Science & Discovery
curiosity and research reveals our universe
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Book Review: ATTENTION IS DISCOVERY: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt
You might expect a biography of an astronomer to be written by a science writer or journalist, a historian, or fellow astronomer. But what about a visual artist as biographer?
Column: Taking in the Moon on a Gondola Ride
Getting around on the Moon is trickier than you might think. Flying isn’t a practical option because of a complete lack of atmosphere to support a glider or balloon.
Feature: A Complex Storm and its Complex History
Humankind has been enamored with Jupiter's Great Red Spot since shortly after the telescopic age began. Now, hundreds of years of observations are revealing a more complete picture of the atmospheric feature.
Feature: Losing Silence
Near-Earth space isn't just getting brighter and more crowded. Invisible to the unaided eye, radio pollution is overpowering faint signals from the cosmos and threatening radio astronomy's "quiet zones."
News: Unintended Radiation from Starlink May Endanger Radio Astronomy
Astronomers found the newest iteration of Starlink leaks 32 times more radiation than the previous version, and is leaking radiation across frequency bands.
Feature: Satellite Constellations are a Colossal Threat to Astronomy
The problem of light pollution — the unwanted presence of artificial light at night — isn’t a new concept. Now, however, even the most remote night skies are getting brighter and murkier, threatening our ability to learn about and connect with the cosmos.
News: Omega Centauri’s Black Hole
A favorite observing target in the southern sky hosts an elusive intermediate-mass black hole, say astronomers in a new study published July 10.
From the Archives: An Interview with Stephen W. Hawking
In 1975, a member of the ASP Board of Directors interviewed Stephen W. Hawking for Mercury. They discussed black holes, so-called Hawking radiation, and more profound and far-reaching discoveries in astrophysics.
News: Found: Three Ancient Stars
What started as a classroom project has led to the discovery of several stars that formed some 12 to 13 billion years ago and currently in our Milky Way Galaxy's outer diffuse "halo" — making them some of the oldest stars yet found.
News: How Hubble Observes is Changing
After multiple Hubble Space Telescope gyroscope issues in the past six months, NASA announced it would change the telescope to single-gyro mode. HST will lose efficiency in this new mode, but the telescope should last until the mid-2030s.
News: Euclid Team Releases Early Science Results
The Euclid observatory has been in space for nearly one year. The team has now released several new images and early science papers from the mission.
Feature: Vatican Astronomers Aid the Search for Solar System Origins
To measure the physical properties of asteroid Bennu's sample material, NASA is using an instrument provided by a scientist who is employed by a different government: the Vatican.
News: Chandra X-ray Observatory on Cutting Block
NASA's 2025FY budget dramatically reduces funding for the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the premiere X-ray astrophysics facility.
News: New Horizons Mission Has Led to Discovery of 89 Kuiper Belt Objects
A new paper describes the discovery of dozens of objects in the Kuiper Belt, thanks to the New Horizons mission and its related searches to better understand this region in the outer solar system.
News: NASA Revising Its Mars Sample Return Plan
The space agency has reached out to industry partners and individual NASA centers to investigate innovative technologies and designs that could reduce mission costs and speed up the timeline.
News: Solar Gamma Ray Oddities
The solar polar regions emitted more gamma rays at times that seemed to coincide with the Sun’s 11-year magnetic cycle.
Feature: Searching Hubble’s Archive for Hidden Gems
Because of its data collection and archival system, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed how — and who — can do science.
News: A Commercial Craft Sticks its Landing
The Odysseus spacecraft, built and operated by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines, successfully touched down at the lunar south polar region on February 22.
News: Venus Hosts Active Volcanism
Researchers say in the time between two images of Venus' surface were captured in 1991, magma oozed at the planet's surface. This would be the first time active volcanism has been directly observed at the toasty planet next door.
News: New Views from Old Images
Planetary scientists applied a complex computational algorithm to archived Voyager 2 images to improve the views of Titania, one of Uranus' moons. They also mapped its geologic surface features.
Book Review: Life Among the Stars
A new book explores life, its origins, and its prevalence in the solar system and across the greater cosmos.
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News: Light Pollution at Observatories
Some two-thirds of the largest professional astronomy observatories across the world have already surpassed “acceptable” light pollution levels — meaning, scattering light greater than 10 percent over natural levels.
News: Satellites Streak Images
Astronomers have calculated how much of an effect communication satellites have on images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Feature: Discovering the Dark Universe
Most of the universe is undetectable, and yet astronomers have learned an incredible amount about this invisible and mysterious part of the cosmos in the past five decades.
News: Euclid's First View
With the new European Euclid telescope, scientists will track how structure grew and changed through time, to learn about the universe's invisible components: dark matter and dark energy.
From the Archives: Observing the Sun During Eclipses
It is rare for the track of a total eclipse to pass over sizable townships, and it is even more rare when it passes over a working observatory. Yet both of these circumstances came together February 16, 1980.
News: Our Galaxy's Crowded Core
A new near-infrared image captured using NASA's JWST observatory, reveals some 500,000 stars near the dense center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Mercury is distributed by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, a nonprofit organization dedicated to astronomy literacy, education, and outreach.
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