NASA Spacecraft Sets Record for Closest Approach to Sun — And it’s Getting...
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is now closer to the sun than any spacecraft has ever gotten. Parker on Monday surpassed the record of 26.6 million miles set by Helios-2 back in 1976. And it will keep...
View ArticleKepler Telescope Dead After Nearly a Decade of Finding Distant Worlds
NASA’s elite planet-hunting spacecraft has been declared dead, just a few months shy of its 10th anniversary. Officials announced the Kepler Space Telescope’s demise Tuesday. Already well past its...
View ArticleNorthern California Meteor: 4 Good Videos
If you’re on the internet right now — and, oh that’s right, you are — you’re probably aware that a streaking light in the sky just after sunset had many in the Bay Area, Wednesday, reaching for their...
View ArticleThe Fall Equinox Is Upon Us. So Here’s What That Is
It’s time to savor the first few moments of official fall. The autumnal equinox is upon us, marking one of two days a year when the amount of daylight matches that of night. (The other is the vernal or...
View ArticleClose-Up Video Shows Turbulent Gas Covering the Sun’s Surface in New Detail
The world’s largest and most powerful solar telescope has captured the highest-resolution images of the sun’s surface ever taken, say scientists at the National Solar Observatory. The images show...
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Hey Bay Area, Don’t Miss NEOWISE, the Brightest Naked-Eye Comet Since Hale-Bopp!
Have you heard? There’s a comet appearing in the evening and morning skies, bright enough to give even city dwellers a chance to see it. The comet is named “NEOWISE” after the spacecraft that first...
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NASA Spacecraft Spots a Massive, Ancient Planet With a Knack for Survival
A NASA satellite known as TESS may have discovered a massive extrasolar planet twice as old as any planet in our solar system. While astronomers need to conduct more observations to confirm the planet...
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NASA’s Artemis Missions to Set Up Base Camp on the Moon
Science fiction has long imagined possibilities of human adventure on the moon, envisioning lunar expeditions, bases, and even cities in the decades leading up to the first Apollo landings. Now, NASA...
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Celebrating the End of 2020? Look Up! Meteor Shower Rains Nightly Fireworks
One of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year, the Geminids, will peak this year on Monday morning, Dec. 14, lavishing the skies with as many as 120 meteors every hour. And this year, the...
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Jupiter and Saturn Conjunction: How to See It on Monday
On the evening of Dec. 21, the planets Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer together than in almost 800 years, only a tenth of a degree apart, or one-fifth the width of the full moon. They won’t be...
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Winter Solstice is Here. Here Are Ways to Celebrate The Shortest Day of the Year
Tuesday is the winter solstice, at least if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition to marking the official start of winter, it’s also the shortest day (and longest night) of the year. That...
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Thousands of Asteroids Orbit Near Earth. NASA’s Next-Gen Spotter Helps...
Of NASA’s many launches, those with a fiery blastoff and a gleaming aerial ascent into space get the most love from space fans — but not all missions fly on rockets. Take Sentry II. It’s not a...
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When Is the Spring Equinox? And How Can You Celebrate It in the Bay Area?
It may not feel like it on these chillier days we’ve been experiencing recently … but spring is in the air. The spring equinox — the day when we get almost equal amounts of daylight and nighttime — is...
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This Is the First Image of the Black Hole at the Heart of the Milky Way
For years, the supermassive black hole in the dark center of the Milky Way galaxy has been theorized about and studied — and finally, it’s been captured in an image. “We finally have the first look at...
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How to See Sunday’s ‘Blood Moon’ Total Lunar Eclipse in the Bay Area
One of the most beautiful sights of the night sky is the appearance of a total lunar eclipse, when the moon makes a rare passage straight through Earth’s shadow. Rare, yes, but on the West Coast, the...
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The Last Time to Catch a Supermoon This Year Is Approaching
The last time in the year to catch a supermoon, the biggest and brightest of full moons, begins soon. The astronomical event started Wednesday, but isn’t expected to be visible to the naked eye until...
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Tired of Saturn’s Rings? Check Out NASA’s Latest Image of the Bands Around...
The James Webb Space Telescope has wowed astronomers and everyday people alike with its stunning images of distant galaxies and Earth’s nearby neighbors. Now the $10 billion deep space telescope has...
View ArticleListen to the Sound of Saturn’s Tangled Radio Waves
Saturn’s beautiful rings and many moons are an impressive sight to view through a telescope. But as NASA’s Voyager and then Cassini spacecraft discovered, as they rocketed close to the planet, Saturn...
View ArticleWhat Does Mars Sound Like? Thanks to the Perseverance Rover, Now We Know
Mars has been the subject of human curiosity for thousands of years. Observations of the red planet appear in ancient texts from Egypt, China, Greece, India and Babylonia. So it’s no wonder humans have...
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A Bright Green Comet May Be Visible With the Naked Eye Starting Later This Month
A comet known as C/2022 E3, marked by its bright green nucleus and long faint ion tail, will be on display in the Earth sky later this month — possibly for the first time ever or at least for thousands...
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Here’s When and How to See the Green Comet Everyone’s Talking About
The green comet we’ve all been hearing about, newly discovered by astronomers, can be seen in the northern sky between the Big Dipper and the North Star. On a clear night, and far away from city...
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Look Up! Venus and Jupiter Are Going In for a Nighttime Kiss
Last night, after dinner, I went outside to take care of our chickens. And I literally gasped. Up in the sky were two dazzlingly bright objects close to each other. It was a beautiful, extraordinary...
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Meteors, Supermoons, Eclipse: Mark Your Calendars for These 2023 Astronomical...
International Dark Sky Week — the annual celebration of the night sky, to raise awareness of light pollution globally — is April 15–22. And with the new moon approaching, it’s a perfect time to embrace...
View ArticleWhistleblower Alerts Congress of Secret US Program to Capture UFOs
The U.S. is concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects, a former Air Force intelligence officer testified Wednesday to Congress. The Pentagon has...
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How to See the Perseids Meteor Shower Peak This Weekend
Update: The Perseids meteor shower will be at its peak this weekend, starting at 1 a.m. on Sunday, August 13. Jump straight to how to spot these meteors, where to see the Perseids this weekend and how...
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Geminids Meteor Shower to Light Up Bay Area Sky With 120 Meteors Per Hour
The dazzling finale of a season of meteor showers is at hand! Late Wednesday night on Dec. 13 and into Thursday morning on Dec. 14, the Geminids meteor shower will reach its peak activity. Considered...
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How to See the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse
The last time we had a total solar eclipse over the U.S. was in 2017 — an event that awed millions of people around the world. In 2024, another total solar eclipse is just around the corner. These...
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Leap Year 2024: Why Do We Get an Extra Day?
How many of you were born on Feb. 29? Well, happy upcoming birthday, 2024! You get to celebrate in your actual birth month, not your surrogate party day, March 1. An extra day to play Leap year is upon...
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Solar Eclipse 2024: How to See the Partial Eclipse in the Bay Area on April 8
The 2024 total solar eclipse is coming on April 8. And for the United States, it’ll be the longest and most visible eclipse of its kind in a century. More guides from kqed Over 32 million people who...
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If Exploding Stars Made Music, They’d Sound Like This
There are stars exploding all around us. They burst, flash and fade. Some leave traces of their spectacular journeys as supernovae in telescopes. Earth-bound astronomers collect and study the brief,...
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