Astronomy 🔭

Katie Bouman was 29 when the world saw its first image of a black hole. At MIT she built CHIRP, an algorithm for imaging from sparse telescope data, and helped turn 5 petabytes into one picture. When her ecstatic reaction went viral, trolls swarmed to give a male peer credit for her work.

NASA has officially shut down its Swift space telescope after 22 years It will re-enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up sometime in the next month or two

Scientists took the first photos of Earth from space on this day 80 years ago 🌍

The US Space Force says it needs a third major spaceport by 2030 as launches pile up Florida and California are getting crowded

The Orionid meteor shower, made of debris from Halley's Comet, peaks TONIGHT (Oct 21) ☄️ The best views come in the few hours before dawn About 10-20 meteors per hour expected

Suspected Chinese rocket debris up to 30 feet across crashed into a palm oil plantation in Indonesia Indonesia’s space agency linked it to a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket stage that reentered on Oct. 18 No one was hurt. Workers had already left the area for the day

Four NASA volunteers have now spent an entire year sealed inside a fake Mars base They've grown crops, done simulated Marswalks and have only talked to their families through delayed emails They get out October 31st

6 years ago today, NASA's OSIRIS-REx touched down on asteroid Bennu and grabbed a piece of it It became NASA's first asteroid sample ever brought back to Earth

NASA's Jared Isaacman will give an update Friday on speeding up the return to the Moon 🌕 Artemis III was about 90 days behind schedule last month

9 years ago today, astronomers spotted ʻOumuamua,’ the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system ☄️

The Moon is exactly half lit today 🌓 Next weekend will be a full moon

NASA says Orion's heat shield passed its Artemis II test, with about 10 times less damage than last time 🔥 Artemis I (left) vs. Artemis II (right)

The Moon reaches its farthest point from Earth this Friday, about 251,000 miles away

William Shatner went to space 5 years ago today

A large filament eruption on the Sun’s southern hemisphere may have sent a CME toward Earth Forecasters are working to confirm its direction and possible arrival time

NASA astronaut captures intense aurora glowing over Earth from the ISS 🤩 Taken Saturday by @astro_anil from his iPhone

The ozone hole over Antarctica grew to its second-largest size on record for this time of year It peaked at more than 10.6 million square miles in September, nearly 3x the size of the US

A strong solar storm is hitting Earth right now after a solar eruption arrived a day earlier than forecast Northern lights are possible across the northern U.S. after dark tonight

34 years ago today, a bowling ball-sized meteorite slammed into a parked Chevy Malibu in Peekskill, New York ☄️ The 27-pound space rock punched straight through the trunk The owner had just bought the car for $300 and was later able to sell it for $25,000

NOAA has issued a storm watch for Saturday night as several solar eruptions head toward Earth Northern lights could reach as far south as New York, Wisconsin and Washington state, peaking from 11pm to 2am ET

Margaret Hamilton, who led the team that wrote the code that put humans on the moon, has died at 90 🕊️

New Caltech study finds the solar system as we know it will end sooner than scientists thought As the Sun dies, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will likely be knocked out of their orbits 🪐 Some planets could be flung into deep space

Four astronauts return to Earth from the ISS

NASA has released onboard video of Artemis II's reentry through Earth's atmosphere 🤩 Top speed: about 25,000 mph

The Draconid meteor shower peaks Thursday night ☄️ Best viewing is shortly after dark Expect 5 to 10 meteors per hour

Scientists say one of Saturn's moons could have the right conditions to support alien life Earth microbes survived in a lab recreation of Enceladus' underground ocean

69 years ago today, humanity launched the world's first artificial satellite 🛰️ Sputnik 1

Saturn is at its closest to Earth all year this weekend 🪐 It's rings can be visible even with small telescopes

This week on Mars

NEW JWST image dropped! It shows gravity bending light from distant galaxies so much they appear 4 or more times 🫨