Staring up into the night sky, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite expanse of space, with every pinprick of light in the vast canopy of darkness a star holding secrets forged by 13.8 billion years of the universe's existence. And yet, despite its great age and the unfathomable distance between us and even our nearest neighbor, through the study of astronomy we are able to understand more about the world beyond our atmosphere.
Join our expert writers and editors as we reveal the greatest mysteries in cosmology, such as how black holes form, and explore celestial bodies like exoplanets and nebulas, that are scattered throughout our universe. You will also discover how scientists are pushing the boundaries of space exploration using observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope with the latest astronomy news, features and articles.
Discover more about astronomy
—35 jaw-dropping James Webb Space Telescope images
—What is the hottest place in the universe?
—Best telescopes 2024: Beginner and advanced scopes for stars, galaxies and nebulas
Latest about Astronomy
Full moons of 2025: Names, dates and everything you need to know
Find out exactly when to see the full moons of 2025, including dates for two total lunar eclipses and three supermoons.
10 amazing things we found on Mars in 2024, from hundreds of 'spiders' to a 'Martian dog'
From arachnid-like formations and mysterious blobs to an underground ocean and a giant volcano, here are our 10 favorite things scientists discovered on Mars this year.
There's a weird, disappearing dark spot on Saturn's moon Enceladus
"After staring at dozens and dozens of image pairs, she found something interesting."
This red giant star has starspots larger than the entire sun
Astronomers modeled sunspot activity on a nearby red giant star to learn about its chaotic interior.
Our favorite space stories of 2024 — from lost planets to human-caused meteor showers
From the mysterious Planet Nine to the prospect of a "human-caused meteor shower," space and physics editor Brandon Specktor lists his favorite stories of 2024.
NASA's Hubble and Chandra telescopes discover a strange 'sideways' black hole in a cosmic crime scene
What knocked this black hole over onto its side? It's a cosmic "whodunnit" that NASA scientists using the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes are trying to solve.
The fabric of the universe is 'lopsided', huge gravitational wave mapping study finds
A new effort to map the rumblings in spacetime caused by enormous black hole collisions paints a surprisingly loud and lopsided picture of the universe.
Astronomers spot an enormous explosion from the 1st black hole ever photographed
A massive, energetic jet from Virgo A could help scientists understand how matter behaves around a black hole.
Auroras could light up the skies on Christmas, thanks to a powerful solar flare heading toward Earth
A display of auroras is expected to light up the skies on Christmas Day, thanks to a powerful M8.9 solar flare enroute to Earth.
'Like nothing we've seen before': James Webb telescope spies a mysterious asteroid-comet hybrid lurking past Jupiter
The James Webb telescope has focused its attention on an oddball space rock lurking between Jupiter and Neptune. The unusual "centaur," named 2060 Chiron, has features of both comets and asteroids.
