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America's annular eclipse
There is a rare treat for US observers on 20 May 2012 when an annular eclipse is visible from parts of seven western US states, with a partial eclipse visible across much of North America, except for areas near and along the Atlantic coast. Although lacking the sheer magnificence of a total solar eclipse, without the Sun's corona, chromosphere and prominences being visible, the 'ring of fire' is still an amazing sight and well worth making a special effort to see.
 FULL STORY
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Hubble turns Moon into a mirror for Venus transit
This June, many people on Earth will bear witness to the spectacular event that is the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun. The Hubble Space Telescope will be one of the numerous telescopes used to monitor the event - but it will do so using the Moon as a mirror.
FULL STORY
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Goodbye to Comet Garradd
Comet 2009 P1 (Garradd) has been a very welcome icy visitor from the frozen, far-flung reaches of the Solar System but make sure you observe it soon as May is the last month it will be reasonably placed.
FULL STORY
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White dwarfs mean double trouble for supernovae
There's more than one way to skin a cat and, now, it seems there's more than one way to create a supernova involving a white dwarf star, according to a new study by a multi-continental team of astronomers. Their results challenge not only traditional theory, but have implications for some of our most profound astronomical investigations - the nature of dark energy and the expansion of the Universe.
FULL STORY
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Mars rover test-drive in California sand dunes
Using California sand dunes in the Mojave Desert, Mars Science Laboratory team members are practicing how to drive the car-sized Curiosity rover when it arrives on the red planet in August.
PHOTO GALLERY
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Belt Storm Probes arrive at Florida launch site
Twin NASA satellites designed to probe and predict changes in Earth's radiation belts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, ready to begin several months of testing and assembly before lifting off on an Atlas 5 rocket in August.
FULL STORY
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Huge sunspot threatens disruption
One of the largest sunspot groups for some time rotated into view on the Sun over the weekend. There is a chance that it will produce X-class flares, the strongest type, which can cause disruption to communications here on Earth and more welcoming, beautiful aurora displays.
FULL STORY
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Lunar occultation and graze
On the evening of 25 April the crescent moon moves in front of the moderately bright star zeta Tauri (magnitude +2.9). From Greenwich the star is occulted at 9.30pm BST in the deepening twilight with the Moon quite well placed 25 degrees above the western horizon.
FULL STORY
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Look out for the Lyrids
The spring meteor shower drought is broken with the arrival of the Lyrids, the shower peaking on the night of April 21-22. Lyrids are well-known for producing fast meteors (the incoming meteoroids hit the upper atmosphere at 49 kilometres per second) and the numerous brighter shower members often leave behind lingering ionisation trains; the odd fireball too if we are lucky.
FULL STORY
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Planets shepherd Fomalhaut's flock
The controversy surrounding the young star, Fomalhaut, has taken an intriguing turn as astronomers who have enlisted the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed that planets orbiting the 25 light year distant star are much smaller than once thought.
FULL STORY
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See the beauty of Saturn
The most beautiful planet in the Solar System comes to opposition on 15 April and is ripe for observation for the whole night during the month. Saturn (magnitude +0.3) lies among the stars of Virgo, a mere five degrees north-east of Spica (alpha Virginis), the pair making a striking sight in the south-eastern sky as soon as it gets dark.
FULL STORY
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Europe to sign ExoMars plan by year's end
Russia told European Space Agency officials last week it will partner with Europe on the ExoMars orbiter and rover missions after NASA dropped out of the project in February due to budgetary concerns, according to the Russian space agency.
FULL STORY
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Scientists learning to forecast dust devils on Mars
Knowing exactly when and where to look for dust devils on Mars is still a matter of luck, but scientists are making inroads in forecasting the red planet phenomena, leading to two astonishing images of Martian twisters released in the last month.
FULL STORY
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Is the Moon bigger tonight?
Knowing exactly when and where to look for dust devils on Mars is still a matter of luck, but scientists are making inroads in forecasting the red planet phenomena, leading to two astonishing images of Martian twisters released in the last month.
FULL STORY
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Kepler planet-hunting mission extended until 2016
NASA's Kepler telescope will scan the sky searching for planets beyond the solar system through 2016 after the space agency extended the mission on the advice of the astrophysics research community.
FULL STORY
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Venus buzzes the Pleiades
The current evening apparition of Venus has been truly memorable and, after cosying up to Jupiter and the Moon in recent weeks, the queen of the planets entices the splendid Pleiades open star cluster (M45) into her clutches.
READ MORE
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Picture tells story of
a billion stars
More than one billion stars are seen together in a new image of the Milky Way created by combining over ten thousand smaller images from telescopes in both hemispheres, astronomers revealed this week at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester.
READ MORE
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Tornado causes a storm
on the Sun
A solar twister many times as wide as the Earth has been filmed in action by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
READ MORE
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Extrasolar asteroids pollute white dwarf stars
Unexpected elements have been found in the atmospheres of white dwarfs which suggest that the stars may have been eating broken-up asteroids.
READ MORE
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Sun-plunging comets:
sink or skim?
The fate of comets nose-diving towards the Sun and how easily they give up their mass can be predicted according to how deep into the Sun’s atmosphere they plummet, say scientists presenting their research at the National Astronomy Meeting today.
READ MORE
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Solar storms to get worse
as activity drops?
A decline in solar activity over the coming decades may result in choppier space weather with ferocious solar storms becoming more frequent, according to new research presented at the RAS’ National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Manchester this week.
READ MORE
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The hunt is on for exomoons
The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler project has identified around 100 potential light curves that could reveal moons orbiting alien worlds already found by the Kepler Space Telescope. READ MORE
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Forecasting the weather
on exoplanets
It is difficult enough to predict the weather on planet Earth, but a team of scientists from Exeter University are working on models that predict and interpret weather and climate on extrasolar worlds. READ MORE
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First detection of buckyballs in young stellar systems
Using Spitzer Space Telescope data, astronomers have made the first detection of the C60 fullerene molecule in young stellar objects, and found a further example alongside nano-diamonds in a more evolved star. READ MORE
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ALMA probes black hole at galactic centre
ESO's Anthony Rushton explains how the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array is helping astronomers learn more about the black hole that lies at the centre of our Galaxy. WATCH NOW
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Asteroid split caused by dizzying spin rate
Asteroids that travel through the Solar System close to a companion but not as a bound binary pair could still have shared a common origin, perhaps even spinning apart from one single object, report astronomers at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester this week. READ MORE
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Peculiar objects lurk in Tarantula Nebula
PhD student Paul Dunstall of Queen’s University Belfast has identified a number of stellar objects that “shouldn’t exist” in the nearby Tarantula Nebula region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. READ MORE - WITH VIDEO
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Jupiter helps Halley’s Comet boost meteors
Theoretical modelling presented at the National Astronomy Meeting this week finds that the gravitational effects of gas giant Jupiter can influence the orbit of Comet Halley in such a way as to give periodically enhanced meteor displays. READ MORE - WITH VIDEO
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Moonlets batter
Saturn’s F-ring
The gas giant Saturn is most famous for the set of dazzling rings that encircle the planet, and new images have revealed that “jets” streaming from its F-ring are caused by collisions of moonlets with the ring. READ MORE
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First evidence of space weathering on Comet Wild 2
The presence of iron in samples collected from Comet Wild 2 by the Stardust mission and returned to Earth in 2006 have been interpreted as evidence for space weathering, giving the comet its rust-red hue. READ MORE
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Vesta’s regolith influences surface features
The Framing Camera aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has been returning some remarkable pictures of Vesta since its arrival at the giant asteroid in July 2011, and some of these were shown at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester this week. READ MORE
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Peak District monolith is astronomically aligned
A 2.2 metre high monolith located in the Peak District National Park is a 4,000 year old astronomical marker that points to geographic south, say researchers at the Nottingham Trent University. READ MORE
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Wizard new work from the e-MERLIN telescope array
A network of radio telescopes, with the mighty 76-metre dish of Jodrell Bank Observatory’s Lovell Telescope at its hub, has begun a pathfinding survey to measure the star-formation history of the Universe. READ MORE
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Square Kilometre Array: site selection due imminently
The next generation of radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), will be hosted by either South Africa or Australia and New Zealand, a decision that is due in around two weeks time. READ MORE
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The Moon joins Venus
and Jupiter
Stargazers are in for a real treat the next few days when a young crescent moon joins Venus and Jupiter in the western sky shortly after sunset. READ MORE
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Vesta's surface of
light and dark
New images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft have revealed unexpected details of giant asteroid Vesta's surface, including light and dark markings that have never before been seen on asteroids. READ MORE
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Warp-speed planets ejected from Milky Way
New simulations suggest that planets, just like stars, could be booted out of their home galaxies at neck-breaking speeds of 30 million miles per hour. READ MORE
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Planets pile up
in popular orbits
Computer simulations suggest that high-energy radiation from baby Sun-like stars carve out gaps in their proto-planetary discs that act as barricades, forcing giant planets to pile up in preferred orbits. READ MORE
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GRAIL lunar gravity mission extended until December
NASA has granted an extension of the GRAIL moon mission until December, allowing scientists to complete a more definitive map of the lunar gravity field from a lower orbit, according to agency officials and researchers. READ MORE
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Mercury transits provide precise solar radius
NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has provided precise measurements of the Sun's diameter by tracking the time taken for tiny Mercury to transit across its face. READ MORE
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First global geology
map of Io
The first complete geological map of Jupiter's moon Io has been published by the U.S. Geological Survey, depicting active volcanoes and lava flows and highlighting a notable absence of impact craters. READ MORE
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Galaxies recycle gas to maintain star formation
The first direct evidence for distant galaxies recycling their gas to provide the next generation of stars has been detected by astronomers using the Keck I telescope in Hawaii. READ MORE
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Adolescent galaxies evolve eating habits
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) astronomers have found that 'teenage' galaxies develop a taste for fellow galaxies after spending their childhood years swallowing smooth gas flow. READ MORE
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A bubbly Milky Way
More than 5,000 star-formation "bubbles" have been identified in the disc of our Milky Way by citizen scientists working through Spitzer Space Telescope data to help decipher the secrets of stellar birth. READ MORE
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Venus joins Jupiter for a dazzling conjunction
Anybody casually glancing up at the western sky shortly after sunset at the moment cannot fail to spot the conjunction of the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, which on Monday are just three degrees apart. READ MORE
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Interacting galaxies abound in the Hercules cluster
The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and its 268 megapixel camera OmegaCAM has unveiled plentiful interacting galaxies in the Hercules cluster. READ MORE
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Infrared camera reveals distant galaxy cluster
Astronomers using the FourStar camera on the 6.5 metre Magellan Baade Telescope in Chile have identified a mature 10.5 billion light year distant galaxy cluster that had evaded detection by other ground- and space-based observatories. READ MORE
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Atmospheric "explosions"
on Venus
A phenomenon known as a hot flow anomaly (HFA), which causes a temporary reversal of the solar wind that normally moves past a planet thanks to its protective magnetosphere, has been detected on planet Venus, a surprising find given the planet's lack of magnetic field. READ MORE
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Sunspot flares again – headed for Earth?
The large sunspot AR 1429 has unleashed its most powerful flare yet, hurling a bright coronal mass ejection (CME) into space and it may have Earth’s name on it. READ MORE
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The Sun in action again!
The Sun has come to life again after a relatively quiet February with the appearance of the major sunspot AR1429, which emerged over the Sun’s north-east limb on 2 March and launched a X1-class solar flare this morning (5 March at 04.13 UT). READ MORE
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Catch Mars at its best!
Mars comes to opposition on 3 March, ending a seemingly never-ending wait for Mars aficionados for the red planet to be at its best. READ MORE
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Cassini detects oxygen around second Saturn moon
Researchers analyzing data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft announced Friday the discovery of a tenuous atmosphere around Saturn's moon Dione, a small, colorless world of ice and rock near the giant planet's famous rings. READ MORE
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Mercury in the evening
Mercury is now at its best in the evening sky for us in the UK in 2012 and there’s never been a better time to track down the often-elusive innermost planet. READ MORE
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SETI Live: join in the search for extraterrestrial life
Created as a result of the TED Prize Wish and in collaboration with the Zooniverse, for the first time the public can analyse data collected by the Allen Telescope Array to contribute to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) on other planets. READ MORE
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Earthshine used to test life detection method
By imagining the Earth as an exoplanet, scientists observing our planet's reflected light on the Moon with ESO's Very Large Telescope have demonstrated a way to detect life on other worlds. READ MORE
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Solid buckyballs
discovered in space
Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have detected a particular type of molecule, given the nickname “buckyball”, in a solid form for the first time. READ MORE
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Twenty-five years after supernova 1987A
While primitive humans of the Middle Paleolithic hunted prey and sheltered in caves in Africa, a distant star eighteen times more massive than the Sun, located faraway in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) endured a catastrophic collapse as it reached the end of its life. Some 160,000 years later the light of this supernova finally reached Earth to shine in Southern Hemisphere skies on 24 February 1987. READ MORE
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Steamy water-world gets
the Hubble treatment
Hubble Space Telescope observations of a 7 Earth-mass planet find an unusual water-rich world swathed in a thick, steamy atmosphere. READ MORE
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Planets gather
in evening sky
There is a marvellous opportunity to observe and photograph a grouping of planets in the last week of February, with the added bonus of a young, crescent moon on the scene from 23rd to 26th February. READ MORE
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NASA's sun-watching telescope sees solar eclipse
There was a solar eclipse Tuesday, but it was only visible from space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught spectacular views of the moon passing between the Earth and the sun, appearing to take a bite out of the fiery star. READ MORE
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Recent geological activity on the Moon and Mars
Marsquakes on the red planet and crustal stretching on the Moon show that planet Earth is not the only geologically active body in our local Solar System neighbourhood. READ MORE
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Planck's new all-sky views
of the Universe
New all-sky maps from the ESA-led Planck space telescope reveal a haze of microwave emissions around the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy and previously undiscovered sites of star formation. READ MORE
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Asteroids cause black hole's X-ray hiccups
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy may be swallowing large asteroids and comets almost daily, generating bursts of X-ray light visible to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, according to an international team of astronomers. READ MORE
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"Ping-pong" planets bounce between stars
A gravitational ping-pong match lasting up to one million years could be in play between nearby binary stars, say Cambridge University scientists. READ MORE
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Clearing the dust in the Carina Nebula
The most detailed portrait of the Carina Nebula star-forming region has been captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), revealing hundreds of thousands of never-before-seen stars. READ MORE
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Orbiter discovers evidence of primordial ocean on Mars
The radar on Europe's Mars Express orbiter detected sediments beneath the red planet's surface strongly indicative of an ocean floor that formed billions of years ago, scientists announced this week. READ MORE
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Computer crash doomed Phobos-Grunt
After floating accusations against U.S. military radars, flawed foreign parts and space radiation, Russian space officials have concluded a software glitch caused the failure of the Phobos-Grunt Mars probe. READ MORE
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Super-Earth orbits in habitable zone of cool star
A 4.5 Earth-mass planet has been found within the habitable zone of a nearby star, which itself is a member of a triple star system. READ MORE
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Mars – get ready for opposition
AN's night sky expert Mark Armstrong whets the appetite for Mars as the red planet heads for opposition next month. READ MORE
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IBEX measures
interstellar matter
NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has detected neutral atoms of hydrogen, helium, oxygen and neon breaching the Solar System’s magnetic barrier and reaching Earth. The new results show that the Local Cloud, which is a thin cloud of dust and gas that the Solar System is passing through, has a shortage of oxygen. READ MORE
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A comet meets
a globular cluster
Comet Garradd has a spectacular conjunction with a bright globular cluster in the early hours of the next two mornings when it passes around half a degree from M92, presenting a fine observing and imaging opportunity. READ MORE
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For more news stories see our News Archive
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Eye on the Sky
This special publication features the photography of British astro-imager Nik Szymanek and covers a range of photographic methods from basic to advanced. Beautiful pictures of the night sky can be obtained with a simple camera and tripod before tackling more difficult projects, such as guided astrophotography through the telescope and CCD imaging.
U.K. STORE
Astronomy Now is pleased to announce the publication of Exploring Mars. The very best images of Mars taken by orbiting spacecraft and NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers fill up the 98 glossy pages of this special edition!
From tiny Mercury to distant Neptune and Pluto, The Planets profiles each of the Solar System's members in depth, featuring the latest imagery from space missions. The tallest mountains, the deepest canyons, the strongest winds, raging atmospheric storms, terrain studded with craters and vast worlds of ice are just some of the sights you'll see on this 100-page tour of the planets. 
Hubble Reborn takes the reader on a journey through the Universe with spectacular full-colour pictures of galaxies, nebulae, planets and stars as seen through Hubble's eyes, along the way telling the dramatic story of the space telescope, including interviews with key scientists and astronauts. 
Witness the most awesome sights of the Universe as they were meant to be seen in this 100-page extravaganza of planets, galaxies and star-scapes, all in 3D! 