X-Headlines – Astronomy Now

A bigger and better helicopter to Mars

16 March 2025 Astronomy Now

Ingenuity, the plucky little helicopter, has proven that flight on another planet is possible. Over 72 remarkable flights, it captivated space enthusiasts worldwide. Yet, despite its achievements, Ingenuity’s limitations have driven NASA to envision something even more advanced.

A more youthful globular cluster

24 June 2024 Astronomy Now

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is the nearest galaxy to our Milky Way at about 159,000 light years, is home to about 60 globular clusters. Pictured here is one of these great balls of stars, namely NGC 2210, which shines in the night sky at magnitude +11.

Follow the leader

23 June 2024 Astronomy Now

This line of galaxies is a cosmic coincidence behind the interacting system Arp-Madore 2105-332, which is a pair of galaxies 200 million light years away in the suitably small constellation of Microscopium.

Cassiopeia A’s many faces

22 June 2024 Astronomy Now

This is the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST’s) second view of the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant, the remains of a massive star that exploded in the late 17th century.

Catch the rays from the Sunflower Galaxy

10 May 2023 Mark Armstrong

Messier 63 (NGC 5055), the Sunflower Galaxy in Canes Venatici, sits comfortably with its reputation as one of the great galaxies visible in the night sky at springtime.

Webb captures stunning new view of ‘Pillars of Creation’

19 October 2022 Astronomy Now

The James Webb Space Telescope takes a look at the “Pillars of Creation” at the heart of the Eagle Nebula, providing a stunning update to one of Hubble’s most iconic images.

Unistellar EVscope Equinox

22 February 2022 Ade Ashford

Unistellar’s eQuinox delivers five times the internal data storage and longer battery life than its predecessor, but ditches the eVscope’s electronic eyepiece. Ade Ashford checks out the new features.

Hubble at 30: A cosmic legacy

24 April 2020 Keith Cooper

Amid flame and smoke, the Hubble Space Telescope blasted off the launch pad aboard the space shuttle Discovery 30 years ago today, ushering in a new era for astronomy that has transformed our understanding of the Universe around us.

New study finds ‘winking’ star may be devouring wrecked planets

28 December 2017 Astronomy Now

A team of U.S. astronomers studying the star RZ Piscium has found evidence suggesting its strange, unpredictable dimming episodes may be caused by vast orbiting clouds of gas and dust, the remains of one or more destroyed planets.

An interview with David Grinspoon

28 December 2017 Astronomy Now

As part of the new Gravity Assist podcast, NASA’s Director of Planetary Science Jim Green interviewed David Grinspoon of the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona about the planet Venus and what makes the second world from the Sun so hellish compared to Earth.