotation of the gas relative to the observer, red indicating motion away, blue indicating motion toward.
    CreditP. Vosteen/Green Bank Observatory/NSF/STScI

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  1. TimesVideo

    China Launches Moon Lander

    The Chang’e-6 mission aims to bring back samples from the lunar far side.

    By CCTV via Associated Press

     
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