The Solar System

Native American tribes have called the May moon the flower moon for centuries. The name even inspired a best-selling novel and film.

By Valerie Stimac

Nothing lasts forever. Does that include our home planet, too?

By Shichun Huang

Sometimes hundreds of people armed with high-tech cameras can make amazing scientific discoveries, as in the case of STEVE.

By Jesslyn Shields

April's pink moon isn't called pink because our beloved bright white moon suddenly takes on a rosy hue. So, why is it called the "pink moon"?

By Valerie Stimac

March's full moon is called the worm moon for an unusual reason. What are some other names for the March moon and when can you see it?

By Valerie Stimac

Every 24 hours, Earth makes a full rotation on its axis. But why does Earth spin in the first place?

By Silas Laycock

Researchers at Australian National University studied 5,000 star-eating behemoths to find out.

By Christian Wolf

February is a cold time of year, and the snow moon nickname pays homage to that. What are some other names for February's full moon and what do they mean? Plus, when can you see the snow moon?

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

News headlines talk about a rare green comet appearing in the sky. The comet itself is rare, but green comets, not so much. What makes some comets appear green?

By Valerie Stimac

Head's up, stargazers! Mark your calendars for the 22 must-see events this year.

By Martha Sandoval

January's moon is called the wolf moon, but it's also known as the center moon and the freeze up moon (among other names). Here's why.

By Valerie Stimac

This doughnut-shaped ring around the sun is home to millions of comets, moons, dwarf planets and other celestial objects. What are these objects doing in the Kuiper belt?

By Valerie Stimac

When December's moongazing rolls around, you'll want to take a look at the cold moon, an appropriate moniker if there ever was one.

By Valerie Stimac

Blood moons always bring out the stargazers though they aren't that rare. So what makes blood moons red? And do they differ from lunar eclipses?

By Valerie Stimac

In 2022, the full moon, called the hunter's moon, will occur Oct. 9. Why is it called that and when can you see it?

By Valerie Stimac

The solar system's largest planet will pass closest to Earth at the same time it's at opposition. That means it will be the biggest and brightest it's been in the sky in decades.

By Patty Rasmussen

There are eight phases in the lunar cycle and the moon is in one of them every night. What are these phases of the moon?

By Valerie Stimac

The August 2022 full moon is known as the sturgeon moon and it's extra-special this year as it's also a supermoon.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

And this month's buck moon is extra-special because it is a supermoon!

By Valerie Stimac

The Tau Herculids meteor shower was made of debris from the broken comet SW3 and produced a lot of shooting stars, but not quite the meteor shower that was hoped for.

By Valerie Stimac

If you imagine the eight major planets in a single line stretching out from the sun, this alignment occurs roughly every 13.4 trillion years. And our solar system is 4.5 billion years old.

By Valerie Stimac

Many people dream of climbing Mount Everest, but what if you could scale the highest mountain in the solar system? That one is more than twice as tall as Everest! So, where is it?

By Valerie Stimac

Astronomers at Haleakalā Observatory in Hawaii noted a bright X-ray emission in 2018, which persisted for three weeks and glowed ten times more brightly than previously studied supernovas, but are just now beginning to understand it.

By Valerie Stimac

The gegenschein, "faint light" in German, occurs under very specific astronomical conditions when the sun reaches the exact opposite of Earth from wherever you're stargazing.

By Valerie Stimac

Early dark energy, a form of dark energy that may have existed a few hundred thousand years after the big bang, could help clarify the universe's rate of expansion. But its existence hasn't been proven.

By Patrick J. Kiger